Basketball: Strange tales from the weird sporting world of America

Here are two stories of American sport which make you wonder what the world has come to, or, perhaps, where it is being led by the most powerful nation on earth.

Story one : LeBron James is a 18-year-old from one of the toughest areas of Akron, Ohio. His mother until recently lived off relief payments. Her boyfriend is in prison for mail and mortgage fraud, after earlier being involved in drugs.

Young LeBron, however drives an $80,000 (£50,000) fully loaded Hummer H2 sports vehicle, which came with three television sets and a soft drinks cabinet. LeBron, who last year was on the cover of Sports Illustrated under the headline The Chosen One, has signed a $25m sports shoe deal, an agreement which was helped along by the decision of the company to employ one of his friends as a $120,000-a-year trainee. He will be the No 1 draft pick of the National Basketball Association. This means that he can expect an initial playing contract worth $12m rising to at least $25m in three years.

LeBron's high school basketball team now undertake cross-nation trips to play in challenge games featuring The Chosen One. When LeBron hits the road he is sometimes accompanied by as many as seven bodyguards, and one is constantly attached to him. He has his own publicist and lawyer.

Basketball critics say that he will outstrip the deeds of Michael Jordan in the next few years. The nation is hugely fascinated and thrilled by the prospect of LeBron's record-shattering career. There has, thus far, however, not been a single tremor of concern about the natural development of his life beyond the basketball court.

The cry is "Way to go, LeBron," which some will remember is what many shouted from the freeway bridges of Los Angeles when O J Simpson took a roundabout route to turning himself in. O J was seen eating in the corner of a Las Vegas restaurant the other night, where he was not available for comment on some of the perils of sporting celebrity which may one day confront the latest Chosen One.

Story two: Toni Smith is also a young basketball player, for Manhattanville College in New York, but at the moment her chances of acquiring a Hummer H2 look fairly remote.

In fact, school and college basketball coaches all over the country are popping up to say how quickly they would drum her out of their teams. Her crime is to turn her back on the Stars and Stripes when they play the national anthem before a college game.

Smith says that she loves her country but is not prepared salute the flag at a time when she profoundly disagrees with certain policies of her government, including the plan to invade Iraq. She believes that more young people should make their protests.

Geno Auriemma, the coach of the Connecticut college team, says: "The flag is the symbol of what we stand for. She has the right to make a protest but I would have the right not to have her on my team. Then they can sue me and say: 'You're denying me my rights'."

Samuel Johnson said that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. He can't have been a fan of college basketball.