People in Cleveland (and around the country for that matter) haven’t been able to shut up about how much they hate Lebron, and how bad of a guy he is. Perhaps it makes them feel better to announce on local radio stations that “Lebron is a loser who can’t win in big games. Lebron gave up against the Celtics in the playoffs. Lebron is an ego-maniac who not only held a one hour show to announce his decision but gave himself the nickname of “The King”, and has a tattoo across his back from shoulder to shoulder that reads, ‘The Chosen One’.” Now people are saying that everyone in Cleveland knew how much of a problem Lebron actually was the whole 7 years. Apparently every decision had to be run by him, players were afraid to cross him, and he always hated Dan Gilbert (who in turn always hated Lebron). These same fans also say that Lebron almost wasn’t chosen for the ‘Redeem Team’ in 2008 because of these known problems, and even once in Beijing, Lebron was a distraction.

I want to take this time to preface the rest of this article with a quick disclaimer: I have never liked Lebron since he entered the NBA. I still don’t like Lebron, nor do I like the way he handled his free agent decision. I also want to point out that I do feel bad for Cleveland with their horrible sports history of heartbreak…

Ok did I cover myself?

Cleveland, you need to shut the hell up! Lebron has always been all of these terrible things that you only now are getting angry about. His arrogant tattoo across his back…he’s had that for years. Throwing the chalk in the air (and rudely all over the people sitting at the scorers’ table) has always been a call for attention. After they lost to the Magic and he didn’t shake hands you defended him and called him a competitor; now you call him a jerk. The ‘problems’ he caused in China in 2008… that was years ago too, and if you really wanted to hear it, those stories were coming out back then. He was a loser who never won a championship or even a finals game going into this free agency, and his decision was always childish and self-gratifying. But Cleveland, YOU NEVER SAID ANY OF THIS UNTIL AFTER HE LEFT YOU. You not only dealt with it and embraced it, but you loved it. You were happy to hold the WITNESS signs and call him the King. You threw chalk in the air with him, and blamed everyone but Lebron for the losses. Even after he “quit” in the playoffs, announced his hour long show, and refused to talk to any potential new Cavs coaches, you desperately wanted him back. Dan Gilbert was willing to pay him over $100 Million to come back.

If you truly believe that Lebron is all of those terrible things, then why did you want him back? Maybe Cleveland, you needed something, and you were willing to look past a lot for a little bit of happiness, but now you just look stupid.

I would tell you that your new favorite player should be Kevin Durant. After all, you have no one fun to root for in Cleveland. Kevin Durant is everything that you hate about Lebron turned on its head. He just loyally resigned with his team for 5 years by simply announcing it on Twitter. He is on the USA team this summer, despite spending his past 4 summers with the USA team too. (Lebron didn’t have the time this summer). Durant smiles, does the right things, and scored more points a game than Lebron last season. But Cleveland, you don’t deserve Durant… he’s too good for you.

*By the way, I just reread this… and I stand by what I said. But sorry Cleveland, that was rough, and I really do like you. Best of luck to the Browns this season… you’re going to need it. (Oops, I put you down again.)

This entry was posted on Friday, July 23rd, 2010 at 1:38 pm and is filed under NBA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.