LeBron James is everywhere. He's on TV. He's in practically every NBA highlight and article. He's on Twitter. I wonder if there might even be more than one of him, so ubiquitous is his presence lately. And now we've learned there's even more LeBron on its way in the form of an animated web series called, what else, "The LeBrons." That's right, the NBA's favorite decider has found yet another way to promote himself.
According to an article in the Jan. 17 New York Times, the series creators are planning for a spring debut on LeBron's website and a dedicated YouTube channel. The series will be based in his hometown of Akron, Ohio (oh, really?) and will promote socially conscious messages to kids (stay in school, don't do drugs, etc.). It's already got Hewlett-Packard and Intel lined up as sponsors and proceeds from the show will reportedly be used to buy their computers for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, which is a nice touch.
The LeBrons will feature characters introduced in Nike commercials where LeBron played four versions of himself: young, old, athletic and business-savvy. LeBron himself will reportedly voice the business-savvy character, and not the athlete. Notably, he seems to have forgotten to add the newest role that he claims to have embraced, and as many fans now view him: villain.
LeBron even admitted recently that he's accepted the role of villain. "I've grown accustomed to it. I enjoy it. ... I've kind of accepted this villain role everyone has placed on me. I'm OK with it. I accept it ... it's just when I go into an opposing building, there's nothing but venom being thrown at us. So you embrace that atmosphere that we always go into on the road. I definitely do." So what's with the feel good animated series? Make up your mind, LeBron. Are you in or out as the NBA's villain?
Fans might actually embrace you if you'd cast yourself as a proverbial black hat-wearing bad guy in the series. It would have shown you have a sense of humor about yourself. I'm glad you're trying to help kids through the project, but all we know now is you still haven't figured out what role you want to play.
