After five years we have reached our 250th issue of Yes, I Said it First.
When we began Tiger Woods was at the pinnacle of the golf world and looked the most sure bet to break all Jack Nicklaus’ records for winning major golf tournaments.
Football was dominated by pretty much the same two or three teams, Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin were still NHL rookies and C.C. Sabathia was regarded as some decent pitcher on a Cleveland Indians team that contended – before an epic collapse blowing a lead in the American League Championship so that the Boston Red Sox could win another championship in the fall of 2007.
It’s become so common in Cleveland sports cycles for even good teams to find ways to lose everything and from time to time over five years Cleveland’s misery has been the backdrop for our stories.
But at the time of that Cleveland baseball collapse; when we foolishly believed the Cleveland professional sports drought actually might end we were just at the infancy of another story involving Cleveland that would consume most of the next four years of sports opinion makers.
IT ALL STARTS IN CLEVELAND
It started there at Progressive Field where the baseball Indians play and its conclusion has not been penned, but should whenever NBA basketball is played again. (NBA has locked its players out of course).
On numerous occasion topics that have graced this editorial have eluded how Cleveland never wins anything, how LeBron James will someday win everything, and that while our hearts are with Cleveland it never made sense the way the NBA is structured for LeBron to actually stick it out forever playing on the shores of Lake Erie – even if they were willing to pay him handsomely to do it.
We all saw the tide of discontent coming. It wasn’t a surprise but it framed a way for LeBron to go from being an appreciated most loved sports figure on a ragtag team where he was the main attraction, and only hope, to being the despised figure that jumped at the opportunity to join a group of superstars that should win regardless how hard LeBron plays in a new city that is rather ambivalent towards its pro sports franchises.
I get all the hate for LeBron and cheering against him in 2010-11 when he teamed up with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh and pre-celebrated years and years of NBA dominance which is yet to manifest a few months before they ever took the floor.
LeBron James became the most hated athlete in sports for making a decision to be in of control his own destiny in a place where winners’ often fall into their lap (That place is Miami if you are like me and need to be pinched whenever the words Florida Marlins are used together in a sentence).
LeBron solely came to embody what no other NBA star could even if their teams were hated. He became the New York Yankees of NBA sports – the one we want to cheer against and see stumble.
That is how the media has twisted it, but here are a few things that they miss in the historical context of LeBron turning his back on Cleveland in favour of easier times in Miami:
First, LeBron was one foot out the door of Cleveland as soon as he joined Cleveland.
Second, the rest of the NBA should share the guilt for enticing LeBron to leave home, something the league now perceives as a problem which may destroy what the NBA is all about if not fixed.
Third, LeBron has been the defacto league’s MVP the past two seasons without close comparison, and that includes this season when he was overlooked because people began looking for a more likable soldier for that award.
Fourth, when the NBA lockout ends only one team is ready to contend and win multiple championships. The Miami Heat might have looked a little weak on the edges and disjointed in the NBA Finals that they lost this year, but they are the only team that can boast their core players have not even reached their prime yet. And they have their key players all under long six year contracts.
In my universe of pro sports editorializing the last five years have most been about LeBron James.
GAINING STREET CREDIBILITY
Young LeBron was still new to the league when I started this writing, and he was mired in an Eastern Conference matched against a strong defensive minded opponent, the Detroit Pistons. He was getting better but formidable foes stood in the way. We regarded him as the boyish raw talented underdog and likable athlete.
For LeBron and the Cavs to get their street credibility they had to take that next step and get over the hurdle of being stopped by teams that could smother them with defense and make LeBron less of a factor.
Nobody was talking Cleveland for a basketball championship back in the summer of 2006. They had hope that something good could happen, and eventually they saw the strides towards that in the spring of 2007, three months before the Indians played for the baseball pennant, when the Cavs finally hit summit against Detroit.
The thing was they were young and Detroit as good as they were old.
It was a Detroit team a little tired and worn down in game five at home that blew their chance in a game that LeBron was allowed to take over.
Many I have spoken with agree what LeBron did in that game was one of the greatest individual performances ever of the modern NBA playoffs. For LeBron it was a defining moment where he actually put himself into the discussion of great player.
The Cavs upset the favored Pistons who would have had a chance at another NBA title against San Antonio Spurs, a disciplined machine of consistency.
What did the Cavs get in their unanticipated trip to the 2007 NBA Finals?
A whitewash loss in four straight games and a lesson in championship level humility.
LeBron turned the corner and showed he could do it by himself, but he also was taught that “team” wins in the NBA at the final bell.
BOSTON ARMS RACE
Roll ahead two months later and the Boston Celtics began their fairytale script of complete overhaul with a set of multiplayer transactions with Minnesota and Seattle to bring in veteran Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett.
The NBA Eastern arms race was on and now LeBron had team competition which would make it difficult for him to get back to an NBA Finals with Cleveland no matter how well he performed for his team.
The teams that win in the NBA playoffs have casts of performers like they always have in Los Angeles, San Antonio, and would soon have with Boston and Orlando.
In a league with a salary cap, it made sense to bail out all the talent on some teams and bottom out the payroll to have maximum access at acquiring the best free agents, or make trades for them and be able to sign them to maximum contracts.
Cleveland couldn’t do this if they wanted to try and support LeBron, because the contracts were not organized to just sell off pieces and pick up waiting free agents. Every Cleveland scenario required trading partners and in most cases two superstars or whatever they tried precluded getting a third key player under the salary limits.
But other teams like New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, Charlotte, Memphis (remember Pau Gasol traded for like nothing to LA?) and Chicago among others could all take the gamble that by bleeding off as much contract space as possible they could clear the decks to rebuild with available free agents – after bidding for the elite players of the league.
They could target the 2010 class of free agents and make their pitch to pry LeBron out of Cleveland with the sweetest deal, as long as they had negotiating room.
Getting LeBron would require getting LeBron some eager helpers and turning on the charm to convince him that their cities were the best and most serious about all he cared about – championships, multiple championships.
LACK OF ATTACHMENT
When LeBron showed up at Cleveland Indians playoff baseball games in 2007 wearing a New York Yankee hat it was a signal of his lack of attachment to just Cleveland, and his openness to move on to a team which could be the best fit for him to win. This was not the same as Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon saying he cheers for Jacksonville in football because he is from there. LeBron was from Cleveland and was the icon athlete of that city already.