Why Lebron will never be Michael Jordan (long)

[EGarrett]

I'd just like to take a moment to put on my amateur psychologist hat and toss out a theory that might explain exactly why Lebron James does the seemingly strange things he does, why Michael Jordan did what he did (and got to where he got), and, by extension, why Kobe Bryant is the way he is.

Every person who reaches an absurdly high-level in something does so due to abnormal circumstances. Almost all great achievement is self-motivated, and the normal human psychological make-up produces normal amounts of motivation, and normal amounts of results. In the case of super-high-level professional athletes, if you start to understand that each of them has a unique life-experience with unique challenges and unique motivations, you can start to see the subtle differences in what they do and why.

Michael Jordan was a supremely gifted athlete, but he was the youngest of his brothers, who dominated him when he was little, until he was able to beat them. Then he got cut from his high school basketball team, until he practiced enough to dominate there. Then he went to North Carolina and the NBA, where superior defensive teams kicked his ass until he figured out how to use his teammates. His motivation at every step was revenge and domination. He was NOT seen as great in his formative years, he was treated like he wasn't important, and he thus spent the rest of his life determined to stomp down and prove to the world just how incredibly wrong everyone was who doubted him. If you aren't sure of this, listen to his Hall of Fame acceptance speech. He was not gracious and happy, he went through the laundry list of people, including his High School coach, who tried to stop him, and basically mocked them callously.

That is the primary formula for making a legendary achieving athlete. Supreme talent that did not bloom immediately, coupled with being doubted, minimized, or dominated early on in their life, which they responded to by figuring out how to fight back. When Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was young, he played against kids much older who matched his size, and he developed the sky hook because, in his words "it's the only thing I could shoot that wasn't smashed back in my face." He developed it to beat those kids who were embarrassing him. He ended up being 7'2" later. The point being, revenge (outside of sex, possibly) is the greatest motivator in the human psyche. It is the only thing that will keep you on a path obsessively for years and make you do things that are even self-destructive in other circumstances.

Lebron James is NOT motivated by revenge. When he grew up, he was always bigger, stronger and faster than the other kids. His personal development came from the desire to amaze other people. He wants to show all the skills he has, and to get attention for himself and what he's able to do. That is his primary desire: attention and acceptance. He does not live in a world where things are difficult. In his formative years, his favorite people were always around, and if he really wanted something, he was always in a position to get it easily, money, respect, girls etc. So when he got in the position he was in with the Cavaliers, where he could not get a title easily, he didn't know how to deal with it. He chose the path that was congruent with the world he lived in...be around his friends and win the title as easily as possible. But now, when it hasn't been working out easily, and people have stopped liking him, it's important to recognize that this is a situation he has NO experience with in life and doesn't know how to handle.

If you keep those things in mind I think all his behavior starts to make more sense. His desire in life is attention. That's why his ad campaigns are always centered around beholding his greatness and not setting goals or reaching any particular plateau. That's why he had that peculiar habit of taking shots from half-court and way out of bounds and behind the rim whenever there was an interviewer or camera around at practice. That's why he dragged out "The Decision." That's why he purposefully dropped hints about going to the NFL and going back to Cleveland when people weren't talking about him enough.

That's why he freaks-out publicly and starts acting like a flake when people don't give him the adulation he was so used to having, and it's why he has not adjusted, at all, to his team's struggles. He doesn't understand the notion of sticking-to-it, adjusting and overcoming when things are difficult. He's never had that lesson in life, like Jordan and other guys did. He was never the little weak kid who had to fight back against his big brother or the Coach who ignored him. He has always been the overwhelming force who drops people's jaws and takes whatever he wants with no problem, and his psyche glitches and fails everytime he can't play that role.

That being said, I'd like to add a third-leg to this, and mention Kobe very quickly. If Jordan's motivation was revenge and domination, Lebron's motivation is to amaze and get attention, then Kobe's motivation is very simple, to be his hero. Period. Kobe has devoted his life to being what he thinks Michael Jordan was. And here's the important thing...it is more important to like Mike, in his mind, than it is to actually win. This is a subtle distinction, but what Kobe has demonstrated repeatedly throughout his basketball career, is that if he has to choose between being what he thinks Michael Jordan was, and winning the basketball game, he will choose to be like Mike. That's why Kobe used to tank games in High School, just so he could "take over" at the end. That's why he learned to take fade-away jumpshots before he learned to use a teammate. The fadeaway is easy for a kid to see in tape of Michael Jordan, the teamwork aspect is almost invisible. It's why he wanted Phil Jackson as his coach, then flipped out when Phil tried to make him feed the ball to Shaq instead of letting him be Jordan in the triangle offense. There was no Shaq on the Bulls! It's why Kobe will take every shot he can, even if he's putting up a horrible percentage and messing up his team chemistry. It fits the image that was set-in-stone in his young mind of what his hero was doing. It also explains why Kobe will take over in the clutch in the NBA Finals so often, then randomly have crucial games in the playoffs throughout his career where he stopped shooting completely and almost seemed to purposefully lose. Kobe was in a great system with the best center or great help and a brilliant coach who could utilize him, but, at least in my theory, his random shutdowns happen when the coach tells him to do something that isn't what Michael Jordan would do, and Kobe doesn't care about winning if he can't do it like Mike.

Anyway, ultimately, we won't see guys like Lebron become what we want him to be, because his primary motivator, getting attention and amazing people, is not the "right one" to produce a Michael Jordan. If you're motivated by revenge, you will go to insane lengths. If you just want attention and to show how good you are, you will do slightly different things, let-up earlier, not push as hard in certain situations, not fight as much when things get difficult, and so on. As long as people know how incredible you are (i.e. his "Check my $tats" t-shirt), you will lose the fire that gets you to figure out everything you have to in order to win rings. Michael was really unique, and until some other kid shows up with otherworldly talent who nonetheless got his butt kicked when he was little, and who is pissed at the world because of it, we won't have a chance of seeing another Michael, no matter how incredibly gifted the coming generations may be.

[Marlo Stanfield]

[smith2373]

[downfortonight]

because lebrons a horrible 3-pt shooter and free throw shooter, and chokes a lot

[Bertrob]

I read
LOL

[Wone]

he doesn't have the mental fortitude. he has all the talent, more than enough to usurp jordan as the goat but what he's lacking is in the haert.

[swiftdan]

cliffs =

[Illmatic21]

It doesn't take an essay to realize this, lol

[Joao Saraiva]

because lebrons a horrible 3-pt shooter and free throw shooter, and chokes a lot

Actually LBJ is a better 3 pt shooter than Michael Jordan was. He's not as good as FT.

About choking, that's just you looking when he chokes and turning of your tv when he's clutch.

[LascelleL]

This

[TripleC]

This

[EGarrett]

he doesn't have the mental fortitude. he has all the talent, more than enough to usurp jordan as the goat but what he's lacking is in the haert.

That fortitude has to be developed and learned by facing and overcoming struggles in early years. You have to go through the experience and learn that when people are doubting you or beating you down, you can come back and beat them or prove them wrong if you don't give up. If you're always the biggest, fastest, and strongest, and always had things given to you, you can develop just to see how good you can really be, and to amaze people, but when the chips are down, if something's not handed to you and you struggle, you won't fight back, you'll just crumble.

[Beith Kogans]

[Beith Kogans]

Give me the sparknotes version

[twinthunder3]

[EntropyPR]

Started to read but gave up 3/4 into it.

[The Infamous1]

Bron just ain't a killa. Great player but almost 10 years in his career we know who he is.

That and Jordan would never leave his team to go form a superteam. MJ would never join Isiah or Bird or Magic, he wanted to beat those guys.

[hollabackitsobi]

Interesting little pop psychology take on it. Intuitively, it seems correct because that's the narrative we want to read into it.

Worthy read, OP.

[C-izMe]

[SWedd523]