The one thing that I knew going into last night’s announcement was this: no matter what happened, Lebron James was now going to be universally disliked. The last few months were unlike the NBA has ever seen or ever will see. His “Decision” special was filled with as much drama as a Yankees/Twins series. The outcome had been there for days and this growing sentiment that the three men had arranged this together seemed fitting. But still, it was something that came off as unsettling and almost pitiful even as a fan of one of the hopeful teams.
As a Knicks fan after much sulking, I looked at it from a rational standpoint and I understand why he did it. Lebron did it to win championships and nothing else. At the end of the day that’s what this game is about and for the winners go the spoils and for losers go nothing. There’s no such thing as second place. Lebron understood that better than anyone. As a man expected to carry his team to the championship these last two years it was a colossal disappointment that he never accomplished that goal for his home state. Despite all the rumblings the fact was this, Lebron wanted the championships and naturally one would expect the glory that comes with it.
I get it. I even get the need to have two very talented men to support you and help shoulder the burden of bringing a title to the resume. Even as he’s teaming up to become part of this (un) holy triumvirate, make no mistake this is all about Lebron which explains why he didn’t go the simple route and join Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade at the podium for their announcements (which of course makes the cry of ego maniac ring truer but we’ll get to that.). I get why he would want to play with his friends and build a dynasty with them. I get all of that. In fact, me and my buddies from high school always joke about each getting a place on the same block and growing old together.
Even then you didn’t expect it. Even then you held out hope that perhaps this whole Lebron to the Heat was just smoke screen for either his eventual return to Cleveland or escape to Chicago or New York which both wouldn’t be as universally destroyed like this move is. Don’t get me wrong, leaving the Cavs makes him look like a jerk. Leaving the Cavs for South Beach makes him look like a doubting-his-own-talent jerk.
I don’t buy that this is bad for the NBA. In fact, all this Lebron speculation cost ESPN a lot of its credibility and almost destroyed Twitter. It was THE TALK of the internet and everyone and I mean even the President had an opinion on the matter. This is fantastic for the NBA in a time in which ticket sales are down and the league is losing money in the hundreds of millions. All this hype over the super team will draw huge ratings. Quick prediction about how many Heat games will be shown on national television?
I don’t even buy the talk that this immediately vaults them to the top of the pack in the NBA. The Lakers still have Kobe, Artest, Gasol, and Odom and a very good supporting cast which the Heat will have to address in the coming days.
But there are some negatives here in the immediate future that must be discussed, and other points but before I do that I just want to throw one last conspiracy theory because these Lebron rumors have been so fun: David Stern facing sagging sales and a tough economic future, send an email to every big name free agent over the next two seasons to begin forming super teams. The NBA will push through outlandish trades and create 6 or 7 elite teams filled with two or three top 20 players in the league and approve an unbalanced schedule where these teams will meet once a week on TNT and ESPN. Don’t put anything past Stern.
First negative: Immediate fall out in Cleveland was bad. So bad that all you saw were Lebron jerseys being burned, young white women crying, and empty bars perhaps symbolizing Cleveland’s economy now that Lebron isn’t there. But the icing on the cake was a half drunk/half crazed letter by super fan/owner Dan Gilbert destroying Lebron’s reputation and basically saying everything that any Cleveland fan would. In all of this, Cleveland is the biggest victim, but are they? If the fix was in from jump street and Lebron, Wade and Bosh had planned this all along, then yes Cleveland is victim. But if not, if this were an actual decision and Lebron heard out every camp’s proposal how could New York be bashed for its proposal and not Cleveland? Everyone’s biggest complaint about New York’s presentation was that it was all about New York and very little about the roster and about the players it would surround him with. Well, Cleveland had a 60 win team with no cap flexibility to add pieces unless it had a sign and trade set with a player but Chris Bosh, the player that many had earmarked as Lebron’s pick to roll with him, refused to play in Cleveland (I don’t blame him). Other than that, Cleveland did nothing else to show Lebron that they were serious suitors other than to play on his emotions of staying at home. While the Cleveland roster was better than the Knick roster, in time we’ll see how much Lebron elevated that roster to a 60 win team. Lebron on last year’s Knicks could’ve made them at least a 50 something win team in the East if they were capable of winning 29 on their own. The point is that Cleveland made nothing more than a half hearted attempt at keeping their star player on their roster.
Which brings us to the Heat’s first game at Cleveland which should bring more than just fireworks. I legitimately am worried for Lebron’s life. What he did by screwing them over and doing it on national television was embarrass a town that didn’t need another reminder of how sports-cursed they are. He gave them 7 years of his heart and yet in the end, all anyone will remember is Dan Gilbert’s assertion that he quit on the team in his final 4 games and took the cowardly way out. That will lead to bitter resentment. I was listening to talk radio this morning and they were trying to find a perfect comparison of how he would be greeted by fans in Cleveland and the best they came up with was Vince Carter who’s every shot for years was met with resounding boos. This was for years and he’s not even from Toronto. Lebron’s exit is a little more personal and he’s already eclipsed Art Modell as the most vile sports figure in the Cleveland area. That’s no easy task but Lebron found a way to do it. Also, the poetry in the fact that every cruel Cleveland loss is just one word: the Fumble, the Drive, the Shot and now, the Decision. Lebron couldn’t have been that cruel could he?
Second Negative: It sets precedents on several levels. What does it tell small market teams like Cleveland that they can’t even keep one of their home grown stars? Sure, on the same day Kevin Durant resigned with the Thunder quietly via Twitter, but he’s a shy kid who’s on a pretty loaded roster. There will be more guys that go the Lebron route and leave for flashier pastures and it sets a precedent on another note as well. Lebron’s one of the biggest basketball stars on the planet and his decision became a nationally televised event. What will the next super talent do to upstage the self titled King? How will technology affect this change and how much has unbridled access destroyed the mystique of star players? Imagine we hadn’t been put through this charade? If Lebron knew where he was going all along it seems rather selfish and egotistical to do something like this and stretch this out for his own sense of self worth doesn’t it? What was he promised? How hard was he laughing inside while Mikhail Prokhorov made his business pitch? What does Jay-Z think of him now that he made his choice to join D-Wade and Bosh? I’m sure he won’t be thrilled if he finds out that he had made up his mind a long time ago. Point is, our society seeks answers and requires access at all times and doesn’t seem to have a sense of boundary to them. If Princess Di’s death marked the explosion of the term paparazzi, then what will Lebronapalooza be the start of? Technically Lebron gave us what we now crave. Everything. We want to be the fly on the wall. I wouldn’t be surprised if a documentary detailing everything will be released with extra footage of them discussing this plan months in advance giving us the answer we pretty much know. They planned this and they strung us along for the ride. Whatever new era in media we are entering its uncharted waters and Lebron is making history.
Third negative and I can’t come to call this a negative, because its more selfish on my part. The biggest question mark coming into this whole thing was motivation: What was Lebron really after? Was he out to be the greatest of all time? Was he out to be the home town kid makes good storyline play out? Was he out to be the kid from the sticks makes it big in the Big City? Was it legacy? Was it about pride? What was it? Selfishly all the hype about Lebron had made us come to expect something uniquely incredible. We were all convinced that he would do something that had never been done before on an NBA court before all was said and done and that may still be the case but its a very long shot now. By taking his services to South Beach he’s joining Wade’s team. He’s now fully inserted himself into shot gun mode and decided to lower his game and his possible stature as the game’s greatest to help Wade become a multiple time champion. Sure Lebron stands to gain but not as much as previously thought. Forget his brand and what it will do to it financially by becoming just another piece. His legacy is lessened by joining forces.
I’m sure Lebron will tell you a good story about sacrificing for the greater good of championships and all that and frankly I’ll believe him. At the end of the day he couldn’t deal with the weight and burden of being THE MAN at one spot. He couldn’t imagine failing in New York or Cleveland or Chicago because in those three places he would’ve certainly been the undisputed number one. He goes to one of three places where he’s the undisputed number two. It was a tough choice and one made with the understanding that he will be seen as a lesser player but with the knowledge that that sacrifice will be forgotten in the stream of championships this Heat team will compete for.
We all want to compare players to Jordan and I’ve never thought that it was a fair comparison but I get why people do it. We all need a reference point, something to judge another person by and the only way to do that is by comparing that person to one of equal talent. The fact that Lebron was continuously compared to Jordan without any rings tells you what people see in his potential but now, in my opinion, he has to go above and beyond to jump back into the conversation. Say what you will about Jordan and how he played in a different era, but even if Jordan, Bird, or Magic were in the place of Lebron they would’ve never joined forces. They had too much hubris and pride to do that. They all wanted the recognition and worked hard to get it and they could never handle being upstaged by their own teammates. Jordan would’ve went to a place that he could own or stayed in Cleveland to finish the job. They had a certain pride that kept them from walking away. You knew those guys would eventually get rings because that’s all they wanted. But talk of being a billionaire clouded Lebron’s head and clearly his mind. He was busier setting up his post-basketball life than focusing on the task at hand.
I guess its selfish on our part to see a person not see his potential reached. I would’ve rooted for Lebron had he stayed in Cleveland. I would’ve understood had he went to Chicago and I would’ve been positively thrilled had he come to New York. But Miami still makes no sense to me from one stand point: Why not do it unless you wanted no parts of the responsibility? If we had billed you as our best player how come you weren’t ready to accept that responsibility? I guess that’s the main word: responsibility. Is it his responsibility to us as fans or to himself that he should pay attention to? We were told that we were witnesses, but what are we witness to now?
Just like last night, he’s taking much of the mystery of the next few seasons out of it. Its almost expected that the Heat will win the title for the next few seasons. They will be the biggest attraction the NBA has ever seen since they broadcast the original Dream Team’s games back in 1992. Nobody can deny the talent level oozing from this team but one can imagine the blame that will fall on the Heat if they dont fullfill the prophecy.
Maybe Lebron walked into an even greater challenge than he left. I mean, to lift Cleveland to a championship filled city was tough enough but to do so on a team where everyone will watch with a microscope and wait for failure could be even more trying. Maybe the thrill of being the team with the big target on their back, a traveling team of all-stars will motivate them to show up on every single night. The need for fans to be treated to a show will make them work harder to give them one.
But let’s step back and take a breath for what last night was: a self centered 25 year old embarking on the next chapter in his not so secretive life. A guy who couldn’t handle the big city lights of New York, or walking in the shadow of MJ, or lifting his home town team to championship glory, but rather chose a path less traveled with two of his close friends. I’m not saying that he made the wrong decision, that answer will reveal itself with time. I’m saying that his decision could’ve been handled better by a kid we all thought knew how to handle it. But maybe we don’t know a thing. Maybe Lebron will win and we’ll eventually forget and Cleveland will get another superstar to bring them that elusive championship that city seeks.
But one thing will always bug me:: how on earth did Chris Bosh’s insignificant ass convince both Lebron and D-Wade that he was the key in all of this?
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