Alex Rodriguez is the LeBron James of Major League Baseball

The narrative of the career of basketball LeBron James has the scope of an ancient Greek drama.

 

He began as an aspiring hero, a young warrior destined to achieve great things and achieve fame and fortune to a tired franchise in the NBA. He ended up doing just that for the Cleveland Cavaliers, but he could not deliver a championship. And then he abandoned his commitment to the team and the city when he chose to take his talents to South Beach.

LeBron became a villain. When he and the Miami Heat lost the NBA Finals 2011, he became a wretched villain, Darth Vader more Gollum.

Well, LeBron and the Heat won the finals of this year, and convincingly to boot. LeBron won the NBA Finals MVP, and was well deserved. You do not have to call a hero, but at least do the courtesy to call him a top-of-shutter critics.

New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez was one of the millions who saw LeBron reach the end of basketball glory. However, he is the only man on earth who can relate to what King James has gone through over the past two seasons.

"I know exactly how he felt, and I was very happy for him," said LeBron A-Rod through the New York Daily News. "We probably have not seen the best of it and I think now it will."
 
  Nothing but the truth here. The list of things that A-Rod and LeBron have in common is very long. LeBron James is the NBA's Alex Rodriguez, and Alex Rodriguez is the LeBron James of Major League Baseball. In fact, it is a notion that has been suggested before, even by Matthew Pouliot Hardball chat and Andrew Marchand of ESPN New York. Obviously, the parallels are too obvious to ignore.

As obvious as the parallels can be, what is less obvious is how deep the similarities between LeBron and A-Rod go. Here's a detailed look at what we're trying.

The Makings of Superstardom
 

Michael Jordan retired from basketball after the 1998 season. The greatest basketball player the world had ever seen play more for ever (which, as it turned out, was to last only a couple of years). In 2002, word began circulating that the next Michael Jordan could be a skinny teenage boy from Akron, Ohio named LeBron James.

This is what Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated wrote about a meeting between Jordan and James a decade ago:

      Remember the picture of a teenage Bill Clinton meeting JFK? Same wavelength. Here, together, are his Airness and King James, the master of 38 years of age, and the miracle of 17 years of age, at best all-time high school and who some people, excessive drooling NBA managers general warring shoe company executives stunned-fans believe it could be the air apparent.

The next thing anyone knew, LeBron high school games were being televised by ESPN and her name began to be floating around like a real possibility at No. 1 overall NBA draft 2003.

When A-Rod was making a name for himself as a prime prospect in the 1990's, things were a bit different than they are today. The constant demand for news and updates on the preparation of the players that is the basis of many websites and publications today did not exist back then. A-Rod left his business in relative obscurity.

But people were definitely seeing, and they certainly were impressed by what they saw.
 
 
Joe Lemire of Sports Illustrated wrote about Rodriguez exploring a couple of years ago. At first, it was seen as an elite hitting prospect, as scouts rather than admired him for his speed and defensive prowess. The offensive numbers began to arrive after A-Rod weight. He batted .477 as a junior school of Westminster Christian High in Miami, and batted over .500 in his senior year.

"In its first year, I predict success in the majors for him and for the first round draft status before most people did," said Rich Hofman, who was then high school coach of A-Rod.

A-Rod ended up being more than a first-round pick. The Seattle Mariners selected him with the first overall pick of the Draft First-Year Player 1993. The first round also saw players like Torii Hunter, Chris Carpenter, Derrek Lee, Billy Wagner and Jason Varitek come off the board.

The Mariners obviously thought they were getting a star, but even they had to be surprised with what ended up being.

The Birth of a Superstar
 

  It was not long for LeBron James to make an impact in the NBA. He scored 25 points in his first game, a new record for a high school player playing in his first contest in the NBA. He averaged over 20 points per game this season, not to mention more than five rebounds and five assists.

LeBron is just beginning. He averaged 27/7/7 his second season, making his first All-Star team. The following year, he averaged 31/7/7 and would make the First Team All-NBA first. He won the scoring title for the first time in 2008 and the first of three MVPs in 2009.

It took a little longer for A-Rod to make an impact. But when he arrived, the impact was significant.

A-Rod came to the majors in 1994 and spent part of the 94 and 95 seasons as a part-time player. He did not become a full-time player until 1996, when he was only 20 years old.
 
 That's when A-Rod career officially took off. He led the AL with a .358 batting average, 36 home runs and turning in 123 RBIs. He made his first All-Star team and finished second in MVP voting in the American League.

By Baseball-Reference.com, 9.2 A-Rod war in 1996 is best for a person 20 years of age. A-Rod made ​​the All-Star team in '97 and again in '98, a year in which he hit 40 homers and stole 40 bases. Although we could not make the All-Star team in 1999, ended the year with a .285 batting average and 42 homers.

At the time that A-Rod finished the 2000 season with a batting average of .316, 41 homers and 132 RBIs, no doubt he was the best player in baseball.

But something was missing.

Too Close, Yet So Far Away
 



LeBron led the Cavaliers to the playoffs in only the third season of his career in 2006. He played well in the postseason, averaging 30/8/6, but he and the Cavaliers could not beat the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

They lost in seven games and it seemed that LeBron will have to overcome their own version of the famous Jordan "obstacle Pistons." The Cavs made ​​it past the semifinals the next season, LeBron got his revenge against the Pistons, when he and the Cavaliers defeated the Pistons in six games in the finals of the Eastern Conference. In just his fourth season in the NBA, LeBron had reached the NBA Finals.

... Where and the Cavs were overcome completely by Tim Duncan and the Spurs in San Antonio. LeBron and the Cavs went on a series of more than one side in the NBA Finals history. More disappointments that follow. Despite the efforts of LeBron, the Cavs did not reach the finals in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

When he and the Cavs got beat by the Boston Celtics and their Big Three in the semifinals of the 2010 Eastern Conference, LeBron was labeled a choke artist after he was unable to reach the big time. It was a growing sense in time, which only grow bigger and bigger.

LeBron took the famous jersey on the track back to the locker room after the Cavs lost Game 6 of the semifinals to Boston. With unrestricted free agency looming, whether it was again put nobody knows.

It would be a while before A-Rod would face similar pressure to lead his team to glory. Was just part of the team when the Mariners went to the playoffs in 1995. When the Mariners did it again in 1997, he became his party's defeat at the hands of Seattle Baltimore Orioles by hitting .313 with a homer.
 
 A few years later, in 2000, A-Rod was a key player in a Mariners team that ended up going to the ALCS. He batted .308 to help lead the Mariners past the Chicago White Sox in the ALDS, and then click over .400 with two homers in six games played against the Yankees in the ALCS.

The Mariners lost that series, but A-Rod had established himself as a performer of great postseason. That was just one of many things he and agent Scott Boras could sell to prospective employers during the next offseason....

The Decision to Flee

 
 
Shortly after he and the Cavs saw their 2010 season come to a disappointing end, LeBron James became the most coveted free agent in NBA history.

LeBron Many expected to remain in Cleveland. Many more are expected to sign with the Knicks in New York. The New Jersey Nets were floated as a possibility. But at the same time were the Miami Heat. They had their eyes on LeBron, and her eyes on them.

On July 8, 2010, "The Decision" aired, and LeBron announced plans to bring his talents to South Beach to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

"We are looking forward to the opportunity to build something that our fans in Miami will be proud of a long, long time," said Heat president Pat Riley. "The journey has just begun."

When A-Rod became a free agent after the 2000 season, the question was not so much the destination offered the best chance to win a World Series ring. The intrigue about him was the amount of money would do.

He ended up doing a little.
 
 A-Rod ended up signing with the Texas Rangers for 10 years and $ 252 million, a contract that doubled the record then Kevin Garnett $ 126 million deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves for the largest contract in sports history . Rangers owner Tom Hicks, had paid $ 250 million to buy the Rangers team just a few years earlier. He saw A-Rod contract as a ticket to a World Series championship.

"Alex is the player who we believe will allow this franchise to fulfill his dream of continuing on your way to becoming a World Series champion," said Hicks.

At that time, A-Rod was joining a franchise that had never passed the first round of the playoffs. To start, who joined Rangers team that had finished the season with the worst team ERA in the majors only a year before. A-Rod has always been a man of many talents. Pitching, however, has never been one of them.

Local Expectations and National Hate

 
 
LeBron's decision was greeted with jubilation by fans of the Miami Heat. Both the organization and their fans began waiting for the championships that were sure to come. LeBron was promised many championships.

"Not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven," which famously declared Miami input your own Big Three.

Heat fans never tired of LeBron. Everyone immediately began to hate him. Cleveland fans reacted by burning LeBron James jerseys, and even the Cavaliers, Dan Gilbert, the owner got in on the fun by calling LeBron's decision to bolt to Miami a "cowardly treachery" in an open letter to the Cavaliers fans worldwide.

During the 2010-2011 season, LeBron and the Heat were booed wherever they went. Naturally, the boos were particularly strong in Cleveland.
 
 A-Rod had similar problems in his first season with the Rangers. Richest player in baseball was not received favorably the way, and Seattle fans were especially unforgiving when A-Rod and the Rangers visited Safeco Field. When Rodriguez was presented in Seattle that season, fans mocked him waving Monopoly money and boo to no end. Meanwhile, A-Rod did his best to take everything in stride.

"I do not think it was the animosity," Rodriguez said at once, through ESPN.com. "I thought we were strong and not throw things and support their team. I thought it was funny."

The Rangers finished in last place despite getting 52 homers and 135 RBI A-Rod. The Mariners won a record of Al-116 games.

The Grand Deception

 
 
The people of Cleveland, were outraged by the departure of LeBron to Miami, in part because they were losing one of their own, partly because the Cavs had lost their best player, and partly because of the coldness with which LeBron had rejected his home state.

But for the most part, people were outraged Cleveland because LeBron made ​​a promise and before he made ​​a promise to the people of Miami.

"I have a goal, and is a great goal, and that is to bring an NBA championship here to Cleveland," James said once upon a time, through Talk Pro Basketball. "And I will not stop until I get".

Presumably, LeBron meant what he said at the time. But as soon as he announced his decision to put their talents to South Beach, which was officially a traitor and a liar.

A few weeks after an operation that would have sent A-Rod to Boston Red Sox was vetoed by the Players Association, A-Rod and the Rangers commanders held a press conference to announce that A-Rod was being named team captain. What many people overlook is now what A-Rod said at the press conference.

"I feel a great responsibility not only to the Texas Rangers, but to our fans," said Rodriguez, through the Associated Press.
 

Well, sort of, anyway. He betrayed himself when he said this: "I definitely think I'm going to be here for a long time. I'm probably pretty sure it will work out for the best."
A couple weeks later, A-Rod was traded to the New York Yankees. At his introductory presser, Rodriguez made a LeBron-like promise when he turned to Derek Jeter and said: "Derek has four world championships. I want him to have 10. I'm here to help him."
So in a span of less than a month, A-Rod went from having a grand responsibility to the Rangers to having a grand responsibility to Jeter and the Yankees. In his wake were two franchises two franchises that only ever got big statistics from A-Rod.


Meaningless Heroics and Postseason Struggles

 
 
If A-Rod was not a villain before moving to New York, which undoubtedly became a villain after he moved to New York. Yankee Stadium was the only safe haven for A-Rod in 2004. Fans booed in Boston because he was a Yankee who should have been a Red Sox. Fans booed in Texas, as he felt he had left in the franchise. Seattle fans still booed him because he took the money and ran to Texas.
Fans booed anywhere else A-Rod, because he was a) rich b) of the Yankees c) suddenly very pleased to be a Yankee. However, the first season of A-Rod in the Bronx was reasonably good. He could not put numbers similar to those that had been set in Texas, but he managed to hit .286 with 36 homers and 106 RBIs. The Yankees hit 242 homers as a team and seemed ready to make a run at another world championship.
Rodriguez did his best to help the cause of the team in the Division Series against the Minnesota Twins, batting .421 with a homer as the Yankees won the series three games to one. His victory set up an appointment with the Red Sox in the ALCS.
A-Rod was money in the first three games of the NLCS, collecting six hits in 14 at-bats with a homer, three RBIs and seven runs scored. The Yankees won each of those games and needed just one more win to clinch a trip to the World Series.
That's when A-Rod stopped beating. He collected two hits in his 17 final at-bats in the NLCS. The Yankees, of course, missed the final four games of the series in a historic playoff collapse and watched the Red Sox will win the World Series.
The inability of A-Rod to come through big hits in the last four games of the series would become a trend.
 
 He followed his MVP season in 2005 by hitting .133 in the Yankees' defeat at the hands of the Anaheim Angels in the ALDS. He followed his 35 homers, 125 RBI season in 2006 by collecting one hit in 14 at-bats in the Division Series against the Detroit Tigers, the Yankees lost in four games. There followed an MVP season in 2007 by hitting .267 with one homer and an RBI single in the Division Series against the Cleveland Indians, another series that the Yankees lost in four.

Like LeBron James, when he came to Miami, A-Rod jokes multiple championships when he arrived in New York. He supported his boast by placing large numbers during the regular season, but could not come through when it mattered in the playoffs.

LeBron went through the ordeal exactly the same as his first season with the Heat last year. He averaged 27/7/7 in the regular season and played very well in the Eastern Conference playoffs, but disappeared in the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks.

After averaging over 25 points per game in three rounds before the finals, LeBron averaged just 17.8 points per game in the final. He and the Heat went up 2-1 on Mavericks, but were overcome, and hastily passed in the last three games to ultimately lose in six.

The crown was destined to turn the head of LeBron's head landed on Dirk Nowitzki, and everyone outside of Miami could not stop laughing at the misfortune of the self-proclaimed King of.


Redemption





At the time of the 2009 season rolled around, A-Rod was something of a forgotten man in New York. He had problems with injuries in 2008, and the Yankees spent the offseason that followed the signing of free agents CC Sabathia stars like Mark Teixeira and AJ Burnett.
It was they who did not, A-Rod, who would free the Yankees to championship No. 27. Or so I thought.
Due to its usual standards, 2009 A-Rod of the season was just decent. He batted .286 with 30 homers and 100 RBIs, and only played in 124 games due to injury. It was clear that he was in decline as a star. In the postseason, however, A-Rod awoke.
The Yankees began sweeping the Minnesota Twins in the division series. A-Rod helped the cause by driving in six runs and hitting two homers, two of which were home runs to tie the game arrived in the late games 2 and 3. The Yankees then beat the Angels in Los Angeles 4-2 in the ALCS, a series in which A-Rod hit .429 with three homers and six RBIs. One of his three homers was another home run to tie the game in Game 2.
In the World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies, A-Rod once again drove in six runs and homered once. He was the driving force behind the game winning run in the victory of the Yankees in Game 4, and ultimately, the series ended in victory for New York in six games.
Overall, he batted .365 with six homers and 18 RBIs in the postseason in 2009. The Yankees have not won the World Series without him, and everyone knew it. It was not until the sixth season of A-Rod to win the first of many championships that they mocked. He endured a lot of hate, not help himself by admitting he used steroids when he was with the Rangers, but finally got what he wanted from the beginning: a ring. In getting that ring, closed a lot of people.
 
 LeBron James now feels that A-Rod was back in 2009. Call it a mixture of pure joy and satisfaction of a job well done. LeBron got this feeling that dominates the 2011-2012 regular season in the NBA by averaging 27/8/6 per game. Then averaging over 30 points per game in the Eastern Conference playoffs, and he just would not be denied in the NBA Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

LeBron averaged 28.6 points, 10.2 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game in the finals, leading the Heat to a series victory in five games. He put an exclamation point in the series to record a triple-double in Game 5.

After the game was over, LeBron summed it up best using just four words: "It's time to shit."


The Legacies of A-Rod and King James

Alex Rodriguez will never be a fan favorite again. He made ​​it difficult for people love when he left Seattle in 2000 to lift millions out of the Rangers, and became even more unpleasant when handling the Rangers trade him in 2004.
 
    As if being a noisy Yankee not bad enough, A-Rod became even more enjoyable when you opted out of his contract in the middle of the 2007 World Series, and its admission in 2009 PED almost sealed his fate such as baseball villain. This is a label he has and still is hard to imagine doing anything to shake. A label is not so much as it is a trade mark.

LeBron James is in a similar boat. He was the nicest basketball player when he was with the Cavaliers, and indeed one of the nicest athletes in all sports. He was young, charismatic and, above all, talent.

He had an ego all the time, however, and that the ego is what got him into trouble when he left the Cavaliers in 2010. Leaving Cleveland was not the worst he could have done, leaving Cleveland and then touching the nose of Cleveland in the same, however, was the worst thing that could have made.
 
 Hate LeBron has cooled. We know that the people of Cleveland will never forgive, but you get the feeling that reminded people this season that the basketball player LeBron is a hell of a lot more endearing than LeBron the person. And respect was there for A-Rod after the 2009 World Series, respect for the King James is now, after the 2012 NBA Finals.

There are still lingering hatred for LeBron, though, and there are a lot of hatred for A-Rod continued. The fact that both are public enemy No. 1 in their respective sports is at the top of the list of things they have in common.

Just below that are championship rings. Just below the statistics are striking. Just below are the millions of dollars they have done throughout his career.

In another part of the list, perhaps buried somewhere in the hundreds, is the animal sense that A-Rod and LeBron were destined to live the life you are living.