Comparing the Kobe Bryant-LeBron James Debate to the Change in the Oval Office

Please note: This is not meant to be any sort of political commentary, just a musing on superstars in the NBA, and how the guard is changing.

I have made a concerted effort to keep any political leanings, whatever they may be, out of this article. So please read with that in mind.

Every era of sports has a player (or players) that define it.

In the '80s, it was Bird and Magic.

In the '90s, it was Michael Jordan.

The early 2000s were Kobe's, and we are in the midst of change.

Kobe's career is closer to the end than to the beginning, and LeBron James is starting his ascent.

Like sports, America has eras that are first and foremost defined by the leaders that oversee them. We remember the Clinton years as prosperous, and the Bush years as a time when the world took a sinister turn.

There is more in common between these people than you might think.

I'll start with Michael Jordan. After a few years of trying to climb the mountain, he did it, and ushered in an era of dominance never seen before.

Like Clinton, people loved him. Despite the emergence of little things (Whitewater, punching a teammate) the fact remained that they were both incredibly popular.

Then more things came to light, things we couldn't necessarily ignore. Clinton was impeached. Jordan retired in his prime, for reasons that look suspicious as the years go on.

And with Kobe, we seemed to have a new superstar. Kobe was quiet, he kept to himself. He wasn't a media whore, he just played his face off every night, and he was rewarded by three championships before the age where most of us graduate college.

When Bush became president, we were all ready for a fresh start in the office. Like Michael Jordan, Clinton was still popular, and it was argued that he could have won a third term with relative ease.

But the limitations of the constitution are like the limitations of age, there's no way around them. Jordan could have continued to draw crowds until he was 45, playing token minutes for small-market teams, but he didn't.

After September 11, Bush was one of the most popular presidents of this era. Like Kobe, he was everything we needed. Bush and Kobe just got things done. They responded quickly, and both seemed to be free of the baggage that has dragged down their predecessors.

But is anybody really without baggage? Of course not.

Looking back, it's amazing how close together the two men began their eventual fall from grace.

Bush's started in March 2003, when Congress passed the mandate for the Invasion of Iraq. Kobe's came a mere three months later, when he was arrested in Eagle, Colorado.

Bush's downfall did not come down quite as quickly as Kobe's, but as a result, Bush seemed to fall a lot further.

With Kobe, it immediately tainted the most marketable, likable young stars in the game.

He lost sponsorships, and his trial coincided with an incredibly turbulent Laker season that spelled the end of the Shaq-Kobe team.

Bush started to hemorrhage credibility, but not so much that he wasn't able to win a second term.

But soon, both Kobe and Bush began to be seen as negatives, as scapegoats for any number of problems with America, the NBA, you name it.

And this brings us to where we are now.

LeBron James and Barack Obama.

Both hyped up long before they actually got to the top, both carefully marketed into what they appear today.

Sure, there are differences. The 2003 Draft was known as the "LeBron Lottery," while Obama was behind Hillary Clinton as close to late 2007.

But both men run incredibly tight marketing campaigns (with Obama, just a campaign) that were run my intelligent people in the exact way they needed to be run.

Obama's camp stayed away from the race card, as to not alienate people. LeBron stays away from signing political statements, as he did when he declined to sign Ira Newble's petition about Darfur, so as not to alienate people.

As far as sins go, the decision not to go out on a limb is both immediately defensible, or thoroughly reprehensible, depending on whom you talk to.

And as Obama has climbed the ladder all the way to the top, promising and preaching change the entire time, LeBron has entered the NBA stratosphere.

Sure, you could argue that he really did in 2007, when his "48 Special" sent an awful team into the Finals.

But this is truly the first year where LeBron is bending the rules of possibility on a nightly basis, and he is closer than ever to overthrowing Kobe for the title of "Best in the World."

Both LeBron and Obama are incredibly cognizant of their image, which has led to a squeaky-cleanliness that makes people both believers and skeptics.

Can you imagine LeBron ever driving drunk, getting caught smoking weed, or running some sort of gambling operation? No. He probably has a guy that he pays a million bucks a year, whose sole purpose is to keep LeBron out of trouble. And so far, this fellow has earned his check.

Can you imagine Obama doing something as trite as seducing a White House intern? Or the grave speaking errors that have made Bush Daily Show fodder for the past six years?

No. Part of this is because they just don't seem the type. Whether or not this is a carefully orchestrated marketing ploy remains to be seen.

What's the closest thing to controversy either one has been a part of?

For LeBron, it's wearing a Yankee cap to an Indians game, a speeding ticket, and two children from wedlock (although it is with his longtime girlfriend).

For Obama, it's a few racially charged statements in his books, and the pastor who married him.

Do you think Kobe or Bush, (or A-Rod or Michael Vick for that matter) wouldn't write a blank check to take on those problems?

Here's where things take a slightly sinister turn.

Who among us is perfect?

A-Rod for a while seemed to be the savior of baseball, the guy who was going to break the records without any question as to whether or not he was legit.

Michael Vick put Virginia Tech on the map, and he was going to revolutionize the QB position, while at the same time taking the Falcons franchise to heights never before attained.

Now where are they?

Michael Vick is counting down the final days of a prison sentence, and A-Rod's public sentencing and trial by public opinion is just beginning.

Who’s to say that Obama and LeBron, just the latest icons to climb to the top, won't fall in the very same way?

And given the culture of distrust in celebrities we live in, who’s to say that is they do escape those transgressions, that they were just smarter about it than their predecessors?

Regardless of your beliefs about that, or your political/team rooting interests, there is no doubt that it will be interesting to watch.

Will LeBron leave a generation of superstars without a title like MJ? Will he impose his will on the sport in a way that makes MJ look like yesterday's news?

Will Obama pull the U.S. out of this economic crisis with his methods that some say will only make it worse, and others say are exactly the change we need?

I don't know, and if you came here looking for a prediction, I can't give it.

I just felt the need to illustrate some of these parallels, because the intersection of sports and real life always fascinates me.

Please feel free to register your pleasure/distaste below.