Mitch Albom Column: It's not race, LeBron James, but it might be you

After reading this column about LeBron James, Albom’s point for writing was practically written in size 72 font, bold faced and underlined about 20 times. As in Lebron’s case, his decline in popularity, the same question rears its ugly head: “It is because of his race?” And then the confirmation. Yes, of course. That must be the answer because there is no other plausible explanation to this problem they are facing. Race is a “parachute [of] safety” as Albom so logically puts it. When people don’t want to admit the truth, that’s the poor excuse they adopt repeatedly. LeBron’s popularity is dropping – oh no! That must mean white people are no longer cheering for him because he’s black. Of course no one wants to acknowledge that the real issue could be his monster ego that is actually driving away his fans. I for one agree with Albom one hundred percent. Race is the perpetual defense used when something doesn’t happen to be going their way and they want the sympathy vote. Don’t get me wrong. Sometimes their accusations are accurate. But for all the other times when they pull the race card for selfish reasons, it’s just irritating. Let’s face the facts! Instead of dancing around the tangible problem and tossing in some typical excuse to justify LeBron’s behavior, just outright say that it is precisely his ego that’s the problem, not his race! Albom says, “But Lebron didn’t become internationally famous with only black fans liking him, and he didn’t reach this sudden infamy with only white fans bailing out.” This statement immediately sent a flag up in my mind. This is definitely Albom’s most effective point of his column. It makes perfect sense. Lebron had loads of supporters, both black and white, and now he’s lost some supporters, both black and white. It’s as simple as that. This clearly proves that this whole controversy has absolutely no relationship whatsoever with his race. If white people have supported him throughout his career up until his “major decision,” they aren’t bailing now because they experienced some life-altering event that’s caused them to become extremely racist. His race didn’t bother them at the beginning and still doesn’t bother them at this point. That would be his overly confident, jerky attitude: aka an enormous ego!