Yeah; I’m no fan, and I think he’s a douche, but I don’t actively hate him…life’s too short for that sort of thing.
Tell that to all the baseball lovers who didn’t like Barry Bonds.
That’d be me.
As a Pirate fan, I hated Bonds for leaving (again, normal sports hate, not wishing harm to him or his family. That’s just bizarre).
But when he went to the Giants, my second favorite team automatically became whoever was playing the Giants. Bonds, like LeBron in Cleveland, never delivered a championship to Pittsburgh. He was a no-show at the plate 3 years in a row when the Pirates won three divisional championships in 90, 91, and 92. Whenever we needed that big hit, Bonds came up short. When Sid Bream beat his throw from left field to win that final game in Atlanta, I saw all I needed to see of Bonds. He was a choker. A guy that never won a championship at any level of baseball. Even little league. So, I followed his career closely when he went to the Giants.
The Giants made one World Series and Bonds played/hit well in the Series, but they lost in 7, making this Pirate fan glad that Bonds never got his ring. He can have all of the records… he has no ring. Imagine my delight when the Giants won the Series last year!
Bonds is one of those people that is very hard to like, even when he’s playing for your team. He’s arrogant, is not fan-friendly, and expects the world to kiss his feet. When you 'roid up and take HGH, however, and hit 73 HR’s, I guess he had some expectations of having his ass kissed, but I generally don’t like douche-bags who want their own lounge chair in front of their own locker, which is away from everyone else’s locker.
I expect the Cavs fans feel the same way about LeBron in that they would love to see him never win a ring. The ones that want to kill him are just blowing smoke. I can’t imagine anyone that passionate about their favorite sports team to actually kill him and spend the rest of their life in jail. That’s just crazy.
The Ad didn’t bother me at all. In fact, I thought it was a bit tame. It was also a great way for the governor to reach out to fans of both sides of the political spectrum and get a few bouns points. Maybe he even won a few votes from folks in the middle. Never a bad strategy.
As a final note on loyalty. The Penguins had (and still have) Mario Lemieux. The best hockey player of his time (even if you include Gretzky), because he played for horrendous teams in Pittsburgh, stuck it out, could have easily left if he wanted to make it happen, decided to stay when the Pens couldn’t pay him so he got the team as payment, and has resurrected the team to a great one again. He only won 2 Stanley Cups in all his years (he should have won at least won if not 2 more), but he’s credited with saving the Penguin franchise not once but twice. Literally. He kept the Penguins in Pittsburgh first when he was drafted… the Pens were looking to move out of town when he came on board, and again when they were mismanaged into bankruptcy and he took over the team to keep it in Pittsburgh, even though he could have moved it and/or sold it and made a lot more money. He’s has a god-like persona in a town that remembers. He could have gone back to play for his hometown Canadiens, and become a hero of massive proportions, but he stayed in Pittsburgh and became something else all together.
I saw LeBron as a similar person. He would have owned Cleveland and Ohio if he stayed, never mind winning championships. If he won a championship or two, forget about it. He’d have schools named after him in Cleveland.
But he left in such a strange way. the ego overtook common sense. Yes, he’s making a lot of money, but he could have made more in Cleveland. And guess what? At the end of the year, he’s still without a championship, and that’s the best outcome the folks in Cleveland could have hoped for this year.
FTR, I am not a basketball fan at all, but I did like LeBron in Cleveland. He seemed like a humble kid who played like a beast but kept a level head. Now, I can’t stand him, mainly because of that hour long ESPN show. He doesn’t care, of course. But LeBron had the ability to get someone like me interested in the sport. I’m back to not caring.
That’s not too far. THIS is too far. 
Of the big four, basketball is easily my least favorite. I could barely get excited to see the Bulls back in it. But part of me really wanted the Heat to win just get everyone to shut up for once.
I look at Lebron like I would look at an internet troll. All this mass hatred coming out of Ohio is basically saying “Lebron James is the best basketball player, and we were crazy about him, and we’re mad he’s not playing for us anymore.” Cleveland, if you really want to pretend like Lebron sucks, you need to stop talking about him all the damn time.
Separation of basketball and state?
I did think this was pretty damn funny though
I came in to post about this but you already had. Totally classless and asinine. A minor league baseball team getting in on the lebron bashing? :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
This is just bizarre. Bonds signed with the Giants because his father (Bobby Bonds) and godfather (The Say Hey Kid… Willie Mays!) played for the Giants. I honestly can’t think of a better reason for jumping teams as a free agent than the one Bonds had.
It’s just bizarre too, because last I remembered, there wasn’t widespread Lebron hatred in Peoria.
That never would’ve happened if the Chiefs were still the Cardinal’s team. 
Yeah, yeah. Certainly if Bonds was going to leave the Pirates, the Giants were a logical choice. I didn’t say being a fan is logical. It’s all about emotion. If Bonds would have won a WS in Pittsburgh, I would probably have not cared too much. He wasn’t a good teammate, he rarely interviewed, and he was too surley to even try to like. But he was a great talent, and the Pirates were better with him than without him. I wasn’t as jaded as Cavs fans with LeBron, because Bonds never led the Pittsburgh fans think he was coming back. I give him credit for that.
I don’t remember now, but does anyone know if the Giants offered Bonds the biggest paycheck? I can’t remember what the Pirates offered him, but if I recalled it was a pretty good deal. Just not good enough.
If SF didn’t make him the highest offer, your point has some merit. But I’m betting that SF did make him the best offer (the union would have seen to it)
You’re correct, at the time Bonds was the highest paid player in all of baseball. Which makes your desires of a hometown discount even more bizarre when his “hometown” was the team making the big offer.
Oh, crap. Bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.
Heck, if I were a Cavalier, I’d be looking to jump ship.
The Cavalier fans, the ownership…heck, pretty much the entire city…they’ve based their happiness completely on whether or not one player has has a championship right now. They’re positively giddy that LeBron James didn’t zoom all the way to the title in HIS VERY FIRST YEAR with the team…something that isn’t exactly a common occurrence even for the legends of the game. How long did it take Hakeem Olajuwon to win championship #1? Shaquille O’Neal? Dennis Rodman? David Robinson?
They don’t give a damn about how lousy their own team is. Heck, they’ve all but forgotten.
You all know exactly where this is headed, right?
The ownership has no incentive whatsoever to make any attempt to pull the team out of the abyss. None.
Why even try to rebuild or land a superstar anymore? As long as they can milk irrational hatred, they’re set for the next 5, 10 years, easily. Mavericks? They should be thanking the Clippers for setting such a fine example. Cut corners! Mix and match and patch and cobble! Remain stuck in lottery purgatory for the indefinite future! What does it matter? Satisfaction still guaranteed.
Gonna be a long, hard winter. Much longer than 1 hour, that’s for sure.
You realize that the Cavs have the #1 and #4 picks in the draft right? The team more or less wrote off 2010-2011 because of Lebron’s pathetic decision and will likely come back strong next year.
Why would cavs fans keep attending cavs games if they only care that Lebron doesn’t win a championship? Of course they have incentive to improve the team.
Except the quality of players in this draft is subpar. Not a great field.
I’m not going to argue with you. As a Pirate fan, the hometown discount was in Pittsburgh, not San Francisco. I understand your point about his dad and Mays, but in the world of sports emotions, this is just tough to be that generous when you are talking about the best player in the game. The Pirates had him. We wanted to keep him. He was in their organization from being drafted from ASU. I wanted to see him end his career in a Pirate uniform.
You are completely missing my point about a fan having a hometown attachment to a player. Fans don’t usually have to deal with players who want to play for their favorite childhood team (there ***are ***exceptions, of course)
I get your point, I’m just saying that when it comes to reasons for leaving your original team via free agency, Bonds was truly being genuine. Playing for the Giants was his dream, it seems a shame to hold it against him just because it wasn’t your dream for him too.
OK, as long as you are getting my point… wasn’t sure you were. 
In any event, I never said I was logical or mature about these things. If I’m someone like Bonds and I have a chance to play for my hometown team, the team I grew up rooting for, and could make a lot of money doing it, I’d probably make the leap too (in this case, I’d be going to Pittsburgh). So I do understand it.
If this is a contest to pick the name that doesn’t belong on this list, I’ve got a pretty good guess.