Here is what I wrote when LeBron announced four years ago that he was “taking my talents to Miami:”
It’s important to bear in mind that LeBron’s all-consuming ambition to win a championship is the same ambition that motivated (and still motivates) all great NBA players: winning really is everything to them.
And he will surely win in Miami – given that the triumvirate of Lebron, Chris Bosh, and Dwayne Wade has the same potential to dominate during the playoffs as other championship triumvirates like Dr. J, Moses Malone, and Maurice Cheeks of the 76ers and Michael, Bill Cartwright, and Scottie Pippen of the Bulls.
The only question for LeBron is: what price victory?
After all, what made winning a championship so sweet for Dr. J and Michael has to have been finally winning on a team with which they suffered so many years of playoff frustration. Not to mention the unbridled pride and joy they brought to longsuffering fans in cities that, in the case of Philadelphia, had not won an NBA championship in almost two decades, and in the case of Chicago, had never won at all.
By contrast, I fear that winning for LeBron will be bitter sweet. Not least because instead of being hailed as a basketball savior in Miami, where the Heat won a championship just years ago (in 2006), he’ll be regarded as nothing more than a hired gun who was brought in to help them win a few more.
Even worse, no matter how many championships he wins in Miami, he will be forever haunted by the fact that he abandoned not just his team but his childhood home to do so.
My sense is that LeBron’s plumed ego will make it difficult for him to cope with being treated like a courtier instead of worshipped like a king.
(“LeBron Abandons Cleveland for Miami,” The iPINIONS Journal, July 13, 2010)
And here is what I wrote when the Spurs humiliated the Heat in last month’s NBA championship series:
Granted, winning two championships in four years is nothing to be ashamed of. Except that, having been nurtured in this narcissistic, instant-gratification age of Twitter and Facebook, LeBron and crew do not have the emotional maturity or historical perspective to rebound from this humiliation. This is why they did more sulking than playing at the first sign of real adversity … when the Spurs were routing them, yet again, in game four.
More to the point, each one is probably already posting selfies and tweets advertising himself as a gun for hire by the highest bidder. I’d be shocked if the Heat’s triumvirate returns intact next season.
(“Spurs Cool Off Heat to Win NBA Championship,” The iPINIONS Journal, June 16, 2014)
Now here is how LeBron explained his decision, this time, to abandon Miami for Cleveland:
My relationship with Northeast Ohio is bigger than basketball. I didn’t realize that four years ago. I do now.
(Sports Illustrated, July 11, 2014)
Enough said?
Meanwhile, “All is forgiven!”
Unsurprisingly, this is the mantra everyone in Cleveland is shouting today.
Oh to be the king, again. What’s more, easy lies this head that wears the crown, especially now that the king has two championship rings on his fingers. And, yes, forgive and forget means that it will not matter in the least to Cavalier fans that he earned those rings as nothing more than a hired gun for the Heat….
Good luck, LeBron … and Cleveland.
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* This commentary was published yesterday, Friday, at 12:33 pm