Matt Damon's charity does something for kids, right? I recall that from his Entourage cameo and 8 million ads for it before and after the show. He kept screaming "Do it for the kids!" at Vince.
As for Ron Darling, its worth recalling that the Mets had a Hawaiian player (Sid Fernandez), a guy who'd played in French Canada (Gary Carter), and one of the smartest baseball managers at the time (Davey Johnson). That was an exceptionally weird group on the whole. I'm really fascinated by the relationship that he and Hernandez, who do color commentary for Mets games now, might have. Were they friends in the 80s? Did Ron ever try blow with him? Did they go drinking as a group, but Keith and Doc and Darryl disappeared into the bathroom for awhile while Ron and Tim Teufel ordered more beers? Did they not like each other then but have become friends now? All possibilities.
I take your point about celebrities. It seems like they're hiding something because, well, they are. No matter how exposed they choose to be, via Twitter or blogs or the like, or how exposed the paparazzi make them, there has to be a natural inclination to not have everything judged. It screws you up. John Mayer (not to keep coming back to him, but he's been in the news lately and on tour, so I'm both listening to tapes of his shows and reading interviews with him - its sort of a weird combination) recently said something to Rolling Stone about how when he fantasizes about a girl now, the paparazzi are there, too. (You know what? The full quote is worth it: I have not had a woman appear in my dreams sexually without a paparazzi in the dream too [in the past 3 years]. I can't even have a wet dream without having to explain to someone who's grinding on me, "We can't do this right now, because there's a guy over there taking pictures.") He's in the give away "everything" camp most of the time, but I'm not sure its as effective for a guy as for a girl. Megan Fox says the crazy shit, but mostly what people remember from the articles about her are the pictures. Meanwhile, John Mayer tries to be funny with paparazzi and be open about stuff, and he mostly ends up seeming like a douchebag (I still can't tell whether he is or not - but that's a post for another day, I think).
Which brings us to LeBron (who's been one of my favorite subjects for almost two years now - I've been anticipating his free agency so long I can't quite comprehend that its almost here). He's basically attempted the Jordan Path to global domination. The Jordan Path is about being charming and likable, but also being a blank slate so that you become relatable to everyone. We didn't know about his friends, his romantic relationships, or anything. In terms of political leanings, Jordan, when asked to get involved in a Senate race against conservative, racist North carolina Senator Jesse Helms, famously said "Republicans buy sneakers too." Its a combination of likability with an absence of unlikability. [The Tiger Path, for those keeping score, is the Jordan Path minus personality. I'm pretty sure the Tiger path can only work for golfers - athletes in other sports couldn't be completely quiet and still seem like the most charismatic person in the profession and pile up endorsements.] The Jordan path relies on that show of a personality to be contained though - no one really knew anything about Jordan other than what he showed on the court and in commercials. There was the gambling thing, but that got swept under the rug by his baseball sojourn.
The same is basically true of LeBron. What do we know about him, other than the bandwagon fan thing and that he's surrounded himself with childhood friends? We know how he acts on the court, and we infer things about his personality from that, as you discussed. He doesn't even appear in his own advertisements anymore! They have a puppet do it! (The same is true of Kobe too, but Kobe's not naturally as gregarious as LeBron seems to be - Kobe benefits much more from being played by a puppet than LeBron does). [And btw, I LOVE MVPuppets. Puppet Kobe especially cracks me up.]
LeBron wants to seem engaging, but he also wants to be, essentially, pretty boring. I don't know what skeletons are lurking in his closet. And I agree with you that it would be easier to have something come out when he was playing in a major city, at least in terms of quality of life (even without stuff coming out, quality of life would improve tremendously. Wayne Gretzky said in his 30 for 30 doc that was a main reason for him going from Edmonton to LA - Edmonton was a fish bowl, and LA let him be normal). But what I'm really interested in what following the Jordan Path means for his team choice.
There's the sense that LeBron's brand becomes bigger if he goes to a big city. But that move would make him somewhat less likable. Rural and suburban types to resent the city folks' attitude of superiority. The perception that LeBron needs to leave bumfuck, Ohio to be a real star would make a lot of people mad (heck, maybe it already does). Plus, people perceive him as loyal to his hometown, and whether he is or not, he knows that people perceive this. And finally, just the process of changing uniform, seeming new and different... its not part of being everything to everyone. The Global Icon needs to be a constant.
Of course, Jordan went off and played baseball. That wasn't part of the plan either. Maybe LeBron really wants to go somewhere else, start fresh, be a big fish in a big pond. He might come to New York. I pray he does. But I think we might be mixing up which would be the brand-motivated decision and which would be the self-actualizing one.
A final aside - if you haven't seen, Vince Young got named to the Pro Bowl. No, no one decided he was one of the top 3 quarterbacks in the AFC - but Brady, Rivers, Roethlisberger, and Palmer have all backed out. Matt Schaub was excellent this year and a good replacement for Brady, but Young started 10 games and basically did best by handing off to Chris Johnson. Now, I don't blame Young for accepting the honor, nor do I blame the other guys for backing out of the opportunity to get hit again after a season of wear and tear. Here's the thing: if it makes sense that nobody wants to play in it, why have the Pro Bowl at all? Its not like people watch it. Its not like there's fun events like the Home Run Derby and Dunk Contest that surround it. Why bother? Football where the goal is not to get hurt isn't really very interesting to watch. Just name an All Pro team and be done with it. That, or turn the Pro Bowl into a flag football game played the afternoon of the Super Bowl.
As for Ron Darling, its worth recalling that the Mets had a Hawaiian player (Sid Fernandez), a guy who'd played in French Canada (Gary Carter), and one of the smartest baseball managers at the time (Davey Johnson). That was an exceptionally weird group on the whole. I'm really fascinated by the relationship that he and Hernandez, who do color commentary for Mets games now, might have. Were they friends in the 80s? Did Ron ever try blow with him? Did they go drinking as a group, but Keith and Doc and Darryl disappeared into the bathroom for awhile while Ron and Tim Teufel ordered more beers? Did they not like each other then but have become friends now? All possibilities.
I take your point about celebrities. It seems like they're hiding something because, well, they are. No matter how exposed they choose to be, via Twitter or blogs or the like, or how exposed the paparazzi make them, there has to be a natural inclination to not have everything judged. It screws you up. John Mayer (not to keep coming back to him, but he's been in the news lately and on tour, so I'm both listening to tapes of his shows and reading interviews with him - its sort of a weird combination) recently said something to Rolling Stone about how when he fantasizes about a girl now, the paparazzi are there, too. (You know what? The full quote is worth it: I have not had a woman appear in my dreams sexually without a paparazzi in the dream too [in the past 3 years]. I can't even have a wet dream without having to explain to someone who's grinding on me, "We can't do this right now, because there's a guy over there taking pictures.") He's in the give away "everything" camp most of the time, but I'm not sure its as effective for a guy as for a girl. Megan Fox says the crazy shit, but mostly what people remember from the articles about her are the pictures. Meanwhile, John Mayer tries to be funny with paparazzi and be open about stuff, and he mostly ends up seeming like a douchebag (I still can't tell whether he is or not - but that's a post for another day, I think).
Which brings us to LeBron (who's been one of my favorite subjects for almost two years now - I've been anticipating his free agency so long I can't quite comprehend that its almost here). He's basically attempted the Jordan Path to global domination. The Jordan Path is about being charming and likable, but also being a blank slate so that you become relatable to everyone. We didn't know about his friends, his romantic relationships, or anything. In terms of political leanings, Jordan, when asked to get involved in a Senate race against conservative, racist North carolina Senator Jesse Helms, famously said "Republicans buy sneakers too." Its a combination of likability with an absence of unlikability. [The Tiger Path, for those keeping score, is the Jordan Path minus personality. I'm pretty sure the Tiger path can only work for golfers - athletes in other sports couldn't be completely quiet and still seem like the most charismatic person in the profession and pile up endorsements.] The Jordan path relies on that show of a personality to be contained though - no one really knew anything about Jordan other than what he showed on the court and in commercials. There was the gambling thing, but that got swept under the rug by his baseball sojourn.
The same is basically true of LeBron. What do we know about him, other than the bandwagon fan thing and that he's surrounded himself with childhood friends? We know how he acts on the court, and we infer things about his personality from that, as you discussed. He doesn't even appear in his own advertisements anymore! They have a puppet do it! (The same is true of Kobe too, but Kobe's not naturally as gregarious as LeBron seems to be - Kobe benefits much more from being played by a puppet than LeBron does). [And btw, I LOVE MVPuppets. Puppet Kobe especially cracks me up.]
LeBron wants to seem engaging, but he also wants to be, essentially, pretty boring. I don't know what skeletons are lurking in his closet. And I agree with you that it would be easier to have something come out when he was playing in a major city, at least in terms of quality of life (even without stuff coming out, quality of life would improve tremendously. Wayne Gretzky said in his 30 for 30 doc that was a main reason for him going from Edmonton to LA - Edmonton was a fish bowl, and LA let him be normal). But what I'm really interested in what following the Jordan Path means for his team choice.
There's the sense that LeBron's brand becomes bigger if he goes to a big city. But that move would make him somewhat less likable. Rural and suburban types to resent the city folks' attitude of superiority. The perception that LeBron needs to leave bumfuck, Ohio to be a real star would make a lot of people mad (heck, maybe it already does). Plus, people perceive him as loyal to his hometown, and whether he is or not, he knows that people perceive this. And finally, just the process of changing uniform, seeming new and different... its not part of being everything to everyone. The Global Icon needs to be a constant.
Of course, Jordan went off and played baseball. That wasn't part of the plan either. Maybe LeBron really wants to go somewhere else, start fresh, be a big fish in a big pond. He might come to New York. I pray he does. But I think we might be mixing up which would be the brand-motivated decision and which would be the self-actualizing one.
A final aside - if you haven't seen, Vince Young got named to the Pro Bowl. No, no one decided he was one of the top 3 quarterbacks in the AFC - but Brady, Rivers, Roethlisberger, and Palmer have all backed out. Matt Schaub was excellent this year and a good replacement for Brady, but Young started 10 games and basically did best by handing off to Chris Johnson. Now, I don't blame Young for accepting the honor, nor do I blame the other guys for backing out of the opportunity to get hit again after a season of wear and tear. Here's the thing: if it makes sense that nobody wants to play in it, why have the Pro Bowl at all? Its not like people watch it. Its not like there's fun events like the Home Run Derby and Dunk Contest that surround it. Why bother? Football where the goal is not to get hurt isn't really very interesting to watch. Just name an All Pro team and be done with it. That, or turn the Pro Bowl into a flag football game played the afternoon of the Super Bowl.
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