Get excited, boys and girls. The circus is coming to town!
Granted, this isn't your typical Ringling Brothers show. There are no elephants, no acrobats and no lion tamers. But there is a ringleader. His name is LeBron, but you can call him King James.
On Monday, the Greensboro Coliseum will host the Scholastic Fantastic Hoops Tour, a day-long event featuring five high school basketball games. Why is such an event fetching ticket prices as high as 25 dollars? It's not because the promoters came up with such a catchy name. It's because of what they tacked on to the end. The Coliseum's website refers to the event as the Scholastic Fantastic Hoops Tour... featuring LeBron James.
The travels of St. Vincent-St. Mary, James' Akron, Ohio, high school team, have been well publicized. The Fighting Irish recently played at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion-and nearly sold out the building. Their games have been on ESPN2. This circus isn't a nickel-and-dime show; it's a full-fledged national cash machine.
On Dec. 15, I saw the circus in person, as LeBron and company made a stop in Pittsburgh's Mellon Arena to take on the local New Castle Hurricanes. Press row featured a writer from Denver's Rocky Mountain News, as well as a member of "Team James," the posse responsible for protecting the King. In the stands sat Jerome Bettis, Plaxico Burress and a few other Pittsburgh Steelers. Typical crowd for a high school game.
As for the game itself, James did not disappoint. Though he started off slow, he finished with 32 points and 12 boards. His stats were impressive, but did not begin to tell the tale of the game. From start to finish, James did as he wanted, and the defense was powerless to stop him. On one play, James cut to the hoop to receive an alley-oop pass. Though a Hurricane defender was in perfect position, he watched helplessly as James elevated over him and threw down the dunk.
After watching the Irish leave the court with an 82-48 win, I followed them back to their locker room. If the game itself was center stage, then the postgame festivities provided quite the sideshow.
At the locker room door was James' mother, screaming at security guards and telling them who was and was not allowed inside. Making the cut were the Steelers, who had come to extend their personal greetings. Not so lucky was yours truly, who was sent to a room where a press conference would be held.
I asked Irish coach Dru Joyce how he felt about the circus environment surrounding his team, from the professional football players in the locker room to the throng of fans that would surround the team bus, hoping to get James's autograph.
"Managing all of those things, that's the tough part of the job," Joyce said. "Coaching basketball has been relatively easy, but you have to manage that. These guys are 17, so for me as a coach, it's important that they understand that we stay on course, that we don't veer to the left or right because of what's happening with the media. As great as it is, and with all of the good things that are being said about us and how we're playing basketball, they could all be a negative with one bad game. These guys understand that, and it's a lot of pressure, but these guys love the game."
As for James, he was unfazed by the presence of the Steelers.
"Oh, I know Plaxico," James said. "I met him at a Cavs game earlier this year."
Around the room, reporters looked at each other and smiled, realizing more and more what it's like to live life as LeBron James. On the way out of the building, a security guard stopped us, telling us that we had to wait until James boarded his team's bus before we could go to our cars. Again, we looked at each other and laughed. The circus rolled on.
Evan Davis is a Trinity senior and senior associate sports editor. His column appears every Wednesday.
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