By no means do I think LeBron James did the right thing this summer. One of the NBA’s biggest primadonnas make a circus league bigger than Ringling Bros. when he went on national television to tell who he was going to sign with as a free agent.
Everyone knew it wasn’t going to be the Cavs. If you thought LeBron was staying in Cleveland, you were naive. He had spent seven years there with an average supporting cast, even when the organization tried to bring better players in it wasn’t enough. There was no reason for James to stay with the Cavaliers, and I don’t blame him for wanting out.
Miami was the right choice, he would be the best player on a dumbed down all-star team. However, by exploiting ESPN and calling it “The Decision” was an embarrassment. Now, ESPN doesn’t fall short of being somewhat Mickey Mouse either. They pander to the NBA and NFL audience while neglecting other sports, even MLB gets treated like the red-headed step child most days in the summer.
However, what happened last night was pretty awesome. Cleveland is a proud city, just like their rust-belt cousins Buffalo and Pittsburgh. Of course, the latter wins championships while the two towns that rest on the shores of Lake Erie probably couldn’t win a coin toss title.
As soon as “The Decision” took place there were jerseys burning in the streets and that ridiculous “Witness” banner was taken down. For the remainder of the summer and fall Cleveland waited to get their revenge. They are still waiting.
And I think that is HILARIOUS!
Buffalo has been through this. Dominik Hasek weaseled his way out for a draft pick and a dirty red who had less passion than a Disney channel teen drama. Slava Kozlov exemplifies everything wrong with eurotrash hockey players, but that is a different story for a different day. Buffalo also lost their two best players within hours of each other.
Our team never really recovered from that. Now, the Sabres came out and made a statement when Hasek returned. They chased the future hall of famer and won big. The Cavaliers did not answer in kind last night. They folded like my three cheap suits. Funny enough, they witnessed James throw down nearly 40 points as the Heat rolled big.
I know it is probably a little hypocritical to be happy the Cavs lost. The city of Cleveland didn’t need another loss like this, but they should be used to it at this point. Maybe it was how ESPN had blown apart this situation. They even did an Outside the Lines E-ticket story on it. Even that lacked the typically captivating and impressive writing that comes with an E-ticket feature. This one was forced and a little cheesy – that added to my frustration level.
All-in-all, four years of hearing how LeBron was Cleveland’s savior followed by numerous post-season let downs plus ESPN’s coddling of the superstar has really worn thin on me. Then I see kids I went to school with, real tools, saying Cleveland rocks and being so pumped about this game. That just put me over the top. I just wish LeBron had put up 100 points.
Ultimately, the people of Cleveland should feel betrayed by their team. They should have gotten over LeBron leaving at this point. They should have been over that a week after he made his choice. They got over a river fire, a World Series loss and losing their football team. You would think they could handle losing one loser basketball player.
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