(Disclaimer: my former employer’s corporate headquarters in in Cleveland, and I’ll have to own up to reveling in a wee bit o’ Schadenfruede this morning. Oh, yes I am.)
CLEVELAND — Angered and betrayed by LeBron James’ decision to leave for Miami, Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert accused the NBA’s MVP of quitting during the playoffs. Gilbert, who posted a letter to Cavs fans on the team’s website shortly after James announced his plans to sign with the Heat, told The Associated Press late Thursday night that it’s “accountability time” for James. “He has gotten a free pass,” Gilbert said in a phone interview with The AP. “People have covered up for [James] for way too long. Tonight we saw who he really is.”…. Gilbert said James quit on the Cavs during their second-round series against the Boston Celtics, who rallied from a 2-1 deficit to eliminate Cleveland…. Gilbert, who has owned the Cavs for five years, said he was most disappointed by James’ behavior in the months leading up to the superstar’s announcement that he is going to Miami to play with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Gilbert said James never returned a single phone message or text since the end of the season and that the Cavs were not informed of James’ decision until he went on the air…. In the letter posted on the Cavaliers’ website Gilbert called the process on James’ free agency “narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his ‘decision’ unlike anything ever ‘witnessed’ in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment.”
OK, so LeBron James is going to Miami. Silly me; I’d always thought it was the right of an athlete in his free agency to be able to determine where he’s going to ply his trade. Well, that generally is true…unless your name happens to be LeBron James, and then an entire state claims ownership of you. Funny; I’d thought slavery and indentured servitude has left us in the 19th century.
Once people here in Portland figured out that James wasn’t going to be playing for the Trailblazers next year, most folks tuned out. Just another spoiled, obscenely overpaid professional athlete making what he can while he, right? Who among us wouldn’t be looking out for #1 in the same situation? And let’s be real: Miami…or Cleveland? If you have to think about that for more than a nanosecond, you clearly have never been to either city. I’ve been to both (Cleveland far too often, and I worked in Miami for a month)…and from where I sit, there IS no choice.
What I find so disturbing about this process is how strongly people in northern Ohio feel betrayed. The letter to Cavaliers fans from team owner Dan GIlbert is the height of whiny immaturity, reminiscent of a plantation owner who’s just lost his most valuable slave. Memo to Gilbert: James was an employee, not your property. You had a business relationship with James; he decided that the best thing for his career was to work for another employer. You have no right to claim injury, nor any convincing reason to piss and moan like a spoiled rich kid. Next time, how about thinking before you hit “SEND”?
Of course, Gilbert isn’t the only Clevelander claiming that they’ve been betrayed by James. One columnist even went so far as to claim that James, by his decision, inflicted “needless pain on the region that raised and loved him”. OK, you’ll have to pardon my ignorance here, but how is it that anyone in Ohio (or anyone else) has ANY claim at all on LeBron James? Do y’all think you own him because he grew up in Akron? How is James any different from any other athlete who leaves home to play the sport he loves? Or do y’all not realize just how thoroughly small and provinical your reactions are revealing you to be?
Here’s a message for all y’all in Cleveland and Cavaliers fans around the country: you’re certainly free to your feelings, but there’s one thing y’all need to keep in mind:
LEBRON JAMES OWES YOU NOTHING.
You’re free to your opinion. Vilify and demonize James if you must, but you don’t own or control Lebron James. You have no stake in his decision, nor any claim on it. At the most basic level, James is a businessman who made a business decision…in the same way that you or I would. You may not (and clearly don’t) like it, but we all know what opinions are like, right?
Where do you get off calling James a traitor…or worse? How can you justify the vitriol and the bile with which you now regard your former “hero”? How small must you be to think that you possess the absolute right to react as if you’ve been betrayed? Think about it; if this is what passes for disappointment and betrayal in your life, then you lead a very charmed existence…and you really need to get over yourself.
Perhaps one day soon, Dan Gilbert, the columnists at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and Cavaliers fans across northern Ohio will wake up and realize just how thoroughly and completely immature and unreasonable they’re being. Who among us wouldn’t make a similar decision when the #1 criteria is doing what’s right for #1? And you claim injury when faced with the reality that LeBron James did just that…and made a decision you don’t agree with? How arrogant and immature is that?
Cleveland doesn’t own LeBron James…and James owes nothing to Cleveland. Though fans are loathe to admit it, this was at its most basic a business relationship. People supported James and bought tickets to Cavaliers games because they chose to, because it made them feel better about themselves. They were entertained, but it was a choice they made. James made his own choice, and while people in northern Ohio don’t have to like it, there’s one thing they all really need to do:
GROW UP. (And remember, you live in Cleveland. If you had the opportunity to make millions while living in Miami…well, need I say anything more?)
