Lebron James: enjoy the show

It doesn't matter if you are a sports fan or not. Some things in sports transcend its boundaries. Mark McGwire's duel with Sammy Sosa did it in 1998 while simultaneously revitalizing a sport. Michael Jordan did it with his charisma and appeal as much he did it with his basketball skills.

If you haven't bothered to look up this winter, you might want to check out the NBA this year. After countless falsely anointed imposters, the real heir to His Airness is here. This is the kind of thing you will want to tell your grandkids you saw, so take my advice and don't miss it.

It is Year One of the Lebron Era. Cleveland Cavaliers guard Lebron James is having, statistically, one of the best rookie seasons the league has seen. The only rookie stats that can really be compared to Bron-Bron's belong to Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson.

And, oh yeah, the kid's 19 years old!

As long as we're on numbers, let's stay with it. James is averaging 20.8 points, 5.9 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game. If his turnover numbers go down — he does give it away almost four times a game — he will be, statistically, one of the top five or 10 players in the league.

And, oh yeah, he's 19 years old.

But I am careful to say "statistically" when I qualify James' place in the league. He cannot, at least for now, escape the stigma of his inflated stats because of how bad the Cavs are. I'm not sure how much that really matters, but I have always been a little skeptical that Elton Brand of the woeful Clippers is not quite as good as his stats would have you believe.

Still, James is the team's No. 1 option on offense. He does a lot of the ball handling and often assumes point guard responsibilities depending on who head coach Paul Silas has in the game. That, despite being 6 feet, nine inches tall. A 6'9" point guard? Sound familiar?

Well, Lebron has earned the comparisons to Magic. His and Johnson's rookie stats are very comparable. Magic had more assists and rebounds while James has scored at a better clip. But the league hasn't seen a big-man point guard even close to this good since Magic left.

For a while people thought Lamar Odom might be it, but that was back when he was in college at Rhode Island. And that's not to knock Odom. He has actually turned into a pretty good NBA player. But he's not a point guard. It's tough for big men to handle the ball as well as you need to at the point guard position. It's the way they are built.

Lebron's built like Jordan was, with the same athleticism. His highlights this year could fill a 30-minute reel. He caught an errant alley-oop pass after it clanked off the backboard. Of course that was only his second-best highlight of the game.

What were you doing when you were 19 (and to you freshmen and sophomores who still are, are you honestly doing anything close to as cool as Lebron James is)? James will make over $100 million from the contracts he has signed in the last year. Nike paid him over $90 million for his services for the next seven years. Sprite and Upper Deck have also inked him, among others.

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Even before sexual assault charges were brought against Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant, Nike offered Bryant less than half of what they agreed to pay James. James' surprising maturity, calm under pressure and charisma make him a superstar in the advertising arena. That people have already compared his commercial appeal to Jordan's says something. Remember the Gatorade commercial and the song? "Sometimes I dream, That he is me, You've got to see that's how I dream to be..."

Well, there's already one Lebron jingle — you know the commercial with Bernie Mac and all the dunking? And, of course, the theme to that commercial only serves to reinforce his nickname — The Chosen One. Don't worry, that's not his only nickname. He also goes by King James and the boyish Bron-Bron.

Now I know I'm probably getting ahead of myself. He's only a rookie, and it was just announced that neither James nor fellow rookie Carmelo Anthony were selected to the All-Star team. Even more importantly, the Cavs — though markedly better than the disaster that marked last season for the franchise — are still not a good team.

And, in the end, people judge you on team accomplishments — championships. It certainly helps Jordan's case for "Best Ever" that he won six titles. The league has some strong teams, and a title may not come soon for James. It's a knock that is used against Karl Malone, John Stockton and Patrick Ewing. Even Kevin Garnett is starting to get the label "can'twin-when-it-counts," and he's not even 30.

Regardless, this is a fun ride. Be thankful that you're on it. I wish I had been there in '84 to watch Jordan's beginning. Let's all take advantage of this opportunity.