You’re probably wondering why a “second chance.” After all, LeBron James led the Miami Heat to consecutive NBA Championships in 2012-13.
Well, here is an excerpt from “LeBron Abandons Cleveland for Miami,” July 13, 2010, which explains why even he must have realized that none of those championships will really matter when he looks back on his NBA career.
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[H]e 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.
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Sure enough, LeBron proved my sense right last year, when he came to his senses and took his talents back to Cleveland. Therefore, I hope I can be forgiven the suspicion that my commentary on him leaving in the first place had something to do with his return.
It is noteworthy that LeBron had a far better shot at winning more championships and making more money if he stayed in Miami. This made his going home all the more poignant, if not inspired.
Meanwhile, even though they might pretend otherwise today, almost every analyst thought LeBron would suffer a season of frustration, trying to lead a Cleveland team of young players with no chance of making it to the playoffs, let alone the finals.
Which is why it’s truly a testament to his talents that he has defied them all:
LeBron James scored 23 points, Kyrie Irving returned after missing two games and the Cleveland Cavaliers reserved a spot in the NBA Finals with a 118-88 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night to win the Eastern Conference title.
It will be the fifth straight visit to the league’s showcase event for the inimitable James, who returned to Cleveland after four years in Miami to try and end this city’s championship drought dating to 1964…
Other players have won more championships, but none has ever done it for his ring-starved home region.
(The Associated Press, May 26, 2015)
But completing this daring and daunting season with an improbable championship won’t be easy – especially against a Golden State Warriors team that had the most wins during the regular season and is led by the Stephen Curry, the league’s reigning MVP. Nonetheless, I’m betting he and the Cavs can….
So here’s to LeBron being “worshipped like a king” in Cleveland, instead of treated like a hired gun in Miami.
NOTE: For some incomprehensible reason it has become fashionable for fans to celebrate national championships by going on property-destroying rampages. But, after Ferguson and Baltimore, I pray fans in Cleveland do not follow fashion.
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