I'll take ludicrous for $1000, Alex

Take a good, long look at the picture above. Think about it for a bit. Obviously I am not exactly the target audience for Vogue. In fact, other than seeing the covers when I am waiting in line at the grocery store I generally have no contact whatsoever for the magazine. I cannot honestly say if Vogue is closer to Glamour or Cosmopolitan or People or Look or Home and Garden. Frankly...I don't really care. Not my type of magazine.

Yet here we have their cover prominently featured on my little corner of the internet. This rare confluence of unimportant netizen with pointless magazine is pretty important though. You see, the above cover is apparently controversial.

Myself, I don't see the controversy. I will tell you what I see when I look at it. First and foremost, I see LeBron James, aka King James, the phenomenally talented basketball player who almost single-handedly took a mediocre Cleveland Cavaliers team all the way to the NBA Finals last year. With the rather pedestrian talent surrounding him there have been perhaps 3 other players in all of NBA history who could have taken that team to the Finals; Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. No guarantees on any of them, though Jordan seems pretty sure to be up to the task and Robertson might have been even better than Jordan, just without the same killer instinct.

James is a phenomenally talented player and getting better. Each summer he works on his game, fine-tuning weaknesses so the next year they become strengths. That is impressive to me and shows a will to win and be the best at what he does. He is also a marketing machine.

He does commercials for Nike. He does them for Gatorade. He does them for...well, enough different products that I do not actually know what all he shills for. But he is good at it and good with his money...there are reports he has one-on-one conversations with the billionaire buffet about business and holds his own.

Next to him is Giselle Bundchen. In this case I know a bit less. I do know she is easy on the eyes and typically is seen in clothes that accentuate and flatter her ah, physical attributes. Her charm comes not from athleticism but rather from swollen mammary glands, trim waist, slender legs, flowing, shiny hair...you know, her looks. And she is easy to look at for sure.

When I see that picture of LeBron I see the look he gets when the game is on the line. Earlier this season I watched him bring his team back from a double digit deficit to rip a win from the Blazers. They should have beaten the Cavaliers but his will to win was unsurpassed and his drive and passion for the game was indisputably the difference in the game. The photographer did an excellent job of capturing that.

Giselle, on the other hand, sells her products by displaying her attributes in the most attractive way possible and making those products look fun and entertaining. Look at the illusion of movement in the photo; she did that. Her bright smile conveys a sense of fun and good times.

I see by the blurbs this is an issue dealing with physical fitness. It certainly appears to me that they are pretty fit. King James is muscular yet without losing his agility. Gisele is...well, to (mis) quote Shakira...those hips don't lie.

I will also tell you what I don't see. I don't see a "damsel in distress". I don't see a "King Kong" pose. I don't see a black man menacing a white woman or a black man showing "untoward desire" towards her.

And most of all I don't seen even the remotest hint of racism here. I see 2 attractive people at or near the pinnacles of their respective careers who are being shown as having desirable levels of fitness. Actually, until it was pointed out, it did not even occur to me that one of them was black and the other white.

For this to reach the stage of "controversy" has a lot more to do with the idiots on the today show trying to create problems to garner ratings than it does any "stereotyping of the black male". What, as a talented athlete who enjoys the company of beautiful women? As a successful entertainer who provides instant brand recognition and authority to a topic on fitness? Which stereotype am I supposed to look for? Help me out so I can join you in being offended.

Scratch that. I don't have time to be offended. I have a photo to peruse.