ATLANTA, GEORGIA – JANUARY 30: LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers reacts against the … [+]
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Wait.
What?
“To be quite honest with you, everybody wanted to see me fail when I got to the league,” some guy named LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers told reporters this weekend after a home loss to the Denver Nuggets.
Nevertheless, that same LeBron James spent the night becoming the only person in the history of sneakers to score at least 40,000 points during his NBA career.
That same LeBron James also was cited by Forbes in June 2022 as the first active player in the league to become a billionare.
Patrick Mahomes isn’t there yet, but stay tuned. His Kansas City Chiefs just won their third Super Bowl in five years, including two in a row. Although they rank 23rd out of the 32 NFL franchises on the Forbes’ team valuation list at $4.3 billion, Mahomes (the six-time Pro Bowl quarterback for the Chiefs) surpassed that same LeBron James and other athletes regarding income from companies airing their television ads.
Patrick Mahomes Sr. and others still wore merchandise throughout the Chiefs’ playoff run with the words “Kansas City vs Everybody.”
Really?
For one, see above.
For another, that slogan copied what those associated with the University of Michigan football team did months earlier.
Courtesy of a sign-stealing scandal involving the NCAA and the Michigan football program, Wolverines players began wearing shirts and winter hats in November saying “Michigan vs. Everybody,” but that’s not why they won their first national championship since 1997.
In addition to a powerful running game, a stifling defense and a highly sought-after head coach in Jim Harbaugh (who eventually bolted after the season for the Los Angeles Chargers), Michigan had quarterback J.J. McCarthy who could become a first-round pick in the upcoming NFL draft.
The Wolverines still wished to be the underdog.
The same was true for the Georgia Bulldogs during the previous college football season after they grabbed a second straight national championship with a record 15 players taken in the NFL Draft in 2022 followed by another 10 picked the following year.
None of that kept Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett from telling Sirius XM radio with a straight face, “There was a lot of people who doubted us, and I know people are gonna be like, ‘no we didn’t.’ Well, yeah you did.”
Huh?
Anyway, returning to the Chiefs, tight end Travis Kelce couldn’t care less his team was in the middle of a dynasty two seasons ago after they won that Super Bowl over the Philadelphia Eagles.
Kelce told reporters afterward, “Not one of y’all said the Chiefs were gonna take it home this year. Not a single one! Feel that (censored). Feel it! And on top of that, the next time the Chiefs say something, put some respect on our name!”
Folks love being the underdog.
Going back to slingshots, David and Goliath, folks always have loved being the underdog, at least in sports.
The Miracle Mets over the supposedly invincible Baltimore Orioles to win the 1969 World Series.
TeamTISI +0.5% USA hockey shocking the Russians during the 1980 Winter Olympics.
Buster Douglas pounding Mike Tyson.
Now, yearning for that underdog label is an epidemic throughout sports, but this latest one is beyond ridiculous.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 21: LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers during a 134-110 … [+]
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That same LeBron James earned “upwards of $900 million (pretax) off the court, according to Forbes estimates from business ventures and endorsement deals with the likes of PepsiCoPEP -2%, WalmartWMT +1.2% and NikeNKE -1.2%.”
Forbes also said that same LeBron James “has been more than a pitchman, taking equity in brands he works with, including Beats by Dre and the fast-growing Blaze Pizza chain.”
That same LeBron James has accomplished the following after dribbling 20-plus NBA seasons: 20 trips to the NBA All-Star Game; 13 All-NBA First Team selections; four NBA championship rings; five selections to the NBA All-Defensive First Team: four NBA Finals MVP awards; four NBA Most Valuable Player awards; Associated Press Athlete of the Decade pick for the 2010s in addition to serving as the wire service’s Athlete of the Year four times; three-time winner of the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year award.
That same Lebron James was on the cover of Sports Illustrated on February 18, 2002 as a junior in high school around his hometown of Akron, Ohio. The magazine’s headline was “The Chosen One,” and that same LeBron James proceeded to put a tattoo on his back saying, “Chosen 1.”
Among other glowing things, SI’s Grant Wahl wrote in the article: “Ohio high school junior LeBron James is so good that he’s already being mentioned as the heir to Air Jordon.”
Even so, that same LeBron James continued Saturday night with his underdog claim while describing his NBA journey to reporters. It began in 2003 when he virtually played for his hometown team (as in an extremely supportive fan base) in the Cleveland Cavaliers, but he said, “Everybody was just like, it’s no way he’s going to be able to exceed the expectations that’s put upon him.”
But didn’t that same LeBron James win NBA Rookie of the Year honors?
Yep.