Friday's news that LeBron James was ruled ineligible for the remainder of the season by the Ohio High School Athletic Association came as an unfortunate surprise.

As we all know by now, James accepted two replica jerseys from an Ohio store, and in doing so, he violated a longstanding rule prohibiting high school athletes from "capitalizing on athletic fame." James made a mistake in accepting the jerseys, and for his lapse in judgment, he deserves some sort of penalty. However, for James to lose the remainder of his high school career to this misjudgment is preposterous and nonsensical.

James is an incredible young talent who has received an unprecedented amount of attention. By all accounts, James is a nice young man, and has shown admirable maturity given his age and circumstances. I have met him, spoken to him, and have seen him in action many times on and off the court. He has proven himself to be perhaps the finest high school basketball player of his time.

While he is talented and mature for an 18-year old kid, he is still just a kid, and needs guidance and limits. Given the fact that this young superstar has not had appropriate limits, his was a situation that could easily get out of hand. It did, but now everyone is overreacting to the mistakes that have been made, and plenty of mistakes have been made.

James' current situation raises multiple questions about the level of appropriateness of his actions and how he has been handled.

Some have said James has been exploited; some have said that he has been rushed in his development; and some have said he has been mishandled by those in charge of him. With his high school career now over, subject to a successful appeal or legal challenge, many are looking to for someone to blame.

In my judgment, while no person involved with James had any bad intent, there have been numerous misjudgments made, and James' development as a young person has been mismanaged Here is where I believe the responsibility for James' current situation lies, and what was done wrong:

LeBron James: James bears some responsibility for his current ineligibility, and should have known better than to accept something for nothing. James should have had the good judgment to say no to the gift that was offered to him, because it violated a rule, but also because it would put him in a compromised position.

However, James has become accustomed to getting gifts, such as the special shoes given to him by adidas, the gear provided him by shoe companies, and the special treatment he has received at almost every turn. He has several NBA stars on his speed dial, he has traveled to play with Michael Jordan and other NBA stars, and has been the guest of the shoe companies at several different events. He has been dubbed "King James," and has been treated like a boy king.

He has been the star attraction at several events during this season, travelling to Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Greensboro -- and was picked up by a limousine upon his arrival at one event. While his talent is worthy of such excess, as a kid, he has been spoiled. There is such a thing as "too much, too soon."

However, the fact that James has been spoiled at such a young age is not his fault. It is the fault of the adults around him that are in charge of his welfare and development.

Here is one last thing on James' acceptance of the merchandise. Could we reasonable expect James to have turned down free gear at his age? If you have ever been to a charity golf tournament and have seen the way people of means clamor for the gift bag, or if you have seen how wealthy celebrities rush to events just to get a gift basket full of free stuff, then perhaps you would understand. People gravitate to free stuff, and James is no different in that regard. He is not blameless, but it is not a capital offense.

Gloria James: There is no guidebook for how to handle a child that is an extraordinary talent, and worth millions at a young age. It is easy to say that Gloria James should have known better than to have allowed her son to have traveled all over the country to camps and other events; to have accepted gear and other benefits; and to have provided an expensive automobile for her son's birthday.

But, Gloria James had no experience in raising a superstar. And, she herself, is still a very young mother at age 34. Many in her position would have made the similar mistakes.

The question of where Gloria James got the money to give her son an expensive automobile is immaterial. If Gloria James were a wealthy, gainfully employed, college educated person who bought her son a Hummer for his birthday, it would still not have made it appropriate. LeBron James is too young to have such an automobile, and it sends the wrong message to the kid. Whether she could afford it, or where she procured the money for the car is beside the point. Giving a high school kid a car of that value is simply wrong, whether it is Gloria James or Bill Gates doing it.

Clearly, she should have understood that the car would cause perception problems, not to mention put unwanted further attention on LeBron and his activities. But more importantly, she should have understood that the car was just another example of "too much, too soon" for a kid that is developing into a man, and developing a value system.

Based on my time around her, Gloria James seems to be a good person with good intentions, and she seems to have raised, with help, a nice young man in LeBron. She may have gotten carried away with all that comes with his stardom, but she is not guilty of doing wrong. She just did not do what was best.

Dru Joyce: LeBron's coach makes a paltry $4,500 for coaching the Vincent-St. Mary's basketball team, and when I spoke to him on Saturday afternoon, he tried to take responsibility for the schedule that his team has played this year, which has included games in California, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and New Jersey. While I respect his attempt to deflect criticism away from the school and James and to himself, I do not agree that he is responsible for the schedule and the media circus that follows his team from place to place.

Joyce is the father of the point guard of his team, and has known the players most of their lives. I believe he has the best interests of the players at heart, but the magnitude of James' celebrity made Joyce's decisions more difficult, and the problems hard to foresee.

In my time around him, Joyce has always seemed uncomfortable with the attention and the hype, and seems to want nothing other than to coach his team and be left alone. He is not looking for a job out of this, nor is he looking to exploit his relationship with James to advance his career. If he had a lapse in judgment, it was that he wanted his team to compete at the highest level, and to test them against the nation's best high school teams.

Even now, he has spoken about whether his team should remain No. 1 in the mythical national rankings, when that should be the furthest thing from his mind, given the circumstances.

Even if Joyce made up the schedule all by himself, the administration at St. Vincent-St. Mary's had ultimate control over it. SVSM approved the schedule, signed the contracts with promoters, agreed to let the team travel the country, and allowed its games to be televised, whether ESPN or pay-per-view.

Dru Joyce may have been naïve, but his intentions were not bad.

St. Vincent-St. Mary's High School: To be fair, no high school could have been completely prepared for the onslaught of attention heaped upon James and the school. Like with Gloria James, there is no rulebook for how to handle a student superstar, and many college programs would have struggled with the attention and decisions to be made, and they have media relations departments.

SVSM is a small, private, Catholic school in Akron. All of its basketball players are from the same area and most grew up together. SVSM has not played a national schedule in the past, but this season decided to give several of its games to a promoter in exchange for money, to showcase LeBron James and give him the chance to live out his dream and realize his potential.

When any school gives its games to a promoter, it gives up control. SVSM gave up far too much control, and far too much time. In exchange, according to sources at the school, SVSM received from $10,000 to $15,000 per game. According to some other sources close to the promoters, SVSM made much more. But, the amount of money made off of the games is irrelevant.

Whether it was $15,000 per game or $30,000 per game, the games should not have been sold to promoters, and control relinquished. SVSM should not have been travelling to all of these different events just for the sake of showcasing James and his talent. Instead, SVSM should have played its normal schedule.

The money made off of the team, and James, went to a noble cause, the general student fund. However, nothing SVSM did should have been done for money. SVSM is in charge of the education and development of its students, including the students that play basketball. It is a high school, not a college or professional franchise. "Maximization of the opportunities" should never have been part of the equation with regard to its student-athletes, and their welfare should have been put first.

In my judgment, SVSM should not have allowed its games to be given to promoters, and it should not have allowed its games to be on national television. High school basketball is not entertainment, it is part of the educational process. Parading James and his mates all over the country to play games was not productive, nor was allowing the games to be televised by ESPN.

If the best teams in the country wanted a shot at SVSM, the school should have made them come to Akron to play in its own gym, and should have told television and promoters to look elsewhere to find programming. The exposure did not do any good, only harm.

Again, this was not just an issue of right or wrong, it was an issue of what was best. The best interests of the student-athletes should have been the primary concern, but I am not sure that the welfare of the kids was always put first. It may not have appeared wrong to sell the games to promoters, and allow the games to be televised.

In my opinion, it was wrong, and it certainly wasn't in the best interests of the kids. It may have seemed harmless to put the games on pay-per-view, but it was of little or no benefit to anyone, least of all the kids.

The administration of SVSM did not have improper motives with regard to James or his teammates, but it did not make the appropriate decisions necessary to protect James and his teammates.

The Ohio High School Athletic Association:Clearly, the OHSAA has the right to make rules and enforce them. However, the OHSAA must be fair, impartial and its penalties proportionate to the offense. After taking two weeks to investigate the car that James received from his mother, Clair Muscaro decided James' fate over the replica jerseys in just over a day. Yet any appeal will likely not be heard until mid-February.

Muscaro is an old-school administrator, and from his public comments earlier in the season, he had serious concerns and disagreements with SVSM in its handling of James and his team. He clearly did not approve of the travel, the raised ticket prices, and the uncontrollable exposure. He could not act upon the inappropriate gift of the Hummer from James' mother, the gear from the shoe companies, or the travelling sideshow SVSM had become. What he could do was send a message at James' first misjudgment, and Muscaro did so too quickly and too severely.

James acceptance of the jerseys violated the rule, as written. However, if James had accepted a free sandwich from a local deli, he would have been just as guilty as if he had received a million dollars. If James had accepted the jerseys as a sophomore, when he was a well-known prospect, would Muscaro have declared him ineligible for the remainder of his career?

James has shown no intent to become a professional. He did not sign with an agent, accept payment from any endorsement deals, or declare his intent to capitalize upon his fame in a manner commiserate with his talent level. He made a mistake, and the penalty does not fit the misjudgment.

If Muscaro decides to delve deeper into James' background, I am certain he could find other gifts that the young man has received. Similarly, he could delve into the backgrounds of all of the top prospects in Ohio and find instances where the same rule was violated. Muscaro is not wrong to have taken action with regard to the jerseys. But he was wrong in the action taken, and he needs to re-examine his decision of his own motion, without the need for an appeal or legal action.

The Shoe Companies: Nike, adidas, Reebok and And1 all provide gear and money to AAU and high school programs as part of grassroots programs intended to grow the game, and grow their influence in the game. These companies are in business, and the business is selling shoes and gear, and to do so at the highest possible profit.

The shoe companies want desperately to sign James to a long-term endorsement deal, and to do so as soon as possible. Why? Because James will sell shoes, and provide an image that will enhance their products. There is nothing wrong with that. While the companies should not do anything illegal or unethical in order to sign or recruit a prospect such as James, it would be impossible to stop them from pursuing him or making offers or pitches to him.

It is not the responsibility of the shoe companies to protect James or do what is in his best interests as a kid. That responsibility is with James' mother, his advisors, his coach and his school administrators. No reasonable person can expect the shoe companies to refrain from pursuit of a valuable property such as James. It is up to the James camp to say "no" and "this is not the right time" and "this is too much, too soon".

Somebody should have said, "I'm sorry, but we cannot accept this" or "LeBron is not allowed to have this" or "LeBron is not travelling across the country as your guest until he has declared his intent to be a pro and is ready to make a decision".

The Media: We have a ton of excuses, justifications and rationalizations for our behavior with regard to LeBron James. We in the media are clearly responsible for our actions and for raising the temperature around this kid to fever levels. While we did not all do what was in the best interests of James or his teammates, that is not the media's responsibility. It would be naive to think that the media would restrain itself and do what was best for a kid. Rather, the media covers stories, and LeBron is a story.

However, the media is not to blame in this saga. It is without reasonable argument that the media consumes what is fed. If SVSM had not made the games available to be televised, ESPN could not have put the games on television. Without the television exposure, there would have been far less media coverage of James, far less interest in James and his exploits by the general public, and far less scrutiny of James and his teammates. Without television coverage of the games, James might have had a more normal experience at SVSM, his teammates might not have had to dodge cameras and media going to practice, and Clair Muscaro might have done the right thing in his treatment of LeBron's situation.

Somebody in charge should have said "no", that all of this was z'too much, too soon". There will be another LeBron James someday soon. Let's hope we have all learned something from this.

Q & A with Jay Bilas

Send in college basketball questions to ESPN's Jay Bilas, who will answer a few each week as the season continues.

Jay Bilas is a college basketball analyst at ESPN and a regular contributor to ESPN.com.