Curious Hair wrote:
I was under the impression that it was a private school, that LeBron dipped into his enormous cache of shoe money and straight-up built a school for needy kids. That is not the case. I'm in favor of public schools, don't get me wrong, but the dishonesty about how this was put together rubs me the wrong way. And the part about his foundation, which raises funds independent of LeBron's largesse, is a reprise of "PK (clap) SUBBAN (clap) BUILT (clap) A (clap) CHILDREN'S (clap) HOSPITAL" from a couple years ago.
But the media has a love affair with LeBron James that goes beyond the usual Appreciating Greatness we make fun of and into all sorts of political and cultural signifiers. There's the obvious, that like any sensible person, he dislikes Donald Trump. But the stuff about him being "a big ol' goofy kid who just wants to hang out with his friends" or whatever goes to another level that's a little harder to put a finger on, but is definitely part of a mindset among liberal journalists that celebrity and wealth can only truly be earned through virtuous behavior, which rockets LeBron past Michael Jordan, whose behavior has been anything but. You kinda see the same principle with Julie and her belief that the worst thing you can do to a bad guy who's famous is make him work in an office in the suburbs.
Agreed. We should be highly skeptical of these "foundations" too. Some are better than others but much of the money "raised" is simply money that would have otherwise been a charitable donation that gets pooled together in the name of an athlete in exchange for having parties and events people pay big money for or they are part of a PR campaign that is funded by companies they just so happen to have business relationships with. I know people got mad when I mentioned that about the Rizzo stuff but it's true with a lot of them. At a minimum, it's an excuse to get some friends to do a fun job of throwing parties where people overpay "for charity" and then a celebration by the media about the "good guy" who did this. Here is just one example:
http://www.lebronjamesfamilyfoundation.org/post/panerabreadraisesdoughforljffSo, these types of things slowly add up to a lot of money not coming from the guy who gets ALL the credit for the charitable contribution. Now, maybe LeBron is giving millions himself, and Panera is helping cover the costs of some other initiative but the ultimate point still remains that these types of foundations most often exist to enrich the brand of the athlete, or provide easy jobs to family and friends, or to simply have an excuse to throw fun parties and other events. It's often a combination of those things too.
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