Randy Knoewman Writes

In my book, Who Do You Help?, the seven-year-old Ricky is obsessed with LeBron James.

With good reason.

He’s won 4 NBA championships, been to 10 Finals, has 4 MVPs, and is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.

Add that all up and he’s widely considered the best or second-best player of all time depending on who you ask, leading to heated arguments on whether you are Team Jordan or Team LeBron.

Bad Teacher Movie Clip – Lebron vs Jordan – YouTube

But LeBron’s accomplishments in the NBA are only part of the story. He is America’s dream American dream. A rags to riches story where he went from growing up not always knowing where he was going to sleep in Akron to being able to buy any home he could imagine.

He did this all while having impossible expectations of being labeled “The Chosen One” at 16 after being put on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Greatness was expected from 16, and anything less would be a failure. That’s an incredible burden to place on anyone, let alone a kid.

With such a microscope, you’d anticipate plenty of pitfalls, scandals, public mistakes, and yet, there were very few. Yes, he received gifts while in high school, which was a big deal at the time, but would that even be a scandal today or just normal?

The Decision was a poor choice and made him a villain, but think of how harmless it truly is? All he did was announce where he would be playing next on national TV, which was a miscalculation on his front and in poor taste, but not directly harmful to anyone (Cleveland fans may disagree). None of his “scandals” involved him abusing anyone, a serious court case, or even drugs. A remarkable feat for someone who got so famous so young.

And he did it all while bringing his friends along for the ride and having them become superstars in their own right. Rich Paul is LeBron’s agent and is one of the most powerful agents in sports. Maverick Carter is LeBron’s business partner and has helped build LeBron’s business empire and his own.

All along his journey to superstardom, LeBron has created his own sports agency and media platforms, and pushed forward the player empowerment movement in the NBA. That takes patience and intelligence to pull off and deserves to be applauded.

As does his work in his hometown of Akron, where he opened up his own public school, I Promise, followed by him creating a housing complex, community center, and medical center. It’d be easy, given how rich he’s become, to forget about his hometown, but instead it remains a focus of his work to this day.

Furthermore, unlike Michael Jordan, he has been more politically involved, including in the Black Lives Matter movement, various political elections, and creating a group called More than a Vote to help fight Black voter suppression in 2020.

All of this is to say, I agree with Ricky’s admiration of LeBron.

But he’s still a billionaire.

And, this is where many people will disagree, being a billionaire is a failure, not a success.

It’s not that I think LeBron James is a failure; it’s that I think he is misled by the same philosophy all Americans are taught from birth:

Capitalism.

Capitalism teaches us that the more money you accumulate, the more successful you are.

But is hoarding money successful when others are in such dire need of it? Or, as is often the case but not necessarily as much LeBron’s or other billionaires from entertainment, is it successful to become a billionaire by exploiting your workers? Think Walmart, Amazon, etc.

I think, in my opinion, LeBron James has done a lot of good, but he could and should do a lot more.

Currently, there are talks about LeBron James becoming an owner of a NBA team, a feat that often requires being a billionaire. This is something many people are excited about because despite being a majority Black league, there are no majority NBA owners who are Black after Michael Jordan sold the Hornets.

I’m in agreement that having a majority Black league be led primarily by rich, white men is not ideal, but is spending all of your cash on becoming an owner truly that impactful versus using that money to expand his current work in Akron or social justice organizations or food banks? Take your pick of alternatives, but I feel betting on supporting many people is more impactful than having one voice amongst NBA owners.

There’s also the Great Man Fallacy I think billionaires can fall into. That they need to stay rich because look at the impact they can have! If they have the money, they can be at those dining tables and in those rooms, lending a voice to the people who need it.

I just have a hard time buying it. A billionaire may give money away, but how can they still be in touch with people who are one bill away from being evicted or have to work two jobs? Are they really going to use their power to give their power away?

Look at LeBron James.

LeBron is a global icon, including in China, where he’s very popular.

A few years ago, a NBA executive tweeted his support for Hong Kong protesters fighting for democracy against China.

LeBron, when asked about it, did not agree and instead said he felt the executive was not educated on the issue and should not have said what he said.

LeBron James Speaks Out On NBA Controversy After Returning From China : NPR

It contradicted his past actions of speaking for people’s rights, but when you peel back the curtain and see how much financially is at stake for him in this situation, you can see why he said what he said.

Being a billionaire and having a wide net of financial tentacles can compromise your values.

It’s why you should be skeptical of the “benevolent” billionaire and ask why do they have a billion dollars? Why aren’t they doing more to share it or to stop accumulating it?

How can you justify keeping so much money when others need it?

Now, in LeBron’s case, with him being Black, many will argue there is a need for “Generational Wealth” due to the wealth gap between whites and Blacks.

I, too, agree there shouldn’t be such a wealth gap, but I also don’t think one person or family holding onto so much money is the way to close such a gap. LeBron could easily set up his family for generations and still have about a billion dollars left over.

To me, the argument of keeping money to create generational wealth amongst minority groups feels like a capitalistic trick to keep people from attacking capitalism. Granted, as a white person who grew up privileged, this is probably easier for me to say, but I’d argue LeBron further sharing his wealth amongst the Black community like he has done in Akron and fighting for policies that help close the wealth gap would go much further than keeping it for himself and buying a sports team.

In simple terms, the idea of prioritizing generational wealth feels akin to trickle down economics, which, as we know, doesn’t trickle down.

My mixed feelings regarding LeBron’s accomplishments and wealth are not a LeBron specific issue, however, and can be applied to any number of celebrities.

Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Steven Spielberg, Selena Gomez, Jay-Z, just to name a few.

All in all, we can respect and enjoy many of these celebrity billionaires’ work, like LeBron, and, at the same time, recognize their wealth, and ask them to do so much more.