I had the significant pleasure of getting to see “More Than a Game” at the newly renovated Capitol Theatre in the Gordon Square Arts District on Monday with my entire immediate family. On a personal note, I’m proud of the strides being made in several neighborhoods around Cleveland to enhance the community and improve the economy. Hopefully some day soon, I’ll be able to play a more integral role in the revitalization.
It’s all about progress.
And More Than a Game, the documentary about Bron’s years at St. V, is certainly about progress. You’re all familiar with the storyline: freakish athlete and basketball prodigy raised in a shattered home is able to survive and achieve with the help of his friends and his coach. The movie is more of a human interest piece than a documentary about basketball - I, of course, would have preferred the latter, but I certainly understand the approach of all of the various entities involved (Bron, director Kris Belman, Lionsgate, Harvey Mason, Interscope). The material was handled the proper way in order to connect and uplift, and I found myself becoming genuinely emotional listening to Coach Dru Joyce talk about the impact he had on his players, most notably his son.
Having said that, the movie also raises a fair amount of questions if you’re watching in between the lines. Here’s a brief rundown:
*Why doesn’t Gloria James really appear until it becomes evident that Bron is a phenom?
*Why does Bron go out of his way to credit his mom for taking care of him as a child when by almost every account, she frequently disappeared and had other people look after him?
*Is it wise to emphasize one or two years of high school basketball to a group of kids as the most important time in their lives - the chance to do huge things - when all of us know (or at least Coach Dru and the people who titled the movie do) that life is bigger than a game of basketball at the age of 17 or 18?
*If Dru, Sian, Willie, and Romeo are Bron’s support system and four best friends in the world, then who are Maverick Carter, Randy Mihms, and Rich Paul - aka the Four Horsemen? How do they fit into this equation? Does Bron just go around and create small tight knit families?
*How in the hell did LeBron come out on the other side of extreme fame and fortune - not to mention the rigors of being a professional athlete - pretty much unscathed, especially when it happened as early for him in his life as it did?
Notably, it’s this last question that makes me want to believe the fairy tale image LeBron portrays more often than not has some actual credence to it. I’m not suggesting that Bron’s public persona is a fabrication, but I would go so far as to say that it is carefully crafted, down to some of his statements about Braylon Edwards on Monday, which I perceived to be an extension of his “loyalty” motto.
I do think, however, that LeBron needs to be careful about being careful - when everything looks so precise all of the time, it makes people wonder if it actually is, and that’s where some of the uproar comes from when he does minor things like not shaking hands (as a competitor, I agreed with this decision) and not speaking to the media (as a leader, I did not agree with this decision). Which is why, if I were LeBron, I probably wouldn’t say things like:
“I know how to handle myself as a professional athlete and I take care of my friends and my family. It is unfortunate that some guys don’t understand that. You are a role model to kids and you should carry yourself that way on and off the field. And I carry that. I’m not going to do anything to jeopardize myself or my family. I’m one of the guys that look at being a professional athlete at more than just being out on the court.”
Because all it really does is put a target on his back. None of us are perfect. And those of us who are rich and famous and powerful have a whole other set of circumstances and situations to deal with, the least of which is a unavoidably warped self-image. One bad moment plus one quick finger on a camera phone, and the house of cards begins to fall.
I want to believe that LeBron is who he wants us to believe he is, but I’m also highly aware of what the culture of wealth and celebrity is like, and it’s hard for me not to have my reservations. Still, I’ll give Bron the benefit of the doubt.
Making a movie like More Than a Game then creates two things for LeBron - a deeper imprint of the King mythology (loyalty, team, brotherhood, humbleness), which is really all about branding, as well as an opportunity or an excuse for the skeptics in the crowd to ask questions about that same mythology.
This is 2009 after all, and Walt Disney is dead.
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