When Joe Posnanski writes, I read. When Posnanski writes about LeBron James -- a player I just spent the last eight months covering -- I put everything on hold and read every last word.

I'm of the opinion that Posnanski is one of the best writers in the biz -- if not the best -- and as someone who weaves statistics within storytelling prose and rational thought, Posnanski is an inspiration. His book about the legendary Buck O'Neil remains one of my favorites.

At his SI.com blog, Posnanski wrote a monster post titled, "The Case for Rooting Against LeBron" in which he lays out the argument why wanting LeBron to fail is a perfectly rational and acceptable exercise as a fan. He compares LeBron to Ric Flair, one of the greatest heels in pro wrestling history, because as a basketball player, LeBron exists as a character in our lives. Here's an excerpt:

LeBron James does not just play a game. He plays a character. That may sound crass, but don’t we all just intuitively understand that’s the deal. LeBron James does not get paid millions of dollars because he’s really, really, really good at something. There are countless people in the world who are really, really, really good at things that are at least as useful as basketball, most of them much more useful, but they don’t get paid anything close. He gets paid millions of dollars because his skills infuse our lives. We pay to watch. We are swayed by his choice of sneaker and car insurance. We are fascinated by him — with “fascinated” covering a complete array. We like him. We despise him. We root for him. We root against him. His talent moves us.

But in the end, it seems to me, none of this is about HIM. We like and despise, root for and against the CHARACTER we know as LeBron James. The person, LeBron James, we don’t know anything more than a ghostly image and never will.

Posnanski goes on further to say that Jason Kidd's domestic abuse issues don't matter to the general fan because they should delineate between Kidd as a basketball player and Kidd as a person. We admire Kidd for his ability to feed players the ball, not as a moral compass. As Posnanski puts it, "Jason Kidd is a character in our lives, not the best man at our weddings."

I'm fighting with my sensibilities here. On one hand, I understand that the NBA exists as a form of escapism for the millions of Americans and beyond. They watch to get away, receiving two-and-a-half hours of nightly entertainment. It is not real because, to most people, LeBron and Kidd live on a 40-inch plasma screen. In that sense, I agree, they are characters.

It seems acceptable to hate LeBron the star, and to feel indifferent about LeBron the human being. But I'm not sure it's an easy task to distinguish between the two.

LeBron is a character -- until he isn't. I think back to the Detroit game on Feb. 11, 2010 when a fan sitting in the first few rows had to be ejected from the arena for heckling LeBron. He wasn't heckling LeBron the star, he was heckling LeBron the human being.

“LeBron, is your mom going to Boston for Valentine's Day?" the heckler shouted.

LeBron's two kids, ages three and six, were seated just a few feet away from the heckler.

On the court, in front of thousands of people in attendance and thousands watching from home, LeBron confronted the man and said to him, "Don't be disrespectful." The fan was eventually ejected.

And just like that, the barrier between human and character didn't seem like a barrier at all.

The point here isn't that LeBron's kids were traumatized by the event. They probably have no idea what the fan meant by his hateful words. But the takeaway is that this is a fan who crossed the line between hating LeBron as a player and making a personal attack on LeBron and his family -- in front of LeBron and his family.

And where is that line exactly? How do we safely separate our hate for LeBron, No. 6 on the Miami Heat, and LeBron, father of two? To me, that's easier said than done.

So while I agree with Posnanski that hating LeBron is mostly all fun-and-games, I also think it tends to bring out the very worst in people -- the irrational ones. No one ripped Richard Morgan Fliehr in person about his family history, because they understood that Ric Flair is a cartoon character. He is a fake construct. But LeBron is not a fake construct. When you rip LeBron, you are ripping LeBron Raymone James from Akron, OH.

The Detroit fan is not an isolated incident. The line between fan hate and personal hate blurs all the time. Scroll through the comments section on any LeBron article at any media outlet. Listen to the chants at the Cleveland game on Dec. 2 (De-lon-te!). Esquire's Scott Raab wished physical harm to LeBron, writing, "I would be happy if he blew out both knees and an elbow before ever taking the court again in an NBA game. It's just better to admit the truth plain: I am a hater." And that may be the most printable barb Raab has thrown at LeBron.

These people do not hate LeBron the basketball player. This kind of hatred bleeds into personal territory.

So where is the line between fan hate and personal hate when we're dealing with real human beings, not pro wrestlers? Can we trust everyone to walk it?

Again, I think back on the Detroit incident a few months ago.

"As I said before, you have to draw the line somewhere," LeBron said. "Fans can say whatever they want to say. But there are times when it's not right. I had to say something.

"My kids were there."