John Corn
12-11-02, 04:52 PM
If ya get a chance, check this kid out, I've seen him play in person and he is simply awesome. Don't miss Thursday night's ESPN2 telecast of a game between James' St. Vincent-St. Mary High, the No. 23-ranked team in USA TODAY's Super 25, and No. 1 Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.)
LeBron James is living large as a basketball superstar.
He's on a first-name basis with Michael (Jordan) and Shaq (O'Neal). This season he'll play before tens of thousands of fans in big arenas such as Cleveland State University's Convocation Center, UCLA's famed Pauley Pavilion and the Palestra in Philadelphia. Celebrity-clogged courtside seats will cost a couple of hundred dollars.
On TV, famed ESPN announcer Dick Vitale will describe his court moves in hyperactive verbs, baby.
Fans will wait outside the locker rooms for a glimpse and perhaps an autograph -- which they also can buy on eBay and Amazon.com for $104. Can't make it to a game? Some not shown by ESPN are available on pay-per-view.
Nike and Adidas are in a heated battle to sign James to a multimillion-dollar shoe and apparel contract.
Corporations from video game makers to hotel chains are busy calculating his charisma quotient, trying to determine his potential impact. He has sparked a cottage industry of eager TV producers, arena owners, cable-system operators, online auction houses and makers of bobble-head dolls looking to get in on the estimated $1.5 million The LeBron James Show will generate this season.
He's been on the cover of Sports Illustrated. You'll hear his name brought up in party conversation.
But you won't see LeBron James in the uniform of an NBA team or even a major-college squad. And of that $1.5 million cash flow his season will generate, he'll get nothing. Still subject to amateurism rules, he's 17, lives with his single mom in a modest apartment in Akron, Ohio, and is a senior at a Roman Catholic high school with an enrollment of 591. The nation's most talked-about basketball phenom cleans his own room and eats Fruity Pebbles for breakfast and dinner.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=676&e=5&cid=676&u=/usatoday/20021211/ts_usatoday/4690750
LeBron James is living large as a basketball superstar.
He's on a first-name basis with Michael (Jordan) and Shaq (O'Neal). This season he'll play before tens of thousands of fans in big arenas such as Cleveland State University's Convocation Center, UCLA's famed Pauley Pavilion and the Palestra in Philadelphia. Celebrity-clogged courtside seats will cost a couple of hundred dollars.
On TV, famed ESPN announcer Dick Vitale will describe his court moves in hyperactive verbs, baby.
Fans will wait outside the locker rooms for a glimpse and perhaps an autograph -- which they also can buy on eBay and Amazon.com for $104. Can't make it to a game? Some not shown by ESPN are available on pay-per-view.
Nike and Adidas are in a heated battle to sign James to a multimillion-dollar shoe and apparel contract.
Corporations from video game makers to hotel chains are busy calculating his charisma quotient, trying to determine his potential impact. He has sparked a cottage industry of eager TV producers, arena owners, cable-system operators, online auction houses and makers of bobble-head dolls looking to get in on the estimated $1.5 million The LeBron James Show will generate this season.
He's been on the cover of Sports Illustrated. You'll hear his name brought up in party conversation.
But you won't see LeBron James in the uniform of an NBA team or even a major-college squad. And of that $1.5 million cash flow his season will generate, he'll get nothing. Still subject to amateurism rules, he's 17, lives with his single mom in a modest apartment in Akron, Ohio, and is a senior at a Roman Catholic high school with an enrollment of 591. The nation's most talked-about basketball phenom cleans his own room and eats Fruity Pebbles for breakfast and dinner.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=676&e=5&cid=676&u=/usatoday/20021211/ts_usatoday/4690750