THE RELENTLESS GET-ME-OUTTA-HERE EXODUS IS SWALLOWING SPORTS

It was LeBron James’ restlessness that launched a disruptive wave of defections, and 12 years later, volatility dominates the NBA, college football and golf (was that a Saudi sheikh with Cam Smith?)

     You? They don’t care about you, the sports fan, the sucker who just spent $299.99 on a team jersey bearing the name of a player who might demand a trade next week. What once was hailed as the era of athlete empowerment has tumbled into something chaotic and insulting, not to mention dangerous if the consumers who support a $600 billion industry — careening toward $1 trillion, depending on how many rogue leagues are launched by the Saudis — ever boycott the megalomaniacal swirl.

     Call it bratty entitlement, which started when LeBron James arranged his own national TV forum to announce he was taking “my talents to South Beach.” That was 12 years ago, and since then, the once-coveted ideal of loyalty in sports has disintegrated. Contracts signed in pen and stamped as binding mean zilch. Commitments are no stronger than dumping a girlfriend by text. If an athlete isn’t satisfied with his station in life — if he can find more power or money or brand-maximizing elsewhere — he exits via the nearest escape hatch.

     The prime function of sports no longer is the pursuit of a championship. It’s about whether Kevin Durant can weasel his way out of Brooklyn with four years left on a deal, after weaseling out of Golden State and Oklahoma City, because James Harden weaseled out of Brooklyn (after weaseling out of Houston) and Kyrie Irving is angling to weasel out of Brooklyn (after weaseling out of Boston and Cleveland). It’s about Phil Mickelson and Greg Norman grabbing the blood money of Saudi sheikhs and convincing name players to flee the PGA Tour, a divide that reduced the weekend’s Open Championship to a LIV hatefest — with all eyes on champion Cameron Smith and whether he joins the exodus.

     “I just won the British Open and you’re asking about that.,” said the 28-year-old Australian and countryman of Norman, refusing to deny rumors he’ll jump to LIV. “I don’t know, mate. My team around me worries about all that stuff. I’m here to win golf tournaments.”

     In baseball, Juan Soto rejected the largest offer in the sport’s history — $440 million over 15 years — so he can maneuver out of D.C., where the Washington Nationals are being sold. Only in the NFL, where Aaron Rodgers’ scorched-earth scheme to leave Green Bay fell short, does any sense of sanity reign. Yet it was only two years ago when Tom Brady, positioned to be the rare legend who plays an entire career with one team, preferred to divorce Bill Belichick in New England and win another Super Bowl in Florida. And in a story that hasn’t received nearly enough media attention, Brady still hasn’t denied a keen offseason interest in leaving Tampa Bay for Miami, where the Dolphins waved an ownership role before he took $375 million for a future analyst gig at Fox Sports.

     Where have you gone, Kobe Bryant? He must be looking down from his Mamba perch in the sky and counting to 20, the number of seasons he played wire to wire with the Lakers. He had his weak moments, falling into the trade-me rabbit hole, but he stayed and won two championships to accompany the three he won with Shaquille O’Neal. Surely, he must be cursing James, who has taken those same talents from Cleveland to Miami to Cleveland to Los Angeles — with another departure possible if he and the Lakers don’t agree to a two-year extension next month — only to win one fewer title than Kobe for all his itchy whims. He also has won two fewer titles than Michael Jordan, who rejected a pitch by the New York Knicks to stay with the Chicago Bulls, leaving only because ownership preferred to dismantle the dynasty over winning another trophy or two.

     The lessons are lost on today’s mercenaries. There is more buzz about the eventual destinations of Durant and Irving than there was last month about the dynasty affirmation of the Golden State Warriors, who have won four NBA titles in eight years because, well, they emphasize stability and commitment. This nausea-inducing movement, which makes airline travel look stable, has become so disproportionate to sports tradition that Adam Silver — the commissioner who once basked in the woke-ish glow of clout-wielding players — now fears he has created a monster.

     “Look, this needs to be a two-way street. Teams provide enormous security (and) guarantees to players," Silver said last week after an NBA Board of Governors meeting. “The expectation is, in return, that they’ll meet their end of the bargain. I’m realistic that there’s always going to be conversations that go on behind closed doors between players, their representatives, and the teams, but we don’t like to see players requesting trades. We don’t like to see it playing out the way it is.”

     Oh, but it is. If Silver wanted to create some semblance of order this summer, he’d summon James for a come-to-papa confab. Up to his usual tricks, LeBron once again is circumventing his employers in his breathless attempt to broker an Irving deal. You’d think the Lakers would have learned by now to steamroll such naked power plays, only a summer after James humiliated himself and the franchise by pushing his “bosses’’ to acquire Russell Westbrook. But after Westbrook’s catastrophic season, when James again exposed a personal flaw in not always coaxing the utmost from teammates, he’s hellbent on erasing his blunder — and replacing Westbrook with Irving. Never mind that Irving demanded a split from LeBron in 2017, just a year after they won the impossible Cleveland championship together. Never mind that Irving, the very definition of unreliability, missed 123 of a possible 226 games in three Nets seasons. Many of his absences came because he refused to be vaccinated in a city, New York, that mandated a jab for him to suit up at Barclays Center. With the coronavirus still a major concern in L.A. — and Irving very capable of wrecking yet another team with his AWOL habit — James is out of his mind to pursue him.

     Common sense hasn’t stopped him from making it known, through business partner and quasi-Lakers executive Rich Paul, that he wants Kyrie. For that to happen, Westbrook must be traded. LeBron has taken the matter into his own hands, refusing to interact with Westbrook during a recent Las Vegas Summer League game. This was James acting as a mob boss, using silence to send a cryptic message. Westbrook appears to be backing down in obedience, splitting with his longtime representative, Thad Foucher, in what the agent is calling “irreconcilable differences.” Basically, Foucher wants Westbrook to remain with the Lakers, who’ve spent the offseason trying to welcome him for another try with new head coach Darvin Ham.

     “Don’t get it messed up. Russell is one of the best players our league has ever seen,” Ham said at his introductory press conference. “And there is still a ton left in that tank. I don’t know why people continue to try to write him off.”

     But Rob Pelinka, who purportedly runs the front office, said he wants Westbrook to be a “defense-first” player this season. Wounded as it is, a competitor who has built his name as a triple-double machine wants no part of that role. So Russ wants out, too, but would-be trade partners are spooked about inheriting his erratic performances and $47.1 million salary next season — unless the Lakers expand a package by including their only two remaining No. 1 draft picks this decade. It’s some debacle James has caused, huh?

     Said Foucher, in a statement to ESPN: “Now, with a possibility of a fourth trade in four years, the marketplace is telling the Lakers they must add additional value with Russell in any trade scenario. And even then, such a trade may require Russell to immediately move on from the new team via buyout. My belief is that this type of transaction only serves to diminish Russell's value and his best option is to stay with the Lakers, embrace the starting role and support that Darvin Ham publicly offered. Russell is a first-ballot Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame player and will prove that again before he is retired.

     “Unfortunately, irreconcilable differences exist as to his best pathway forward and we are no longer working together.”

     It could be LeBron and Westbrook are stuck with each other, which would make for another hellish season if they couldn’t even exchange pleasantries in Vegas. It’s possible James won’t sign the extension next month if the Lakers don’t meet his Irving demand, which would prompt a decision by Pelinka and owner Jeanie Buss: Keep LeBron around for more ugliness … or trade him and reset the franchise by getting assets in return. Never, ever dismiss any option in the fickle world of LeBron James.

     After all, he started this manipulative behavior in sports.

     When in doubt, pout.

     Quit, then split.

     It was inevitable, amid such unrestrained mobility, that the ecosystem would tremble amid its own earthquake. As the Supreme Court was ruling that college athletes finally should be compensated financially — the same Supreme Court opened the evil door to legalized gambling — conference realignment became the talk of America. Suddenly, the rush to grab the TV billions of ESPN and Fox executives — who are much like the Saudi sheikhs without having to murder journalists, though they might like to — turned the dignified leaders of higher education into Jello-kneed defectors. Last year, it was Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC. This year, it’s USC and UCLA to the Big (16). We’re still waiting on Touchdown Jesus to decide if Notre Dame joins a conference or foolishly remains an independent when, in 2022, teenagers know nothing about Joe Montana, much less Rudy or the Gipper. Brace for an era of two superconferences, and programs that don’t offer the vast NIL payouts to keep up with the powerhouses — Rutgers, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, etc. — will be swept away and replaced with the limbo-suspended likes of Clemson and Florida State.

      All that’s missing are chairs and music. Know how reckless the moving game is? UCLA didn’t bother to inform the California governor, Gavin Newsom, who is threatening to block the Bruins’ transition. As a public university affiliated with the University of California system, yeah, Westwood at least should have notified the Board of Regents. Newsom said the decision lacked “decency” and that he learned of the news when he read about it. “No big deal. I’m the governor of the state of California,” he told an L.A. television station. “But maybe a bigger deal is that I’m the chair of the UC Board of Regents. I read about it. Is it a good idea? Did we have a chance to discuss the merits? I’m not aware anyone did. So it was done in isolation. It was done without regental oversight or support. It was done without any consideration to my knowledge.”

     Remember who lobbied Newsom three years ago in an aggressive push for NIL reform? LeBron. The governor even showed up for James’ TV show, climbing into the barber’s chair in blue jeans and sneakers.

     Some people are entertained by the constant volatility. The media are only happy to feed the movement frenzy, with ESPN prioritizing the NBA and college football soap operas over the MLB regular season, golf majors and tennis Grand Slams. But know this: None of it is healthy for sports. It leaves the industry in a perpetually disruptive and wobbly state.

     For that lingering uncertainty, we can blame James. He’ll never get it, though Saturday should have been a hammer to his hard head. As LeBron was telling organizers he’d play that afternoon in the Drew League, the renowned pro-am circuit in L.A., commissioner Dino Smiley also was told Irving would play in an earlier game. Was this the manipulative work of LeBron, doing all he could to convince the Lakers to make the deal?

     Of course, Irving never showed up at the gym. “Sounded like it was going to be a sure bet, but I don’t know what happened,’’ Smiley told ESPN.

     Here’s what happened: Irving showed up instead in Thousand Oaks, an hour or so away, and worked with campers at a girls’ basketball camp run by Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy.

     Already, before a trade that might never be made, Irving is blowing off James. Serves LeBron right for being the Minister of Mobility, the clown prince of capricious sports flight. He calls it a revolution, but what he has done is commit all of us to an institution, stripping away any chance of maintaining a romance with sports.

     If you’ve purchased his No. 6 jersey in purple and gold, you might want to try layaway. The next LeBomb could be dropped soon.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.