I have had a hard time trying to imagine how it would feel to lose the best player on one of my favorite sports teams. Because its not like losing a Steve Young or Jerry Rice, a Chris Webber or Vlade Divac, or even Barry Bonds. Its not the same because while they were the faces of their respective franchises at one point, by the time they left they were well over the hill, too concussed or too roided-out to matter.
If Young had walked after the '94 Super Bowl, or Webber after the '02 Western Conference Finals it would've hurt. If Bonds had left after hitting 73 home runs I would've booed him every chance I got. But none of them left. None of them abandoned their hometowns or the teams in which they built their legacies.
Young walked away while he could still remember his first name. Rice went on to a few sub-par years with the Raiders and Seahawks. Webber was traded to Detroit for some role-player (after being a shell of the all-star he was). And Bonds just sort of faded into the dusk after not getting resigned by the Giants in their effort to take their team off the A.A.R.P. mailing list.
So I don't know what it feels like to lose the face of my franchise. The only thing I can liken it to is being dumped by the love of my life (or the love of that part of my life), being absolutely, inconsolably miserable and seeing her with some other dude having a great time. Just knowing she is with someone else, in a better relationship, and is far happier because I'm not part of her life anymore is around the feeling I would assume every Ohioan is getting ready to embrace.
They're all buckling down because at 6 p.m. tonight LeBron is going to announce his decision to either leave the only professional team he has known or (and it wouldn't be the right decision, I'll explain more in a moment) to stay. It's like when you're dating someone and things haven't been going well for awhile and you try everything you can to make the situation better but with every ill-placed attempt you manage to make it worse. So that significant other tells you they need to talk and will be over at a certain time. Only in this situation the Cavaliers brass has been trying for the last 7 years to make the Cavs better with varying, but ultimately no degree of success, they have to get broken up with on national television.
That is if LeBron makes the right decision and leaves the Cavs for greener NBA pastures (my pick would be Chicago, but I think Miami or New York could make it work in a year or two). The only thing that has got to be making him even consider staying in Cleveland is that hometown pride. He has carried this team through the last 7 years, held the NBA's best record a few times and won 2 M.V.P. awards. Though every playoff excursion has been forgettable. The Cavs lone Finals appearance featuring James they were swept by a clearly superior San Antonio Spurs team. This last season they buckled under the pressure of the Celtics and couldn't even make it to the Eastern Conference Finals, where I would think the Magic would have beaten them anyway.
The fact of the matter is that LeBron James cannot win a championship, let alone multiple titles in Cleveland. They have no cap flexibility, barely any tradeable players and an aging roster. Their second best player is a toss-up between pseudo all-star Mo Williams and Wizards castoff Antawn Jamison. If either of those guys are your 4th or 5th best players you have a decent shot. If for some reason James isn't shooting right (bad elbow?) then who steps up? We had a chance to ask that question this last year and the answer was an over the hill Shaq who didn't even play the last two months of the season. He hustled more than half that team in the Celtics close-out game and when 2010 Shaq is your second best scoring option, a title is far, far away.
Every time James comes back to Cleveland if he does decide to jump ship, he will be booed mercilessly, and he should be. Who wants to stay friends with their ex? When I see my ex-gfs I don't run up and hug them, I don't give them a pat on the back and congratulate them on finding someone better than myself. I either pretend I don't know them, make eye-contact then move on to pretending like I don't know them, or mutter a dirty word under my breath and ignore them. James would be lucky if he doesn't get people spitting in his face and slashing his tires.
But if James wants to be remembered as an all-time great, and I mean Bird, MJ, now even Kobe status, he has to do this. He can't stay in Cleveland and keep hoping his team of second class stars will finally flip the switch and start getting him rings.
* Chicago is already a play-off team, with a very solid core of Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah and now Carlos Boozer. They have the flexibility to add one or two more lower level guys and be a complete beast. If that roster stayed healthy now with Boozer instead of Brad Miller (who I am convinced was born without the muscles in your legs that enable you to jump) and with James on that team it would be over for the rest of the East for many years to come.
* Miami has Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, Mario Chalmers, Michael Beasley and three rookies. Wait a second, Wade is basically the same player as James just a little bit older, smaller and more injury prone. Bosh is completely untested in his NBA career. Chalmers and Beasley are both pretty big question marks, especially Beasley who is looking more and more likely to be a bust as the 2nd overall pick. And three rooks? If they have the big three of James, Wade and Bosh that alone will win them games, but they need a complete team to win titles.
Let's do a little hypothetical Finals for next year. The big Miami three against the Lakers. Artest would cover Wade, Kobe would take James and the combination of Bynum, Gasol and Odom would more than cover Bosh. James and Wade will be able to make some plays but overall L.A. is still too good to be beaten by a team of James, Wade and Bosh. So why go to a team you know will not be able to win, and who hypothetically has a worst roster than the one you're already one?
In Chicago he has a much better opportunity with Boozer and Noah equalizing the Lakers big men and having Rose as a legit elite point guard would help free him up. In New York he faces the same problem as in Miami, there is just not enough pieces to win it all. And if winning it all isn't your main concern then stay in Cleveland and make an extra $30 million a year.
I repeat, if James wants to win big, wants to win not even one, but multiple titles he will leave Cleveland. Just like my ex-girlfriends, they knew I was a good guy, I had my benefits and they felt some loyalty to me for being such a good guy. But they knew ultimately that I couldn't make them as happy as someone else. I know (at least I hope) that it hurt them to walk away, but they did it. They went out into the world looking for greener pastures and left me sitting in my brownish/tan pasture wondering what I did wrong.
James needs to break up with Cleveland, of course it will hurt, of course it won't be easy. But down the road Ohioans will realize it was for the best. Who wants someone to stay with them not because they love you, but because they don't want to hurt you?
Not me, and Cleveland shouldn't either.
