90 Seconds: Tuesday, April 12, 2011

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

+ Jenn Sterger, you are not an entertainer. You are little more than a hot young girl. Personality and fake boobs are not things to bullet-point on a resume; what is actually on yours? You told GMA today it was never your intention to play the role of the victim, but that's precisely how you came off in the interview you chose to grant. You claim that once this storm hit, folks called you a gold-digger and a home-wrecker. OGS buys that you're not those things, and also believes the pain you feel is very real. But if you're not either of those derogatory things, can you admit to being a slight attention-whore? From your outfits at Florida State games and Playboy shoots to being an ill-qualified television sports personality, welcome again to the world to which you so desperately sought entree.

+ Don't expect the point-shaving scandal at the University of San Diego to amount to much, unfortunately. This should be a huge story, but because it doesn't involve big-name stars or programs like Cam Newton or Ohio State, it won't get the coverage. But to me, the scumbags who step to players to ask them to fix games are dirtier than any street pimps, AAU thugs or dads named Cecil. Hundred-dollar postgame handshakes are one thing, but asking a broke-ass college athlete to influence the outcome of a game is far worse.

+ A full analysis on the Miami Heat's postseason chances is coming to the pages of OGS soon, but I have to make a quick point here. Too often we hear athletes talk about how they as individuals or their teams have overcome adversity. It's such a terrible cliche. But from the minute the Heat organized that embarrassing look-at-me circus last summer, they've grown and improved and developed some necessary chemistry. I won't be rooting for LeBron and Co., but it wouldn't surprise me to see the Heat come out of the East.

90 Seconds: Friday, April 8, 2011

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Welcome to "90 Seconds," where we here at OGS will riff on three quick points in the sports world each morning. We encourage feedback, debate, or even spam in the Comments section. OK, not spam.

1) If LeBron James is 26, then his mother, Gloria, must be at least, 42, right? So she's still young enough that I can't fault her for being out at 5 a.m. at a South Beach hotel nightclub, but it's funny how money changes people. Do you think she ever had a beef with the valet service in Akron 10 years ago?

Tweet

Click to read more ...

Blacks In Sports: The Summer Of LeBron

Inspired by Sports Illustrated's 1991 update of its groundbreaking "The Black Athlete" report in 1968, I wrote my own three-part series called "Blacks In Sports" for my college newspaper at the University of Cincinnati's The News Record. Now, nearly 20 years later, I've updated my own report, this time in five segments, and I hope you enjoy it. Everyone quoted in this series is black unless noted. Today's Part III is "The Summer Of LeBron."

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

"It's always, um, you know, a race factor."

Those were the clumsy words of one of the galaxy's most recognized athletes not long ago. A shooting superstar among mere stars. A then-25-year-old Mack truck of a ringless NBA phenom.

LeBron James voiced that declaration on CNN last fall, nearly three months after he made his unforgettable free-agency decision on an ill-conceived ESPN program called "The Decision." On a warm Thursday night in July, the self-anointed King James announced in sleepy Connecticut that he was going to take his talents to South Beach to play for the Miami Heat.

Tweet

What happened 500 miles away in Cleveland immediately afterward and throughout the online universe in the days that followed was nothing short of pure hatred. Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert's prompt reaction was well-documented, and you've been living under a burning river if you haven't seen at least a dozen times the video of fans burning No. 23 jerseys.

Click to read more ...

Lebron James: Who Said What On Twitter?

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Lebron James returned to Cleveland to play his former team for the first time since he left the Cavaliers for the Miami Heat Thursday night. As you might imagine, there were a few comments on Twitter here and there as James led the visitors to the blowout victory. Below are some of the better ones I saw:

@daveabarr: "Sorry - lifelong Cavs fan from Bingo Smith to World B. Free, Mark Price and Brad Daugherty to LeBron and now to...JJ Hixson? This is tough"

@HS_BHGP: "Are Mo Williams and Justin Guarini really Cleveland's two best players now? No wonder they're pissed."

Click to read more ...

OGS Notebook: Dr. Gee, Cam Newton & LeBron

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

It's been more than 48 hours since I last posted here. You can thank the open Captain Morgan bar at Slainte Tuesday night, celebrating FreeDarko's book release.

Anyway, let's get caught up:

+ Good for Dr. Gordon Gee to issue an apology for his arrogant and straight-up inaccurate comments last week. The Ohio State president said Boise State and TCU and teams from their conferences don't play the heavyweight type of schedules that his Buckeyes and other teams from BCS leagues play. Turns out Boise's strength of schedule is ranked ahead of Ohio State's and Wisconsin's, and TCU's isn't too far behind. "What I should do is go over to the surgical suites and get my foot extricated from my mouth," Gee told ESPN.com.

Click to read more ...

LeBron James: A Sympathetic Figure?

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

NBA star LeBron James was the focus of ESPN's "Outside The Lines" show Tuesday, just hours before his new team, the Miami Heat, opens its season against the squad that could very well be its top competition in the East, the Boston Celtics.

It seems like the Lebron conversation takes a new direction every few weeks since he ended his free agency by signing with Miami in July. In addition to the start of the new season, this week's angle is the new Nike commercial in which Swoosh producers seem comfortable trying something new and fairly difficult: turning Lebron into a sympathetic figure.

Click to read more ...

Fiction Friday: Steinbrenner, LeBron & Turducken

By STEVE SUSI
One Great Season

Here's a quick look at some of the stories the One Great Season crew will be working on over the weekend.

+ Steinbrenner Sues St. Peter Over Gate Revenue

+ In Reputation Cleanup Effort, USC Returns Reggie Bush's Heisman, Keeps OJ's

+ LeBron Tweets Vow To Remember Every Chauffeur Who Stopped At Yellow Light

Click to read more ...

Douche-Off: Stuart Scott vs. LeBron James

ESPN Screamer Still
Gets His Weak On

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Bless my mother's heart.

I'll always consider Sports Illustrated to be the Bible of sports magazines, but I terminated my subscription to it this year because, like most people, I read everything online nowadays.

But for my big birthday that you -- yes, you -- never sent a card for two weeks ago, she was sweet enough to get me a subscription to ESPN The Magazine. And it only took until the early pages of the second edition to remind me why I stopped picking this one up some years ago: Stuart Scott's Two Way.

Click to read more ...

LeBron's Campaign Of Failure Continues

Weak Nod To Cleveland Is
Latest Awkward LBJ Moment

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Thanking the city that supported him for seven years would seem an easy task, but on the gratitude front, LeBron James continues to throw up bricks that would make even Shaquille O'Neal squeamish.

LeBron's latest failure came Saturday during his annual Bikeathon in his hometown of Akron, just days after he took out a full-page ad (PDF) in that city's Beacon-Journal thanking his hometown fans. The ad made no mention of the city of Cleveland or its Cavaliers, the team just up the road for whom he starred for seven seasons before announcing last month he was leaving to play for the NBA's Miami Heat.

Click to read more ...

LeBron James: America's Biggest Douchebag?

Young Star Snubs Cleveland
Again With Newspaper Ad

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

For an image-conscious guy as concerned with his brand as LeBron James is, you'd think after the PR devastation he suffered last month that he'd seek out someone other than homeboy Maverick Carter for career advice.

Tuesday's full-page ad (PDF) in the Akron Beacon Journal certainly was a nice step, but it came a day after former Cav and new Heat teammate Zydrunas Ilgauskas did the same thing in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Click to read more ...

Contract For Life: I'll Always Be A Cleveland Fan

LeBron Fiasco Doesn't
Deter This Editor

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Despite the global de-pantsing of the city of Cleveland two weeks ago, I am vowing never to again waver as a fan of sports teams from my beloved hometown.

This is signficant because two autumns ago I strongly considered trading in my loyalty to the Cleveland Browns.

Click to read more ...

LeBron James: A Conversation From The Year 2030

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Here's a conversation that I suppose will happen between 60-year-old men about 20 years from now, joined en medias res, of course:

Old Man 1: "No way. Mike is still the best ever."

Old Man 2: "Eff that. Kobe had just as many titles, but never had a Pippen alongside him."

OM 1: "Yeah, but Kobe had Shaq in his prime for his first three rings. How 'bout Mike at No. 1 and Kobe 1A?"

---

MORE LEBRON COVERAGE

+ ESPN: Network Fails To Ask LeBron James The One Tough Question
+ VIDEO: John Mayer Just Got A Little Less Douchey
+ LIFE AFTER LEBRON: Cavaliers Courting Lady Gaga?
+ THE SINGLE LIFE: LeBron James Hopes For Better Sex From Miami
+ LIST: Who Thinks LeBron James Is An Attention Whore?

---

OM 2: "I think we're just going to have to agree to disagree. Kobe was just as deadly of an assassin as Mike was, and Kobe won his six when the talent pool may have been a little deeper across the league."

OM 1: "Maybe, but one thing we will agree on is that LeBron does not belong in the same zip code as this conversation, right?"

OM 2: "Yeah, for shizz. I can't believe he only won two championships in Miami."

OM 1: "I know. Remember how everybody thought they were going to win it all that first year? Your boy Kobe certainly had something to say about that. I was never a huge Kobe guy, but I became a fan of his the night LeBron did that ridiculous look-at-me-everybody hour of television on ESPN. I can't believe he did Cleveland like that so publicly after that city worshiped him for seven years."

OM 2: "For real. That was disgusting. And thanks to that, now we get it almost every year it seems. Who do these punks think they are?"

OM 1: "Seriously. thank God for guys like Kevin Durant, who could very well be part of this conversation too had he won another couple of rings. I was glad he got two for himself. Same with Wall."

OM 2: "Yeah, those guys were fun to watch and great for the league. How 'bout when Miami introduced LeBron, D. Wade and Bosh that weekend and LeBron started counting his future rings? 'Not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven.' What an arrogant dickhead. And then they only won two together. Awesome."

OM 2: "How 'bout when he said, 'We're going to show the world that the Heat are back,' are you kidding me? The world back then and still to this day does not care about the NBA or the Miami Heat, or that asshole. Good luck with that global brand, tough guy."

OM 1: "I'm not even sure LeBron ever meant anything that came out of his mouth after 2009. I realize athletes get media training and so forth, but it seemed like that buffoon Maverick Carter just advised him wrongly at every turn. LeBron ended up looking, acting and sounding like a complete robot all the time. He made Tiger Woods look charming back then."

OM 2: "I know. And remember how like a few days later, that Yankees annoucer and Steinbrenner both died on the same day or whatever? Jeter was the guy who represented the team and spoke to the crowd before their next game, not A-Rod. As soon as I saw all that go down, that was the best analogy I could think of. The Heat were always going to be Wade's team, in every way. And LeBron was going to have to stay in the background. And who the hell did Bosh think he was? He wasn't a top-line player like LeBron or D. Wade."

OM 1: "Word. Everyone knew from the very first minute there were going to be chemistry problems. I'm almost surprised they won the two they did."

OM 2: "Yeah, I liked seeing them lose to the Thunder in the 2014 Finals."

OM 1: "How 'bout when the Wizards got them in the second round the following year?"

OM 2: "I can't believe Wall kept playing until just last year. That dude was awesome. And he was never an asshole."

ESPN Fails To Ask LeBron James The Most Obvious Question

NBA Star Enjoys Media
Treatment Fit For A King

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

I just got done watching the third and final part of Rachel Nichols' interview with the Miami Ego Machine and I have only one thing to say: Nichols, Jim Gray and Michael Wilbon all have failed with LeBron-A-Palooza over the last week. Which means, ESPN has failed in covering perhaps its biggest story of the year.

Is anyone going to ask LeBron if he thought he could have broken Cleveland's heart without the circus? And if someone does, will he or she follow up with some much-needed pushback when he gives his emotionless PR spin that he gives every time he speaks?

---

MORE LEBRON COVERAGE

+ VIDEO: John Mayer Just Got A Little Less Douchey
+ LIFE AFTER LEBRON: Cavaliers Courting Lady Gaga?
+ THE SINGLE LIFE: LeBron James Hopes For Better Sex From Miami
+ LIST: Who Thinks LeBron James Is An Attention Whore?

---

As Cleveland prints up Quitness T-shirts, the traumatized masses there and everywhere are calling James a traitor and hurling other similar insults. I'm a Cleveland native and as disappointing as this has been, my problem will never be with James' decision to leave. It's how he did it. Why hasn't he been pressed on this?

I don't forgive Gray or Wilbon, but I think Nichols is even more guilty because she interviewed LeBron -- along with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh -- after a few days of fallout. Surely she knew what needed to be asked after countless columns (particularly scorchers from Adrian Wojnarowski, Jason Whitlock and Matt Taibbi) ripped LeBron for his tragically misguided self-celebration. And she sat down with them for presumably much more time than Gray and Wilbon had with James on the night of "The Decision."

ESPN gets most things right, but sometimes the right questions are the hard ones, and they must be asked from time to time. If you're the worldwide leader, maybe think about asking the one question to which every one of your viewers wants an answer.

John Mayer Just Got A Little Less Douchey

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

It's easy to dislike John Mayer. And with what's happened in the sports world the last week, it's even easier to dislike LeBron James.

But now that Mayer has taken a light jab at James, he seems likable. Slightly. The evidence is below (Video sent in by Cat Supernavage):

Life After LeBron: Cavs Courting Lady Gaga?

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Not only will Cavs fans miss the threat of a LeBron James triple-double every night next season -- what with the star's ability to score, pass and rebound -- but Cleveland will be without one of the best all-around athletes the NBA has seen perhaps in its history.

But it looks like Cavs owner Dan Gilbert is looking toward the music industry for some much-needed athleticism to fill the void. Perhaps you caught Lady Gaga's much-discussed performance on NBC's "Today" Friday morning. It wasn't just the high notes that turned heads; check her vertical a couple seconds into this video below:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy