GQ interviewed LeBron James before and after “The Decision,” and is publishing a story in the September issue chronicling those pressure-packed days surrounding that widely-panned ESPN special.
Moehringer had unprecedented inside access: a pair of face-to-face meetings shortly before The Decision and a follow-up phone call six days after the fact. During that postmortem interview, when Moehringer asked James what he’d change if he had a do-over, James replied, “Nothing at all.” Bottom line: LeBron doesn’t really care how it went down.
James on Cavs owner Dan Gilbert: “I don’t think he ever cared about LeBron. My mother always told me: ‘You will see the light of people when they hit adversity. You’ll get a good sense of their character.’ Me and my family have seen the character of that man.” He went on to say that Gilbert’s post-Decision screed “made me feel more comfortable that I made the right decision.”
Wow, he wouldn’t change a thing about “The Decision”? This guy really is living on another planet. How could someone be so pigheaded as to not admit that the hour-long special was a bad idea?
And while I agree with the sentiment about Dan Gilbert’s character, by preceding his wise little anecdote about his mother with a reference to himself in the third person, he loses all credibility.
The author of the piece, J.R. Moehringer, answered a few of TrueHoop’s questions. One thing he said was especially interesting:
…but it seems to me that [James] has one formula for success in his life and that comes out of his high school experience.
This really comes across when you watch the “More Than a Game” documentary about LeBron and the Akron Fab Five. He thrives, he’s happiest, he does his best when he is surrounded by friends. He just didn’t feel like that was happening in Cleveland. It seems pretty clear that Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh aren’t just the best talent he can surround himself with, but they’re a combination of talent and friends. He’s looking for camaraderie. That’s the formula that has worked for him — and the only one that has worked for him. And that comes out of his early childhood when he was completely alone in the apartment he shared with his mother, not knowing his father, not knowing when or if she’d come home. It seems to me these were formative scarring moments that created this need for constant intimate contact. It came across to me watching the documentary. It came across to me reading Buzz’s book. And it especially came across to me when he was introduced to the fans in Miami with Wade and Bosh by his side. He’s not just looking to win. He’s also looking to be happy, and he’s only happy when he’s surrounded by people he cares for and trusts. He’s at his best when he has his brothers in arms around him and he’s at his worst when he’s completely alone.
This puts his decision into a different context, especially when those rumors about Delonte West are thrown into the mix.
