It makes sense that such a hyperbolic anointment would automatically induce backlash…. Especially with pretty-boy actors, there are people lined up to see their lives fall apart… They anoint you sexiest guy alive and suddenly the public thirst for schadenfreude and to see you fail kicks in.
- Christopher Kelly
[A]t the end of the day, all the people that were rooting on me to fail, at the end of the day, they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life that they had before they woke up today. They have the same personal problems they had today. I’m going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things that I want to do with me and my family and be happy with that. They can get a few days or a few months or whatever the case may be on being happy about not only myself, but the Miami Heat not accomplishing their goal. But they have to get back to the real world at some point.
- Lebron James
I’ve become convinced that if there’s one universal American character flaw, it’s the appreciation of (and desire for) schadenfreude. We just LOVE to see people fail, don’t we? We revel in seeing the rich, the famous, and/or the accomplished fall from their perches. We find unbridled joy in the sorrow of those who’ve risked and lost…all while we sit in the padded comfort of our man-caves, sucking down Bud Lights and eating pizza and buffalo wings, risking nothing except heartburn and constipation.
Perhaps it makes us feel better about ourselves and our own seemingly pointless and anonymous middle-class existence when those who strive in the public eye fail gloriously. Perhaps it reminds us that we all put our pants on the same way. After watching Lebron James and the Miami Heat lose the NBA Finals to the Dallas Mavericks, though, it seems people in Cleveland (the immaturity capitol of America) have taken schadenfreude from the realm of the sublime to that of the patently ridiculous.
Yes, one could argue that James’ reality show/farce, “The Decision” was in retrospect a spectacularly bad move. Let’s not forget, though, that the proceeds from that fiasco went to charity. What people in Cleveland have focused relentlessly on is their unfounded and unreasonable sense of abandonment. It’s as if they view James as owing them something…when in reality he did what any free agent professional athlete has an absolute right to- he made the decision he felt was in his best professional interest. Period. Yeah, I know; things were SO much easier when athletes remembered their place as the property of communities, right?
It seems as if the entire city of Cleveland is engaging in a massive schadenfreude orgasm at James’ expense. Really? That’s what y’all are going with? Rampant immaturity and childishness? Isn’t it about time y’all just got over yourselves? You live in Cleveland. You may think that you live in God’s Country…but (trust me on this; I’ve been to Cleveland several times and I know of which I speak) it’s Cleveland, not a place where many people would choose to live and work.
I can understand a generalized sense of disappointment that James decided on Miami over Cleveland. Really, though…who among us wouldn’t have made the same decision? Hmm…wintering in frigid, snowy Cleveland? Or in sunny and warm Miami? If you have to think about that one for more than a nanosecond, you’re either lying or you’ve never been to Cleveland. Yes, I can understand being disappointed if you’re a Cavaliers fan, but you have no right to hold James responsible for…well, whatever injury you seem to think you’ve suffered by him “abandoning” you.
Lebron James made a business decision. Period. Get over it. Judging by the Cavaliers’ record of futility this season, it would be hard to argue that James made a poor decision (except perhaps in the way he went about announcing it). Either way, James made the decision that he had the absolute right to make as a free agent. You don’t have to like it, but no one has the right to vilify James for doing what any professional athlete would have done- make the best decision for his career and his family.
By the way, y’all…indentured servitude is no longer legal….
Yes, James and the Heat lost the Finals. It happens. Here’s the thing, though; they tried. They made the effort. They made the sacrifices and did the work necessary to get there…which is more than you can say about the whiners and crybabies in Cleveland and their overdeveloped sense of entitlement.
He’s a thought for Cleveland: get over yourselves. Lebron James owed you nothing, and while you were bitching and moaning, he was trying to win a championship. You know as well as I do that it wasn’t going to happen in Cleveland. Get on with your lives…and lose the schadenfreude and the overdeveloped sense of abandonment. It only makes you look small, vindictive, and immature. Besides, if Lebron James is the biggest problem you have in your life…well, life is pretty damned sweet, don’tchathink?
