People care about whether LeBron James throws chalk into the air pregame. They just do. In the past week at PBT the story that LeBron has stopped doing the pregame ritual is the sixth most viewed story on this site. It’s become part of his iconography. People care.
LeBron knows they care — before the season he asked fans on twitter if he should resume the ritual. Fans overwhelmingly voted yes.
LeBron hasn’t done the chalk toss in at least four games, but he wants you to know he hasn’t abandoned the ritual. Apparently it’s just on hiatus, taking a winter break like some network television series during the holidays. From Dave McMenamin of ESPN:
LeBron asked if he's scrapped the pregame chalk toss: "No. I don't even know where that came from." Told he hasn't done it recently: "Cool"
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) December 2, 2014
LeBron also said he’s just confused as to why there is such “a fuss” about this and how it became a story in the first place.
Why? Explaining the move’s popularity is like explaining why cat videos own YouTube. People gravitate toward that and nobody really accurately explains the taste of some segments of the American public.
But LeBron, you helped feed this.
You asked fans before the season if you should start doing it again, they said yes. They wanted to see it. Then you stopped. The Cavs have played their best ball the last few games, maybe LeBron is just respecting the streak. Fans can get behind that.
But you helped fuel this, Nike helped fuel this, don’t pretend you’re shocked it’s a story.
