LABRON JAMES - KING OF THE WORLD

Basketball player LaBron James forces the human race to once again pause and take stock of itself. Here's a perfect 25-year-old specimen of the species about to make hundreds of millions of dollars because...well, because his wonderfully coordinated hands can plop a basketball into a hoop better than just about anybody.

But wait. Aren't there other wonderfully coordinated hands in the world? From casino croupiers to symphony conductors, from lumberjacks to architects, from oil riggers to brain surgeons. In both little ways and large, these hands actually serve society, even save lives.

How is it then that the nation gives its heart and its treasure to a kid from Cleveland who has neither changed the world nor saved a life...?

If life were fair, say some, other hands would much more deserve what the kid will get. Like the hands of the high school piano teachers, the 24-hour druggists, the YMCA summer camp directors, the priests elevating the host, all the moms soothing crying infants and comforting frightened children.

Others say, not in this lifetime. Not where value is determined by no more sophisticated a rule than simply: What the traffic will bear. It's not the quality of the skill nor the breadth of the service that counts; just the quantity of the crowd and the depth of the curiosity. Hell, if a gorilla could sink baskets with LaBron's regularity, he'd get the contract instead. Come to think of it, maybe for even more money.

Wisely, James seems to understand his fellow man's qualities and quirks. Changing them is not his calling; sinking baskets for the passing cheers is. For now, the traffic will bear whatever he costs, so it can be left to others to argue the human injustice of it all. The sort of injustice that has plagued our kind ever since the first cave man with the biggest fire caught the best girl.

Put it this way. Until either Kong learns how to master the hook shot or Paris Hilton learns how to extract her foot from her mouth, the Kid from Cleveland is still one of the best shows in town. Just check your box seat ticket prices!