The fallout from “The Decision” has been extraordinarily blown out of proportion. My Mom had a take (”I think the whole thing was disgusting.”), the BBC wrote a column, and even US magazine broke news about LeBron’s South Beach bash all but ensuring the “King’s” departure from the poor Cavaliers. There was a three hour Sportscenter about free agency followed by the anti-climactic, sleep-inducing show in which LeBron finally revealed his decision to severely handicap his potential. And we still don’t have a solution to the oil spill.
Ok, I’m not about to preach or get all high and mighty. I fell for it too. I listened to Chris Broussard explain 8 times in about 10 minutes that all sources indicate Miami was the choice before sitting through a show my Dad described as “painful”, only to discover that, yes, LeBron was heading to the Heat. They fooled us all. ESPN and co owned the trending topics on twitter, had everyone talking and tuning in to a worthless thirty minute LeBron fest. We’re to blame, really. We bought it.
So the backlash towards LeBron is somewhat a disappointment at ourselves for believing LeBron to be different. After the love parade for LeBron when he traveled to most opposing cities, him choosing to make the rich richer feels like we were stabbed in the back. Dubbing him the next Jordan and constantly comparing him to Kobe meant we thought he would follow in their footsteps and lead their own franchise to the top, not fit into the shadow of another great player.
Had he stayed in Cleveland, the show would have been forgiven. Everyone would have thought he did the honorable thing, staying in his hometown and carrying the city on his back, rather than turn his back on the city and becoming LeBronadict Arnold (courtesy of Phil Siegelman).
Correct me if I’m wrong, I am a Knicks fan, but I think a move to New York would have been accepted as well: he would have been the first real superstar for the Knicks since possibly Ewing and really well before that, would have stepped into the biggest market and would have taken on the role of leader of the team. Chicago’s already had Jordan, he would have blown his knee out with the Clippers and no one cares about New Jersey. But the Heat was inexcusable. They already have Wade. And Bosh.
The most ironic thing about LeBron’s switch is that it has been deemed a move to get out of the pressure, which is possibly true. However, the Heat will be under enormous pressure every single night with this super team. Any loss will be a monstrosity, every team (especially those spurned by LeBron, Wade and Bosh) will be gunning hard for them, and anything but a ring will be abject failure. LeBron will no longer be cheered in foreign cities (see the embarrassment Madison Square Garden stooped to), he will be jeered. When he said this will be his toughest challenge, I’m not really sure he knew what he meant. But he’s definitely about to find out.
So LeBron has disappointed all of us for two central reasons. First, there is a severe imbalance of power in the East. The Heat now hog all of the top-tier talent under thirty, save Dwight Howard (and I suppose Joe Johnson, though he is 29). Of course, it remains to be seen if three players plus 8 league-minimum guys can actually win a title, but it clearly limits the abilities of other teams to do so without hall-of-fame-caliber stars. What fun will it be to watch all the stars on the same team? Kobe vs. LeBron always gets the highest ratings during the season. LeBron in NY vs. Wade in Miami would have combined two fan bases who already hate each other with two of the best players in the league.
And second, He now can’t live up to the extremely high expectations the NBA world set for him as he’s essentially become Wade’s sidekick, the Pippen to Jordan (side note: Scottie Pippen was the number one trending topic on twitter last night). And don’t kid yourself that LeBron is Jordan: Wade has more money, the fans and a ring. LeBron has a self-given, unearned nickname, The King. Afterall, Kings have jewels. I wanted to see LeBron live up to his full potential, leading a team to a championship. We tuned in to see the Bulls play as a team but ultimately just wanted to see Jordan do the unthinkable and actually hit that last shot by the free throw line with time running out.
But maybe we’ll finally learn to stop comparing players to the greatest of all time. Afterall, LeBron told us to stop comparing him to Jordan last season when he changed his number from 23 to 6.
I’m aware that the proceeds will go to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America (a worthy cause), but LeBron’s one-hour ESPN special hits new heights of jackassery.