Here was his first message to his fans in Cleveland:
“I’m not promising a championship.”
This, from the Sports Illustrated exclusive essay written from the perspective of LeBron James, in which he explains his reasons for returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers:
http://www.si.com/nba/2014/07/11/lebron-james-cleveland-cavaliers
By choosing to return to the Cavs, James has made it perfectly clear where his loyalties lie:
To no one.
He fancies himself as Indiana Jones from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, giving up fortune and glory to rescue slave children…
“I want kids in Northeast Ohio…to realize that there’s no better place to grow up. Our community, which has struggled so much, needs all the talent it can get.” – LeBron James
…but instead, he’s more like René Belloq from Raiders of the Lost Ark, letting others do the dirty work while he reaps the benefits.
“I get a thrill out of bringing a group together and helping them reach a place they didn’t know they could go.” – LeBron James
Actually it was Dan Gilbert, the majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who has brought this group together. James simply took a max contract and went to a team with better players.
Let’s play devil’s advocate for a moment.
The Miami Heat are going nowhere fast. Dwayne Wade is well-past his prime and labors out there on the court. Chris Bosh is overrated and soft. The locker room has become a collection of odd journeymen with questionable character, like Chris “Bird Man” Andersen and Rashard Lewis. This is not the makeup of a team destined to win a championship.
The Cavaliers, on the other hand, just signed a rising point guard talent to a multiyear contract in Kyrie Irving and have a potential star in the making with their No. 1 draft pick, Andrew Wiggins. They also have enough cap space to sign another player with a veteran pedigree, such as a Kevin Love, as the rumors suggest.
No doubt about it, the Cavaliers have the better team.
But the whole point is for a franchise to build a team with the right pieces around their core leader. It’s hard for the Heat to have made any major moves without knowing the fate of their leader. Had James shown a loyalty to Miami, team president, Pat Riley, not only would have rolled the Brink’s truck up to James’s doorstep, but he would have been prepared to bring in anyone it was going to take to return that franchise to championship glory. He did it before. Why wouldn’t he do it again?
Maybe it would have taken a year or two to build a new team with James as the centerpiece. Along with that, James would be building something equally as great: Loyalty and History.
Instead, James jumps ship again, and his true colors have come out.
I’m going to call it as it is.
LeBron James is the single most overrated NBA champion to play the game.
His Hollywood-tailored persona, gifted physicality, and solid basketball skills have enabled him to rise to superstar levels in a league devoid of talent with spectacle.
He was never a winner in Cleveland. Riley had to surround James with all-star players to ensure a championship in Miami.
James wants you to believe he is a leader, but really, he isn’t.
He has always had a game where he “defers” to other players all too often.
He will cite his sportsmanship, his belief in his players, and use examples like Michael Jordan when he passed the ball to Steve Kerr to sink the game winner in Game 6 of the NBA Finals in 1997, as his reasons, but these are just excuses.
Jordan could defer to his teammates because he himself was a cutthroat assassin who would sink deadly last second game winners throughout his career, and especially during the playoffs when the pressure was the greatest.
James may have scored 30 points in that Game 5 loss to the Spurs, but these are just statistical numbers, good enough to earn a max contract and play the charade of being the most dominant player in the league, but not impacting in the slightest, showing that he hides behind these stats.
When was the last time he hit a game winner when it mattered the most in the playoffs?
When was the last time we saw him get bloodied, and bruised while putting his body on the line to make a great play happen?
When was the last time he even got a technical foul?
When we YouTube the most impacting plays in playoff history, we are reminded of Magic Johnson’s last second miracle skyhook in Game 4 of the 1987 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics.
But where are the historical highlights from LeBron James?
And now he retreats back to a small market where he can earn a max contract with zero accountability with fans who he hopes will be satisfied by his mere presence over his performance.
Wait, I’m confused. Am I writing about LeBron James or Dwight Howard?
Notice the pattern.
Howard made it very clear he did not appreciate Kobe Bryant’s “win at all costs and sacrifice to get there” mentality, nor did he want any part of the pressures of a fan base expecting greatness because of a rich history of championships. So he took the easy route by escaping into a small market, is enjoying his tax breaks, and simply shrugs his shoulders with an “oh, well” attitude when his team gets dismissed in the 1st round of the playoffs.
James has followed suit, returning home to a city he expects to embrace him with open arms simply on the merit of his presence.
Seeing players like James and Howard should have us appreciate the loyalty of a Kobe Bryant to the Lakers franchise. Yes, he accepted a two-year max contract now when he is supposedly at the end of his career. But twice during the prime of his career he had the opportunity to accept deals elsewhere and abandon ship, and he chose to remain loyal to Los Angeles, even through periods of rebuilding.
More important than this, we should appreciate his desire to win at all costs, his willingness to take the last shot in a game and put the fate of a city on his shoulders, and the sacrifice and work ethic it has taken him to get there. This is the heart of a true old school champion right there.
Bryant has immortalized himself, has made himself a part of history. When his career is over, we will see last second game heroics on YouTube, and he will forever be honored with a statue in front of Staples Center, and his jersey retired amongst the all-time Laker greats.
Does Miami hang a LeBron jersey in the rafters when he retires? He has just now betrayed them as he did with Cleveland four years ago. Thanks for the two championships, now get ready for the boo’s when he returns in a Cavaliers uniform.
And what if the Cavs never see a championship under his leadership? Do they hang his jersey simply because of a supposed loyalty to their city?
What would be the point of it all, then? Or does he even care?
Cleveland fans will most likely be dancing in the streets with the return of their original hero.
But if his first message to them is, “I’m not promising a championship,” one really has to question the true motivation, the will, and the drive behind this self-anointed “King” James.