Many writers, particularly Christian writers find the idea of self-promotion a very uncomfortable necessity, but when does healthy promotion descend into narcissism, vanity and egoism?
For most people in America and even beyond, the last week or so has brought an almost unavoidable ‘news’ bombardment of the contract decisions of a group of NBA players.
In short, a group of guys who can play basketball pretty well became unemployed on July 1st and had to look for new jobs. Their skills dictated that the country’s top teams were competing to become their new employers (wouldn’t that be nice!) and much was made of which teams they would end up playing for.
The most discussed and eagerly anticipated of them all was one LeBron James, a 25 year old man from Akron, Ohio who oh-so-humbly calls himself ‘King James’.
Hard Choices
Now, don’t get me wrong, the decision this young man had to make is a VERY difficult one. Wherever he chose to play basketball, he would be under contract for at least three years. A decision which would affect his whole life, his family and his friends and which could alter his career and his future forever.
Teams were offering him ridiculously large sums of money to play for them, none more so than his previous team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, who could offer him a whopping $30 Million more than anyone else.
Fame
He had become a beloved figure in Ohio, with Nike even going as far as to put up a billboard 110 feet high and 212 feet wide (yes, that’s a total of 23,320 square feet, or the equivalent square footage of over a dozen average sized homes) with his picture on it and around the world he is idolized, praised and exalted for his God-given abilities and the hard work he has put in to hone them almost to perfection.
When you’re as good a basketball player as LeBron James, you really don’t need to do any self-promotion as your skills do all the talking you need. Basketball is a business as well as a sport though and it’s one where talented players can easily be taken advantage of, used and then discarded if they don’t take some control of their own personal ‘brand’.
A Step Too Far
I don’t begrudge Mr James taking sponsorship deals and carefully managing his public image. In fact, in many ways I think he would be careless not to do so, however, I think there comes a point where healthy self-promotion ends and something darker begins.
The decision he had to make was quite possibly the hardest of his life so far and so taking his time to weigh the options is perfectly understandable, but setting up an hour-long televised press conference to announce his decision to the world, as if it were a world-changing moment, revolted me.
What’s worse is that people lapped it up, with the live broadcast on ESPN of this ‘momentous’ occasion drawing a huge audience.
in 1995, when returning from retirement, one of the greatest basketball player ever simply sent a two word faxed press release which read “I’m Back.” In those two words, there’s a declaration of intent, a suggestion of relevance (and even greatness), an understated elegance and a measure of humility – a whole world away from the pompous spectacle created by LeBron James and his team this week.
Enough is Enough
If Team James had been trying to demonstrate how to have an over-inflated opinion of ones self and the most tasteless, vain way to promote your own ‘brand’, then they did an excellent job.
Self-promotion is essential in this media-driven world but let LeBron James’ actions be a lesson to us all that there is a point where enough is enough, a line that should not be crossed and the key is finding that point and staying firmly the right side of it.
As a dude from Ohio, I was disappointed to see him leave. But I was more disappointed in how he handled himself. I kept telling my wife that so many kids look up to him and what picture are they getting. They are learning that narcissism is okay.
I agree
I have nothing to add but wanted to say I completely agree.
Thanks, Sarah!
I think it is unfortunate that people who struggle with narcissism don't recognize that problem in themselves and won't allow themselves to hear about that problem from others. I suppose that is the nature of the beast. And, I suppose "Team LeBron" doesn't have any honest, thoughtful persons who are willing to risk the security of their position on the team and the income generated there in to speak so honestly with Mr. James. But each of us must recognize in ourselves our areas of weakness and decide not to place ourselves in situations that play on that weakness. Should that keep someone as gifted as LeBron from playing professional basketball?
Should it keep him from playing pro basketball? Interesting question….
The answer is obviously no, but my question is should the media pander to his narcissism?
I follow pro sports very (very) loosely, but this story was everywhere. People who don't normally talk about sports we're talking about it. Wouldn't be amazing to have that type of platform even for an hour or day? What could be accomplished? That may never happen, but there are plenty opportunities for us here and now. I'm asking myself, "am I turning people ultimately to me or are they seeing someone greater?"
Thanks Peter.
Great thought, Jason.
Excellent post. I agree 100%.
Excellent points in this very well written post. Great job, Peter. I disagree with nothing you say, and really … I wish these professional athletes would start realizing that being humble lifts a guy up.
So… who did he sign with. I haven't been paying attention. He was over hyped weeks ago, so I stopped paying attention to him.
He signed with Miami. As did Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh.
I think the team will be a big let down.
3 thumbs up for this post. I agree 120%
I want to ask where your third thumb is, but somehow I don't dare….
BTW, this is still a good post, three days later. 😀
We say and sing the words, It's all about You, Jesus. But for each of us, the time comes when we must learn their depth.
This comment cracked me up!
I'm guessing most of my posts aren't still good three days later? 🙂
Okay, you got me. Your reply begs an explanation which I hope you find encouraging.
My life allows me precious little time on the internet. My RSS feed runs as much as 4-5 days behind at times. I subscribe to an insane number of blogs, and would like to comment on about half the posts I read. I probably manage to comment on about one in ten, some days one in twenty.
I sometimes catch blog posts via tweets via Tweetdeck on my iPod, but rarely comment on them, because that particular combination is too time consuming and doesn't always work. I read this particular post via one of your tweets right after you published it. Then I caught up with it again in my RSS feed days later, and thought it worthwhile enough to read again and comment on. Thus, "this is still a good post, three days later."
(I usually only chew on shoe leather after I comment at Katdish's place—thus I stay quiet over there. You encourage me to think a bit longer on how my comments sound. Thank you, my friend. : /
Great post Peter! Awesome thoughts to ponder.
Thanks, Kevin
Truly, we need major changes in the structure of society. How does the media get away with SO MUCH fatuousness? Is it really what most viewers want? Is it really the only thing that sells? And even if that were the case, why would responsible people (read: media business owners) be so irresponsible to their duties as the 4rth estate? Our "free market" system says there is no value in the world except money. Anything that can't be valued in money, _has_ no value. Therefore, business people are expected to behave only in the ways that produce the most profit. But can't we have a society where we expect and require people to hold some values higher than their own additional income? These are not people who are starving, and might have to cheat someone to steal enough food to survive another day.
This is the problem with society. 'Most' people are amoral if not immoral and instead of the media supplying them with what they need, it panders to their basest desires.
In my opinion, the media should take a stand and use their influence to raise basic moral standards, but of course (particularly here in the USA) the entire social system is set up to NOT promote that.
George Washington in his farewell address said that you cannot have national morality aside from religious principle and yet the constitution is set up to effectively stop the government from imposing religious principle and therefore, by George Washington's measure, it stops the government from imposing morality.