Yesterday marked the publicized-to-death return of LeBron James to the city he publicly spurned in his much-maligned "The Decision" broadcast last July. As a lifelong Cavs fan, it's pretty obvious to me why the city of Cleveland, and Cavs fans all over the globe, myself included, foster such ill will toward the self-crowned King James, but it was evident from my Twitter timeline, the announcers' commentary, and the words and attitudes of every single person on television and radio who talked about LeBron before, after, or during the game, that the perspective of the anti-LeBron contingent is not nearly as self-explanatory as one might think.
Never fear--I'm here to clarify this for all of you LeBron fans and/or tolerators out there, in Top Five list form.
5. "The Decision" was, well, a bad decision. In the days leading up to the obnoxious display of arrogance that would go down in infamy as the day LeBron James broke up with Cleveland on national television, I remember defending James' planned broadcast to various detractors. He's only doing it so the money will go to the Boys and Girls Club, I kept telling people. This is just a colossal display of unchecked ego, they responded. Guess what? They were right. I was wrong.
4. It wasn't just the arrogance of "The Decision", it was the timing of "The Decision" that was a problem for the Cavs and the fans. Cleveland reached out to other capable players, and they wouldn't sign with the Cavs. Many people say that this is because nobody wants to play in Cleveland, and that is false. Anybody will play anywhere if they get a decent salary and feel they have a legitimate shot at a ring. Nobody wanted to commit to Cleveland because nobody knew what LeBron was going to do. Obviously, LeBron had considerable success with his supporting cast in Cleveland. Many of the players available in free agency would have been able to come in and make the best of it without LeBron, but why would anyone commit to that not knowing whether or not LeBron would be there? As far as I know, most star players don't want to come into a situation to play second fiddle to a guy like LeBron--even though that seems to be totally fine with LeBron, as he bows at the throne of Dwayne Wade in Miami. But I digress.
If LeBron had any integrity, he would have handled his departure in a mature, responsible way, giving Cleveland the opportunity to field a team for the 2010-2011 season that had a chance of being competitive. It is my opinion that he wanted to move on to pursue a championship, but did not want Cleveland to have the opportunity to be successful without him, and that was the deliberate reason for his timing.
3. One can't explore the effects of "The Decision" on Cleveland and the Cavs community without looking at LeBron's attitude after the broadcast. From the Miami Heat's championship celebration in July, to LeBron's bizarre comments on Twitter about keeping track of everyone who said anything bad about him, his attitude has been absolutely poor. Throw his obnoxious "What should I do?" Nike commercial into the mix, and it's completely transparent that not only does LeBron not feel that he should have handled things any differently, but that he's somehow cast himself as a victim in this situation. Cavs fans, myself included, find that difficult to accept. What should you do, LeBron? Judging by the mediocre performance of the Heat thus far, you should probably shut up and play basketball. But, that's just my opinion.
2. It's interesting to me that so few people talk about reason #4, because when it happened, LeBron's detractors were all over it. Cleveland could have won a ring with LeBron, if he hadn't quit on them in Game 5 of the playoff series with the Boston Celtics last June. His performance in that game was lackluster and passive. The Cavs needed 100% from him to win that series, and he did not give even close to 100%. If his goal was to bring a championship to Cleveland, he sure didn't act like it in last season's playoffs.
1. For me, the most difficult aspect of the LeBron James saga has been to discover that LeBron is the person all of his haters claimed he was for all the years that we blindly supported him. I was still living in Ohio when he got drafted, and had been watching footage of his high school games on the local news every day. I was so incredibly excited when the Cavs drafted him, because it brought us the kind of hope a Cleveland sports fan does not often get to experience. When the Cavs actually started gaining credibility and being competitive in the NBA, it was such a gratifying experience for the fans. So, when LeBron did things like eating a kid's fries when he ran up into the stands, we thought it was cute, while his detractors called it juvenile. When he didn't give 100% on the court, we made excuses for him. When we didn't get a ring, again, we didn't call out LeBron for his lack of effort; we demanded that Mike Brown be fired. When LeBron dragged his feet and then scheduled "The Decision," we defended him and all the while were certain he'd never turn his back on Cleveland--not at the end of free agency, not on national television.
Although it's hard to confine our disappointment to mere words, I think the most painful aspect of the situation was that Cavs fans were lulled into believing that surely LeBron wouldn't wait until the last minute and go on national television to say that he was leaving. It was such a classless move that it was incomprehensible until it happened. The moment he said, "I'm taking my talents to South Beach," it was like a punch in the gut for fans who really believed he was committed to the Cavs and to Cleveland. We all collectively realized that he was most definitely the person all of his detractors had pronounced him to be while we staunchly defended him all those years. That disillusionment was as sad as his actual departure.
Yes, the hardest thing to swallow about what LeBron James now means to the city of Cleveland is that LeBron was always the person his detractors made him out to be. We could gloss that over when he was our hometown hero, but now that he isn't, we have to come to terms with the fact that for years we blindly supported a juvenile, selfish, egotistical player who never truly gave his all because he felt like he was above giving his all. He fooled us, because we were happy to be fooled.
We all wanted to be LeBron fans forever, even if he left Cleveland. Everyone understands why he left Cleveland. Nobody understands why he left the way he left. Yes, it's just a game. But LeBron let us believe it was so much more than that, and reveled in our undying loyalty until he no longer had need of it. "We are all witnesses," they told us, but what we witnessed was a spoiled kid who quit on his team and then played the victim. Analysts and LeBron's new fan base insist that Cleveland fans should "move on", while LeBron asks the passive-aggressive question, "What should I do?"
What should we do, LeBron?
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