The King's Return

On Thursday December 2nd Lebron James made his return to his beloved city of Cleveland.  Lebron was far from welcomed to the Q after taking his talents to South Beach.  Outside of the game there were people selling shirts saying "Princess James" and "The Lyin' King".  The sales of these shirts show the hate that Cleveland has developed for the one who they called King.  The Akron native did not change anything for this game.  He still did his chalk routine which irritated the Cleveland crowd even more.  The hostility in the Q was so high it drew the attention of extra security.  Only one time in the game was something thrown at Lebron and that culprit missed.  I heard from a couple of people who went to the game that there were fights that broke out between Cleveland fans and those wearing Miami Heat attire.

All of the hatred and hostility combined to fuel Lebron into giving his best performance of the year with 38 points in just three quarters of play.  The Heat when on to dismantle the Cavs in a game that was pretty much over before halftime.  The big three finally looked like a championship caliber trio, but against a lowly Cavs team that has not performed well this season.  Lebron ended up getting the last laugh in Cleveland, but showed some class at the same time.  Even though it was a blowout, the game put up very high television ratings for a regular season NBA game.

This all relates to globalization because of a couple of factors.  The first reason it relates to globalization is because Lebron is a global figure.  Whether it be through Nike, the NBA, or the commercials with Lebron, this game drew a lot of interest.  The NBA has many foreign players in it which causes the countries of origin for these players to watch the NBA.  By watching the NBA, many people have seen Lebron at his finest.  This draws more interest from other countries to watch someone as talented as Lebron or Kobe.  Also, the Nike commercials with Lebron have been broadcasted all over the globe.  This ensures that people were watching because they wanted to see if Lebron would have his revenge on the Cavs and if so, how he would handle it.  Lebron showed why his skill is bringing in global viewers during this game.  High profile players and their built up press stories draw attention from the global market and therefore, bring money in from countries other than just the U.S. and Canada.