Tag Archives: Lebron to Cleveland

I’m going to go on the record with this newsflash: I don’t know where Lebron is going.

But in all fairness, I doubt he does either. In a post game press conference after yet another landmark Cleveland collapse (and make no doubt about it, that was a collapse.), Lebron in his best pouty face said he hadn’t yet thought about where he was going to play next season.

THAT, I don’t believe. You don’t need to look any further than the last two games of this series for evidence that his Cleveland basketball immortality might be ending. He played like the weight of the world was on him. Over the last two games, you never saw him smile in that genuine way that would suggest he was having fun. You never saw regular season Lebron during these playoffs.

But I don’t blame him. I felt sorry for him. I looked at his face and nothing came easy for him. He looked confused on the basketball court. He was turning the ball over. He was throwing passes to the Celtics. He was arguing with officials, blatantly telling them that they were making bad calls.

Tony Allen’s defense had something to do with it, but this loss falls on Lebron. Just like any success, that we figured was an eventuality, wouldve been thrown his way. We were so ready to crown him, but we forgot to check his credentials.

This isn’t to say that he won’t get his rings, but as we know and keep being reminded and I hope Lebron is listening, nothing is guaranteed in life no matter how much of a sure thing something seems to be. They cut the lead to 4 with two huge threes from James and had the Celtic crowd on pins and needles. Then when he looked for his teammates to make a shot, nobody helped out. Not a single one.

Turns out everyone was a witness to James on the court, even his teammates, who let the Celtics virtually dribble out the final minute and a half while his lame duck head coach, Mike Brown, looked on. By the time James figured out his teammates couldn’t be trusted to hit a big shot, it got late real early like Yogi Berra would say and he started making frantic drives to the hoop in hopes that the refs would bail him out.

Come to think of it, it reminded me of that final scene in “Training Day” where Denzel Washington’s character asks one of the surrounding thugs to shoot Ethan Hawke’s character and no one will pull the trigger. The Celtics, the refs, and his teammates were the people watching him. Lebron, of course being Denzel, with blood on him was looking around for someone to help him. Ethan Hawke was the guy holding the bag of money which would represent opportunity/legacy/whatever analogy you want to represent the big picture of Lebron’s career.

Lebron didn’t see his life flash before his eyes like Denzel did but the look on his eyes said something was dying and it might have been the air of invincibility that’s surrounded him since he came to the league. He’s been crowned with nothing yet put on his head.

I’m sure most of us would have killed to be Lebron James. The best player on the planet. A gigantic contract on the horizon. A good supporting cast to help achieve basketball immortality. A hometown crowd buckled and ready for the ride. But it wasn’t meant to be. The best player was nursing a sore elbow. The supporting cast were just spectators. The hometown crowd booed the team as they left for what turned out to be the final home game of the season and were thrown into immediate panic mode.

Now begins the most important part of Lebron’s career. Best case scenario wouldve been Lebron bringing a championship to Cleveland and riding off to New York/New Jersey/Chicago with no qualms about not fulfilling his obligation to his hometown. Now he runs the risk of high tailing it to a bigger market and being viewed in a negative light in his hometown. He may never be welcomed back to the greater Cleveland metropolis ever. He will be just another big superstar that let down Cleveland. He was their best hope since Jim Brown of bringing titles and now he could be another big time disappointment.

As a New Yorker who could potentially see Lebron land here in his hometown, I’m not sitting here shedding tears for Cleveland.* But sitting there hearing Boston fans chanting New York Knicks as he shot free throws I began to feel bad. Not just for Cleveland, but for Lebron. Cleveland, I’m sure, is hitting the panic button and over reacting ready to kiss Bron Bron goodbye. There will be a few callers who might be foolish to say “we don’t want him anyway” or “go to NY Lebron, Cleveland doesn’t need you.”. But that’s just hurt feelings talking.

*= Coming from a Met fan, and Knick fan, could be I’ve run out of tears after crying over the last few years with both of these teams.

Nobody knows the next step. Lebron as he looked at the scoreboard and had those long talks with the Celts as he congratulated them, he knew everyone was watching him. He had to. So he untucked his jersey and I’m sure there are people who read into that. When he took off his jersey, in plain view of the camera and threw it to the equipment guy as the door to the Cleveland locker room was open just enough for us all to see, people probably started concocting fake rumors. You know what? He sure was talking a long time to those Celtic players, I’m sure there’s someone out there contemplating how the Celts are going to create enough cap space to get Lebron.

Unfortunately, we don’t know a thing. Unfortunately as lost as Lebron looked as he stared at the clock that read 0.0, he’s heading into the offseason even more confused. Let the summer of Lebron begin. Just don’t expect it to end any time soon.