Lebron James has improved his game this season to the point that the projections of the next Michael Jordan might finally be coming to fruition.  Yes, the latest Nike commercials of "The Lebrons" are worthy of comparison to Jordan's old commercials. 

I've always thought Lebron had tremendous potential but I was starting to lose hope after some awful Sprite commercials that included him pretending to crack his neck while he's really squeezing a Sprite can (please tell me that one of Lebron's high school buddies wrote that and not a real ad professional) and the annoying Thirst doll sidekick, which is a blatant rip-off of the classic Li'l Penny commercials.  If they would have faced off today, Li'l Penny would tear Thirst apart right up until the time he would inevitably blow out his knee.  

Lebron's previous Nike and PowerAde ads haven't been as terrible, but they haven't been good, either.  But hope is alive as I absolutely love the "Lebrons" commercials, and I know I'm not alone.  Tony Kornheiser was giving glowing reviews to the ads.  He was also raving about Lebron's dancing ability, which I thought was a little odd.  I mean we're talking about one of the most gifted athletes in the world - should we really be surprised that he's coordinated enough to break dance a little bit?  We're not talking about Mark Madsen or Chris Kaman here.  By the way, it is absolutely terrifying to look at Kaman.  He's not scary like Ray Lewis, but more like "my car broke down in the backwoods of Tennessee and now there's a large, stringy-haired man dressed in a plaid shirt and jean overalls carrying a shotgun and he's staring at me" scary. 

There's just something about Kaman that doesn't seem right.  It's reminiscent of the scene in "Men in Black" when the alien comes to earth and puts on the body of that backwoods guy, only it's clear to the wife that there's something wrong with the way he looks and moves (such as water spouting out of his stomach when he drinks sugar water).  Is such a scenario really that implausible for Kaman?  And now he's teamed up with Sam Cassell?  Come on, that can't be a coincidence.  At least Kaman took on a disguise, I think Cassell just landed on earth, grabbed a can of brown spray paint, and put on some gym shorts.  It's almost like he's daring us to call him on it.

 While I think Lebron's ads are fantastic, they fall short of some of the truly great sports commercials.  Instead of ranking the best sports ads (in part due to my aversion to the explosion of "The Best of ..." television shows that feature smarmy people with titles like "comedian" and "writer", similar to the waitress at Denny's who insists on identifying herself as an "actress"), I'm just going to highlight some of them by sport - feel free to add your own.

Best Football Commercials

The clear-cut, best football commercial is the Coca-Cola ad with Mean Joe Greene.  I was only seven years old and still remember it.  As a second-grader, I couldn't imagine anything better than a big, sweaty lineman wiping off his face and giving me his smelly towel.  "Thanks, Mean Joe!"

The second-best commercials are probably the "Bo Knows" ads (I could classify this under baseball as well, but I always thought of him as a football player who played baseball, not the other way around).  And that's about it - unless you count Reebok's Terry Tate, I can't really think of any other memorable football advertisements.  So just to recap, the stars of the best football commercials in history are: (1) Mean Joe Greene, four-time Super Bowl Champ and Hall of Famer, (2) Bo Jackson, two-sport All-Star and one of the best pure athletes in history, and (3) Terry Tate, office linebacker.   

OK, I guess I ranked them, but I couldn't help it because it makes me feel so smart and mighty.  After all, I'm a "writer" - I have the power to do these things.

Of the current commercials, Tom Brady and his linemen have done a pretty good job.  Comparatively, Peyton Manning's ads where he acts like a fan to the grocery checker and other common folk are just awful.  Once again, the Patriots working together as a team trump Peyton's individual achievements. (I know, cheap shot at Peyton when the Colts are having an amazing season.  By the way, are Colts fans' throats tightening just a bit as they watch the Patriots pick up steam the last few weeks?  Corey Dillon and Richard Seymour are now healthy, and the Colts' offensive line looked pretty shaky against the Chargers.  But I'm sure Indy has nothing to worry about, right?  Right?  As I've said before, the Colts wanted to be remembered and it's still possible - just ask the 1986 Red Sox or 1990's Buffalo Bills.  Not saying the Colts won't win the Super Bowl, but if they don't ...)

Last week's SI related that Brady insisted that his linemen be included in the commercial.  It's a good story that tells a lot about Brady, but I'm tiring of the media constantly talking about how he's such a wonderful person, he's such a great leader, he's the ultimate teammate, he's just one of the guys, blah, blah, blah.  You hear it every game.  It's catching up to the Brett Favre observation that every announcer is obligated to say at least a dozen times a game: "Is there a guy that has more fun playing football than Brett Favre?  Look at that guy, he just luvvs the game!"  Favre, as you know, cannot do wrong, even when he throws five interceptions in a loss to the Bengals, he "single-handedly kept them in the game" (I actually heard a football commentator say that). 

It would be unfortunate if Brady became the media's next Favre because the public will inevitably turn against him.  It seems that Brady knows this so he tried to dispel the notion that he's perfect by telling the media that he's like every other single guy who surfs the Internet for porn.  But then the media loved him even more because he's just a regular guy.  Seriously, Brady's going to have to pull an Artest before the media sours on him.

Baseball Commercials

Like football, the number of good baseball commercials is pretty disappointing.  Why are there so few?   Personally, I think it's too hard to catch the players in between their episodes of 'Roid rage. 

One of my favorites is with Randy Johnson playing dodge ball.  He's just unleashing fastballs and drilling guys in the face (fortunately, experiencing 'Roid rage actually helped the Bit Unit film the commercial.  OK, I'm just kidding, I don't think Johnson takes steroids, but I do think he's probably good friends with Kaman and Cassell).     

One of the classic baseball commercials starred Bob Uecker saying: "I must be on the front row!"  At the time, people thought that was funny (including me), but somehow I don't think it would be that humorous now.  It's like when I see reruns of Diff'rent Strokes, and hearing uproarious laughter when Arnold says: "What you talking about, Willis?"  I used to laugh, too, but now I don't know why (except for maybe the fact that I was nine years old).  I don't know if it's the loss of innocence, naivet