He must have done something terrible because everything I have been reading and hearing for the past week has been about what a selfish, heartless, disloyal person he is. He’d be getting better press if he had swum to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico and personally punched a hole in that pipeline.
But, as nearly as I can tell, all LeBron did was what millions of Americans today only wish they could do: find a new job. After seven virtuoso professional basketball seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers, he now will be employed by the Miami Heat, which, it is assumed, should win every one of its games playing three-on-five.
Selfish?
Is it selfish to want to play on a championship team, which is, as I understand it, supposed to be the goal of every athlete? Perhaps if he had stayed in Cleveland, he might eventually have won one there, but there’s no guarantee of “eventually” in sports. One torn cartilage and you can kiss your eventually goodbye.
Heartless?
Sure, Cleveland fans loved him. And he more than returned their passion with seven crime-free, scandal-free, presumably drug-free seasons. Seven seasons of dazzling one-man highlight reels. Seven seasons of hope in an otherwise hopeless sports city.
Loyalty?
Get serious. This is the NBA, not the Boy Scouts of America. When’s the last time any professional team worried about loyalty if an aging star could be replaced with a younger, less expensive one?
Like all long-suffering Cleveland sports fans, I would have liked “The Decision” to be a different one.
But I still have nothing but admiration and awe for LeBron. What were the odds that an 18-year-old could leap from high school to basketball mega-stardom in a single bound? How many 25-year-olds do you know who have taken a team to the league finals, gone one-on-one with Warren Buffett, appeared on the cover of Vogue and also hosted “Saturday Night Live”? When so many sports headlines have to do with thugs and drugs, isn’t it refreshing that a fatherless kid from Akron’s tough streets could grow into the kind of role model for which everybody always seems to be clamoring.
So what I wish for LeBron James is nothing but the best. And that when his new team reaches the playoffs next season, it loses to the Cavs in four.
Contact D.L. Stewart at dlstew_2000@yahoo.com
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