With LeBron James set to become a free agent within hours, now’s as good a time as any to put the best reasons why he should remain a Cleveland Cavalier into one handy list.
It’s often repeated that LeBron could never mean more than he could mean if he stays home; That the best story for LeBron is Northeast Ohio; the story of the native son developing into the greatest basketball player or even athlete of a generation and leading the longest and worst suffering city in American sport to an NBA title and maybe more.
The following list is to explain why the best story for LeBron is at home in Northeast Ohio.
10) LeBron James should remain a Cleveland Cavalier because he’ll become the most hated (and most disappointing) athlete in American history if he leaves Cleveland.
Possibly world history, too. Not to say it’s right or wrong, but it’s true. And while hate and legitimate disappointment in unfulfilled promise are hard to separate here, there’s no question we’d be dealing with unprecedented loads of both if LeBron leaves home.
It’s hard enough for a superstar to leave town when he’s in his prime, but when that town is his hometown that also happens to be the longest and worst suffering city in American sport? We’ve just never seen anything close to it before. The closest comparison is probably the hatred that Boston worked up for Roger Clemens when he left for Toronto. Clemens was from Texas, not Boston, and Boston fans had recently enjoyed three titles in the 80s with Bird’s Celtics. That was bad. This would be exponentially worse.
It’s not just that LeBron said himself that he’d “light Cleveland up like Vegas,” and that he “won’t stop until” he “brings a championship to Cleveland.” He’s been the progenitor of untold hope in Northeast Ohio since the ping-pong balls bounced Cleveland’s way in 2003. We are all Witnesses. Or were. If he leaves, what exactly will it have been that we witnessed?
Short of sending annual personal checks to each of eleven million or so Ohioans if he leaves (like the ones that Alaskans get for the oil), it’s hard to see how LeBron would begin to repair his relationship with his home state; but that’s not the only concern. A decision to leave Cleveland would play poorly nationwide, and even globally; likely everywhere but the place where LeBron did sign (and no doubt even with some folks there). Think back on the furor over the summer camp dunk tape, handshakegate, or even LeBron’s reaction when a Portland fan grabbed his backside during warmups. How much worse does all of this get for LeBron if, fairly or not, “traitor” is added to his resume?
Of course there will always be haters, but how much of the hate here would be rooted in legitimate disappointment? Of course that depends entirely on what LeBron’s reasons for leaving would be.
Of course, the world is flat and getting flatter. McDonald’s, Nike, Coca-Cola, State Farm. $28 million for LeBron in 2008 alone and he hasn’t won a single title. What are the deals that LeBron can’t get from Cleveland? If anyone won’t work with LeBron because he lives and works in Cleveland, is it anyone with whom LeBron should be concerned?
The latest report that “LeBron could earn more endorsement money in New York” includes mention of Mark Sanchez attending the Tony Awards “to sell himself off-the-field,” and opens by noting that Giants defensive lineman Justin Tuck couldn’t earn as much if he wasn’t in New York.
So LeBron should go to New York so he can go to The Tony Awards and be more like Justin Tuck.
???
It’s understood that businessmen, writers and artists will impose their own values on LeBron in offering him advice, but the buzz that these folks get from feeling like “somebody” in the Big City couldn’t be something that LeBron has any use for.
It’s further understood that New York’s built-in audience can really help a guy like Justin Tuck; like it helped Reggie Jackson and Willis Reed become more popular than they’d have been if they hadn’t played in New York. But LeBron is something much different. LeBron is chasing something much different.
Instead of being concerned with how New York’s ready-built audience can inflate an athlete’s popularity, LeBron’s concern is with cultivating the kind of greatness that builds its own audience. The better comparison here are folks like Terry Bradshaw and Roger Staubach, who turned the Cowboys and Steelers into America’s teams from Pittsburgh and Dallas. Like Michael Jordan went on to do with Chicago’s Bulls. LeBron could do the same here with the Cavaliers.
Of course, the kind of greatness that builds its own audience is the kind of greatness that wins championships. But that’s not all that it is.
LeBron James should remain a Cleveland Cavalier because greatness is defined by more than just “winning.”
Anyone who’s seen a stacked pick-up team ruin a good night of hoops at the Y knows that the perception of competitiveness is tremendously meaningful in the NBA. Dwyane Wade has won the NBA title that’s thus far eluded LeBron while putting up stats that are closely comparable to the King’s, yet few seem to think Wade will go down in history as “greater” than James. Shaquille O’Neal left the Orlando Magic team that drafted him to go on to win three consecutive titles with the Lakers then another with Wade in Miami, and nobody thinks LeBron’s not chasing a legacy that’s greater than Shaq’s.
CBS’s Ken Berger touched on this well yesterday:
It just so happens that James and fellow free agents Wade and Chris Bosh have the power to restore the NBA landscape to angrier, more compelling times. James and Wade could team up in New York or Miami, but all that would do is fill their personal trophy cases and give us a slightly different variation of the haves dominating the have-nots — a structure that has awarded 33 of the 64 NBA titles to the Lakers or Celtics. There is a bigger, more ambitious and potentially more rewarding opportunity here, and James knows it.
What James, Wade and Bosh . . . have the power to do is lay the groundwork for competitive, super-star laden teams in multiple markets for years to come.
[T]he NBA has the opportunity to achieve something it has never had: stars and championship contenders in landmark cities like New York, Chicago and L.A. and also in secondary markets, where the fan bases are smaller but louder and more loyal. The NBA would own everyone from Jamie Dimon to Joe Fan. For David Stern, still searching for the right buttons on the cash register after Jordan, it would be as close to nirvana as you could get.
Of course, nobody can blame Shaq or Wade for winning championships on those stacked teams, but compelling competition matters, and a player’s greatness is fundamentally tied to the quality of competition he vanquishes and the help he has or doesn’t have in doing so. Anyone who’s seen a stacked pick-up team ruin a good night of hoops at the Y knows this.
LeBron has to know this. That it’s not just about winning, but about winning in a certain way.
7) LeBron James should remain a Cleveland Cavalier because there’s an important difference between a mercenary and a cornerstone.
Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Bill Russell, Jim Brown, a different era, sure. But Michael, Magic, Bird, Ripken, Elway, Montana and Rice. Now Manning, Kobe and Jeter. With very few exceptions, history’s greatest athletes have all stayed in one place. Even the few who didn’t (think Kareem, Rickey and Shaq) never seem to make the top of the lists with the ones who did. Roger Clemens has what might be the most impressive resume of any pitcher in modern MLB history, yet his fan club fits in a P.O. Box.
Part of this comes from recognition of the importance of a superstar’s service as a foundation for a franchise’s success, as well as the intrinsic good of stability and consistency. Along these lines, LeBron himself has already been subject to much reasonable criticism for putting the Cavs in a “make-or-break” situation with his looming free agency.
But serving as a franchise cornerstone also brings benefits to the athlete himself that are more personal than those realized by his franchise. That is, a sense of place — contentment, a personal stability — should result from an an athlete (or anyone) continuing to become woven into the fabric of a community.
And it’s that individual sense of place with that individual quality of the community’s fabric that’s such a big part of defining the individual athlete’s personal greatness.
6) LeBron James should remain a Cleveland Cavalier because he doesn’t have to win six, five, four, three, or even two titles in Cleveland to be recognized as an all-time great, or even the greatest of all time.
Legacies are like snowflakes. Every one is different.
Cal Ripken Jr. won just a single title in Baltimore, and it’s hard to think of a more iconic baseball player in the modern era.
Oscar Robertson won just a single title in his fifteen year career, and nobody questions his status as one of the game’s elite all-time greats (if he’s not in everybody’s top five, nobody has him outside of a top ten), despite that hardly any of his career was captured on film or even the stat books.
So what is it worth to win one in the most tortured sports town in American history? What’s it worth to take down the Curse of Wahoo?
Even Jay Mariotti can see that an historic hurdle stands before LeBron:
“[Cleveland,] a city of good, passionate fans who no doubt are cursed by sports, a city that hasn’t won a championship in a major league — even the Indians lost in the ALCS in Major League — in 45 years. He has attempted everything in his power to break through the psychological barriers and turn northeast Ohio fatalism into a positive civic energy. Nothing works.”
Reasonable estimates put a solid million-plus in the streets of Cleveland as soon as the Tribe, Browns or Cavs brings a title home. Fifteen-plus All-Star appearances, how many MVPs, and to be the guy that sets off that number?
Folks already go back and forth on whether LeBron is the best in the game right now without a single title to his name. Folks still rank him in the top ten of all time.
Arbitrary notions of greatness relating to any certain number of NBA titles are greatly inconsistent with the ease with which LeBron’s otherworldly performance is separated from that of his subpar supporting cast. History wouldn’t fail to recognize this.
5) LeBron James should remain a Cleveland Cavalier because wise men know of what they speak.
What would we be without those who came before us? What would we be without the wisdom of the ages? We’d be Cavemen.
There’s a big difference between taking orders and taking counsel from elders. So what does it mean that Charles Barkley, James Worthy,George Gervin,Chuck D, David Letterman, even Ron Artest have all counseled LeBron to stay home? Jay-Z’s first reaction was to stay out of it. Denzel too.
So who’s on the list of people who’ve advised LeBron to leave? Jon Leguizamo, Reggie Jackson, Willis Reed, Dave Checketts (!!!), Isiaih Thomas (!!!!!), Mark Sanchez and a host at The Monkey Bar?
What can you say?
4) LeBron James should remain a Cleveland Cavalier because Cleveland and the Cavaliers have made every accomodation for him.
The analysis would be much different if irreconcilable differences could be identified between Cleveland, the Cavaliers and LeBron, or if the region and franchise could be shown to be unfit to raise the LeBron child. Neither is the case here.
We know well enough that LeBron couldn’t be more beloved by a fanbase than he is by the hometown fans who watched him grow up (remember, Bissinger said that we love him too much here), and we’ve been over that the kind of greatness LeBron is chasing requires a stage no bigger than the one he has in Cleveland.
So what of the Cavaliers franchise? Terry Pluto wrote just this morning.
When it comes time for the Cavaliers to sit down for perhaps their final meeting with LeBron James, they should ask the MVP this question, “What else could we have realistically done to make this a better situation for you?”
Dan Gilbert, General Manager Chris Grant and James have been together for five years. He knows they have paid the price to win, having one of the NBA’s top three payrolls over the last three seasons. James also knows the Cavs have consulted him before making major deals for Shaquille O’Neal and Antwan Jamison. He also is aware that as an assistant to former GM Danny Ferry, Grant has been very active in trade talks over the years.
A new $25 million practice facility, state-of-the-art dressing room and a first-class approach to virtually every part of the franchise has been business as usual since Gilbert bought the team five-and-a-half seasons ago.
Whatever the mistakes that can be identified in hindsight, we’re talking about a basketball club that led the NBA in victories in each of the last two consecutive seasons, and was the odds-on favorite in the market to win the title in each one.
Here it’s impossible to separate the failures of the Cavaliers organization with those of LeBron himself, whose managers and coach were in thrall to his every whim. No player has ever created as much pressure, and no franchise has ever won a title in anything approximating such an environment of uncertainty.
(UPDATE: With hindsight, it’s become clear that this is the reason we were the wrongest about.)
3) LeBron James should remain a Cleveland Cavalier because he made a promise to Cleveland.
It’s more than what it would be for LeBron to drive the bus over the cliff just to fly away from the burning wreckage. In the end he’s good for little more than his word
Again, it’s more than just the words that have come out of LeBron’s own mouth. It’s in the words that LeBron so willingly chose to represent. It’s not just the hope that would otherwise be generated by a player of his talent originating from and playing for a town so starved for what he promised, but also LeBron’s own embrace of the messianic role that he’s come to represent. He’s the Chosen One. We’re all Witnesses.
Because it goes right to the hate and legitimate disappointment discussed above, we have to ask again. And who could want to answer? What will we have witnessed if he leaves?
2) LeBron James should remain a Cleveland Cavalier because leading the longest and worst suffering city in American sport to a title is a story that no one else in history has written nor could be expected to be in a position to write.
Here it’s not that LeBron accepted the role as The Chosen One, it’s that what he promised to do is something so historically compelling, and something that no one has ever been nor could reasonably be expected to be in a position to do.
Here we’re talking about an entire region that’s starved for a title in a way that no other place could be, not just the disappointed fanbase of one team within a region that’s otherwise enjoyed considerable success. And again, we’re talking about a native son. Where else could it happen? Who else could it be?
It’s the very reason the messianic role was available for LeBron to embrace in the first place.
1) LeBron James should remain a Cleveland Cavalier because there’s no such thing as a good decision.
Of course, there’s only good and bad reasons for making decisions.
Easier to “win now,” “win more championships,” or “make more money” somewhere else?
What kind of reasons are those to leave?
What other reasons to leave could there be?
Who on Earth could possibly think LeBron would leave?
What kind of sociopaths do they think we raise here?
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UPDATE: We are all losers.
