Well… They were right.
“The Decision” would change the NBA.
But not in the way “they” expected. Both the mass media and fans alike expected the long awaited announcement from LeBron James to rock their world. A single free agent on the move could shift the power of an entire league to a city like New York or Chicago. It was a given, because as far as we knew the world’s greatest player was thinking about finding a new home.
What “they” didn’t expect (and what none of us expected for that matter), is this Decision would change the NBA for an entirely different reason. We learned something the past few weeks: The world’s most gifted athlete and talented basketball player was never the world’s greatest player.
He tricked us. He fooled us. He let us down.
Since that fateful telecast, everyone and their mother has argued (and rightfully so) that LeBron James turned his back on the city of Cleveland. But what they aren’t mentioning is that he also betrayed the rest of us. We believed that, in LeBron, we had the total package. A more selfless Kobe. A more powerful Wade. A physically dominating hybrid of Michael Jordan/Magic Johnson/Bo Jackson.
With one poor decision we learned that we were wrong.
Sure he can jump like MJ, run the court and dish it like Magic, and plow through people like Bo.
But he doesn’t have the GUTS to become the legends they are.
Next: How LeBron Fooled Us All… Most of us assumed the engine driving “The Decision” straight into a brick wall was LeBron’s narcissism and incessant need for the spotlight. I thought so, until I looked a little deeper.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that his national television debacle was (of all things) the easy way out. By inviting Jim Gray and a bunch of bored-to-tears Boys & Girls clubbers to the party, he could play us all like Gepetto.
He didn’t have to act like a man, which would mean standing face-to-face with a Cavaliers organization that coddled him for a decade. He didn’t have to be accountable, which would entail sitting at a podium and explaining to a devastated city why he was leaving home. The fact is, he set it up this way precisely so he didn’t have to do anything he didn’t want to do. It was his show.
And on his show, what does he announce? He’s taking his “talents” to Miami.
Let’s hope he doesn’t forget his ego.
But Miami? Really?
A city without incredible legacy (Chicago). A city without tremendous pressure (New York). A city without an inherent need to win (Cleveland).
He chose Miami: The city that is happiest with a bottle of rum in their hand and a gram of blow in their pocket. The city of Miami will never need LeBron to win the way Cleveland did. I mean, when it’s 75 degrees and sunny in February you have more to worry about than whether or not the Heat won last night. Don’t get me wrong, if LeBron and Co. win then it will certainly be a hell of a party. But if they lose? No big deal, everyone knows Miami is a Dolphins town anyway.
But most important, and the loudest voice in my head saying “no way he goes to Miami”, is above all else, Miami is Dwayne Wade’s team. No way LeBron goes to a team where he can’t ever be the man, right?
But I had to keep in mind, much like his ESPN dog and pony show, his decision was the easy way out. It’s the option with the least amount of risk. Think about it. Wade has been there the longest. Wade has the relationship with the city and fans. Wade has all the pressure to deliver in crunch time. All of which leads us to believe that Wade, not LeBron, will be the one to take the brunt of the criticism if they lose.
This frees up LeBron to do exactly what he wants to do: coast through games, wow the fans with his athleticism, ball it up with his boys, dance around when they win, and most of all, deflect the blame when they lose.
Miami is the move that makes the most sense to LeBron because, well, it’s the move that takes no guts. He might as well have announced he was taking his talents to Harlem…to play with the Globetrotters.
Then I started to put past moves LeBron has made in perspective.
Next: LeBron’s Checkered Past…
LeBron has let us down with awful decisions for years now, I don’t know why we thought this time around things would be any different.
Remember the Slam Dunk Contest? I always thought LeBron didn’t want to participate because he was “too big” for it. He didn’t need it. He was focused on bigger things. What never crossed my mind was this: What if he was simply afraid of the public’s reaction if he didn‘t win?
Even when he got excited about it at the 2009 All-Star Game, “throwing his hat in the ring” for 2010, he didn’t have the guts to go through with it when it came time to man up and formally join the ranks.
That doesn’t mean anything, does it? It’s only a dunk contest, right?
Remember his leaving the court after that 2009 loss to Orlando? Remember how he refused to shake hands with fellow Olympian Dwight Howard? Remember how he left the building after such a tremendous upset without answering a single question? Remember how Big Z and Mo Williams were left ducking for cover when the media storm hit their locker room in search of LeBron? Remember how he actually defended his actions the next day, declaring that he didn’t stick around because he is a winner?
We dismissed this and took his word for it because, why shouldn’t we? He’s the King.
Then came the infamous dunk at his summer camp. The one caught on tape. The one Nike quickly swept under the rug. Oh I see, it’s cool for LeBron to posterize people. It’s cool for LeBron to embarrass anyone in his path by dunking all over them. But if it happens to LeBron? If he’s the one embarrassed? Well that just cant happen: “I’m going to have to confiscate that cell phone, sir. You understand.”
What we failed to recognize with LeBron is this pattern of behavior goes back years and WE were the people enabling it. A free Hummer in high school, skipping the dunk contest, not shaking hands with Orlando, the disappearing dunk video, not telling Cleveland he was leaving, the hour long TV event, and finally deciding to join to D. Wade’s team. I mean, what did we really expect?
Going to Miami was never about wanting to win. It was about being afraid to lose.
LeBron James is without a doubt the most athletically gifted and spectacularly talented basketball player in the league. He makes the right decision at the right time in a way that I wish Kobe Bryant would do.
But when the chips are on the table, he simply doesn’t have the guts to get it done.
The entire city of Cleveland deserves better.
Actually, we all deserve better.
As a Laker fan I thought we FINALLY had a worthy foil for Kobe. An adversary that actually threatened our star’s greatness. Since Kobe came into the league in 1996, he’s dismissed all adversaries one by one: Iverson, Carter, McGrady, Ray Ray, Pierce, Wade… he proved himself as the superior player in every instance. In fact, what makes Kobe’s quest so impressive is he was never even competing against them, he was competing against history. Against West, Baylor and Jordan.
Then came LeBron, and everything changed. This was different. LeBron was bigger, stronger and faster. LeBron could score AND pass. LeBron might be too much to handle. LeBron might be better than Kobe.
And just when I thought it had happened, that LeBron has surpassed Kobe as the best player in the league, we found out that LeBron didn’t have the one thing you need to succeed at the highest level: heart.
He simply didn’t have the heart to be the man.
And that’s the saddest part of all this.