things kevin hates

I know many of my readers may not be sports fans. And they probably won’t want to read this. But even they’ve surely heard about LeBron James, quite possibly the greatest athlete on the planet. He just left the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he’d been since entering the NBA at the ripe old age of 18. He left, heading to Miami to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in an attempt to win the NBA title that has thus far eluded him.

As you might expect, LeBron’s decision led to a great deal of turmoil in the cities he rejected, most of all Cleveland. And the apoplexy even came straight from the top: consider this incredible letter from the Cavs’ majority owner, Dan Gilbert.* Some choice excerpts: “cowardly betrayal”; “shameful display of selfishness and betrayal”; “shocking act of disloyalty from our home grown ‘chosen one’”; “heartless and callous action.” And my personal favorite: “Some people think they should go to heaven but NOT have to die to get there.” What?

If you go traipsing through the Internet, you’ll find plenty of other pissed-off Cavaliers fans. (This post is pretty entertaining.) Sure, it sucks to lose the best player in the league—a native son from just down the Cuyahoga River in Akron. Sure, it sucks to look at your roster and realize that you have no hope of winning anything any time soon. Sure, it sucks that none of the big-name free agents wanted to join LeBron in your Rust Belt town. But shit happens. It certainly doesn’t compare with Art Modell taking the Browns from Cleveland to Baltimore.

The bottom line of sports is this, as so eloquently put by that bard of the gridiron, Herm Edwards: “You play to win the game.” LeBron is attempting to do just that. Perhaps the sunny weather and lack of a state income tax sealed the deal for Miami, and there was no hope of LeBron ever getting D-Wade or any other superstar to join in. In the NBA, one man can’t win a title. He needed another star, and no, Mo Williams doesn’t count. He ended up getting two (even if Chris Bosh is somewhat overrated).

I must admit that I missed the ESPN special where LeBron announced his decision; and I certainly respect the fact that people were upset that he chose to leave the Cavs in such a high-profile fashion. In his defense, he raised a couple million dollars for the Boys and Girls Clubs, so he can say he had a good motive. Maybe that makes up for it, maybe not. At best, it’s both charitable and narcissistic; at worst, it’s the move of an egomaniac.

But is LeBron an egomaniac? Off the court, maybe. On the court, no. His assist totals dwarf Kobe’s. He has a legitimate shot of averaging a triple-double. He’s apparently a fantastic teammate. And he seems to want titles, and want them desperately. And he, Wade, and Bosh were obviously on the same page in terms of where they’d end up.

Also, I find it ridiculous that the vitriol is even greater because of LeBron’s Ohio background. The Cavs either lucked—or tanked?—their way into drafting him; there was a 77.5% chance they didn’t end up with the first pick. They quite easily could have never had LeBron, so I don’t see why this should matter.

Finally, I really don’t get why people from outside of Cleveland are upset. Sure, Bulls or Knicks fans would’ve loved to have LeBron; shit, he and CP3 are apparently pretty good buddies and I’d piss myself seeing them play together for the Hornets. But that was never gonna happen. I have to say that as a basketball fan I’m excited to see what will happen with the Heat, and I’m sure that once the season starts everyone will be watching. And that’s the great thing about sports—the Heat are now world-beaters on paper, but who knows what will actually happen?

* I had missed this since I saw it on ESPN’s website and not the official Cavs site, but note the font: Comic Sans. Obviously NPR took that angle in discussing the story. Speaking of which—one of these days I’m going to write about how much I hate it when NPR tries to cover sports.