LeBron James's RISE: A Few Thoughts from the Superstar's Latest Commercial

Geez.

It’s scary how progressively worse LeBron has gotten since May. With the last article I wrote, I almost felt empathetic toward LeBron because…well, it just seemed like he was crying out for help.

Why else would you tell the world that you get hateful Twitters other than the fact that it hurts?

I guess I overlooked an alternative motive: vengeance.

In the Hebrew scriptures, God lashes out in anger against the faithless Israelites time and time again, in hopes of turning their hearts back to him. There are times that the people repent and God embraces them with open arms, but more often than not, their hearts become more calloused and stone-cold, walking further away from the one who chose them for special reasons.

And it’s painfully ironic that in his own video, LeBron is removing a tattoo from his back that reads “Chosen.”

The video starts off with what appears to be a contrite display of emotions on the reminiscent set of The Decision. Within seconds, we realize we’ve been had.

“Should I admit that I’ve made mistakes?”

LeBron is anything but penitent.

We see a shot of the championship trophy interlaced with a voice over: “Should I remind you that I’ve done this before? Should I give you a history lesson?”

The arrogance that overflowed from a minute and thirty second YouTube video trumped all the third-person self-references in his two months of free agency.

What was Nike thinking when they released this ad? The video is emphatically entitled “Rise” but it’s more like a hard slap to the face followed by a very blatant F U.

I feel like the problem is his identity. He doesn’t know if he should be wooing the crowd or as he mentions it, embracing his role as a villain. Ultimately, if you don’t know who you are, there is only one path that you can walk on: self-destruction.

There was no need for this kind of marketing. It’s highly improbable that Nike sales will go up after this stunt.

And if he truly doesn’t care what the fans think about him, he wouldn’t bother putting out an ad in an attempt to motivate himself to win a championship. Look at Kobe. He rarely shares anything with the media anymore.

“What should I do? Should I be who you want me to be?”

I don’t think LeBron even understands what we want him to be. Cleveland wanted him to be a champion. Nike wanted him to be a champion. But it’s like watching a teenager throw hissy fits because he doesn’t want his parents telling him what to do.

Except we’re not his parents and this is misdirected anger. Blame it on the missing father figure. James will continue to react out of his emotional puberty until he learns to be a man and grow up.

Take responsibility. And move on. Dammit.

I suppose it’s safe to say that James won’t be going back to Cleveland ever, and his Q rating will drop another God knows how many points.

But more importantly, it’s sad that he’s chosen this route. He continues to make bad decisions for lack of proper counsel and discernment. But what can you do? He’s surrounded himself with a bunch of yes-men whom he considers his best friends.

“Should I stop listening to my friends? They’re my friends.”

In this egotistical generation, where it’s all about me, me, me, how can one possibly learn the valuable lessons of humility until he hits rock bottom?

As Nike answers it, “Just Do It.”

But what Nike doesn’t tell you is, at the end of the day, there are consequences to every decision we make.

Do you still want to “Just Do It”?

For LeBron, the answer is yes.