This is the next MJ? Um, no.

Watching the Raps losing at the buzzer to King James and the Cavs, reading this section of the Simmons article I linked to yesterday starting to ring true. LeBron only had 10 points in the first half, but turned it on in the second to help his team come back and win.

To LeBron James, who coasted through the Skills Challenge on All-Star Saturday and played the All-Star Game with the uplifting, charismatic intensity of a female porn star trying to break one of those "most male partners in one afternoon" records. Could we end up putting him in the "Too Much, Too Soon" Pantheon some day? Will he become the basketball version of Eddie Murphy, Britney Spears, Michael Jackson and every other celeb who became famous too quickly and eventually burned out?

Here's what I know. I had four conversations with connected NBA people over the weekend that centered around the same themes: LeBron isn't playing nearly as hard as he did last season; it looks like his only goal right now is to get his coach fired; he's regressing as a basketball player (especially his passing skills and his shot selection); he made a huge mistake firing his agent and turning his career over to his buddies back home (all of whom are in over their heads); he was a much bigger problem during the Olympics than anyone realized; he doesn't seem to be enjoying himself anymore; he has an overrated sense of his own worth and his own impact in the sports world (as witnessed by the ESPN interview last week when he answered the "What are your goals?" question with two words: "Global icon"); he's been protected by magazine fluff pieces and buddy-buddy TV interviews for far too long; he doesn't have the same relentless drive to keep dominating everyone like Wade and Kobe have; and basically, we're much closer to LeBron re-enacting the career arc of Martina Hingis, Eric Lindros and Junior Griffey than anyone realizes. This will evolve into THE dominant NBA story of the next two months. You watch.

The thing about Michael Jordan was that he was the ultimate competitor. LeBron James doesn't seem to have that drive. MJ is playing golf for $10,000 a hole. Why? He loves to win. $10,000 to him is like you or me playing $10 a hole. Doesn't really matter, but he's a competitor, so he does it. He's the kind of guy that will step on your throat when you're down to make sure he wins. He wants to destroy you and everything you stand for every time he's out on the court. They only have one term for players like that in the NBA...

Winners.

It's why Kobe has three rings, D-Wade has one, 'Melo won a National Championship at Syracuse. Bron-Bron hasn't, really, won shit...

It's what separated the stars in the NBA's glory days. For all their smiles (Magic), small town politeness (Bird), or Uncle Tom behaviour (Isaiah), all the greats would just as quickly cut your heart our and feed it to you if that's what it took to win.

Now? Most of the NBA stars are soft (Vince, T-Mac) or on brutal enough teams that it didn't matter (KG and, until recently, AI). That's why Shaq has been able to dominate even now, when the best work he does is at the buffet table, rather than a basketball court. He just wants it more than any of these shlubs, and I'm pretty sure he passed this along to Dwyane (The Human Typo) Wade, which is why he's going to dominate for years. With any luck, Iverson's having the same impact on my boy Carmelo, but we'll have to see....