Is LeBron James really a villain, he is painted to be? - NBA Special Report
LeBron James was once the heartthrob of Cleveland. However, all that changed in the offseason and he became the ultimate villain of the city after announcing that he was taking his talents to the South Beach. The two-time MVP James
faced a lot of disrespect and vilification during the course of the regular season and that disrespect reached a brand new height when James defied all odds to make his way into the NBA Finals.
However, he fell at the last hurdle again.
When James was struggling against the Dallas Mavericks, the whole of Cleveland was watching. Not because they wanted to keep track on their one time hero, but because they wanted to see him fail, they wanted to see him suffer and
they wanted the King dethroned yet again.
They got what they desired for. But, is James really to blame for the whole ‘The Decision’ episode.
After given Cleveland Cavaliers seven valuable years and guiding the team into the play-offs five times consecutively, James failed to accomplish his biggest dream - a championship ring. Reason; he had nobody to watch his back.
There is no doubt that LeBron was the lone performer in the team. He took the Cavaliers on the top in the Eastern Conference single-handedly, not once but twice. But, when he looked for his team to step up, he never found anyone.
Never!!
James is the finest player that has graced the league ever since Michael Jordan decided that he had nothing more to prove. A player of such calibre doesn’t want to see himself finishing his career without a championship. He yearned
for help in Cleveland, but it never came. If teams’ future depends on their players than a players’ career is also dependant on the team.
Cleveland Cavaliers did a poor job in providing the level of competitiveness that James desired. This ultimately compelled LeBron to take his talent somewhere else. After being knocked out by the Boston Celtics in Eastern Conference
semifinals, James was looking for hope and in Miami Heat he found plenty.
However for the very day, James set foot on the court in Heat colours, he received abomination from not only the fans of Cleveland, but from fans in the whole NBA. Admitted that, he and his PR agency could have handled the transfer
a bit better, but this is no way to treat the best in his generation.
Big players switching teams or thinking about it is nothing new. Los Angeles Lakers’ legendary player Kobe Bryant, who started his career with Lakers and won a number of championships there was on the cusp of leaving when in 2007
when he was not satisfied with the supporting cast.
Bryant was so frustrated due to lack of support back then and even after winning three NBA titles with the team, he had no problem expressing that he don’t want to be a Laker as he said “I'll go play on Pluto”.
However, Kobe remained in the team because Lakers provided him what he wanted. Similarly, if Cleveland had ensured what James wanted, they might have won this year’s championship with him.
However in James’ case, Dan Gilbert never responded or even looked like responding.
This shows that if a player like Bryant can think about switching teams when he don’t have people around him he can rely on, why not James. So the fans need to move on and better except the fact that James’ frustration got him
out of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
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