This summer, the basketball world was shaken up like never before. LeBron James, a strong contender for the title of greatest basketball player ever lived, and many other players, entered the free agency. This means their contracts had expired with their current teams and they could shop themselves around. Many teams approached LeBron – the Cleveland Cavaliers (his current team), the New Jersey Nets, the Chicago Bulls, the Miami Heat, the New York Knicks, etc. No one knew where LeBron was going and everyone was dying to find out. Would he stay with the Cavs, the team he had been on for 7 years and promised a championship title too? Would he go the the Bulls and try to follow Michael Jordan’s footsteps? Would he go to the Knicks and take over New York City? Or would he go down to Miami where his friend Dwyane Wade (also a free agent at the time) may be staying? It was all the basketball world could talk about. It got so big that LeBron (or his agent) decided to hold an one-hour special on ESPN called “The Decision.” Proceeds would go to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and LeBron would finally let the world know where he was going to play ball. The show aired and LeBron told the world he was going to “take his talents to South Beach.” He, along with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh (another notable free agent) were all going to play for the Miami Heat.
The basketball world exploded. Cleveland suffered a national break-up and fans felt like they were stabbed in the back. How could LeBron, a boy who grew up in Ohio, do that to them? LeBron hadn’t told ANYONE he wouldn’t be staying in Cleveland: not the coaches, his fellow players, the president – nobody. They all found out together with the rest of us. Those fans and the franchise were heartbroken. For those of you who don’t know, Cleveland has a sports curse and it’s so bad that each curse has its own name. LeBron was their only chance to bring a NBA championship to their city. And he ended that, publically and without remorse. Even now, many months later, LeBron won’t completely apologize for how he handle his decision. (There are a lot of other reasons why people were upset that LeBron chose to go to Miami. People thought he may be taking the easy way out to get a championship ring or that he may not be as competitive as we all thought. Both those issues are outside the scope of this post)
Sports fan everywhere felt this blow. Like I wrote about in my first post, fandom is a crazy thing. Us fans are loyal to the bitter end and we hate to see our star franchise player leave. But we understand that it happens. Sports is a business as well as entertainment. But never before had a player as big as LeBron anger an entire city, an entire state, an entire country before. No player had ever made his decision to switch teams as public or as personal as LebBron. People who were LeBron fans before are no longer LeBron fans now. People love to hate him now. Before, he was everyone’s favorite player. Now, he’s hated by all. The entire NBA finally has an evil team to rally around. If the Miami Heat came out this season and dominated like everyone thought they would (because they had 2 star players and another really really good one), everyone would have hate them. Instead, the Heat came out and “struggled” (they’re 12-8 right now. The defending NBA champions, the Lakers, are 14-6), and everyone still hates them. No matter what the outcome of this season is, the Heat will be the enemy.
On Thursday night, the Heat were scheduled to play the Cavaliers…in Cleveland. It was a huge game. LeBron would be returning home. The arena prohibited anyone from wearing LeBron shirts or jerseys, sold all drinks in paper cups (so they couldn’t hurt anyone), and increased security. 20,000 angry and pissed off Cavalier fans showed up with signs that said “Quitness” and t-shirts that said “betrayed” and even chanted “Akron hates you.” The crowd booed loudly whenever LeBron touched the ball. When the Heat announced their starting line-up, Darth Vader’s theme song was playing in the stadium. It was brutal. The fans were trying to extract revenge on LeBron. They were trying to make him pay for what he did to them. He would suffer like they did all summer.
And what happened? The Heat won by 28. LeBron finally played like his old self and scored a season high 38 points. He crushed those fans even more.
I, a huge basketball fan, never formulated a hard opinion on LeBron and his decision. I decided to see what happened and how the season played out. Yes, the Heat have been struggling (having 2 leaders who play the same position creates a difficult team dynamic), but are they really as evil and bad as everyone is making them out to be? Was LeBron really so wrong to want to go to sunny Miami and play basketball with his friends and share the pressure he faces with others?
Watching the game on Thursday night, Reggie Miller (a commentator and former basketball great) said something along the lines of “Get over it Cleveland. Move on.” While I can completely understand why Cleveland fans are so upset…I also feel like they need to get over it. The Cavaliers team that came out on Thursday night did not play good basketball. And I think that’s because those fans came out to bash LeBron and not to support their team. Yes, sure, I know they wanted their team crush the Heat. But I, in my non-expert opinion, think they were so focused on making LeBron and the Heat suffer that they forgot to cheer their team on. And that’s not right. Their boos and chants just fueled LeBron’s fire and made him play better.
So, I pose the question: should we forgive LeBron? I won’t lie – as a sports fan, it’s not easy to get over painful events right away. It takes time. It takes success of your current team. But I have a very strong feeling that Cleveland may NEVER forgive LeBron. I don’t think LeBron apologizing at this point would even help the situation. Cleveland is far too hurt. But what about non-Cleveland fans? They weren’t betrayed by LeBron. He didn’t leave their team. But people still hate him and still want to see him fail. He’s the enemy now, and if you try to say otherwise, you’re entering a firey debate. Should us NBA fans be the bigger man and say “You know what LeBron, you messed up. But we’re over it. We don’t care anymore. So please, go out and play basketball like you used to. That’s what we care about and that’s what we want to see.”?
I say yes. What about you?
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