Unless you're dead or have literally not had internet, television, or people contact for the past 2 days, you know Lebron James decided to sign to the Miami Heat to join D Wade and Chris Bosh. The negative flack that has ensued is something I've never seen for an athlete that hasn't killed, raped, or committed adultery 14 times (thought I'd forget about you Tiger didn't you? HA , nigga you ain't living that one down), its ridiculous, ITS A FUCKING JOKE. The knock on Lebron for the past, we'll say 3-4 years, has been that he doesn't care about winning and that he just wants to be a billionaire athlete and build his brand, and that though extremely talented, he doesn't come up clutch when needed. So this year James loses in the second round of the playoffs when he gets NO help from anybody on his team and opts out so that he can become a free agent and explore his options as any player should. He takes meetings with multiple teams including the cavs, and hears what they have to offer him and what pieces they have to put around him. After a tough week or 2, he decides to go to the team with the best chance of winning and takes LESS money than he could have gotten in Cleveland. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE??????? CAN HE EVER DO RIGHT?????????? Believe me, I'll be the first to say the manner at which he left the Cavs wasn't the greatest, i.e. having a 1 hour special on national tv announcing hes leaving and having a flunkie call the Cavs and let them know. BUT DAMN, he did what all these naysayers have been saying hes not all about, he took LESS money, and went to the team with the best chance of winning. Can you really blame him for wanting to win a title(s) with his friends?
First of all, lets be honest people, the rest of the Cavs players suck, the ONLY thing that would warrant him staying was if they added another big piece like a Chris Bosh or an Amare Stoudemire, or maybe if they got Phil Jackson just because hes Phil Jackson and winning titles is kind of his thing. THERE IS NO WAY that Cavs team with no changes and still having Lebron beats the Celtics or the Magic, and they have a helluva hard time with the new look Miami (D wade, Bosh, and other pieces paid with the money lebron ended up getting) and new look Chicago. I think any real basketball fan, like true basketball fan, can see why he did it and can't be mad at him for leaving. I'M SICK AND TIRED of hearing about how "Kobe waited in LA" and how "Michael waited in Chicago" and all that other bull shit, cause that's all it is, bull shit. Kobe was acting like a little bitch for most of the time in LA, lets be honest, he forced the Shaq trade because they butted heads, requested a trade himself at some point, and clowned on Andrew Bynum when he didn't beast out his first couple seasons. LA was a proven franchise at putting pieces around their stars, not to mention they had the greatest basketball coach to ever live just hanging around and the "oh so holy" Kobe acted like that. Oh yeah, they also had one of the most lopsided trades in the history of basketball go their way with Pau Gasol, partly because the 2 GMs were buddies. Kobe is great, i'm not taking anything away from him, but that argument is BS to me because Lebron was not in the same situation and wasn't given reason to believe things would look any brighter where he was. With Michael Jordan, hes the best basketball player ever A., and B. Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman, Pippen being another perennial All star and one of the 50 greatest basketball players to ever play the game, and Rodman being one of the best rebounders and defenders to ever play the game, PS. Philip Douglas Jackson. Was he REALLY the same as Michael and Kobe? REALLY????
I'll give Cleveland the benefit of the doubt and say they tried to woo stars to play along side Lebron, they tried to get Amare last season, this summer they tried to get Bosh, they tried to get Shaq before he became a bag of cement, they really tried. After 7 years though, they never were successful, they surrounded him with second rate talent that looked better than they actually were because they played on shit teams before the Cavs or played with Lebron for a regular season. Antawn Jamison got ballooned stats because he played in Washington, disappeared in the playoffs this year, and in my opinion was never really all that good even before his current "almost washed up" status. Mo Williams got ballooned stats because he played on the Bucks, disappeared in the playoffs (minus one half) and was also never really that good but suffered from "i play with lebron so people think i'm better when we do well in the regular season" syndrome. Why waste his good years in Cleveland where hes undoubtedly the man, but had no real sign the help he needed was coming?
Lebron is 25, hes seen the likes of Charles Barkley(who i'm beefing with because of his comments on this situation), Karl Malone, John Stockton, and nearly Gary Payton. Gary got his title at the end of his career by piggy backing on some greats with D Wade and Shaq (though i don't want to even speak of the officiating that series as a Maverick fan), but the rest of those truly great players didn't ever get a ring. Malone tried to piggy back at the end of his career with the Lakers but was unsuccessful and unceremoniously retired thereafter, because thats the thing with piggy backing at the end of your career, you usually only have 1 good shot. Lebron didn't want that to happen to him, he didn't want to be 31 in Cleveland without a title. What of his legacy then? Would be the best to ever not win a title?
His legacy to me will be that of a truly great player with athletic gifts that I've never really seen before, who was unselfish and put winning above everything else. He will win a title or titles in Miami and I will be happy to see it happen. I think he'll be called D Wades sidekick right up until he takes over and wins them a series. And no I'm not a Lebron dick rider, I'm just a fan of basketball and couldn't sit there and let him get played like that. Shout out to the king. Cough, fly me out for a game, cough
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