I shouldn't be the one lamenting about LeBron James, in fact I have many posts bashing him for reasons less worthy than this. Maybe it is the indie-ness in me coming out or maybe I'm aware and indebted to his services to the Cleveland Cavaliers. During his seven years here I was facing a mob in saying LeBron was not the be all, end all. My opinions on how pitiful the team around him also didn't win over many Clevelanders. Now since his South Beach departure the tables seem to have turned for us both. I try to be objective and non-biased when actually examining basketball. So when the status quo went from 'I love LeBron' to 'I hate that prick,' patience became my practice. I bit my tongue, figuring the storm would calm soon enough. The Heat Index seemed to do nothing more than raise the temperature. I never hated James when he was in Cleveland, yet I wasn't high on the King James smoke either. Mass memorabilia burning and pure hatred for a man who did so much for such a hapless franchise shook my core though. Yes it was a bit of betrayal, he may have dumped us and all. But was it enough to warrant grown men act merely like pissed off toddlers? I still appreciated what he did for us and couldn't bring myself blame solely him for the failure, regardless of the mistakes. Now I'd be considered a LeBron lover, which is something like lepers around here. Surely a city has never held a grudge on a player like this before.
Flash forward to the 2011 Finals, past the rough start and constant attention put on the Heat. I am upset at the outcome, not because I picked them to win once they got there, but because I felt cheated by LeBron once again. Earlier I predicted an Eastern Conference Finals loss for them, but the way they stream-rolled through the competition I thought this was going to be something special. I felt like the world didn't really get to see them play a complete game and that the inferior (although better coached) team won this time. I mean what better fuck the haters could the Heat, more importantly James, come up with than a title their first year? As for the whole rematch story line, there are no former games to compare this to, despite the constant announcer reminders of that previous battle. This was its own series with different pawns and different, much heavier, story lines than there was in the first match. 2006 doesn't mean a thing five years later when there are only four collective players left from that match up. The good vs. evil plot everyone seemed to love exploring really changed the series from basketball to something seemingly more meaningful. I'm convinced the world thought it saw LeBron and his backyard gang be toppled by the do good Dirk and his Mavericks. Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but wasn't a preseason headline about Dirk's prostitute lover breaking in to his house? The world is hardly what it seems to be sometimes.
That lead to the LeBron clutch time shrinkage frenzy all over again. Yeah he shouldn't score only eight (Eight!) points in a complete game but it happened. I cannot and will not try to explain it here. That is a several thousand word essay in itself. I will say there is a whole list of stars that year alone who also didn't win the ring. Has everyone forgotten about Kobe already? He wasn't supposed to lose to the Mavs either and while his rings are proof he can do it, they also prove he shouldn't have lost. Not to mention his supporting cast for those rings and his coach Phil Jackson who he let down one last time. Finally that LeBron puppet made it to the Finals showdown that Nike convinced everyone they want to see and it's Kobe who collapsed.
The modern era apparently has no room for superstar small forwards. You have to go all the way back to 1986 to see a team who won it all with a small forward as their best player. As always, what defines a small forward and a teams best player will be highly debated. While the 1986 Boston Celtics preached a team game, Larry Bird was their main man. The best player list for the titles won from then until now are littered with big men and Micheal Jordan. It would be ludicrous to assume the NBA is structured to deny a small forward mega-star's ability to win it all though. Besides there are probably an infinite amount of variables as to why no star small forward has captured a ring sing Bird. Maybe LBJ was tired after averaging 38.8 minutes per game in the regular season with an increase to 43.9 MPG in the post season. Don't let me forget to mention the 40.1 MPG he averages for his entire career. I'm exhausted from even typing those minutes out.
Back to Cleveland when he "quit" on his team as the basketball world watched in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Everyone seems to recall the 15 point 7 assist 6 rebound on 3-for-14 shooting performance as the night he "quit." Except that was Game 5 and in the elimination game he threw out 27 points 10 assists and 19 rebounds while having to take 21 of the teams 73 total shots. He didn't have to take those shots you say! Consider the whole team made only a dismal 28 of those 73 shots and then realize that he had dished out 10 assists on those 28 makes. Add in the 8 shots he made and that leaves only 10 made shots that he didn't produce himself or hand out to his team. Admittedly the team went 24-of-34 from the stripe, LeBron contributed only 9-of-12 to that number. Tell me his teammates did not let him down with a straight face and I have the right to punch you in the mouth.
It almost seemed like this was the final test for the Cavs to win over his services for another contract. Had that sorry group of allegedly professional ball players stepped up this one time for him, after he carried them countless other times, maybe the King is still a Cavalier. After that game though he was gone without a doubt in my mind. To put up 27/10/19 and everyone still thrashed him for quitting on the team. It was hardly a team at all, it was one man versus an entire defense. For all the public knows his elbow was actually hurting too. Some point in the fourth quarter, while watching his expressions, something seemed off. This instantly became signs of him giving in to all those front runner fans and media personnel, but to me it seemed like a realization of sorts. He must have been thinking along the lines of: 'If I bust my ass and win this game, I'll have to do it all over again next game. Then next series I'll have to try and take out Dwight Howard and his stable of shooters by myself. After that it'll probably be off to battle the Black Mamba, and his team, alone. Then next year I gotta do it all over again.' Epiphanies usually don't come out of success.
Screwing over a team and a city is certainly something else altogether. Something I have a hard time defending or supporting. However part of the blame needs to rest on the higher ups, it is not the Kings job to secure good players for the team. It almost feels like I know Mr. James now after watching him battle so many nights on the court. When he was young and would have a turnover, then you'd see his brow narrow before he would go all out for a defensive stop and nothing in the world could stop him from getting to the rim to redeem himself. It was so vicious, yet it got everyone up and excited. His patient mind game behind the arc where he does a little foot jab a few times, just to scare the guy, already knowing he is about to rise up and drain the three in his defenders face. That ugly as sin turnaround that will arc to the rafters and fall right in. I know this man on some level, even his short computer generated remarks after the game. I loved that after he murdered Detroit he talked about how the hoop became an ocean and he felt like he could hit anything. It was so honest and different from his normal answers. It felt like LBJ was going to actually succeed in this noble quest to bring a title to Cleveland, be the King and rule the NBA. Instead the man child relied a bit too much on his overbearing physicality to take him to the promised land, a mistake many a player has made. Still fixable for the chosen one, talent starts you off but hard work and will power bring home the real spoils LeBron.
The media folk gave him this ego, a kid growing up how he did doesn't assume he is to be given anything. All the highlight videos starting from local news in northern Ohio, to the internet and to ESPN formed this swelled head. This wasn't like nowadays where it's just information overload and everyone is the greatest depending on what kid's name ESPN promoted last. Watch the documentary More Than A Game (IMDb link) and you can see him go from humble to arrogant. At a point he begins to sign his name as the King, a kid still in high school. Believable after witnessing the attention that gets lavished on him. This kid was given this moniker by the same ones criticizing him for texting other players by saying “Yo, this is King James.”
Now in the present I sympathize with LeBron, I wouldn't like being the bad guy. Not many people have the stomach for that, although in this new age it seems far too common. I make poor choices on occasion and live a far simpler life than LBJ. Yet he is terrorized because he made a bad PR move. It's a good thing his shoulders are that huge because he must feel like he has the weight of the world on them. LeBron is only some four odd years older than me so it is easy to place myself in his shoes and wonder the moves I would make as a city's savior. I can't say for certain I would have stayed, I would have definitely had words with the moronic Danny Ferry and the push over Mike Brown (now Kobe's new plaything). I would had even gone straight to the top to take that asshole Dan Gilbert down a peg. Not being one for theatrics, I don't think I would have gone on television to announce that I'm leaving to play with my friends. Now would that evoke the same pure hatred on me? I can only assume to some extent it would. Maybe earlier talks with management could have changed the whole process and prevented the drama-filled off season from ever happening.
Hopefully one day in the future all parties at fault will realize their mistakes. The fans for turning on LBJ in such a harsh way. The coaching staff for not implementing an offensive system working him off the ball on cuts and teaching him fundamentals or bringing in someone worth his respect. The management for failing to get even one All Star (Mo Williams being a way late alternate does not count) to come play with the best player in the league while he was here. Ownership for turning their back and being nothing more than a blank check to a player and a team that needed guidance in those foreign waters of success and fame. Most of all though LeBron James for not realizing we are more than the cardboard cutouts of NBA 2k12, that we have feelings. The hate would have come out no matter how you handled this decision I realize that, I really do, but you couldn't muster a meaningful apology? A little sympathy for leaving us when we made it so blatantly clear how much we loved you? I've treated one night stands with more dignity than you gave us. If you actually realize your mistake or not is of no concern to us, we do not see you in private with family and friends where you can say how you actually feel. We only saw your emotion on the court, but what we saw delighted us to no end. In this situation we just needed an honest apology and the jerseys that were burned would have only been by drama queens and drunk, uber-bitter idiots. Those quotes you gave saying you could see yourself playing for Cleveland again would have a hint of merit and bring joy to those able to look towards the future. Instead you turned on us more by stating you were from Akron, no mention about our good times. We were used to those automated answers for post game interviews but this was cold. Being a first love who's flame has faded hurts and having the heart breaker himself throw us out in to the cold Cleveland winter didn't help any. Stop me now, I shouldn't throw any more at the man. He lived a whole year as a villain, the enemy to anyone who was wronged before.
In retrospect I think LeBron James honestly believed in himself. Despite the spectacle and constant attention I assume he thought his new crew would really win it all and everything would revert back to normal. A return to the praise King James had gotten for years and years earlier. The loss to the Mavericks had to have an effect on him. After all Dwyane Wade beat this team himself a few years ago, how could an even better team lose? It ought to change him, he should be a different soul on the court next year. Maybe a wiser man, maybe the fun will come back to him like he wants. If I were a much more holy person I would pray that his cuts allow him to see the wrongs from his past. That it drives him to work hard and come out as a force of nature this year. That the wounds will heal. Simply put, for all his trials or tribulations he has hardly won anything of grandeur. Truthfully the King does deserve a ring.
The rafters will have a retired #23 LeBron James 2003-2010
Posted by: Jason
Writer's Note: This was written mainly in June after the '11 Finals, at this time I haven't read much in to the hate of LeBron in hundreds of internet articles. However I have engaged in many debates with friends and random Clevelanders about James and at least 97% disagreed with my forgiveness of him early on. I hope that percentage has come down since then, but the city was pretty pissed. I was able to convert a few folks with my strong thoughts though. I haven't yet, but do plan on reading The Whore of Akron (Amazon link) and hope I am not retreading or stepping on any toes here. Scott Raab easily knows more than I do on Mr. James. Also the ESPN interview with LBJ, where he has some seemingly heartfelt words about his mistakes, didn't come out until a few days before I finished the article which is why there isn't much mention of it in here.
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