For one, I’m thrilled the Cav’s owner threw down in this mess. Childish, unprofessional… yes, it’s that, but it’s also human. Better that than some banal terse two sentence press release:
Ugh.
Far, far better that we get treated to a Comic Sans-typed rant complete with ALL CAPS, !!!, and multiple snarky uses of quotation marks.
In my opinion, James is an asshole. In comparison with another prominent athlete who has recent career+publicity problems, Tiger just fucked some girls in a dark hotel room while James fucked over an entire state on national TV. I can’t imagine what he was thinking when he allowed that farce last night to go on the viewing schedule.
This is the part I liked best about the rant:
Oh please, oh please, oh please, oh please: God, I beseech thee - let this come true, especially if it’s true that James didn’t notify the team prior to the announcement and didn’t meet with the team since the end of the season. Since he tanked game 5, it was obvious that he was gone… I just didn’t think he’d be so assholic about it.
But he’s not even going to try. He’s just entering the prime of his career. He could have picked himself off the floor after these last playoffs and recommitted himself to be a champion. He could have signed with Cleveland for 3 years and still left for another max deal somewhere else if it didn’t work out. But if he stayed and led a team to a title, he would have been a god. That title would have been all his.
Instead, he’s basically announcing that he just doesn’t feel like working that hard anymore. At 25. How boring. Why did we bother paying attention to the kid if he wasn’t going to strive to put himself in the pantheon of all-time great NBA stars? He’s no different than A-Rod now. A supremely talented mercenary. Yawn.
I think both parties were over the top. Lebron’s ego displayed itself in a one hour mastabatory special on ESPN which drew grew ratings so you will see that shit again in the future. Gilbert was pissed and felt like LeBron and his main adviser Maverick Carter strung him along the whole time. Gilbert’s letter is a perfect example of why you should have Robert Duvall’s character from the Godfather at your side. He would simply advise you not to take that route.
One thing i do find interesting is this incident involving Lebron D Wade and Bosh exemplifies the difference in today’s player. The idea that MJ would have left the Bulls to play with the Celtics… or Larry would have left the Celts to play with Magic in LA… or vice versa… Not a chance in living hell. Those guys added with Malone in Utah… Zeke in Detroit… had too much personal pride. They wanted to win on their own terms and drive the bus themselves. These young guys today come up through AAU… so the idea of an “All-star” team is fine with them. That way no one guy has to shoulder the blame… LeBron wearied of “being the man”. That’s your choice… that’s fine… Just take Micheal Jordan’s name out of your mouth that’s all…
Yeah Marley you are soo on the money with this assessment. Lebron has benefited from this… as have the Cavs. When crunch time comes though… Lebron so far simply hasn’t shown that same killer instinct Larry and Magic and MJ had. He is an amazing talent… but I wonder who’ll have to be the person to MAKE that play… that shot… that stop??
But as I understand it, the ad revenues for this special went to the Boys & Girls Club, which I would call a reasonably worthy charity. I don’t know that ALL the revenues went there, but assuming they did, ESPN did not hugely benefit. No?
ETA: Also, is anyone going to answer my question about whether the Cavs would have kept James around if his skills had declined and his value to the team no longer matched his salary?
Why is it irrelevant? Why should James owe the team owner any more loyalty than the team owner owes him?
I am not asking this rhetorically. I am trying to understand the position of the persons who feel betrayed.
Another question from a person who frankly knows next to nothing about sports: could the Cavs have done anything to torpedo James’ ambitions if he had made his intentions clear earlier?
It was cowardly because instead of leading his home town team to a title, he runs at the age of 25 with his tail between his legs to Miami so he does not have to try as hard. Here is what he said in 2006:
The Cavs were not that far away from a championship. They won the most games in the league the last two years and were in position to make moves in the next couple to make a sustained run. Instead, he gave up to join Wade’s team. He is a coward.
Betrayal? Besides the above quote, my guess is he intimated during the joke of a courting session that he was staying in Cleveland. That’s probably one reason why Gilbert is so mad right now.
He held a national FU Cleveland special.
He never gave Cleveland a chance to build an elite roster because he never truly committed to the City, even though he said he loves it in every interview. Ariza would have signed here if Lebron would have committed. Artest wanted to play in Cleveland too. Those are just two in the last year. Who knows what goes behind the scenes.
He got the team to go over the cap every year and take on an obscene amount of salary on his wishes and then leaves the team when it looks like it would not work out.
He absolutely dominates the Celtics in game 3 and the completely tanks in Game 5. Does not even try. Then he gives up at the end of game 6. This is about the ultimate betrayal in sports.
I’ll answer it. This is not football, where an owner can dump a player at basically any time. Contracts are guaranteed in basketball. Your point might be valid if he had a contract that can be cut in order to save money (like Delonte West), but those contracts are rare in the NBA, and extremely rare for superstars. In reality, declining players with big contracts become assets in the final year because a team can get talent from a team interested in saving money in the next year by acquiring that onerous contract and letting it expire.
By the way, I was not trying to make a point. I try to avoid rhetorical questions. I simply wanted to know.
Now answer this for me, if you would:
It’s my understanding that this year James became free agent. I took that to mean that he had no further obligtaions to the Cavaliers, nor the team to him, unless both chose to set up a new contract. Am I mistaken there?
You are correct. He was a free agent and was able to sign with any team.
I have not seen anyone make the argument that he was obligated to sign with Cleveland. Mostly, people have reacted negatively to the way he left town. He knows the agonizing history of sports in Cleveland and he callously trumped that history with his own hour long goodbye Cleveland special. If he released a press statement saying, “Thank you for the amazing 7 years, Cleveland. Words cannot describe how much you mean to me. I will always cherish the memories we spent together. However, I feel it is time for my basketball path to continue in Miami to play with my best friends in the league. I will always consider Cleveland my home,” the reaction would not have been like this. Of course some fans with delusions of grandeur that think Cleveland is the best city in the world and the best place to win would react negatively, but we would see nowhere near this kind of vitriol. The nation is almost universally in agreement that Lebron took the worst possible way out.
So you are correct. He had no contractual or moral obligation to remain in Cleveland. However, he did go against his word (see above quote) in the worst manner possible.
I’m not a sports fan, but I got from the first post why people were upset. It’s not about what you do, but whether you are an asshole when you do it.
And, from what you guys say, this coach doesn’t have much of a shot actually winning, and he believes telling what James did will justify his reaction in the eyes of the stars. In his mind, he’s really not risking much. It’s kinda like bitching in the Pit–most people will express their anger if they don’t think there is a consequence for doing so.
The Jordan comparisons seem to be missing the fact that Jordan played with Scottie Pippen (a top 50 all-time player) and Grant/Rodman (an all-time great defender/rebounder).
Seriously, which set of teammates is better? Pippen and Rodman, or Wade and Bosh?
And it probably didn’t help matters that the song they played for his welcome party in Miami was The Heavy’s “How You Like Me Now.” Here’s a sampling of the lyrics.
I’m not sure Malone is the best example here, though. He played his last year with the Lakers, purely as a (unsuccessful) bid to try and get a championship title by forming a superteam with him, Gary Payton, Shaq and Kobe.
No, that was very different. It was two over the hill stars joining a contender in a last ditch effort to win a title. He didn’t join the lakers in his prime.
