Not Very Kingly of Him

I bet you think this is going to be an Obama post based on that title. Well, you'd be wrong...this is a post on Lebron James (a.k.a King James). I would have posted sooner but I've been at Cub Scout camp with my oldest son. For the non-sports fans out there, Lebron James was a basketball player with the Cleveland Cavaliers until last Thursday when he announced he was leaving Cleveland as a free agent to join Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh on the Miami Heat. Lebron has won the last 2 league MVP (most valuable player) awards.

From a basketball standpoint this makes sense. Lebron James and Dwayne Wade are possibly the 2 best players in basketball, though Kobe Bryant fans would argue with that. Chris Bosh is in the next tier of great players in the NBA. With the 3 of them together, they should be formidable and should win many championships. Dwayne Wade already has 1 title, in 2006 when he pretty much carried the Miami Heat to a title. Lebron James got close in Cleveland, but never closed the door. Chris Bosh has been stuck in Toronto and hasn't come close at all.

So, from a basketball standpoint, I understand Lebron's decision. He wants to win titles and he's going to be playing with a proven winner. I even understand it from a personal standpoint. Miami is a better market than Cleveland, and frankly the taxes are better in Florida.

However, we have to consider that Lebron James was raised in Akron, Ohio and, up until last Thursday, he was a hero in Cleveland and really all of Ohio. They had a 10 story mural of him in downtown Cleveland. Cleveland is a sports town that is starved for something good to happen, and Lebron James was going to bring that to them. In short, he was very important to Cleveland and all of Ohio.

Considering all of that, I have serious problems with the way King James went about making this move. He agreed to do a 1 hour show on ESPN during which he announced his decision. He didn't let the management in Cleveland know what his decision would be, so they had to watch the show and find out. And when he finally did make his announcement, he told a national audience that he was going to Miami...basically sticking it to Cleveland on national TV. Clevelanders were devastated, and the Cavaliers are left with a bunch of below average NBA talent. Pretty classless in my opinion.

Lebron James may win multiple titles in Miami, in fact he should win multiple titles in Miami. But, he lost a chance to be a role model in a city for years to come, and he lost millions of fans that he may never get back. I hope it's worth it to him.