Barack Obama is LeBron James?

It’s not wise for a politician to compare himself with an athlete nicknamed “The King.” But that’s exactly what President Barack Obama did at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, when he aligned himself with basketball superstar LeBron James.

Seven years later, it seems the president’s immodest assessment of himself turned out to be right.

Barack Obama is LeBron James.

For the Democratic nominee, that chance came when Wall Street spun out of control in September 2008. He got elected, but not before turning his back on many of the same people who made his rise possible — including the man who officiated his marriage and baptized his children.

Like Obama, LeBron was also willing to turn his back on a franchise and a city that also happened to be his hometown.

Obama entered the big leagues with faux Greek columns lining his stage while King James made his grand entrance on a glamorous South Beach riser adorned with lasers, smoke bombs and roaring crowds.

Obama used his grand moment to declare that future generations would look back to his elevation as “the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”

LeBron used his moment in the sun to strut before screaming Miami fans while proclaiming that he would bring “five, six, seven” championships to the Heat.

Despite both men’s abundance of promise and surplus of confidence, they are now bound — not by greatness — but by their own collapse when the klieg lights burned at their brightest.

As Grantland’s Bill Simmons wrote last spring, “LeBron James melted down in Dallas, disappeared and extended his “Wait a second, what the hell just happened???” streak to two straight years. Why isn’t LeBron shooting? Why isn’t he driving to the basket? Does he realize this game is being televised? You can’t call it a meltdown or a breakdown; that would belittle what happened. Call it a LeBrondown.”

Or if you’re a Democrat, an “Obamadown.”