In his excellent pre-“The Decision” column, Bill Simmons touches on a number of free agency subjects, but maybe the most interesting is his take on LeBron’s decision to produce “The Decision,” and possibly tear the heart out of the city of Cleveland in the process.
If LeBron picks anyone other than the Cavaliers, it will be the cruelest television moment since David Chase ended “The Sopranos” by making everyone think they lost power. Cleveland will never forgive LeBron, nor should they. He knows better than anyone what kind of sports anguish they have suffered over the years. Losing LeBron on a contrived one-hour show would be worse than Byner’s fumble, Jose Mesa, the Game 5 meltdown against Boston, The Drive, The Shot and everything else. At least those stomach-punch moments weren’t preordained, unless you believe God hates Cleveland (entirely possible, by the way). This stomach-punch moment? Calculated. By a local kid they loved, defended and revered.
It would be unforgivable. Repeat: unforgivable.
And here’s where I really worry, because I don’t think LeBron James has anyone in his life with enough juice to hurl his or her body in front of the concept of “I’m going to announce during a one-hour live show that I’m playing somewhere other than Cleveland.” It’s the best and worst thing about him — he has remained fiercely loyal to his high school friends, but at the same time, he’s surrounded by people his own age who don’t stand up to him and don’t know any better. Picking anyone other than Cleveland on this show would be the meanest thing any athlete has ever done to a city. But he might.
No matter what team LeBron picks tonight, doing it this way is a bad, bad decision. If he picks the Cavs, then he’ll be criticized for dragging this out the way he did and putting the downtrodden city through such anguish when he (probably) knew all along that he was going to re-sign.
If he doesn’t pick the Cavs, he’ll be criticized for crushing the heart of a city that has lived and died with him over the last seven years…on a one-hour national TV special. He could have announced his decision in a million different ways — all of them better.
No matter what happens, the criticism is totally valid. LeBron James is in a no-win situation with regard to his image, but it’s a situation that he went out of his way to create.
He could have committed to the Cavs early and did his best job to recruit a star or two to play with him. Who knows, maybe Joe Johnson, Amare Stoudemire, Carlos Boozer or David Lee would have been agreeable to a sign-and-trade if they had known LeBron was staying put. As of right now, only Lee is still on the market. By intentionally creating all of this drama only to re-sign, he will have unintentionally screwed himself out of a capable running mate.
Then again, if he breaks up with Cleveland, he will screw his image for a long, long time. I like Dwyane Wade and don’t mind Chris Bosh, but if LeBron joins them in Miami, I don’t think I could root for the Heat in a Finals matchup with the Lakers. And given the way I feel about the Lakers, that’s saying a lot.
