Dr. Red Eye

The sports world is waiting with bated breath: will Cleveland Cavaliers’ superstar LeBron James sign with the Bulls, the Heat, the Knicks or the Nets…or will he re-sign with Cleveland?

While I am a Bulls fan and admire LeBron’s skills, ultimately,

A billboard in Chicago

though, my response is this: who cares?

Look at the salaries of these NBA players from 2010 free agency:

• Amare Stoudemire, 5 years, $99.7 million
• Joe Johnson, 6 years, $119 million
• Paul Pierce, 4 years, $61 million
• Dirk Nowitzki, 4 years, $80 million
• Rudy Gay, 5 years, $80 million
• John Salmons, 5 years, $39 million
• Drew Gooden, 5 years, $32 million (8 teams in 8 years)
• Channing Frye, 5 years, $30 million
• Darko Milicic, 4 years, $20 million
• Hakim Warrick, 4 years, $18 million (not bad for someone who didn’t average 10 points per game)
• Steve Blake, 4 years, $16 million (this will be his 6th team in 7 years)

The last 6 guys on this list are role players making no less than $4 million per year. Role players! Playing basketball. Or sitting on the bench.

Of course, guys like James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh won’t be sitting on the bench as much as those guys but they’ll also be making obscene amounts of money. Playing basketball. Or at least what looks like basketball if you ignore the frequent traveling.

Don’t get me wrong. As a Bulls fan with a chance to get a top player like James or Wade, it’s interesting to see whether the Bulls can return to glory with these guys playing with rising superstars Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah. But ultimately, it doesn’t matter.

Sports are a diversion. They entertain…give us something to talk about. There’s nothing inherently wrong in following sports. I love sports myself. But there’s a difference between covering sports and obsessing about it. The latter is seen when people spend chunks of money to put up billboards in Chicago, New York and Cleveland to convey messages to James. Some people will literally cry when they hear later this week that James and Wade rejected their city. Some people spent time last week lining up in Cleveland to hold “Home” signs as James passed by to hear pitches from NBA teams. Other people lined up at Miami International Airport on Monday to greet Wade as he returned to Miami to meet with Heat officials. These people probably wouldn’t line up to talk to politicians about the impact of changing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy regarding homosexuals, but will happily line up and wait for hours for the chance to heartily cheer for basketball players for the 4 seconds it takes them to drive by.

Ultimately, whether James re-signs with Cleveland won’t change my life, or yours. You’ll still go about your daily routine. Even if James signs with, say, the Bulls and Chicago goes on to win the next 6 championships, will it change your life? Having watched Michael Jordan win 6 championships for Chicago, I can tell you the answer is a resounding no. Changed Jordan’s life, sure. Mine? Not so much.

The BP oil spill destroying ecosystems…that will affect me more than where James plays. Terrorists still trying to cause mass destruction in America…that will affect me more than where James plays. North Koreans and Iranians trying to build nuclear weapons…that will affect me more than where James plays. Politicians trying to pass hate speech legislation to silence free speech…that will affect me more than where James plays.

So while there’s nothing wrong with being a sports fan, let’s keep some perspective.