LeBron James came to town and a debacle ensued.
It wasn’t James’ fault, even though he had a subpar
performance.
The mortal-lock to be the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft helped his
team, St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, beat Mater Dei, the No. 4
ranked prep team in the country 64-58 despite 8-for-24 shooting.
Along with his 21 points, James still contributed with seven
assists, nine rebounds and three blocked shots.
But simply put, the Pangos Dream Classic was a disaster. The
LeBron James game was just one of four that were played at
“Poly Pavillion” on Saturday.
That’s not a typo on my part ““ Poly Pavillion hosted
the games according to the Pangos Dream Classic giveaway trading
cards.
Brilliantly, Pangos managed to mess up the spelling of the most
storied college basketball arena and put it on trading cards.
Of high school basketball players.
And that wasn’t the only way Pangos over-marketed itself
during the game. They had their logo written on the historic Poly
Pavillion court and had Pangos signs behind the backboards, clearly
visible whenever shots were attempted.
Pangos also seems to think it can fool the media. According to a
press release, the attendance at the game was 15,000. Poly
Pavillion only holds 12,819 people for basketball.
Still, Poly Pavillion was nearly full. This is disturbing
considering that The Associated Press’ estimate of 12,000
fans is a much larger attendance than any UCLA basketball home game
this season. Only one game has surpassed 7,000.
Actually, it’s not that disturbing when you consider that
the men’s basketball team is terrible. And no, wins against
the Washington schools don’t impress me. Kapono had only
averaged 15 points per game before Saturday’s 44-point
explosion.
On a side note, don’t believe the rumors that
Lavin’s not so lovable losers are tanking the rest of the
season to get in position to draft James. James is not UCLA
material. He got seven assists, way too many for any Bruin
recruit.
Not only was Poly Pavillion nearly full, but the fans were
aggravating. The fans booed James when he missed a dunk or layup
during pre-game warmups. They booed him in the first quarter when
he was struggling. And they started chanting
“overrated” when he was going through a slump in the
third quarter.
All of this is acceptable at a professional game. But James is
an 18-year-old in high school who is not making any money from his
basketball talents. But by playing for his team, many people
(Pangos, St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, ESPN, and whoever is
putting his games on pay-per-view) are making money off of him.
According to the Los Angeles Times, St. Vincent-St. Mary was given
a $20,000 appearance fee.
Granted, James probably will make millions of dollars in the
NBA. But it’s not guaranteed yet. A career-ending injury
would terminate his earning potential and the hype, and
that’s a risk he takes every time he steps on the court.
James would probably be the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft if he
didn’t play any basketball between now and draft day. Yet, he
still plays every game for his high school team, trying to win them
a national championship.
Despite this selflessness, both by playing and risking injury
and passing the ball to his teammates, fans continue to boo and
heckle him.
The debacle continued at the post-game press conference. Again,
it was not James’ fault. James answered every question and
showed a lot of poise, giving intelligent, mature answers.
On the other hand, his coach, Dru Joyce, walked into the press
conference, immediately demanded a stat sheet, continued demanding
one loudly until he got one, and wouldn’t answer questions
without it.
I don’t know why he needed one; it’s not like
someone was going to ask him “What was your team’s
turnover to assist ratio tonight?”
While James answered questions, Joyce would turn to the other
players and point out individual stats, which got the other players
talking about them too. It’s like Joyce and the rest of the
team were trying to incorporate multivariable calculus into those
numbers while James was talking.
At least Joyce showed up. Mater Dei just left, refusing to talk
to the press after the game. (Somewhat understandable considering
that it took James’ team 40 minutes to get out of the locker
room and another 20 before the media was ready to talk to his
opponents.)
Maybe both teams should have just not showed up. When they did,
a debacle ensued.