| 09 July 2010
If you’re looking for a coherent column on LeBron James’ Thursday night “Decision,” you’ve come to the wrong place. It ain’t happening. Not here. Not now. Not as everything we thought we knew about LeBron James is going up in smoke, much like one of his old Cavaliers jerseys. LeBron James is going to Miami, we know that. But now that the greatest water cooler debate of our lifetime is over, the real questions begin.
Is LeBron the most selfish athlete we’ve ever seen? Or is he actually the most selfless, for deferring so much- including potentially his legacy- to Dwyane Wade?
Was LeBron ever the loyal guy he always claimed to be? Or was that all a ploy?
Maybe most importantly, after labeling LeBron the “Next Michael Jordan,” for the last seven years were we all wrong? Is he really just a more glorified Scottie Pippen?
I don’t have the answers to those questions, yet, but I do know this: LeBron made the choice we’ve all been waiting for, and ended up selecting the Heat. He will likely win multiple titles in South Beach, although we won’t know that for years.
All I do know is, that after the stunt he pulled on Thursday night, I’ll never feel the same way about him.
And I know I’m not alone.
Now I want to make thing clear here, I don’t blame LeBron James for leaving Cleveland. Do I feel bad about it? Of course. Sick to my stomach? Actually, yeh. But do I blame him? I can’t.
As I said last week, LeBron’s stated goal is to be a “global icon,” and his unstated goal is to be one of the greatest basketball players ever. The only way he is going to achieve those goals is by winning NBA championships…plural. If James didn’t think that was going to happen in Cleveland, that’s his prerogative to leave town.
However, despite that, I’ll admit, that once it was announced that James would be making his “decision,” on national TV Thursday night, I did think he’d scorn the Heat and come back to Cleveland.
Sure there were some signs that pointed in other directions.
The location of Greenwich, Conn., for the telecast was a little weird, especially considering that every major announcement he’s ever made had previously been done from Akron. Why would he leave his hometown for the biggest press conference of his life, unless he was purposefully trying to avoid an angry crowd?
But as much as this decision was about winning- like I mentioned above- some of it was marketing too. And there was no way LeBron could be dumb enough to go on national TV and pull any hat out of the bag that wasn't Cleveland’s. Right? For a guy concerned about his “brand,” that’d all but flush his public image down the toilet. Not to mention give a whole new meaning to the term, “Brand Loyalty.”
Well, apparently I was wrong.
Apparently LeBron isn’t nearly as much about loyalty as we thought. And even if he is, it really doesn’t matter now. His decision on Thursday night made him look reallyyyyyy bad. Not only did he turn his back on Cleveland and the fans who stood by him for the last seven years. He turned his back on a whole generation of fans outside of Cleveland that had no affiliation with him. And he’ll never win either group back.
From now on, LeBron is no longer the loveable kid carrying an overmatched franchise like he was half a decade ago or even the playful veteran we’ve seen the last few years, taking fake pictures and coming up with complicated handshakes.
He’s LeBron James, the prick who went on national TV, ripped out Cleveland’s heart, threw it on the ground, stepped on it, then just for good measure took his Hummer and ran it over one last time. Not only did LeBron decide to leave town, he did it in the cruelest way possible. People already loathed LeBron for the arrogance he showed in going through with the “Decision,” television show to begin with. Now, after Thursday night, it’s pretty hard not to despise him.
And make no mistake, going on national TV for this announcement is as bad as anything any athlete has done to a city that I can remember. This wasn’t Kevin Garnett quietly orchestrating a trade behind the scenes in Minnesota because his biological clock was ticking. This wasn’t Kobe using the Clippers as leverage to show the Lakers who was boss, or Shaq fleeing Orlando. This was LeBron, turning his back on one of the most sports starved cities in America, a city that he happens to call home. Not to mention doing it in the coldest way possible.
Because here’s the thing: As a general rule, I’m not one of these guys that feel’s like athletes owe us fans anything. Athletes are entertainers, performers, hired guns. And when their skills erode them, they get traded in for a younger model, the same way a kid puts his old toys in the basement when he gets new ones on Christmas Day. So it’s their right to come and go, and make their money while they can. Professional athletes don’t get all that many years before they’re 35, and the next shipment of 20-year-old’s hits the league. They’ve got to take advantage while they can.
But LeBron was different.
What he was to Cleveland went beyond basketball. He wasn’t just a hired gun, but a hometown boy who made it big, and never left. Even when he had the money to move his family to someplace warmer, or more affluent, he stuck by his roots and never left Northeast Ohio.
In return, the people of Cleveland embraced him, a city and player in a symbiotic relationship unlike any other in pro sports. Clevelander's defended LeBron no matter what, even when he couldn’t get his heavily favored team over the hump and into the finals these past few years. They called on ownership to get him better teammates when he asked for them. And even when the fans could have turned their back on him (like in this year’s playoffs) the people of Cleveland never did, returning to LeBron like a loyal dog.
So in this case, LeBron did owe it to the fans and the people of Cleveland, not necessarily to stay, but to handle his departure in a dignified way. This was like pulling the world’s biggest band-aid off the world’s biggest cut, and the people of the city deserved to know as quickly and painlessly as possible if LeBron’s choice would be anywhere but Cleveland. They didn’t deserve the de-pantsing they got on national TV Thursday night.
Maybe even worse was LeBron deciding to make his cruel, national announcemen twhile trying to remain of the cloak of being the “nice guy." Which is a paradox if ever there was one.
After reports surfaced that LeBron left to go to Connecticut late Wednesday night, there he was, showing up out of thin air to attend his camp in Akron Thursday morning. If you’re an Ohioan, you had to be thinking that was a good sign, right?
Even worse than that though, was how LeBron used the guise of charity to mask the arrogance and self-indulgence that was his one hour TV special.
You guys noticed that right? The way that LeBron used the Boys & Girls Club, and a background full of happy-to-be-there kids to try and save face publicly? To soften the blow of his impending announcement. I can almost see LeBron talking about it with his “team,” now: “Well I want the press conference. I want the night to myself. I want to be the big star. But I can’t have people hating me, that’s not cool. So what can we do??…How about we throw some kids in the background and make this about charity? People will buy that, right? Smile kids!!”
If it was really about the kids, couldn’t LeBron have said something ike “I’m leaving town, but I’ll never stop giving back to this community.” Sure it would have been a little transparent, but wasn’t the stunt he pulled on Thursday night 100 times worse? Like he thought we were all idiots or something?
Getting back to all the on the court stuff though, I’ve got to be honest, the Heat are going to be pretty damn good next year.
I don’t buy what all the “experts,” are saying, that Miami can’t win a championship with three superstars and a bunch of role players. Really?
LeBron just led a team whose second best player was Mo Williams to back-to-back 60 win seasons. Dwyane Wade got a team that couldn’t compete for a WNBA title without him the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference. Make no mistake, as long as LeBron isn’t shot by a sniper while cleaning out his Cleveland office, and Wade doesn’t go careening into the basket support in the preseason and break his neck, Miami will be the favorites heading into next year.
But that doesn’t mean we have to like the Heat. How could we?
The fun of following a team is rooting for them through thick and thin, good and bad. Almost like a marriage, only with the small possibility that things will actually end happily at some point.
This alone is the biggest reason why I’ve lost touch with baseball the last few years. I love the Red Sox, but Theo Epstein shuffles bodies in and out of the Boston clubhouse like extras on and off a movie set. How am I supposed to feel attached to a baseball team when they switch shortstops more often than I visit the dentist? (“Welp, the Red Sox just got rid of Julio Lugo and brought in Alex Gonzalez. Looks like it’s time for a cleaning!”)
The Heat will be like that next year, only 45,000 times worse.
How could any impartial fan root for this team that was thrown together like a company softball team, and in the process took two stars out of cities that absolutely adored them? How could anyone root for Miami after they knew what LeBron did to the people of Cleveland, and to a lesser extent, after Chris Bosh pooped all over the people of Toronto?
They can’t, and because of it, the Heat are going to be America’s bad boys next year. As hated as the New York Yankees…only if the Yankees were managed by Kim Jong Il. Come next fall, Miami will be booed in every city except their own. They’ll have rotten fruit tossed at them (I actually heard multiple people say that on Twitter). And when they visit Cleveland? Forget about it. David Stern might have to call in the National Guard. Seriously.
But besides the wins and losses, let’s just talk about LeBron himself, LeBron the man, LeBron the basketball player. What can you say?
Everyone’s contention was that there was no way he’d go to Miami and sacrifice his legacy to share the spotlight with Wade.
I agreed.
If LeBron wanted to go down as one of the best ever, he needed to win titles, but he needed to do it by his own rules. He could go to Chicago and play with Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah (Not to mention Carlos Boozer) and still have been "the man." He could have gone to New York and tried playing with Amare. Hell, he could have shocked the world and taken over L.A. by joining the Clippers. But make no mistake, no matter what he does in Miami, this will never be his team. He had to join forces with Wade to try and make titles happen, not the other way around.
Which leaves us with the Michael Jordan vs. Scottie Pippen question.
For years, we’ve been calling LeBron “The next Michael,” but would Jordan ever have left Chicago in his prime to chase titles on someone else’s turf? Hell no. Chicago was his territory, Jordan practically peed on every fire hydrant to let us all know. He was going to win there, or die trying. He wasn’t going to Boston to play with Larry Bird or Detroit to team up with Isiah Thomas. Never, not in a million years. Kim Kardashian would date Screech before that happened.
Instead, LeBron took the easy way out, and it really doesn’t matter what he does from here on out. He could win the MVP for 10 straight years and the Finals MVP for the next 10 too. But he’ll always be remembered as the guy who didn’t have the confidence to ride it out in Cleveland, or take the situation by the balls and go to Chicago or New York and establish himself there. He had to team up with Wade to make championships happen. He might not be Scottie Pippen, but he’ll never, ever be Michael Jordan.
So with LeBron skipping town, the ultimate question is, why did he do it? In my opinion, it’s not as cut and dried as you’d think.
Since James came into this league, he’s done everything to build his “brand.” More importantly though, I feel like he’s done everything simply because he wants us to like him. He doesn't just want to be a star, but to be beloved.
Even this year when the Cavaliers lost in the Eastern Conference playoffs to the Celtics, did anyone notice how LeBron went out of his way to shake hands with players and high-five fans after Game 6 in Boston, after being scorned for not doing the same last year. It was almost like he was thinking to himself, “I don’t care that we lost, I can’t have the media criticizing me again.”
And that right there, will always LeBron James weakness: He wants to be liked as a person more than a basketball player. That’s why he comes out in pregame and takes under-handed half-court shots, and does the whole chalk throwing thing. That's why he chest-bumps the 12th man on the bench, when Jordan wouldn't have even known the guy's name. That’s why he showed up at his basketball camp Thursday morning, with the biggest decision of his life looming just hours away. He just wants to be loved.
Which is why I really think this decision had a lot more to do with his “global icon,” goal, than his “being the greatest ever,” goal.
I’m not saying that LeBron doesn’t care about winning, he clearly does. From all accounts, he works as hard, if not harder than anyone in the NBA. Plus, no where in the NBA will winning come easier for the next decade in Miami.
At the same time, I don’t think winning consumes him though. I think other stuff, his family, his friends, his business interests, are just as important as basketball. Which is fine. And truthfully, commendable.
But it's also where he’s different from the all-time greats.
Jordan wanted to win, but not for public adulation or pats on the back, but because he was a ruthless, cold-hearted dude. He had to win. He had to know that he was better than you, and better than everyone else in the league too. Jordan only cared about holding up trophies, not how holding up trophies would impact sneaker and jersey sales.
LeBron, well he wants to win titles no doubt. But I think a large part of why he wants to win them is because he thinks that’s what we want from him. That for us to adore him, for us to revere him like we do Jordan, Magic Johnson and the others, all he needs to do is simply start stockpiling championships. Unfortunately, it isn't that easy.
LeBron is wrong, which is why, in a weird, convoluted way I feel bad for him. Not bad enough where I won’t be openly rooting against him next year, but bad none the less.
To me, this move screams of the little boy without a dad and unstable mom, bouncing from friends house to friends house, looking for acceptance and someone to love him. Except what LeBron doesn’t realize, is that outside of Miami, he’ll never be loved again. And if you don’t believe me, there’s a whole pile of burned LeBron jerseys on the ground in Cleveland that tells me otherwise.
LeBron can win every title for the next 20 years, and it won’t mean nearly as much as if he’d just won one in Cleveland. Even a few in Chicago or New York would have been defensible.
No amount of winning in Miami will ever repair his image though. Not when he'll carry around the baggage from Cleveland and Thursday night everywhere he goes for the rest of his career. If anything, winning in Miami will only make us dislike him more.
So in the end, LeBron James is going to Miami, we all know that now. But no matter what he does going forward, he’ll never be forgiven for what he did Thursday night. His brand is gone, and so is his goodwill with the public.
LeBron might win a lot in South Beach, that remains to be seen.
But in the court of public opinion, he’ll always be a loser.
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