LeBron James the 8th Grade Boy

I will take a quick pause from my trip blog posts...

This past Thursday brought us “The Decision” where LeBron James announced his intention to play for Miami. Or rather, to not be stuck in Cleveland. Before I get started, let me just say that I did not watch the announcement, but I was in Miami when it was announced and there was a lot of enthusiasm there.

Were any of us surprised by the decision?

I think that many of us wanted to see LeBron do something other than take the easiest way out (which is what Miami is)…

Cleveland – stay loyal to his fan base and try to bring a mediocre team to greatness every year.
New York – try to reinvent a storied franchise with new teammate Amare Stoudemire
Chicago – try to live up to the legend that was Michael Jordan, but with a strong supporting cast (Carlos Boozer and Derrick Rose).
LA Clippers – take LA’s second-class team (though with plenty of tools) and rival the Lakers.
New Jersey – take last year’s worst team (and blatantly miserable) and turn around their fortunes
Miami – play with your two good friends and be the front runners to win the title the next few years, knowing that Dwyane Wade is one of the two best crunch-time players in the league.

Here’s the thing – we all knew that LeBron wanted out of Cleveland. The only reason I could see him stay would be the pride of knowing that they fell short of expectations this past season and the desire to win a title with Cleveland. But it really seemed like LeBron was trying to break up with Cleveland for the last couple of years and just didn’t know how to do it. Miami offered him the only possible justification for a way out.

This whole thing is reminiscent of a junior high or high school break-up (no, not mine). He didn’t know how to break it to Cleveland, so rather than saying that he was sorry and just didn’t want to play there any more, he needed to find a better excuse. In this case, his thinking was that no one in their right mind could fault him for jumping at the chance to play with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh simply based on sheer talent. The fact that they are all good friends should be understandable to anyone, right? It’s like he said, “you shouldn’t be upset, I’m dumping you because I want to date someone who is a lot prettier than you plus I am better friends with her.” None of the other teams offered him a situation that he could justify to leave Cleveland. “I’m going to leave Cleveland to go to a similar situation with the Clippers,” just wasn’t going to cut it. He could only leave for a situation like Miami because in his mind he could sell the world on it.

To an 8th grade boy, or to LeBron, this is sound logic. To everyone else, it’s just stupid. And then to do this as an hour-long special on ESPN is just classless.

Now, we all know that Miami is going to be really good. Hell, they could have me and my dad as their fourth and fifth players and they could still be a 50-win team.

But there is a lot that can go wrong. LeBron, Wade, and Bosh all became friends on the US National Team and mused with the idea of all three playing together. Kind of like being roommates with your friends, it’s a really different thing than just getting along. The question is whether they know how to disagree with each other, how to push each other, and then how to include the rest of their team in their friendship. It will be easy for them to alienate the rest of their teammates and if they lack the right perspective, to create a toxic locker room atmosphere.

What they need is a seasoned veteran that they all look up to who can tell them when they’re being idiots. Along with that, Dwyane Wade needs to know to keep LeBron feeling like the top banana (and taking credit for being the main man) even though everyone else will know that it’s Wade who is in charge.