LeBron James does not just play a game. He plays a character. That may sound crass, but don’t we all just intuitively understand that’s the deal. LeBron James does not get paid millions of dollars because he’s really, really, really good at something. There are countless people in the world who are really, really, really good at things that are at least as useful as basketball, most of them much more useful, but they don’t get paid anything close. He gets paid millions of dollars because his skills infuse our lives. We pay to watch. We are swayed by his choice of sneaker and car insurance. We are fascinated by him – with “fascinated” covering a complete array. We like him. We despise him. We root for him. We root against him. His talent moves us. But in the end, it seems to me, none of this is about HIM. We like and despise, root for and against the CHARACTER we know as LeBron James. The person, LeBron James, we don’t know anything more than a ghostly image and never will.