In deciding to exit the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat and leaving his home town fans hurt, angry, and probably unforgiving, LeBron James has gone from hero to villain in record time.
On ESPN.com Bill Simmons has posted some of the email reactions to James' decision. Most are worth a read, but one in particular stands out; it sums up the emotions felt by many in Cleveland and Northeastern Ohio, and perhaps throughout most of the Buckeye State.
It's from a man identified only as "Seth" from Columbus.
"I think this is the first time in history one man managed to destroy an entire city by himself. Even the Enola Gay had a flight crew."
WITNESS.....And The Prodigal Son journeyed to Babylon by the Sea, and henceforth he was vilified by his kinsmen .
The owner who packed up the original Cleveland Browns in 1995 to become the Baltimore Ravens, and earning the hatred of a city and region, and Browns fans throughout the sports universe, is off the hook just a bit. Modell will not be the most hated man in the history of Cleveland sports.
Tonight that mantle has been transferred to Cleveland's onetime favorite son.
LeBron will exit Northeastern Ohio, and will leave the Cleveland Cavaliers to join Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh on the Miami Heat.
And with his announcement this evening on national TV "King James'" crown has become more than a little tarnished. He may win multiple championships in Miami with the Heat, but the cost is one he may not thought of.....it will come with the loss of his hometown, maybe forever. A city and region that has become a national punchline will take yet another hit. Cleveland and northeastern Ohio was among the areas hit hardest by America's economic hard times, though Cleveland's troubles can be measured in generations. LeBron James was that light in the darkness. He was the manchild from Akron who became the greatest sports star Cleveland had known since the immortal Jim Brown in the 1960's. James was not only the face of the franchise, he was the face of the city. He was the favorite son.....and now the Chosen One has decided to turn his back on the family that desperately wanted him to stay.
The closest equivalent in recent years to the feeling of betrayal that might be felt in Cleveland might be illustrated in the exit of West Virginia University football coach Rich Rodriguez from WVU to the Maize and Blue of Ann Arbor and the Michigan Wolverines. "Rich Rod" was a native and proud West Virginian, who claimed that his tenure in Morgantown was his dream job. But he took the bigger payday and left for Michigan in an acrimonious move, and overnight became the most vilified man in the Mountain State. The town that once had a sign announcing his birthplace found it vandalized, almost immediately.
Sadly, and irrationally, the same is probably in store for LeBron James and all things associated with him in Northeastern Ohio. Yes, professional sports is a business....and any fan who thinks that loyalty is a two way street is delusional. LeBron James is entitled to go and make the best deal possible for himself....that's the way the world works.
But in LeBron James' case, the exit for Miami- to win now- will leave a bitter taste that may never go away in Northeastern Ohio. And watching his press conference this evening I actually felt a little sorry for LeBron; he doesn't seem to realize how negative the reaction is going to be. I don't get the sense he comprehends that he can never truly go home again.
The story will never be complete for LeBron James and his legacy no matter how many championships he may win in Miami. The script was SUPPOSED to have James winning in his hometown, lifting the franchise and a downtrodden region on his shoulders and becoming an immortal. He was supposed to be the young Prince who pulls the sword from the stone who truly became The King.
And now, sadly, he has shown what he truly is.....a businessman looking at the bottomline and doing what was best for his own interests.
Ayn Rand would have been proud of him.
And I'm sure the city of Miami is.
UPDATE!
Click here for a reaction to James' decision by the Akron Beacon-Journal's Bob Dyer.
Below, video of the angry reaction of Cleveland fans.
By all accounts, LeBron James is a pretty good guy....but I'll cut to the chase anyway; I'm as sick of the LeBron free agent sideshow as just about anyone on the planet.
Ever since Mr. James opted for free agency, we've had speculation about where the Cleveland Cavaliers superstar will playing next; in Chicago, where he could compete on the same floor as his idol Michael Jordan did, and perhaps return the Bulls to past glory.
Or to New Jersey, to turn around the moribund Nets.....perhaps to New York and Madison Square Garden, basketball's Mecca, which in recent years has become an elephant's graveyard, where fading stars come to pick up paychecks on bad teams with clueless ownership.
Of course there's Miami, where Chris Bosh will being teaming with the returning Dwayne Wade.
Or, he could stay in Cleveland where he is not just King James; He is The Anointed One. If The Blessed Trinity were ever to be expanded to a Quartet, shrines to Lebron James- complete with relics- would saturate all of Northeastern Ohio, with a mythology and tales of miracles and healings gushing forth like waters from a spring.
But alas, it already has gotten to be tooooo much.
Tomorrow night Lebron will make (supposedly) the announcement of where he will play basketball in the future, in a special hour long program on ESPN, hosted by Jim Gray, scheduled to be broadcast on Thursday night. Spur of the moment programming? I don't think so. This was probably in the works for a long, long time. And I'll be very surprised if there are not one or more new LeBron commercials for the various products he has a contract with.
This is the culmination of weeks of speculation, and announcements that no announcement was forthcoming. If you thought the annual Brett Favre "will he or won't he" pressers were mindblowing time wasters, these past few weeks of LeBron sightings, subtle clues, rallies for him to come, rallies for him to stay, billionaires and elected officials groveling at his feet were theater of the absurd that no screenwriter could conjure up....he wouldn't be able to sell the script.
Anyway tomorrow the waiting will be all over......the NBA will officially cease to be a sport and become a reality show. But it probably was all along.
