Cavaliers Owner Bemoans James’s Departure
Sports in Cleveland, Ohio have become as much about suffering as they are about athletics. Of the city’s three major franchises, the most recent championship winners are the Browns, and that was in 1964. Cleveland teams’ brushes with success have generally been ended in the most agonizing of manners, and have been memorialised with terms such as "The Drive," "The Shot" and "The Fumble." On Thursday, it only got worse with what can now be remembered as “The Decision.”
Cleveland Cavaliers superstar and free agent LeBron James announced that he would not be returning to the team next season, instead opting to join Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade on the Miami Heat.
The city of Cleveland did not react favourably and moments after the announcement James jerseys were seen being burnt in the streets. Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, the last remaining possibility of semi-successful sports in northeastern Ohio, perhaps summarized the general sentiment of the entire city (and state) with his online tirade shortly after James’s announcement.
In his online statement, Gilbert referred to James as a “narcissistic”, “cowardly”, “former hero.” Gilbert also referred to James’s decision as a "shameful display of selfishness and betrayal."
In reference to James’s less-than-stellar performances that led to Cleveland’s lack of play-off success, Gilbert told an Associated Press reporter that the "heartless and callous" LeBron had “quit on the team.”
As Gilbert is a 48-year-old millionaire, his outburst may seem petty and childish, but is he actually wrong?
While it is understandable that basketball is LeBron James’s job and his decision is definitely the best in terms of his own self-interest, the impossibly unlike-able move actually makes Gilbert seem like the good person in the situation.
James is an Akron, Ohio native. Between high school and the Cleveland Cavaliers he has spent his entire career in Ohio, where he was deified from the moment he set foot on the court. After all that Ohio has done for James, it seems he does actually owe something to the state.
His move is less akin to a business decision than it is to ending a long-term relationship via a text message. He had plenty of time to properly notify the team, which had built its entire roster around him, that he had no intention of staying. Instead, James shrouded himself in mystery and got two ESPN specials.
With the triumvirate James completes in Miami, he has set himself up to finally win a championship. Unfortunately, he has also made himself the least likeable man in the NBA.
It is impossible, and downright shameful, for anyone outside of Miami to root for the Heat.
In sports, people always gravitate towards the concept of the underdog or a modest hero who you can relate to. The Miami Heat are the entire opposite of this. They come across as faceless, cold villains.
It’d be foolish and naive to say that James had to stay in Cleveland, but a city that has built its hopes and dreams around a single person did not deserve what James did. Fans had already been alienated by the seemingly self-indulgent free agency practices that LeBron was engaging in, including making representatives of six teams trek to Cleveland to pitch him reasons for joining their franchises. This was the last straw.
When Miami wins a championship, which they inevitably will due to half of the other NBA teams destroying their rosters in futile attempts to sign James, Bosh, and Wade, it will be the dullest championship victory of all. Anyone with a heart will be rooting against the Miami Heat and it is illogical to even consider otherwise.
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