“Just a kid from Akron, Ohio.”
Before those six words became infamously draped across the home page at lebronjames.com, they were paraphrased by the NBA Finals MVP during his championship coronation in Miami, Florida just last summer. Given the fact that Miami attended three consecutive Finals and won two straight championships, the likelihood of LeBron James returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers a mere 13 months later seemed as unlikely as a Cleveland team winning a championship. But on Friday July 11, 2014, the “kid from Akron, Ohio” made a second “Decision”, one that scorched the memory of its predecessor and turned the entire sports world on its ear.
In leaving the Miami Heat, James left behind the weather, the women (even if he’s only looking), the wealth (the Heat could offer him the most money) and the winning tradition. An outsider might look at this and assume LeBron would be crazy to pass all that up. I, on the other hand, understood his choice completely.
LeBron James and I have a fair amount in common. While social media followers and tax bracket aren’t on this list, we were born three weeks apart. We both can recite damn near any lyric from the Jay Z catalog at the drop of a hat. We both have an affinity for sports (especially basketball) and we both married our longtime high school sweethearts. But above all of that, LeBron and I are from Northeast Ohio, Summit and Cuyahoga counties respectively. We were born & raised roughly 35 miles apart, and therefore share many of the same regional values.
So when James famously took his talents elsewhere in the most callous and oblivious way possible four years and five days ago, I was as stunned and disillusioned as anyone. I couldn’t help but think how LeBron didn’t do anything on that night the way I would’ve done it. Naturally, upon receiving the news with the rest of the world, I removed James’ photo from my shared office at work, boxed up my #23 Cavs jersey, never copped another pair of Air Zooms and did my best to avoid any YouTube clips of my favorite memories from his glory days in wine & gold. The entire LeBron era was magnified down to one stomach-turning moment, and everything about it felt wrong.
Sidebar: This is probably still my favorite highlight from his first stint in Cleveland.
As stated on last week’s HHSR podcast (where we laid out the various clues that indicated a LeBron/Cleveland reconciliation), the most understated part about this nightmare situation wasn’t that he left — he always had that right — or even that he embarrassed the city on a national stage as he happily took a pay cut to skip town. It was that the team, loaded with old players with heavy contracts, was theoretically assembled with his blessings, in the name of the “win now…RIGHT NOW” edict James’ pending free agency placed upon the organization. James created this monster, a team with zero roster flexibility, and then bounced before the mission was complete.
While LeBron went on to bring titles to South Beach, Cleveland was left to sift through the debris, which included: creatively unloading bad contracts, reshuffling the coaching staff multiple times and countless hours on draftexpress.com. In the four years LBJ was gone, the Cavaliers were the worst team in the NBA record-wise. But while in Miami, something else happened: LeBron James experienced tremendous growth as a player and, more importantly, as a person— a fact he referenced in his brilliant letter announcing his return to Cleveland.
James’ message to the world featured a slew of quotable phrases, but in addition to restarting the NBA’s offseason which had grind to a halt, he (along with Sports Illustrated’s Lee Jenkins and his own PR team) astutely pinpointed EVERY MISSTEP he made in the summer of 2010 and corrected it. This began with submitting his decision to the world via a poignant and sincere note, rather than a grandstanding sideshow of an ESPN telecast.
In his letter, seemingly addressed to the people of Northeast Ohio above anyone, LeBron refrained from using any lame catch-phrases, as he did during his departure (intentionally or unintentionally). In fact, he was extremely direct for someone who appeared to have been waffling on a Miami/Cleveland resolution for the last 10 days. Gone was the uncomfortable interview with Jim Gray in front of a bunch of propped up kids, as was his awkward stammering as he tried to sneak in the point of how difficult a decision it was before he threw Cleveland’s collective heart down an incinerator.
In this letter, LeBron James lifted up the city he once tore down. He appealed to the sensibilities of Clevelanders and Akronites alike.
“In Northeast Ohio, nothing is given. Everything is earned. You work for what you have. I’m ready to accept the challenge,” James said.
In 2010, James took the easy road— teaming up with two other perennial all-stars, rather than staying with the hometown team that drafted him and working to lift the city’s immovable (now 50-year-old) sports curse. Rather than running from the challenge as a skittish 25-year-old, the sophisticated 29-year-old is ready to look this task dead in the face.
In the SI piece, LeBron was extremely inclusive of Cleveland and Akron as a singular unit, something he had NEVER done in the past. He’s always kept the two cities separate, even once going as far to say that he hated Cleveland as a youngin. And who could forget LBJ going out of his way to make the Cleveland Indians feel inadequate? This time, he used words such as “our city” and “our community”, phrasing you’ve never heard from him before. The words “Northeast Ohio” appeared five times in his letter; “Akron” was only used once.
“My relationship with Northeast Ohio is bigger than basketball. I didn’t realize that four years ago. I do now.”
While many Akron natives defended James’ move and laid blame at the Cavaliers’ doorstep, the “Akron hates you” chants that rained down from Quicken Loans Arena on December 2, 2010 signified the chasm created between Cleveland and Akron. Additionally, the rift that developed along racial lines was palpable. Blacks from Akron defended him, whites from Akron were less forgiving. But the vast majority of Clevelanders swore off LeBron from that day forward, regardless of race. Many of these opinions though were influenced by Cavs owner Dan Gilbert’s letter even more than LeBron’s departure.
Sidebar: Nationally, blacks in general were always far more supportive of James after he fled Cleveland.
Lost in the public outcry over Gilbert’s reckless letter to Cavs fans eviscerating James after “The Decision” was how good Gilbert was to James during their five years together. A true businessman, Gilbert didn’t just purchase the franchise in 2005 as much as he invested in it. He poured hundreds of millions into the franchise, to LeBron’s benefit. Arena renovations, marketing, going into the luxury tax year after year to improve the roster, treating James’ family and entourage like royalty (including allowing them to fly on the team plane) and the construction of a state-of-the-art $25 million dollar practice facility, ostensibly placed strategically south of downtown Cleveland so that it would be closer to LeBron’s home.
Gilbert obviously benefited greatly from LeBron’s presence, but he also bent over backwards to accommodate The King. It’s understandable for a man who gave so much for one player to be livid after he left in the fashion LeBron did. It still doesn’t excuse the personal attacks made on James afterwards, but anyone who believes they wouldn’t have been pissed to the highest levels of pisstivity if they owned the Cavaliers in that scenario is lying to themselves.
Sidebar: Furthermore, I never really bought into the whole “Dan Gilbert treating LeBron like a runaway slave” narrative, and I say that as both a black man and a long time Cavalier fan. Also, there’s been rampant speculation that the letter was just removed from the Cavs team website last week. This has since been refuted by the Cavaliers, but universally ignored by the national media, for whatever reason.
In two parts, LeBron James managed to erase Gilbert’s letter like a Rajon Rondo layup on a fast-break. First by burying the hatchet with GIlbert last weekend, then by choosing the letter format to deliver his message, thus forever scrubbing the memory of that black mark in Cavaliers history from our collective consciousness. LeBron also acknowledged Gilbert’s indiscretions, but didn’t hide from his own.
“Who am I to hold a grudge?”
Seems simple enough. But it was the lack of this perspective and maturity that brought about the original “Decision” in the first place. And LeBron didn’t regret his choice in 2010, nor did he attempt to duck his ownership of it.
Through this new letter, LeBron James addressed every part of his past, present and future like a man. He ran with the oft-used “college” analogy to describe his time with the Heat. And now that his schooling was complete, rather than tastelessly throwing his teammates under the bus Gravedigger, the four-time MVP thanked his teammates (some by name) and showed a genuine appreciation to the organization that treated him so well.
James went on to set realistic expectations for winning, something he definitely did not do last time around. He promised nothing. He didn’t playfully list off the number of titles he, Kyrie Irving and Andrew Wiggins would win together. All he did was set expectations for how hard he was prepared to work, as well has his role as an elder statesman and a team leader. This wasn’t him teaming up with two All-NBA players. This was him linking up with…basically a bunch of kids, but without being scared off by that challenge. Then, LeBron unequivocally set his goal: “bringing one trophy back to Northeast Ohio.”
He concluded his correspondence with Cleveland by hinting at his own economic power and addressing a pivotal issue that has been impacting Northeast Ohio for the better part of the last two decades (at least). The diaspora of the smart and talented individuals hailing from this part of the country has been extremely detrimental to the area. Cleveland’s lack of jobs and resources has slowed much of the development within the city in recent years, resulting in many families either moving from the city to the suburbs, or out of the state altogether. I myself am a victim of this to a certain degree, but the idea of returning home has always remained intriguing.
And that’s the point. Everybody is from somewhere. And everybody can relate to “home”, even the greatest basketball player in the world. And if LeBron can inspire some of Northeast Ohio’s best and brightest to come back and invest into the community, then he will have done his job.
“There’s no better place to grow up,” he said at the conclusion of the letter. And it was clear six weeks ago that he really meant it.
If true, this is a story. RT @CLEsportsTalk: LeBron’s kids will attend school next year back home in Bath http://t.co/8WAhLTyzkT
— HipHopSportsReport (@HHSReport) May 29, 2014
It’s likely that LeBron always understood the region and its character, but only now are we seeing the practical application of that understanding. “My presence can make a difference in Miami, but I think it can mean more where I’m from,” he said. James and the Cavs agreed to a two-year deal yesterday, with a player option after next season (presumably so he can cash in on the increased salaries yielded by the NBA’s new TV deal set for 2016). LeBron’s patience will be tested in more ways than one, as he’s willingly inviting the free agent speculation circus for the next 24 months. And even though it may serve as some insurance in the event things go horribly wrong in the 216, it appears that James’ intent is to finish his career in a Cavs uniform — a career which could last another 11 years — and not allow the media to again drive a wedge between him and the city.
Sidebar: Don’t believe me about the media? How many times have you seen the images of Cavs fans burning LeBron jerseys since 2010? The national sports media won’t let you forget that. But just know, Heat fans like to burn things too…and piss on them to put the fire out. Still haven’t seen this on Sportscenter though.
I was on record saying I didn’t want LeBron to come back to Cleveland, and I meant it. But seeing the positive effect its had on my community, understanding the economic jolt downtown Cleveland is set to receive and knowing that the story is so good it would make Disney executives furrow their brows in skepticism, even I may have miscalculated my feelings about his comeback.
Turns out LeBron had a heart all along.
LeBron James said he always imagined he’d play for the Cavaliers again. The Cleveland Cavaliers never found a long-term solution at small forward and always maintained salary cap flexibility since he left (thank you, Chris Grant). This is why it was difficult to understand the pessimism so many had regarding a LeBron/Cleveland reunion. Critics were quick to point out how the Cavs should be groveling at the feet of King James, and the misguided notion that Gilbert doesn’t “deserve” James had been adopted by many. What these people fail to properly consider was Cleveland possessed something of immeasurable value to LeBron James: opportunity. Opportunity within areas he really, truly cares about.
The opportunity for redemption. The opportunity to mend fences. The opportunity to grow his brand and earn back the respect of the game’s great players that came before him. The opportunity to mentor young talent (from Kyrie Irving to Johnny Manziel). The opportunity to bring an NBA championship to the shores of Lake Erie. The opportunity to once again become part of this remarkable community. The opportunity to come home again.
The opportunity for happiness.
The Cleveland Cavaliers, and yes Dan Gilbert, had the keys to this reality. So like Gilbert, LeBron had to put on his humble hat. It was unquestionably the right move.
In life, we all search for happiness and fulfillment in everything we do. It’s one reason why this website was created. LeBron utilized this platform to tell the world that you can live, work, raise a family and be happy in Northeast Ohio. Consider the money LeBron has donated to his alma mater St. Vincent St. Mary High School (and his relationship with VJ King) and to Ohio State’s athletic program. Consider the bike-a-thon he held in Akron for so many years. Consider the 330 tattoo on his right arm. He was always an Ohio kid at heart.
True happiness to LeBron James is living and playing in Northeast Ohio. Happiness for Cleveland sports fans is having their homegrown warrior return home and lead them to their first championship since 1964. He points out that he “sometimes feels like he’s their (Northeast Ohio’s) son.” With the support of his people, LeBron James is now prepared to do anything, which is ultimately the goal of any good parent.
“The more time passed, the more it felt right. This is what makes me happy.”
Now if you can’t respect that, your whole perspective is wack.