Anyone else that has a space to write about sports on the internet is surely waying in on “The Decision”, so I guess we should as well.
- I watched the ESPN spectacle at my favorite sports bar in Manhattan. It was easy to grab a couple seats at the bar at about 8:25, then the place steadily filled up as 9PM approached. When the show started, the small bar was completely packed. It was a strange atmosphere. What were we all hanging around in a sports bar to watch? Weren’t we all being really stupid for caring about this so much? Yes, yes we were. But I’ll say this, even though I’m somewhat ashamed to say it, it was gripping television.
- Most of the TVs in the bar were tuned to ESPN, I was definitely the only person trying to also keep an eye on the one TV showing the Phils-Reds game that was heading into the late innings of a tight game.
- I agree with just about everyone else in the world that announcing this decision in a one-hour special was a mistake by LeBron. Had he announced that he was staying in Cleveland, it would have been great, but to go on national TV and use his decision to leave Cleveland behind, using this situation to self-promote, was not just narcissistic, it was dumb. The old adage of “any press is good press” does not apply here. He has all the press he needs and more right now, no matter how he made this announcement. This was bad press, and it didn’t help his “global icon” mission.
- One of the people I watched with, though not a Cavs fan per se, lived in Cleveland for five years. He’s very aware of the relationship the fans there have to LeBron. After LeBron made the announcement and started explaining the decision, the guy I was with kept saying, “It doesn’t have to be like this. He’s saying the wrong things. He should take some time to say how much Cleveland means to him and that he’ll always be a part of the community.” I agree with him. LeBron could have salvaged this televised debacle, somewhat, by saying to Jim Gray, “Before I take any more of your questions, I just want to take a minute to say how hard this decision was for me, and how much I hate leaving Cleveland without having brought them the title that I tried so hard to win, yadda yadda yadda, I love Cleveland and I’m sorry for leaving.” I think that would have counted for a lot. There still would have been plenty of LeBron jersey burning in Ohio, but at least he would have given a lot of Cavs fans reason not to completely hate his guts. He hinted at things like this in the interview, but he should have said it more explicitly.
- All that being said, I’m not ready to call LeBron a villain. The way he announced the decision was a mistake, but I can’t blame him for the decision he made. A lot of people, most notably Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, have thrown around terms like “traitor” and “shocking disloyalty” and “betrayal.” I think that’s way off-base. LeBron’s closest friends are still his friends from Akron, that he grew up with. He’s going to Miami to play with two guys, Wade and Bosh, that he’s become really good friends with. His friends and family from Akron are going to go with him to Miami, I’m sure. I’m also sure they want to see him win championships almost as much as he wants to win them. Who should he be loyal to? His friends (both from Akron and Wade and Bosh) or the “city of Cleveland” and the Cavs organization? He didn’t ask them to draft him, and if they hadn’t had the #1 pick, whoever else did would’ve taken him 1st overall, as well. So how does he “owe” anything to the team, or the city? I feel bad for the Cleveland fans, but it’s not LeBron James’s job to bring them a title. We always rip athletes today for not caring enough about winning. Here’s a guy who made a decision based on mainly two things: winning and playing with his friends. We should hate him for that? Sure, there are fringe benefits to winning those titles (like more endorsement money), but I just don’t think that’s why he made this decision.
- Finally, not to defend the TV special, but would Cavs fans have reacted much differently had this free-agent signing been announced like any other? A “news break” scrawls across the ESPN bottom line, declaring “LeBron Headed to Heat,” followed by an announcement that the Heat are holding a press conference for the following morning to announce the signing. Would that have ripped their hearts out any less? Isn’t it possible that this one-hour special, as atrocious and offensive as it was, is being used as a sort of scapegoat so they can feel justified in burning his jersey and declaring him Public Enemy #1? Let me reiterate, I don’t blame Cavs fans for their anger and frustration. I know what it’s like to not have a championship. I’m just pointing out that it’s asking a lot of a 25-year-old, raised in poverty and without any college education, who happens to be the best athlete on the planet, to also have the life-experience needed to see the exact way he needed to handle this signing. And that exact way was to go to the Cavs first, tell them he was leaving, and then hold a press conference aired live on all the Cleveland local affiliates, in which he announced to the city that he was leaving, etc. That’s what he should have done. The fact that he didn’t was a huge mistake, a disaster. But is this athlete, who’s never done anything close to killing a dog, raping a girl, cheating on a wife, using performance-enhancing drugs, being anywhere near a shooting, taking cars and money illegally from college boosters, or even shop-lifting, is he the athlete we should all hate now? Just so we’re clear, the guy who chose winning and friends over money and loyalty to a franchise that couldn’t provide him with the roster he needed to win, and a city filled with millions of fans dying for a title, but the only people he truly cares about in Northeast Ohio are the ones he personally knows and loves. He is no hero, he’s far from perfect. He’s flawed, and he’s pretty damn fascinating, and I think he’s done pretty well for himself, all things considered.
i couldn’t possibly agree more with every word of this. well said
Thanks, man. Thought this was a good point from Chris Broussard in a column about the Dan Gilbert letter and how the owner needs to “grow up”:
“Then Gilbert said James’ actions Thursday night revealed “who he really is.” Well, perhaps James is saying the same thing about Gilbert. Perhaps he’s known all along that Gilbert didn’t respect him; that Gilbert thought he was a “coward;” that Gilbert thought his “King,” “Chosen One” and “Witness” nicknames were a joke; that he’d mock and trash them, and him, as soon as James was no longer making him money.
Maybe that’s why James didn’t return Gilbert’s phone calls and e-mails over the past two months — because he knew the owner looked at him as a moneymaker and nothing more. Maybe James no longer wanted to play for someone like that: someone who, in the heat of the moment, refuses to act his age.”
“James loves to have fun. He’s not a killer, like Michael Jordan. He’s not a harping-on-the-court-coach, pain-in-the-rear like Kobe. He doesn’t need to win like he needs his next breath, like Lance Armstrong. He is goofy and funny and whimsical. The fake camera shots, the dancing, the chalk. He was like that in high school and he’s still like that. So why should anybody be surprised when he wants to play with his friends in a city that’s 97 percent fun? The Miami Heat are the perfect fit for James. It’s Dwyane Wade’s team. Wade can be the killer, like he was while winning a ring in 2006. James will just dunk, swat layups and do his Kid n’ Play impressions. You could see it in how much he loved the over-the-top bacchanalia the Heat put on for the Three Rise Men — fireworks, fog, voguing down the catwalk. You may want him to be something else, but he’s not. What are you going to do, sue?”
I love this. It’s an excellent summary.
I disagree with something Doogan wrote (but thought that most of it was a rather good counter-point to my feelings) “I’m just pointing out that it’s asking a lot of a 25-year-old, raised in poverty and without any college education, who happens to be the best athlete on the planet, to also have the life-experience needed to see the exact way he needed to handle this signing.”
First,Lebron is supposedly a smart and savy business and marketing person and has tons of experience doing it, at least according to what was written about him by the people supposedly following his career: “Lebron makes smart business play: agency building a brand and agency one neighborhood at a time”; “A smart guy like Lebron James make make billions in the brightest of lights”; “impressive to have his business savy at only 24”; “Lebron James opens marketing company, Chris Paul to join”; “Lebron James has the marketing game down”; “Lebron James marketing magic”. Lebron on himself: and his endorsement team “we don’t do sponsorships, we do partnerships”; Maverick Carter on Lebron: “he likes to be involved in every aspect of the brand we’re partnered with — who they’re adverstising with, who is the director, it’s a true partnership, not just a deal where they pay Lebron and he shows up”; “Lebron’s marketing firm acquires 10 percent of bicycle manufacturer Cannondale with private equity firm Pegasus” (one of the biggest private equity firms on earth); “Lebron is learning mandarin, if you’re popular in china you can be unpopular just about everywhere else and still be huge.”
And NOW I’m supposed to give him the benefit of the doubt on a PR and Marketing DISASTER because he’s 25 and never went to college? I think not. This also ignores the fact that he has access to every conceivable resource and could have hired any agent, any marketing or PR expert, any sports analyst, anyone at all to review the plan for the “Decision” and help him evaluate it and chose not to. No, it is MORE than fair given his experience and resources to hold him responsible for every last bit of the decision he made to engage in that shameful display of horribleness.
I’m late to this party, but I completely agree with Doogan. LeBron would have been better off saying “This was hard for me, I have loved the time I have spent in Cleveland, and it will always be a home, but I am fortunate enough to have the opportunity to play with my dear friends” and leave it at that.