Cost of Lebron's "throwback" jerserys make you wonder

The saga of high school phenom Lebron James took a strange twist this week as his high school career is over... maybe.

And for those of you that think watching a kid in a grown man's body playing basketball against kids in kids' bodies is exciting, sorry for the disappointment.

You see, I am not here to talk about legitimacy or the illegitimacy of what constitutes major league amateur athletics (pun intended).

What I am going to talk about is the question of -- two throwback jersey for $845? (Please, someone, drop the old comedian line -- "$845 for a throwback jersey, can I at least get a-------------- with that.")

A friend of mine that works at a sports clothing shop told me they cost about $270 each there.

The two jerseys that have made James ineligible for the time being -- and let me reiterate -- time being -- are a 1970's Wes Unseld Washington Bullets jersey and a 1960's Gale Sayers Chicago Bears jersey.

"Brian's Song," the movie about Sayers and Brian Piccolo being the first multi-racial roommates in NFL history, was very good. Both Billy Dee Williams and James Caan's acting jobs in the original movie were so spectacular that it made many men, including myself, actually cry at movie.

But, it was a made for TV movie, which means I doubt Willams or Caan got paid $845 each for the movie.

Williams probably made less for each of his Colt 45 commercials or auctioning off some prop from "Star Wars" that he might have used. Caan probably gets paid less for saying lines from the "Godfather" movies at conventions or something.

Unseld was a great player -- having a throwback jersey worth $400 some dollars must be -- but was such a terrible coach and GM that I am not sure that paying that much for a jersey doesn't constitute throwing away money. All Unseld did was make the Washington Wizards -- then named the Washington Generals... I mean the Bullets -- so bad, that Michael Jordan can't break them out of the stupor they have been.

This trend of athletes wearing "throwback" jerseys was once considered cool, and not thoroughly annoying like it was back when it was started -- early last summer.

During the 2002 NBA playoffs, the LA Lakers' Kobe Byrant wore a number of throwbacks, which included the jerseys of Magic Johnson, Joe Montana, Wayne Gretzky, and Hank Aaron. He even wore a Michael Jordan Bulls' jersey for the NBA Championship deciding game 4.

On ESPN SportsCenter, Byrant's jersey decisions were considered more exciting than the rest of the NBA playoffs, once the Lakers had defeated the Sacramento Kings and moved on to the over matched New Jersey Nets.

Now, however, every athlete has to wear them, most notably the most annoying athlete in professional sports -- Keyshawn Johnson. He had to go around wearing a Terry Bradshaw jersey following Tampa Bays' NFC Championship victory. He pranced around wearing that "throwback" jersey instead of showing some team unity and wearing one of the free T-shirts that said, "Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFC Champions."

According to Johnson, he was just honoring Bradshaw since Bradshaw predicted they would win.

Ok, if that is the case, how come your head was on a swivel looking for a TV camera following the game Keyshawn?

As for the jerseys themselves, how are the great athletes being honored with these "throwback" jerseys? Are the former pro athletes getting any compensation for these jerseys?

Some of them, quite frankly, could use it since the pension plans in pro sports weren't that good in the past. Are kids shelling out $100's of dollars to wear a name of a professional athlete the way some of them want to be honored?

This is the part where I should, and would, quote a great athlete with a "throwback" jersey, but sorry, I know none. But, here is what Yogi Berra would probably say: "It's like deja vu' all over again, except hundreds of dollars more."

Other athletes have worn these jerseys too, and that's fine as long as they don't flaunt them like Johnson, James, and Byrant have.

James dared the Ohio High School Athletic Association to stop him after he was cleared in the Hummer controversy, and he lost the dare.

Byrant probably never thought these jerseys would be a that big a story, but athletes are, sometimes unfortunately, role models, and we know kids look up to them.

However, I don't know if shelling out hundreds of dollars for a jersey in the midst of modern day Reaganomics is a good idea. Then again, I am off to get my throwback Dick Schaap and Howard Cosell sports jackets and ties, and throwback Mitch Albom mullet wig.