Many people are mad at the NBA player, Lebron James. He has irked them because he decided to leave his hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers for Miami’s Miami Heat, a team where he believes he stands the best chance of winning a championship ring.As the No. 1 pick in the 2003 NBA draft, Cleveland was the lucky team to have the first choice draft pick and they selected him. He had no say in it. He has been there faithfully for 7 years, had 6 All star appearances, 5 seasons of averaging at least 27.3 points, two trips to the Eastern Conference Finals and one unsuccessful shot at winning a championship. Sadly all good things come to an end and LeBron reached the end of his contract. He was for the first time in his NBA career, a free agent. Every team wanted him. Commercials were made to sway his decision to play for different teams and to stay with the Cavaliers. It was pretty pathetic that even city mayors took out time from their busy city running schedules to be part of some of these commercials. However, he made the career altering decision to leave the home he has always known for something new and different.
Both the Cavaliers and LeBron are on opposite sides of this issue. I like to be fair, and I understand both sides. I will ask and answer some questions that both sides should think about honestly.
1. Who in the NBA wouldn’t want a championship ring or go with the team they perceive it will happen for?
Answer: Everyone, because no matter how good you are, if you don’t have a championship ring, it shows on your record as a negative. It’s one of those things money can’t buy.
2. If LeBron didn’t have his skills would they want him?
Answer: No. They want him because he’s that good. So no team is loyal to him as a person, they are loyal to his skills as a very productive player who makes his team look good.
3. Why are people saying he is disloyal?
Answer: We often want to hold other people to standards we can’t hold ourselves to. Americans' individualistic culture in the capitalistic America of today makes loyalty a forgotten word in most employer-employee relationships in most spheres especially professional sports such as basketball.
4. If he grows old or sustains injuries that affect his ability to play, will they keep him on the roster just because he dedicated his career to his home town team?
Answer: No. Once he can’t perform, at best he may be allowed to ride out his contract, but after that, he will be replaced and the team will move on.
5. How many American's work at the same job for 7 years these days?
Answer: Few. Whether you are laid off, fired or decide to leave. I can’t blame him for wanting to be in a different environment with different team mates and a different fan base after 7 years. All human beings like change after some time and change is the only constant.
I can go on and on, but for the sake of time, I’ll stop here.
After announcing his decision to go with the Miami Heat on TV, which seems ill advised that he wouldn’t personally break the news to his former team first, all hell broke lose. The Cavalier’s majority owner, Dan Gilbert wrote a not so pleasant open letter to the fans available at
http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2010/07/gilberts_letter_to_fans_james.html
He was later fined $100,000 for his wrong choice of words. Not to be left out, some Cleveland fans took to the streets to burn LeBron’s old No. 23 Cavaliers jersey. One man was shown on TV with a sign with LABUM on it. Even NBA commissioner, David Stern diplomatically said ``I think he's both a terrific player and a very good person. His performance was fine. His honesty and integrity shine through. But this decision, doing it this way, was ill-conceived.''
In life, it’s often not what you do, but how you do it, and how he did this was obviously not the best. He could have done what he did in a much classier way. What has happened has happened however, I would recommend that LeBron receives serious media training and he should also surround himself with wise mentors in the future to avoid reoccurrences.
It’s LeBron’s life to live the way he sees fit, but I hope he prayed intently before making his decision as not all that glitters is gold and Miami may not be everything he wants nor have the championship ring he so desires. In all, I don’t blame LeBron for leaving, what I blame him for is chasing a champion ship ring and verbalizing it. Yes, some teams are so good that they often win or have the potential to win championships; however, winning a championship is divinely orchestrated and like I wrote in a previous blog post, sometimes when you verbalize something, it may be granted or you can receive the exact opposite to teach you a lesson. I and many others have experienced first hand.
Again, I understand and respect his decision but only time will tell if he actually made the right decision. It’s a dog eat dog world out there, where every man is for himself and God is for us all.
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