A LeBronsian Obama?

As I've watched the media coverage leading up to Barack's inauguration, I was struck by the very lofty expectations and comparisons used by pundits in relation to Barack. On several occasions, pundits in the midst of their analysis, would launch into a roll call of past great presidents (including the likes of Lincoln and JFK) and invariably an implicit or explicit connection would be made to Obama. This caused me to ponder the question of why is Barack being attributed greatness (specifically in relation to other presidents) without ever having a day in office? His name was used in a list of great presidents and he was not yet even the President! If this were 8 years down the road and Barack had helped turn the economy around, reformed the broken education system, and figured out a solution to the impending Social Security armageddon - I could understand such elevated comparisons. I understand and firmly believe he has the potential to be a great president, but to already label him as such is a bit premature.

As I pondered this further, the only thing I could compare it to was the type of talk I heard from basketball pundits when LeBron was coming out of high school. It was amazing to me back then the level of expectations that were placed on the head of King James before he ever took a dribble in the NBA. The really crazy thing about LeBron is that he has actually (IMHO) surpassed those expectations. This is when I coined the term "LeBronsian". It describes a person who enters a situation with the label of being great and over time actually performs to the level (or beyond) of the expected greatness.

It is fascinating to me how LeBron and Obama's rise to perceived greatness followed a similar track. LeBron may or may not be the greatest high school basketball player ever, but it's safe to say he was the greatest high school basketball player that most of the country had to ability to see play WHILE he was still in high school. LeBron opened the flood gates for high school sports to be shown prominently on ESPN other cable networks. He created such a buzz that people like Jay-Z and Shaq would attend his games and his games would have commentary by top announcers like Dickie V. LeBron also was not the first to go from high school to the pros, but he was the first to have the country paying attention to his assent from the beginning. His rise to prominence was not as some local playground legend that was unleashed on the country during the NCAA's March Madness. Rather it was on a national stage that we all began to be "witnesses" of the high school phenom. Similarly, Obama rise to prominence was also done on the national stage. His explosion on the scene at the Democratic National Convention just 4 years ago, put him on the map. And given the extended campaign season that began almost 2 years ago, the nation also had a front row seat to his rise to being the #1 draft pick (so to speak). What is also similar is the luck, good fortune, providence (or whatever you want to label it) for each of them coming to the stage. If LeBron where a high school senior graduating in '09, he wouldn't be eligble to enter the NBA draft this spring. Cleveland had to win a lottery in order to be in position to pick LeBron #1 (I submit to you that part of LeBron's meteoric rise is because he started his NBA career in Cleveland. He would have been special wherever, but I don't know if he would have jumped off the entire package both on and off the court, if he wasn't operating from the home base). Taken all this together, several things beyond LeBron's control had to go right in order for him even be in the position that he is in currently. In late fall '08, Obama found himself in a situation that that was fortuitous to him, that also had several elements beyond his control. He was running against the incumbent party who had a historically unpopular president and the bottom fell out of the economy. The comparions don't end there. Both James and Obama had situations that could have derailed their rise before they really got off the ground. LeBron had the Hummer-gate. Barack had Jeremiah Wright.

Ultimately, it will be quite interesting to see if President Obama is indeed a LeBronsian figure. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, but Obama better have done some serious neck excersies because he has a King James-like crown that is being placed on his head on day one.