Defending The Decision

Still upset about the Decision?  Angry at Lebron?  Why?  Because Cleveland won the lottery the year Lebron entered the draft, and drafted him, and he played for that crazy-man-owner for 7 years - therefore he had an obligation to the team, the city, the fans. That's bullshit.


Its not like Cleveland gave Lebron a chance when no one else would. Its not like Udonis Haslem, who went undrafted and played in Europe before the Heat gave him a chance to play for his hometown.

Compare with Dan Marino. His legacy in South Florida is secure - but he's not in the discussion of greatest QB of all time (outside of SoFla). What happened to Dannyboy when Jimmy Johnson came to town - Jimmy said - whoaaaa, see ya. Past his prime, barely able to walk, but still with the passion and heart to try to win a ring, he retired rather than sign with a different team that late in his career, got fat, got skinny, and is now known as a peddler of nutrisysem.

While the decision lacked tact, Lebron earned the right to make that decision; just like all of us that are fortunate enough, or work hard enough, or are lucky enough to have choices in life.

Lebron played the system, they all did.  Lebron should be celebrated. On this point, check out this article on Adage.com, which provides some background on the Decision - http://adage.com/article?article_id=144882.

This paragraph called out to me:

"Nielsen said overnight ratings for the Thursday-evening special averaged a phenomenal 7.3 in the nation's top 56 markets. The telecast peaked with a 9.6 rating from 9:15-9:30 p.m. when the program shifted to Mr. James' interview with freelance sportscaster Jim Gray and Mr. James officially made the announcement. That marks the highest non-NFL rating on ESPN this year and blew away the network's exclusive interview with shamed golfer Tiger Woods on March 21 (0.4 rating) and its interview with baseball star Alex Rodriguez in February of 2009 (0.9 rating) after he admitted using performance-enhancing drugs (for other comparisons, see chart, P. 2-3). Visitors also spent a 130 million collective minutes on espn.com on Thursday."

Lebron is being vilified for what? Cheating like A-Rod? Cheating like Tiger?

No, for playing by the rules.

For doing the same thing Shaq has done throughout his career!  For doing the same as Alonzo Mourning...

For doing the same as Greg Maddux, Mark Teixeira, Ken Griffey Jr...

  ... for doing the same thing that Moses Malone did in 1982!  This, from Scoop Jackson of ESPN: 

"In 1982, Moses Malone was considered by many to be the best player in basketball, certainly one of the best of his generation, and he was still in his prime. But just after he collected the second of his three MVP awards and only one year removed from playing in the NBA Finals with the Houston Rockets, he became a restricted free agent. With his team apparently regressing (the Rockets went from their Finals appearance in '81 to out in the first round the next season), Moses decided to leave Houston and go play for the Philadelphia 76ers, a team that already had one of the other best players in the game and of his generation. A guy named Julius Erving...  See where this is going?  Dwyane Wade is Dr. J, LeBron is Moses and Chris Bosh is Andrew Toney in this analogy. The Sixers went on to win the chip the season Moses joined them, going down in history as one of the greatest teams of all time. And no one said anything about damage to Malone's legacy." - Star players have changed teams before, and the world didn't come to an end

And finally, Lebron raised over $2 million dollars for the boys and girls club for televising his decision. The MLB Home Run Derby raised $575,000 (donated by All State) for the boys and girls club. I think thats significant and is being overlooked in all of this.