As the dust was starting to settle on the Lebron James decision of leaving Cleveland, someone decided to add a little water and create mud.
Cleveland Cavalier owner Dan Gilbert even decided to sling some as he showed his displeasure with the “The Decision.” Gilbert went on to call James’ decision cowardly and even accused Lebron of tanking a playoff series. My, oh my, what a thing to do – which brings me to a question for Mr. Gilbert.
If LeBron was a coward, and – according to Gilbert – a cheater of the game, not to mention being guilty of other charges, why would he want such a bad guy on his team?
The answer is very simple…money.
Gilbert will see his team lose at least 150 million dollars in value with the loss of LeBron, but lets go back to “The Decision.”
LeBron and his crew thought it was a good idea to go on ESPN and make announcement on where he was going to play.
The plan was to donate the revenue from advertising sales to the Boys and Girls Club of America. Noble? How about LeBron and maybe his new team combining to write a check to this charity and stop trying to use the kids to shield them from criticism?
Let’s get to the Decision. I started to wonder why there is such an uproar Lebron leaving Cleveland. At last check Lebron played for the Cavs seven years. In that time the Cavs got to the finals just once. They went out and overpaid for players, tried to revive careers of broken down players and just plain messed it up in their search to find players that would compliment Lebron’s skill set. You see in the NBA, championships are won with more than on star player. Pick a great team and I will show you a dynamic duo. Russell and Cousy, West and Chamberlain, Magic and Kareem, Julius and Moses, Kobe and Shaq and the list goes on and I have not even turned back the hands of time where I can bring up the ABA. With that said, the Cavs could not make it happen so what is Lebron to do? He did the smart thing. He got the Hell out of Dodge and who can blame him? Lebron James wants to win and he put his money where his mouth is only he took less money to be part of a championship team and after all that is what he is in the business of basketball for to win championships for his team be it Cleveland, Miami or where ever he will get his mail in the future.
Lebron James has every right to move from one team to another once his contractual obligation is complete. This is what Curt Flood’s challenge of the reserve clause in baseball was all about. Not to be owned for life where the athlete has no right to move from one team to another. Apparently Mr. Gilbert was not aware of that generation. James chose in his opinion the best option to win with friends. Mind you Chicago may have been better suited for him and may be closer to winning but this may have been more about relationships than talent as James is close to Chris Bosh and Dewayne Wade and wanted to play with them and who other than Dan Gilbert could blame him?
He is young and talented and gave Cleveland every chance to get it figured out. Gilbert never mentioned that James when given the chance to leave earlier in his career decided to take a short term deal to give the Cavs a chance to fill in the missing pieces. They failed hence hello Miami. Never before have we seen a situation like this where a free agent was sought after with such vigor. As for the circus that led up to it… I was amused by the whole notion that an event could be concocted in the manner that it was. It’s success being the third highest rated program on cable TV left the cynics somewhat speechless but we are in the era of reality TV where the ?€?dumb down?€? effect is ever more in play these days. While NBA Commissioner David Stern said that the TV show was ill advised, I would ask what event did the NBA have planned in a slow time of the year other than free agency itself that was going to draw such attention to the NBA as this event? Oh, there isn’t one. Thank you very much.
Here is the bottom line on Lebron and “The Decision.” A young man had a chance to win and make a splash doing it. In the era of the alleged greedy rich athlete we had three players who thought it would be better to take less money in order to have a chance to win a championship. Wow, what a novel idea. The problem is that Lebron, Wade and Bosh did this without the blessing of the so called hierarchy of pro sports. They are new to the seen and they have no problem playing by their rules which has left out a lot of people who are accustomed to being in the loop. Now they are upset that their piece of property did it his way and they cannot deal with it. I get it and you should too if you have been paying attention.
As for Dan Gilbert, if you are a free agent and you saw how he treated Lebron, why would you want to play for such a cad? His feelings were hurt that Lebron didn’t call him to tell him something that he should have known well before last Thursday. Gilbert went on to say that the Cleveland Cavaliers will win a championship before Lebron. This is Cleveland we are talking about. A city that has not won anything since 1964 and now that the best player in the history of Cleveland has moved on only goes from improbable to impossible. For those Cleveland bans who made it their business to go to the local bar where the TV cameras were going to be and cry and scorn Lebron, where is all that love that you claimed you had for The King? Funny how quickly that changed. Maybe that is why Cleveland is a city of sports losers.
In fairness if the way the Lebron thing was handled in any other city the same reaction by fans would have taken place. As for getting camera time burning a Lebron jersey, not to worry. The Miami Heat version will exceed any sales records Cleveland may have had. The Heat will gladly take James, Bosh and Wade and take their chances in filling out their roster. They will be a marked team for sure but the Lakers will still be the team everyone will be shooting for when it comes to hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy. Have at it boys. As for Cleveland and their owner, more beer to cry in is needed.
