“I am going to take my talents to South Beach…” – Lebron James, July 8, 2010
The long national sports nightmare that has been the Lebron James free agent saga, or as it was titled in the infomercial/“The Bachelor”-like concoction broadcast on ESPN last night, “The Decision”, has come to a conclusion.
The most lasting impressions: kind of sad and very weird.
From a Boys and Girls Club in Greenwich, Connecticut, amid many tweens and a tall, transparent cooler of conspicuously placed Vitamin Water, the NBA superstar James announced:
“In this Fall, I am going to take my talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat.“
James looked uncomfortable prior to and after his “reveal” that he would join his good friends Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. Perhaps this discomfort stemmed from a deep-seated understanding that as a son of northeast Ohio, his departure would devastate the long-suffering and enormously supportive sports fans there.
It is unfair to criticize James for choosing to play for another team. He was an exemplary player who resurrected the moribund Cavaliers franchise during his seven years on the team. But his choice to announce his departure from Cleveland as a form of cheap and awkward entertainment was self-serving, unnecessary, and cruel. For that, James has taken a huge dose of severe and fair criticism, which could ultimately redefine how he will be remembered.
Even weirder than the James-led spectacle was the petulant reaction of Cavaliers’ owner Dan Gilbert. Sports team owners sometimes act foolishly; New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner’s 1981 lie that he punched out two Los Angeles Dodgers fans on an elevator and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban’s nightly behavior berating referees are just two quick examples. But Gilbert set the bar for team owner lunacy a few feet higher last night, posting this can-he-be serious Open Letter to Fans–in Comic Sans font–on the Cleveland Cavaliers web site. It begins:
As you now know, our former hero, who grew up in the very region that he deserted this evening, is no longer a Cleveland Cavalier.
This was announced with a several-day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his “decision” unlike anything ever “witnessed” in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment.
Gilbert then treads into the realm of ALL CAPS to amplify his claims of “cowardly betrayal”, to support his point (?) about the need to die before going to heaven, and to make a “GUARANTEE” that his Cleveland Cavaliers will win an NBA championship before the “self-titled ‘king’ [James] wins one.”
After having a night to sleep on it, Gilbert returned with another shot of vitriol in a radio interview this morning, saying of James, “He has gotten a free pass…People have covered up for him for way too long.” Gilbert went on to lob the most serious charge one can make against an athlete–that he lacks heart, saying, “He quit…Not just in Game 5, but in Games 2, 4 and 6. Watch the tape. The Boston series was unlike anything in the history of sports for a superstar.” Gilbert did not elaborate on why he was eager and ready to sign such a player to a maximum-salary contract, likely for six years and worth $125 million.
I saw much of those games and while James certainly played poorly, it did not appear to me that he quit. Instead, a talented, hard-working, well-coached, veteran Celtics team focused on stopping James, the only Cleveland player capable of jamming the square peg Cleveland squad (constructed by a general manager and led by a coach who were both hired, and recently fired, by Gilbert) through the round hole of high-level playoff competition.
Beyond the strange display of public hostility displayed by Gilbert–whose entrepreneurial spirit was honed as a convicted bookie while a student at Michigan State University in the early 80s–was his dubious “take it to the bank” promise that the Cavaliers will win an NBA championship before the James-Wade Heat do. I am uncertain how successful the Heat will be with their new superstar core–particularly if these high salaries force them to round out their roster with some guys from the Dade County ‘Y‘–but I’d be shocked if the Cavaliers win more games in the next two seasons combined than Miami wins next year. When that happens, Gilbert should consider writing another public letter to Cleveland fans, this time apologizing for the depressingly bad basketball they just endured.
