"Marketing is a Weak Force"

Lebron James. I have to weigh in here, and if I was weighed against lebron I would probably find that I weigh much much less than him.
What I want to point out is that simply, I agree with Michael Jordan, players in the NBA today are marketed too aggressively, they are sold to consumers before their game has developed.
I get SLAM magazine every month, Slam effectively scooped Lebron, being the first bball publication to discover the outstanding Highschool player. They talk about him as if he has already got 2 threepeat championship titles under his belt, has one League MVP, Finals MVP and all defensive player in one season as well as racking up 5 MVP titles and having a career average Triple-Double (double figures in any three of the statistical measures of Scoring, Rebounding, Assists, steals and blocks).
None of which he has actually achieved yet.
There's a historical reason though - The Air Jordan is Nike's top selling shoe. Nike effectively lucked out because they got in Early on Michael Jordan (they also lucked out arguably by employing Tinker Hatfield(?) whom designed most of the range and appealed to Jordan) Jordan made so much money for nike (and himself they still release the Jordan brand shoes every year) that the emphasis was placed on getting to the next Jordan at all costs before anyone could sign him.
So instead of signing up a player like Jordan, or Erwing after a couple of seasons and the rookie starts developing into a team leader (converse told Jordan to get in line) they sign them up in Highschool, both Melo and Bron to the nike brand.
Melo is leading scorer in the league this year, Bron is a jack of all trades. He is undeniably good, but he isn't as good as Scottie Pippen, who in turn was not as good as Jordan, statistically speaking.
More to the point neither of them are anywhere near as likely to win a championship as current back to back MVP and favorite for 3 time MVP Steve Nash who has undeniably revolutionised the game. Steve 'Nasty' Nash is anything but Nasty. He is a white boy from Canada, a formidable player in his own right but is built on Assists. So much so he becomes statistically speaking desceptively good.
He doesn't have an average score of 31.2 points per game but he has the league highest assists per game.
He is the team player, not the star and ironically a star because of it. He is just not cool or marketable even though back to back MVP's haven't been seen since Jordan's time. All his teammates have 20 plus points per game. A basketball team typically fields five players if one is Steve Nash then your other 4 gets 20 ppg. If not they hypothetically get 15 ppg (on average) and so indirectly Steve Nash scores a whopping 40ppg (plus his own) is 60 extra points per game. That in NBA terms cuts the rest up.
But I agree, Bron is not very cool compared to the much more Gangsta Melo, Allen Iverson or the natural showmanship of Vince Carter. but Compared to Nasty Bron is the coolest you ever met.
Steve nash being hard to market as a champion, and despite his dominance not sell anywhere near the magazine covers that Bron or Melo do I keep getting forced down my craw the Lebron is huge.
He has good stats yeah, but they aren't outstanding stats that set him apart in any particular field, he hasn't won a title yet (apart from US teams that also contain Melo and Dwade) and was part of the embarrasing bronze Athens Olympic team.
I don't want to see Bron fail, but I'm sick of him getting put up as a messiah so you can sell more shoes and magazines (and cover the risk of signing up an unproven highschool kid) before he has won anything. Let him win MVP, let him win a title, then start praising him.
He get's more mention than Kobe who won 3 titles, scored 81 points in a game last year and narrowly missed MVP to Steve Nash (they both carry teams in a way, Kobe as a substitute and Nash as a platform) and furthermore Bron doesn't strike me as that interesting or compelling.
Which is true and untrue for a lot of basketball stars.
Anyway I guess I'm just frustrated because I wanted to buy the latest edition of Slam (which he is on the cover of) but it sold out in a day I wanted it because it had a Barkly interview.
I titled this Marketing is a weak force because the perception whilst being strong can't change the reality that Bron is not the MVP, and not Jordan, and not even not-not Jordan (he wears 23) no matter how hard they insist.
Only person that will ultimately make Bron MVP is Bron.
Sorry for the Jargon heavy post.
But my bro says 'Sports important because it's not'