The return of LeBron James is a sad reminder of a bad decision, Terry Pluto writes
The Miami Heat's three superstars, Chris Bosh, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, have found the going rough so far in the NBA season.If you want a screaming, anti-LeBron James rant, you've come to the wrong place. As James returns to The Q tonight, I feel far more sadness than anger.
Like so many fans, I'm pleased that the Miami Heat is struggling. This NBA team was constructed by a couple of young stars scheming to play together, giving no thought to team chemistry. It reeked of the worst of summer league, All-Star basketball.
Yet, James is surprised that he's being booed everywhere outside of South Beach.
As he said recently, "It is funny that Memphis fans and fans in the league -- some of the fans that had nothing to do with what I did -- still boo like I was sitting in their room saying I was [not] coming to Memphis."
That's because even the most casual fan was morally offended by James' announcing his "Decision" with his own ESPN television special. It's why most fans -- anyone who has been needlessly rejected in public -- quickly identified with Cavs fans.
It's also why anyone who truly loves the game beyond the hype, glitz, and screeching, smoking introductions would delight in watching Miami get upset in the first round of the playoffs. Not only because James is on the team, but because so many in the media were so willing to crown these guys champions.
Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade and James . . . The Three Kings?
Other than Wade in 2006, none of them have won a thing. Bosh never even won a playoff series in Toronto. James was an MIA when the Cavs needed him most in last spring's series with Boston, wiping out the memories of James taking the surprising 2007 Cavs to the NBA Finals.
This is not to discount the fact that James is the best player in Cavs history. Based on his past two regular seasons, he deserved to be voted the two-time Most Valuable Player.
He made the Cavaliers relevant again.
For the most part, he also represented the Cavs well. How many of us would have always made mature decisions if we had been handed $100 million at the age of 18 before we dribbled the ball once in the NBA? How many of us would not have had an exalted sense of entitlement if we received even a fraction of the praise heaped upon James?
This is not to excuse everything done by James, but it is to mention that he's never had any significant brushes with the law. He never refused to come into the game. He never openly defied his coach and demanded that the man be fired. He wanted Mike Brown out after the 2009 playoff loss to Orlando, but the front office refused.
And James won another MVP award.
So James didn't always get everything he wanted from the Cavs. After announcing his decision to bolt Cleveland for South Beach, Dan Gilbert's e-mail ripped James' "shameful display of selfishness." The man who owned the Cavs was in position to prevent at least some of his young star's ego from exploding.
Instead, he wanted to make sure James was happy and would hopefully re-sign. It didn't work, just as Miami's approach to coddling stars this season has been one ugly fracture of egos clashing and a team coming apart.
The surprising thing is James fell for it.
Chicago, New York, Cleveland and even New Jersey had more to offer in terms of legacy and the significance of winning a title than doing it in Miami. Had James left the Cavs in an orderly fashion -- informing his team well in advance and doing it personally, not having a second-string posse member call the team -- it would have been much easier for fans to accept.
James forgot that part of what has made him an outstanding player is his willingness to pass, to be a part of a team with defined roles. He failed to understand that so many people here believed in him as a guy who cared about Northeast Ohio and seemed determined not do to anything to embarrass the people who knew him best.
But one night on ESPN changed all that. It's not tragic. It's not the end of Northeast Ohio. It's not something that dramatically impacts the lives of most people here.
It's just sad . . . and James should have known better.