Walter Iooss Jr. has shot all the big stars as a photographer for Sports Illustrated and other prominent athlete-coddling outlets. In a recent series for Deadspin, Iooss shared his most memorable moments. And that single most memorable moment in a long and distinguished career? The run-in seared into his cranium like nothing he’d experienced with Tiger or Jordan or Ditka?
It was a photo shoot of LeBron James for Nike back in July 2010 — you remember that glitch in time; the moment the human being raised in our own backyard became a championship-chasing cyborg?
This article appears in Dec 14-20, 2011.
how can you hate a young man who has done everything correct ,no drugs ,no alcohol, does tons for his community a solid young man. but because he decided to play the game of basketball else where he is hated. RACISM HAS MANY HEADS AND THIS IS ONE and don’t say black people don’t like him either some black men will follow anything and anybody to fit in it’s called jealousy and ignorance. as a human being I feel we have came to far to continue these cycles of hate and bigotry rather it’s some one playing a sport or some one it is time to grow as a people.
This has nothing to do with racism so quit playing that card.He’s a sellout pure and simple!!
Just checking – it’s still ok to hate on Peyton Hillis for laying an egg and pouting over his contract after Clevelanders voted him on the cover of Madden, right? He’s white, so that’s not racist…
The whole Lebron story was so Cleveland it could never have happened in another city. We as Clevelanders are so starved for a great sports team that when we won Lebron in the special lottery deal it was just part of the Hollywood made story made in Cleveland, for Cleveland and paid for in Cleveland with dollars and hearts of the starved fans and team owners and local businesses. It was a wide open window of opportunity which seemed our destiny to at last win a championship.
Before we allow this memory to settle into the nightmares of Art Modell and red-white 88, or the Indians and the failed close by Jose’ M, or the drive by Elway, or the Shot by Jordan over Craig E, or any of the almost had it championships, ask yourself this: Did we enjoy watching Lebron while he was part of our city and region. Did we have talks of excitement after great games and seasons? Did we watch Lebron with our kids and parents and friends and high-five each other in pride over such an incredible athlete being ours….for at least the time being. Did we have a chance of winning a championship because he played for us?
So we become more angry with Lebron James than we do when our manufacturing jobs have been stolen from us and shipped elsewhere in the world by owners of businesses who think only of their profit and bottom line. We give Wal-Mart the business of Christmas even though they have made companies ship our manufacturing jobs away so that the companies could give them better prices. Before we in Cleveland paint this young super talent as a prick and terrible human, take a look at some of the local CEO’s and their lawyers and bean-counters who have taken far more away from us than any team or sport or athlete ever could. Those products which we invented and made here for decades made Cleveland what it was and gave our people good jobs making worthwile products for the world and our country. You want to blame someone for making our lives tougher than ever in Cleveland..I’ll give you a list if you don’t know who the real theifs are. And they just keep on milking us all and tell us how stupid we were for not adapting to the knew world of no manufacturing jobs because we could not do it for fifty cents an hour.