(Photo by Jack Balayla, Twitter)
LeBron “King” James is arguably the biggest star in the NBA. So when the Miami Heat player was spotted by a fan riding his bike to the arena for a game last night, it was sort of a big deal.
The photo was snapped by Jack Balayla (@jackNruth on Twitter) and from there it went to the Palm Beach Post newspaper and now it’s making headlines on ESPN and NBA.com. Adding to the mystique of the bike ride is that, during the game, James made one of the most amazing plays ever.
According to reports, James decided to bike into work because of traffic snarls caused by the Miami Marathon. But, in a post-game interview shared by ESPN James made it seem like the ride was no big deal.
“Did you have fun riding your bike to the game?” a reporter asked.
“Fun? I mean, I do that.. I do it all the time.”
I loved James’ answer. The reporter couldn’t fathom that riding a bike is simply how James decided to get to work and he didn’t do it just to have “fun.”
It’s always interesting and revealing to see how the media responds to situations like this.
One fan blog, The Bleacher Report, covered the story with headline: “LeBron James Channels His Inner Child by Biking to AA Arena.” While that might annoy bike advocates, you’ll be happy to know that the author ended his post by writing:
“I’m not going to lie, now I feel like riding my bike to work. All I need is a bike and a job that isn’t confined to my home office.”
Aaron Naparstek, founder of Streetsblog, had this to say via Twitter this morning:
“Possibly the most powerful piece of Bike Lobby propaganda ever (or until Beyoncé and Babé-Z are spotted on a bakfiets).”
He might be right.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
(I just think it’s sort of ironic that enjoying a bike ride could possibly be taken as some sort of put-down or slight.)
It’s great that Lebron rode his bike, but is it a publicity stunt? According to Deadspin.com, Lebron’s riding partner was his publicist and apparently, the Heat alerted the media that he was riding before any pics were taken. Lebron also has an ownership stake in Cannondale.
I could actually care less if it was a publicity stunt or not. He’s out there on a bike and people are noticing that’s good enough for me.
As for his stake in Cannondale… I wonder why he’s clearly not riding a Cannondale.
Look again…his ride looks like the bike in that link posted by “d” in this thread. 🙂
Lebron is riding a Cannondale – the King James 29er mentioned by “d,” above.
Maybe he’s a part owner of Cannondale because he likes to ride bikes.
I hope so!!
I tweeted Cannondale and told them to get LBJ to DC for the Bike Summit and amp up the bike commute promotion. Too bad Cannondale doesn’t have much selection for town-style bikes.
Personally, I have seen no correlation between bike commuting and one-handed, alley-oop slam dunks.
Mr. James became a part-owner of Cannondale in 2007 and claims to ride regularly to supplement his training regimen.
Here’s a link to the sweet oversized “King James” 29er they built for him: http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?id=/photos/2007/tech/news/03-28/LeBronsBike.
His commute is three miles, which makes all this extra funny. It’s not like he has that far to go.
Three miles is far to non-bike commuters, and a lot of people live within 5 miles of work.
“24% of all trips are made within a mile of the home, 40% of all trips are made within two miles of the home, and 50% of the working population commutes five miles or less to work.” – http://1world2wheels.org/get-involved
So… does that mean my 5-mile commute is not worthy of being called a “real” bike commute?
No, it just means that like LeBron’s ride it’s “no big thing”. Just like my 3 1/2 mile one way ride to church every Sunday.
I think its great that James is being seen out riding his bike, regardless of whether its a publicity stunt. It makes a great juxtaposition to the many professional athletes seen driving luxury SUVs. Despite what we might wish, celebrities do influence people’s opinions and behaivors and I think it can’t do bicycling anything but good when famous people are seen riding.
A slow news day?
He should get nothing but props. He likely has a stable full of exotic cars to choose from but he chose a bike. Even the most bike centric person on earth must have wondered what it would be like to sit behind the wheel of a ferrari. Come on, be honest
I have driven a Ferrari and it’s freaking awesome, on a race track. On a regular road it’s frustrating as hell because you have so much potential with no way to even approach using it. My little Fiat 500 powered sports car I had when I was a teen was way more fun because with the tiny motor and tires you were much closer to the limits of performance when just driving on the road. Of course the fact that that car killed the first 5 owners in single-car wrecks might have had something to do with it…
Whelp. I never enjoyed a car commute but i always have fun riding my bike to work.
Awesome. We need more publicity like this.