I agree 100% with your counterpoint, basically in my opinion LeBron sealed his fate as to how people will think about him and his legacy going forward last summer. By going to Miami (and even if they win multiple championships) he will always go down as having to team up as Dwayne Wade's sidekick to do it. Fair or unfair, that is how most of the mainstream media and the public will view him. So while I don't know if he will struggle to find a legacy, I think he will definitely struggle to find a legacy that is his own...similar to Scottie Pippen, who is one of the 50 greatest players ever, whom you never hear mentioned without the mention of MJ. This is the same boat Kobe would have been in had he not won the past 2 titles, great player but could never get it done without Shaq. He laid that to rest and is now just considered one of the 10 best ever because legacy in the NBA is decided in a similar fashion to QB's in the NFL...how many titles did you win as the man. Statistically speaking Dan Marino and Warren Moon are two of the best to ever play the game, but you won't hear them mentioned in the same breath as a Manning, Favre, Elway, Brady or Montana because they never got it done on the biggest stage. In fact, when you look at it Manning dominates Brady on all levels as a quaterback, but because Brady has the edge in rings he gets tossed into the same conversation. If the rings were flipped between the two it would be Manning and everyone else in this generation with a massive chasm in between.
On to you point, like I said I could not agree more. LBJ needed to win just one title in Cleveland to cement a legacy that would have put him into some rarified air, and when it was all said and done even with one title he would go down as top 10 (maybe higher) in NBA history. This would have been based on the fact that he would likely have put up gaudier all around number than anyone we have ever seen (or at least since Oscar Robertson), would have given a championship to not just a title starved franchise but a title starved city, and oh by the way that city happens to be his hometown. It would have been one of the greatest success stories of all time and he would have easily gone down as Cleveland's favorite athletic son (supplanting Jim Brown/Bernie Kosar in the process) and maybe just favorite son overall. I am not sure I will ever fully understand the decisions of last summer as it defied all expectations of what we as society think a superstar athlete should behave like in their prime. In the twilight of careers no one seems to say mum about people who chase rings and frankly all sports have their version of this guy. Hockey had Ray Bourque who went to Colorado to win his only cup, Malone jumped to the Lakers to chase one down, Garnett successfully did this with Boston, Barkley went to Houston a year late (I am struggling with baseball and football to come up with someone off the top of my head, but I know they exist...basically any veteran who signs with the Yankees or Patriots). However, to do this in in prime of your career, to join forces with your #1 rival in your conference...it just defies all expectations.
I have a feeling that LeBron is just one very complex dude, who in maybe some weird sense (I am about to make a totally off base parallel) is searching for some part of his youth that he lost while he was in high school. It is almost like the stories you heard about Michael Jackson and why he was the way he was, something about a lost childhood due to the public eye he was under. LeBron has a high school career that was covered in a way that no one had seen before and I doubt we will see again. Yes each year there are kids in high school who are being told how great they are and seem to be under the same scope, but how many of them were annointed on the covers of SI as the next greatest thing as a Junior in HS? LeBron's senior season was basically like a traveling road show, his HS team traveled from coast to coast on private charter jets, at least a half a dozen of his games were broadcast on national television (and I am not talking ESPN U, he was either on the flagship or the deuce), his team took on such a huge following that they had to play "home" games in the University of Akron's gym and would sell out 6,000 tickets to each game, hell St. V&M sold out the Cavs's arena that year (something the Cavs couldn't say while limping to a 17-65 mark en-route to that #1 pick that would change the franchise). It was crazy, so in light of that maybe there is something he is missing from that time. A lot of people have said he is 26, looks 36, and acts 16...maybe it is just a longing for a place where he can be himself, playing with friends, getting back to the playground...I am probably stretching but who knows.
The one thing I know for sure, he was the most amazing player I have ever seen on a basketball court and I saw Jordan in his prime. LBJ can do amazing things and quite frankly you never did know what was coming next, he never ceased to amaze from night to night whether it be that game 5 in 2007 when he single handedly decimated the Pistons (I still remember watching that game at the BW3 in Ann Arbor...I may or may not have almost gotten into a fight with a Mexican), Game 2 against Orlando when he nailed that 3 at the end of the game to tie the series 1-1 (that was the night I thought the tide was going to turn in Cleveland, thought we would roll to the title), or to that other Game 5 when the elbow mysteriously became hurt and LBJ stopped going to the rack (full disclosure I still blame Mike Brown for the series loss, he never went small against the C's after game 3 when we ran them off the court, dumbfounding...good luck Lakers). Likely I think we (the royal "we") expected too much from someone who may just not be comfortable with being the man. In HS it was easy, he was that much better (in reality if you ever read about those teams the heart and soul was the PG Dru Joyce III, he was the killer), LeBron was just the man amongst boys. Now there are people who may not be entirely equal in talent but are damn close and maybe he just isn't wired the way that we want him to be...it is really the only logical explanation. I think Simmons said it best in an article earlier this year, LeBron just wants to amaze us with his talents, and he does...but leave it to Wade to be the winner.
Well that was officially more than I expected to write when I cracked this email open, just a stream of conciseness as I started going. At any rate, while my hatred has died down over the year (as I think has most of the Cleveland faithful) I can say without a doubt I am pulling for the Mavs in this series and really don't want to see the Heat win, and if LeBron tears his sack in the process...well I guess I will smile.
After watching the game the other night I think an interesting point will be to see how the marriage of LBJ and Dwayne Wade factors into deciding Wade's future. For all intent and purpose it seems that Wade's legacy also took a small hit during these Finals (I guess that is what happens when Dirk matches the 4th quarter output of Wade and LeBron combined). If the Heat continue to fall short (especially in the damming fashion that this one played out) I think Wade will continue to take a large hit to his legacy and will eventually lose some of that status he has built up over the years. At any rate, I think everyone who loves the Cavs can breathe easier knowing those cock bags in Miami fell short, if only for a year.
See you on the flip
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