The city of Cleveland is currently acting like a spurned and scorned ex-lover turned stalker. Yes, LeBron James broke their hearts, but they need to deal with this in a healthier fashion. T-shirts for sale on the streets outside Progressive Field read “F*** LEBRON” and “the Lyin King” (a parody of the Lion King- OMG! I get it, LOL, ROTFLMAO!)
But that is not the way.
Heckling and taunting one idiot at an Indians game in a LeBron Miami jersey will not make the pain go away.
Did you ever date someone for a couple weeks, until you realize they’re PSYCHO, so you quickly and wisely end it?
But they keep calling/texting/Facebooking/emailing no matter how many messages you ignore. Then they blog and Tweet about you. And you receive drunk voicemails months and possibly even years afterwards…well, you get the point of this 100% hypothetical and in no way based on real life experience scenario.
This is how Cleveland is acting towards Lebron James right now.
By Paul M. Banks
And I am no James apologist.
“Lebron James April-Present” WILL BE the #1 seed in my Anti-Bracket next March. Let me say it again: I think “The Decision” was one of the DOUCHIEST THINGS IN HUMAN HISTORY. But hating him and his douchiness really solves nothing.
To see where we are today, we must back up a little to where we’ve been. If you haven’t seen the HILARIOUS “We are Lebron” video, it’s below. Of course, this is all tongue in cheek, but you know how there’s nuggets of truth in every joke. And some Cleveland locals took this seriously.
Cleveland City – We Are Lebron [Stay Lebron Official Song]
Uploaded by toums3. – Discover the latest sports and extreme videos.
When “The King” left, the backlash started way at the top with Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, and the hate is not ready to die; only multiply.
Gilbert’s letter to Cavs fans was the sports equivalent of “Fatal Attraction.” He really came off as a psycho ex-girlfriend whose wild rantings only further verify your decision to dump her. Here’s an excerpt:
If you thought we were motivated before tonight to bring the hardware to Cleveland, I can tell you that this shameful display of selfishness and betrayal by one of our very own has shifted our “motivation” to previously unknown and previously never experienced levels.
Some people think they should go to heaven but NOT have to die to get there.
Sorry, but that’s simply not how it works.
This shocking act of disloyalty from our home grown “chosen one” sends the exact opposite lesson of what we would want our children to learn. And “who” we would want them to grow-up to become.
But the good news is that this heartless and callous action can only serve as the antidote to the so-called “curse” on Cleveland, Ohio.
The self-declared former “King” will be taking the “curse” with him down south. And until he does “right” by Cleveland and Ohio, James (and the town where he plays) will unfortunately own this dreaded spell and bad karma.
And if you saw the original, posted on the Cavs website the night of “The Decision,” it looked even sillier because it was published in a goofy, childish font that you’d expect only Hannah Montana to type in.
Billionaire sports franchise owners are better than this. Yes, that includes Mark Cuban. And it’s unfortunate because
1.) Gilbert is a role model to Cavaliers fans, and his short-sighted act has now inspired idiots to act batsh** crazy about this.
2.) Gilbert actually has a lot of solid ground to stand on with how LeBron treated him. The self-ascribed King told Gilbert he was bailing on him via a member of his outer-outer posse; halfway through airing of “the decision!”
This was the sports equivalent of your fiance dumping you by text message. LeBron is better than this. Or so we thought. In the greatest NBA free agent class in history, Cavs fans now have to get excited about the signing of Joey Graham?? James could have warned them ahead of time that they were going to have a lot of new cap room to play with. But he didn’t, and he’s irreparably destroyed his reputation because of it.
So why feed the beast, Cleveland? Yes, LeBron is a once-in-a-lifetime talent as a basketball player, but he’s obviously am egomaniacal dipsh** as a person.
Joe Posnanski of SI.com wrote a must read column about the LeBron angst, vitriol and bitterness that resides on the shores of Lake Erie.
an excerpt:
that’s what’s different about the anti-LeBron James feeling here: It only seems to be growing. The anger only seems to be rising. When LeBron James humiliated his hometown by going on ESPN to announce to the world that he was taking his talents to South Beach so he could ball it up with a few buddies and try to win the championship he could not come close to winning as the star, well, there was the expected fury…It’s not just sports here. This is no joke here. This is not funny here. Angry? You have no idea.
He also points out how Cleveland has bigger problems than losing a star NBA player. Which again is the point of why I’m crafting and publishing this piece:
SPORTS ARE NOT YOUR LIFE, THEY ARE A FUN PAST TIME TO COMPLEMENT/SUPPLMENT YOUR LIFE.
If you have real problems, you know personal, financial, socioeconomic ones- that is a MILLION TIMES MORE IMPORTANT THAN AN EGOMANIACAL JACKA** of a ballplayer.
Act accordingly.
The striking part is how many houses are for sale in and around my old neighborhood. Forbes magazine this year ranked Cleveland as America’s most miserable city, three spots ahead of Detroit, that rival rust-belt city that had been the final punch line of the most recent Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video gag on YouTube (“At least we’re not Detroit! We’re not Detroit!).
Well, people have been saying that sort of misery thing about Cleveland for many, many years, long before I was even born… but something about all those “For Sale” signs makes it feel a little bit different. The signs seem to be in every front yard, block after block, like they are political signs, like people want to encourage everyone to vote for RE/MAX or Prudential.
But most of all I enjoyed this passage of Posnanski’s because it was something I also really noticed about the city when I was there, just a few short days ago
I never fully realized how many depressing word choices pervade Cleveland. The football team is called the “Browns” — it is named for the legendary coach Paul Brown, but, as Tom Hanks once said, it fits because everything in Cleveland is brown. The most famous building in town is the skyscraper called “The Terminal Tower.” The Cuyahoga River, the one that caught fire, is thought only to mean “Crooked River.” The lake is called “Erie.”
Cleveland,
Think about that. Think about the economic strife, and focus on working through it. Minimizing the economic catastrophe that globalization, outsourcing and deindustrialization have brought upon your city, and America at large.
Think about making your own individual lot in life better, and stop giving a sh** about LeBron’s. And then get on with your lives. Michael Jordan walked away from the Bulls in his prime, for his “baseball sabbatical.” Yes, I know he had a few titles already, and won more later, but he could’ve easily won two more. He deserted us.
Sure, you may not see the analogy now, since MJ eventually came back, but you will over time. As the years pass from the time Jordan’s career ended, we learned what a royal douche he truly is. You’re just finding out all at once what a royal douche your basketball idol is, versus us, who learned in small increments.
But the main point is still the same- you worshiped a tremendous a**hat who bailed on you at a time when he could have brought a little more joy into your life.
And what will you learn from it? Hopefully some perspective, because after all, he is just a basketball player, and it is just a game.
And I say this not just as an observer two states away. I just visited Cleveland. On vacation no less! I attended that infamous Indians game with my buddy Pete Pattakos from Cleveland Frowns.com. We both talked extensively with that Lebron heat jersey fan. I think we understand him (he’s just a guy desperate to get attention by any means necessary), I hope one day to understand you people as well.
Paul M. Banks is President and CEO of The Sports Bank.net , a Midwest focused webzine. He is also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, the Chicago Tribune’s blog network, Walter Football.com, the Washington Times Communities, Yardbarker Network, and Fox Sports.com
You can follow him on Twitter @thesportsbank and @bigtenguru
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