Defending LeBron James and the Miami Heat

I'm FED UP!

LeBron James and the Miami Heat have been the laughing stock of the NBA all season, not because of the way they play but because of one decision that transformed the NBA forever. It was just one summer ago, when Mr. James made "The Decision" live on national television to decide his future team.

Now, I must admit that having a national television special that drew the attention of a whole nation may not have been the wisest decision to make because of the narcissism that surrounds such a spectacle but the intended purpose was to raise money for a charity that helped LeBron get to where he is at today. The criticism of the special itself is fair but the notion that LeBron should have alerted the owner of the Cavs, Dan Gilbert about his decision is insane to me. We're talking about the same guy that said THIS after it all went down:

After serving your city for seven years and making you a sh*tload of money, this is how you treat LeBron? Did you expect LeBron to have an obligation to stay on your team? He took the Cleveland Cavaliers to a place they had never been to before: THE FINALS! If LBJ would've stayed on the Cavs, Dan Gilbert would've been rejoicing and kept his mouth shut about anything he didn't like about LBJ (something that he did for the 7 years before that!) How hypocritical is that?

The other thing that frustrates me about this debacle is that people say LBJ left his hometown. His hometown is AKRON not Cleveland. He owes nothing to the people of Cleveland who would have been praising him had he stayed but decided to show how hypocritical they were by burning his jersey. No athlete wants to play in that city in the first place, so does that supposed "passion" make it any better for your prospects of getting any free agents to play in your city?

So, LBJ and Bosh sign with Miami while DWade re-signs with Miami and everyone is going nuts saying that this move is so egotistical and a shortcut. HUH? Am I missing something here? First of all, these three guys in their respective previous teams dominated the stats sheet. Wouldn't coming together to form one TEAM diminish their stats. I would think so, and as we saw this whole season, it kinda did. Secondly, these guys all took less money to come together and sign two other free agents (Mike Miller/Udonis Haslem). Isn't that a noble, noteworthy move for three guys in their prime to do in this materialistic society where wealth determines your stature in life rather than your character? Thirdly, this move was so transcendental in basketball history because we had two starters with the same skill-set who were both used to being the alpha dog. How were they going to be able to co-exist? I think that's anything but a shortcut Dan Gilbert especially when we consider that until the end of the season, Miami basically had no bench.

Let's address the video now. LeBron says the team is going to win 8 championships. SO WHAT!?!?!?!?! Have you never heard an athlete guarantee that they were going to win a championship and fail to do so. Before Shaq retired, whenever he got traded or signed with another team he would always say that he was going to win a championship, he said it in Phoenix and in Cleveland. Did he win it for them? NO....but it didn't matter, it's just a way to hype up the fans. Courtney Paris guaranteed that her Oklahoma Sooners college basketball team would win the national championship and that if they didn't then she would pay back her scholarship. What happened? They lost. And she never paid back that scholarship either.

Just today, Rick Carlisle said that Dirk Nowitzki is "the greatest basketball player on the planet". Now we know that among active players, only Kobe or LeBron are in that argument and among all basketball players who ever played the game we could look at MJ, Kareem or Wilt before we even thought of Dirk being in that category. Tyson Chandler said that his team was winning more than one title. Should we now hate these guys because of the outlandish statements they made towards their fans? NO!! Because that's unjustifiable. The same goes for LeBron!!! Why is everyone so picky and hateful towards him because of a BUSINESS DECISION!

In conclusion, everyone needs to leave LBJ and the Miami Heat alone because at the end of the day, these guys are humans too!

The Mavericks deserve this championship but I think for the most part the Heat lost this title more than Dallas won it, just my opinion. The careless plays and the early season habits of not closing games out came back to haunt them. The Big 3 will be back next year and for many years to come and eventually I think America will get over their hate and find someone else to hate. If I was LeBron I would consult A-Rod because he went through the same thing your going through right now. I would probably also write a book about the hardships of my life back in Akron and show my appreciation for the people of Akron and the people of Cleveland during my press tour.

BTW, everyone knew what you meant when you said this but the way you said it didn't come out the way it should've and of course all the haters took it upon themselves to seize the moment and make up bullsh*t that pumps up the ratings to all these talk shows. But as you said, we all need move on with life and as Jay Smooth says so well, there are other things in life we need to worry about!