Hey, LeBron James, can you spare a C-note. My kid needs the $100 to buy those overpriced sneakers that you will be hawking to impressionable children who worship the game of basketball.

I am not asking for much, Lebron. You are now a wealthy NBA player who could purchase a gas-guzzling SUV and most of the Middle East without ever putting a dent in your fat wallet.

Am I envious?

Nah!

Do I think you are an overpaid salesman who represents a greedy sneaker company that believes your name will open doors to millions of dollars in profits?

You bet I do!

You just might be the next best thing since the gas grill, but I take deep breaths and count to 10 whenever I think of that whopping $90-million contract you signed with Nike. That’s a lot of dough for an 18-year-old to handle.

Of course, the entire deal is absurd to me and it should be to a majority of Americans who won’t make that much green stuff in 20 lifetimes.

Sure, you are a big man who is not short on talent. I’ll bet you impressed your toughest critics this week at the Boston summer league.

Dropping in 25 points, snatching nine rebounds, and earning five assists against other NBA talent was no easy task for the the Cleveland Cavaliers’ No. 1 draft pick. An overflowing crowd at UMass-Boston’s 2,500-seat arena gathered to see if he was worth the hype.

That’s why fans with deep pockets will pay $90 for a pizza at the FleetCenter to see the Cavs’ $90-million wonder hold court in Boston.

My gripe with you, and this goes for the rest of the over-exposed pro athletes who endorse everything from mufflers to T-shirts, is the lucrative contracts that easily surpass the gross national product of Afghanistan.

When was the last time you bought a muffler because George Foreman told you the price was right? Look, George Foreman was a great boxer who once told a foe that he would “put him between two slices of bread and eat him.”

You gotta like a guy with a sense of humor like that, but that doesn’t mean I’d run out and buy one of his products.

And that goes for LeBron James’ sneaker endorsements. Just wait. After the public is bombarded with billboards of James, overwrought parents will be hounded by their kids over an expensive pair of sneakers that James wears.

I am not there yet with my seven-year-old, but I could have retired on the money I spent on Hot Wheels and assorted action figures.

Let me put this in perspective for those of you who insist it is James’ right as an American to enter a tax bracket that 96 percent of us will never see.

While James has the cash to squabble over the color of his next Mercedes, Auburn Police want a raise so they can buy their kids a cheaper pair of sneakers and pay their utilities and property taxes on time.

The police are not negotiating multi-million-dollar contracts to perform a stress-filled job that requires them to carry guns, settle domestic fights and arrest bad guys.

Keep that in the back of your mind when you watch the Bank of LeBron James putting a ball through the hoop.

In the great state of Maine, the pay for first-year teachers ranks 48th in the union. Talk about a slap in the face to applicants who probably have a mountain of student loans to pay off. And you won’t witness school supply companies knocking on the doors of perspective teachers with offers of lucrative endorsement contracts.

And while LeBron struts his stuff in Boston tomorrow, a lonely GI might be dodging RPGs and sniper fire in a violent neighborhood of Baghdad for a smidgen of James’ pay.

Sorry, LeBron, but I am not just buying the hype – or your sneakers.

Tony Blasi is an editor who can be reached at tblasi@sunjournal.com.

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