LeBron James, Villain

The very first day of our New York trip, my buddy Matt and I dragged our wives to the NBA Store on Fifth Avenue.
For an NBA fan, this place is pretty much Mecca. Jerseys and shorts and hats for every team in the league. All kinds of memorabilia. There was no way I was walking out of that store without buying something.
And you know what I bought? A LeBron James Cleveland Cavaliers jersey I found on the discount rack for $30. It was the super-snazzy wine-and-gold road jersey, with the old Cavs logo on the chest. Just a great-looking piece, and an unbelievably good price for an authentic uniform.
What made this garment even more awesome to me is, it felt like I was making a political statement of sorts. Maybe political isn’t quite the right adjective, but I was taking a stand on an issue by buying that jersey. I don’t like that LeBron dissed his home-state fans. That was some mean stuff. And every time I wear that jersey, I’ll remember that it was the one he was always meant to wear.
Yup, I’m definitely chugging the Haterade when it comes to the artist formerly known as King James. I caught the first half of the Heat’s season-opener in Boston, and thoroughly enjoyed watching James, Wade and Bosh stumble around trying to figure out what their roles were as the boos rained down. I’ve also been doing a fair bit of reading on the Heat, and here are some of the more interesting factoids I’ve come across:
-- LeBron had eight turnovers against the Celtics, and nine the following evening against Philadelphia. In 548 career games coming into this season, he’d only had eight-plus turnovers 10 times. Interesting.
-- TNT, which broadcast the Celtics-Heat game, said 7.4 million people tuned in, making it the highest-rated regular season game on cable in NBA history. Interestingly, after Boston and Miami, the highest local ratings came out of Cleveland. Amazing how collective loathing will tend to galvanize people.
-- Cavs owner Dan Gilbert kind of went ballistic post-Decision, firing off an insanely angry letter. He went on ESPN radio after the Celtics game, and dropped this little nugget: "That was sort of a surreal experience . . . I guess they are only going to be 81-1 now.” Bazinga.
-- Bill Simmons caught both of the Heat’s first two games, and his fascinating take on the whole thing was on ESPN.com. Definitely worth a read. Perhaps the most interesting passage:
“The best thing about Pre-Decision LeBron? How he connected with his teammates and fans. He wanted to win, he wanted to have a good time, he wanted to put on a show, he wanted to be liked, and most of all, he wanted to amaze. Watching Post-Decision LeBron talk cryptically about taking mental notes, retweet vicious messages, broach the race card and prance around preseason games with an Eff You edge was like seeing Will Ferrell play a war criminal or something. It just didn't feel right.”
LeBron, if you happen to stumble onto this obscure blog in your cyberspace wanderings, this is why everybody is upset.

LeBron James, and the dis heard round the world

LeBron James is a member of the Miami Heat, but boy, was that ever cold!

The Global Icon not only dissed his home-state team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, he did it on national TV, essentially inserting the dagger slowly and then twisting it.

I don't have a massive problem with LeBron signing with the Heat - he's entitled to do whatever he believes will make him happy, I suppose. I will say, I'm a fan of the romantic notion of one player sticking with one team for his entire career - think Tim Duncan, Steve Yzerman, Derek Jeter, etc. I'm old-school like that.

Anyway, it's how LeBron orchestrated his move that gives me the heebie-jeebies. His break-up with the Cavaliers and their long-suffering fans was the equivalent of turning on the TV and seeing your girlfriend getting it on with Flavor Flav and Bret Michaels at the same time.

Well done, LeBron. In one fell swoop, you went from being almost universally beloved, to giving folks the notion you're kind of a dick.

In one sense, I completely understand LeBron's logic behind the ESPN production. It's his stated goal to become a global icon along the lines of Jay-Z, and the TV show was simply a means of leveraging his free agency to the greatest possible degree.

Even the timing of his announcement demonstrated a global media-savvy. The FIFA World Cup has completely enraptured the sporting audience planet-wide, so when did James choose to steal the spotlight? On Thursday - the day after the soccer semifinals had wrapped up, and before the hype for Sunday's final shifts into overdrive. And to his credit, it worked. For one hour, James owned the singular focus of sports fans, yours truly included.

But I just never figured he'd do his home-state fans like that. When it was announced he'd go on ESPN, I was convinced he was going to pick the Cavs. All the rumblings that the Heat were his imminent choice had to be an elaborately designed smokescreen. I didn't think he had a taste for torture.

The ironic part of all this is, James is making an exceedingly selfless decision in picking the Heat. Sharing the spotlight with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh will, to a degree, impact his ability to be "The Man." But we always knew LeBron was a good teammate. That's why we loved him.

But what we've always wanted from LeBron was for him to be the alpha male, the Chuck Norris, the ultimate beast of the NBA. What he's done, though, is establish himself as a follower. The Miami Heat have become Dwyane Wade's franchise over the past seven years, make no mistake about that. And Bosh picked the Heat more than 24 hours before LeBron, spurning The King's advances to join him in Cleveland.

What I'm trying to say is, Michael Jordan wasn't running around in the mid-80s looking to team up with Larry Bird or Magic Johnson. And while some might view LeBron-to-the-Heat as a selfless move, others might call it weak sauce.

At the end of the day, the James-Wade-Bosh trinity makes for a fascinating scenario for basketball fans. The North American sports scene has never really seen anything like it. The closest thing I can think of would be soccer's Galacticos - Real Madrid circa 2000-2005, featuring David Beckham, Zinedine Zindane, Ronaldo and Luis Figo, among others.

But before we see whether the Heat can become more than the sum of their formidable parts, let's shed a tear for fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers, victims of the most ruthless sports break-up in history.