Clevelanders thought they knew LeBron James. In many regards, we didn't have a clue.
LeBron James went running after Bosh to Miami, where he, Dwyane Wade and Bosh resemble three seventh-graders who schemed to sit together during lunch period, writes Bill Livingston.The things we thought we had learned about LeBron James over seven years were illusory.
We filtered them through the lenses of our own experiences. We thought he was one of us. He was in fact as different as could be.
Because he was a student of basketball and knew its history, we thought he understood the spirit of the game. He in fact had no grasp of it. The history he makes will not be the history he studied.
He knew who "Pistol" Pete Maravich was. The great college star of the 1960s and the ball-handling magician of the NBA in the 1970s is lost in the mists of time to most of today's players. James also knew what Julius Erving did when he mocked gravity on his reverse layup in The Finals against the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar/Magic Johnson Lakers.
James knew many of the plays that made memories. We did not know until the end that he would make memories we will never forget, try as we might.
We loved when opponents taunted him. We thought it was like twisting the dragon's tail. Hadn't he humiliated the Toronto Raptors after Chris Bosh's girlfriend heckled him?
We were wrong about that, too. James went running after Bosh to Miami, where he, Dwyane Wade and Bosh resemble three seventh-graders who schemed to sit together during lunch period.
After James and Kevin Garnett jawed at each other in the last regular-season game, we pitied the fool, Garnett. Instead, Garnett and the rest of the Celtics could have given James a wet willie, a noogie, and a wedgie, too, in the disgraceful closing games of their series. James would have not done anything about it.
We thought he was tough, despite his histrionics after receiving hard fouls. But in the case of his famous sore elbow, Cavaliers doctors found nothing seriously wrong. We are still waiting for a good explanation for why he tried and missed a left-handed free throw late in a one-possession playoff game when the Bulls could advance the ball with a timeout and try to tie.
We thought James was "all in" for the playoffs. In fact, he was "all out." The farther the Cavs went, the harder it would have been for him to leave.
Because James could pass, we saw that skill as proof that he made his teammates better. We did not know that he could never make himself good enough to withstand the pressure of winning a championship in the alpha-male role. So he jumped to the Heat to be the beta-force on a stacked team.
Erving, to whom James has been compared because of their shared ability to make amazing moves on the court, said a player had to "dare to be great." He meant he had to be able to withstand the doubts and the criticism when he failed. In that regard, James failed miserably.
James said his goal in Miami is to win as many as 10 championships. He does not realize the glory of even a single championship is in the journey, in the ups and downs, in the challenges faced, in the great rivals overcome, in the effort expended. Competitors should be cherished because they bring the best out in a player. James chose to try to beat the league as part of a cartel of mercenaries.
We thought he was a great gate attraction. But he actually was a groupie, savoring his connection to entertainers and captains of industry.
James always said he was a football player, although he played only in high school, and you could count the times he went over the middle on pass patterns on a few fingers. But he was good at claiming to be things he wasn't, like a leader.
We thought he talked to Terrelle Pryor, the prodigy who plays quarterback at Ohio State, to give him advice. But it was actually to recruit him for his sports management company.
In Miami, he has done the type of recruiting he never deigned to bother with here, wooing other free agents to the Heat.
We did not realize he had already recruited his "team" here, in the sycophants who were given the run of the Cavaliers franchise.
We thought the love the entire area gave him would be reciprocated. We did not realize that his love was only for himself.
We thought we knew him. We didn't have a clue.