CLEVELAND, OH. Lebron's big return to Cleveland was marked by nothing more than a much needed "W" for the Miami Heat. Nothing more. DWade finally shot a respectable percentage from the field, and the Miami Heat were able to get a big lead in the first quarter and cruised.
The two major stories of the game hardly concerned the actual basketball that was played.
Signs of the times: this is no longer 2003 for Queen James.
Cleveland fans were empassioned at the start of the game, and they did their fair share of "booing" before being quieted by the Heat's big first quarter.
All the bogus threat of violence perceived by Lebron's caretakers and the ESPN news machine was nothing more than making a news story out of a molehill.
The atmosphere created by the fans in support of their underdog team exceeded the effort that was given on the night by Cavs players.
Despite the magnitude of the game, Cavs players joked and laughed with Lebron, putting him at ease in the hostile environment. All that we learned on Thursday night was that Cleveland fans are classy but still upset, the current Cavaliers team still has the "warm fuzzies" for Lebron, and Lebron is still a LeBiatch.
Lebron tosses chalk in the air because he can't juggle.
Lebron is a LeBiatch because he did his Chalk Toss routine, in front of a chorus of "booing" Cleveland Cavaliers fans at the Q. In spite of numerous questions about it and suggestions that not doing the chalk toss would go a long way towards repairing the bitterness felt in Cleveland about "The Decision" show and other displays of disrespect towards the fans that loyally followed Lebron, Lebron goaded the packed stadium who rained "boos" down upon the villainous traitor. The Cleveland Cavaliers fans showed up in force to "unwelcome" Lebron, and to be present for the event. But there was no apology, no show of grace, no show of respect from Lebron that would have to be returned in kind.
However, the packed stadium was enough to prove a point to the self-appointed "king". Here was a basketball fan base that knows and appreciates sports and sports history. They filled the stadium for all those seven years that Lebron played for their Cavs. Now, Lebron joins Wade, playing before fans who can hardly show up for the first half of the game and have no sense of history. I suppose it is fitting that a player whose legacy is ruined would want to play in front of fans who don't care and won't remember. Being the best player to not achieve his potential and the best player to be completely forgotten will be Lebron's legacy.
So, the much anticipated 2010 NBA Free Agency period (the so called "Summer of Lebron") has come and gone. It was a soap opera beyond imagination which finally ended with the most awkward debacle of an announcement of a bad decision ever made in the history of modern sports.
Lebron decided to take his talents (and for his sake, enough lube) to South Beach to join Dwayne Wade and new Heat teammate, Chris Bosh. And that was when Lebron revealed himself to be a fraud and less than the Chosen One he had claimed to be. The hearts of those who had once supported him were broken, as they have been so many times before in Cleveland. And beyond Cleveland, those who believed that he could step into the Air Jordans of the Greatest of All Time and those who hoped that pride could be restored for a team that plays in the Mecca of Basketball were also disappointed.
However, none of this may compare with the irreparable damage that "the Decision" has done to Lebron's own legacy. The championships that he may have believed would cement his legacy, gotten this way by joining a champion in DWade, will forever cast him as a sidekick. And despite what anyone has said, this incarnation of the Miami Heat have yet to win a single game.
With all the free agent dominoes having fallen and the teams geared up to start the regular season, this usually proves to be the longest month for hardcore hoops fans. Therefore, we wish to bring you the Best Videos of the Summer of Lebron is a LeBiatch. In this edition, we examine the Best Documentary Videos of the summer.
BEST AMATEUR FILM CLIP Lebron James gets booed at Cedar Point by Nikkie0212
Current Number of Views: 401,214
August 9, 2010 About a month after announcing "the Decision", Lebron returns to Cedar Point, the legendary amusement park in northern Ohio. However, despite the solid month of anti Lebron sentiment coming out of the Cleveland Cavaliers fanbase, Lebron must not have been convinced that his decision could have been so poorly received.
On this day, an amateur camera-person captures Lebron James at the basketball hoops getting jeered by park-goers and missing every shot he takes. He must have been having flashbacks to Game 5 of the Boston Celtics playoff series this year where he shot 3 of 14.
BEST DOCUMENTARY Raw Video: Cavs Fans React to LeBron's Decision (Associated Press)
Current Number of Views: 328,158
July 9, 2010 This will be a date that will live in infamy in the minds of Cleveland sports fans as the unthinkable and unimaginable happened in a public act of humiliation that garnered an audience of 9.95 million to TV screens. In a classless display of self-aggrandizement, Lebron took an hour of national TV airtime on ESPN (and the dignity of one Jim Gray, who presided over the charade) to make his long awaited announcement.
Lebron James, a homegrown, hometown basketball phenom from nearby Akron, OH, eventually became the #1 overall selection of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2003 NBA Draft. He was christened The Chosen One because he was believed to be the one to return Cleveland sports to respectability, and during his 7 years playing for the Cavs, James won two MVP awards, lead his team to the best regular season record twice, and made one NBA Finals appearance.
Lebron's decision to join a loaded team in Miami was viewed as not only selfish and quitting, but it was also an act of betrayal greater than any other because he was the local guy who should understand the pain and the plight of the city in terms of sports history. After being likened to Benedict Arnold, Lebron is giving Art Modell a run for his money for the mantel of most hated Cleveland sports demigod.
It seems that as time goes by, tiny morsels of facts regarding "The Decision" and the rest of the farce that was NBA Free Agency 2010 emerge that lend more and more credence to the notion that Lebron's decision to join with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami was contrived well in advance of the start of the free agent signing period on July 1, 2010.
On SI.com's Dan Patrick Show, none other than Chris Bosh, the least talented of the Miami Big Three, was asked about Lebron's attempts to lure him to join the Cleveland Cavaliers. Reportedly, Lebron had spoken to Bosh about the possibility of joining the team in a sign and trade; an option that the Cavs would surely have entertained in order to keep James in Cleveland.
“We never had a discussion about Cleveland,” Bosh revealed, Wednesday morning. "We never really had discussions, period."
This simple statement greatly implicate that James had already closed the door on returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team that originally drafted him out of high school first overall in the 2003 NBA Draft.
The Cleveland Cavaliers, which finished the 2010 regular season with a 61-21 record and the best record in the league for the second consecutive season, could have arguably had the addition it needed to be title favorites by adding Chris Bosh and keeping James.
The Lebron James public spectacle, and the infamous "Decision", continues to baffle, particularly those who understand the game and business of basketball the best.
