LeBron James Has a Chinese Museum

There's no doubting that LeBron James is an international superstar, and I'm not surprised to read that his shoes (and even replicas of his high school jersey) are hot sellers in China. But to have an entire museum in his honor? From the China Daily:

Nike has even sponsored the LBJ Museum in Shanghai, a display dedicated to all things LeBron. The opening ceremony of the museum on Monday, attended by James and Nike CEO Mark Parker, attracted some 2,000 fans eager to catch a glimpse of the basketball phenomenon.

"I'm proud of watching him play. I'm mad about him," he said. "I think he is more than an individual. He has started a new craze across the world. I will support him like I'll cry for China at the Olympic Games."

Okay, like Henry Abbott over at TrueHoop, I'm going to assume whatever Parker meant by "I'll cry for China at the Olympic Games" was lost in the translation -- for all I know his quote was translated from English to Chinese for the original version of the article and back to English again for the version we're reading now, so there's no use dwelling on word choice.

But as the picture above proves, the word "museum" was not a mistake. What could it possibly feature? A bronze medal from the 2004 Olympics and a Eastern Conference trophy, I suppose. People like to talk about how LeBron has "changed the game," but aesthetics aside, what has he accomplished? He has all the potential in the world, but at this stage in his career, he's just another All-Star: not an MVP, not a scoring champion and certainly not an NBA champion. Yes, he's only 22 and he very well may accomplish all of those things in the future, but until he does, it's an exercise in hyperbole to suggest that his career is worth enshrining.