Thursday, July 8, 2010

"The Spectacle"

Well the moment that the media has been clamoring for for the past week three years is here. LeBron James has negotiated an hour, live on ESPN, to announce what his intentions are for his basketball future.

And what's the point of linking to any articles regarding this story? Sources and stories are changing hourly. The latest, as of 6am on Thursday, July 8, is that LeBron will indeed sign with the Miami Heat to play with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, the top three free agents all determining from their top secret summits that playing together is exactly what they want to do.

However, over the past week, the favorite had been Chicago. No, Cleveland, no, we still think LBJ is going to New York.

No matter what happens tonight, we cannot submit to the will of LeBron and call this "The Decision" as it has been dubbed. The fact that the tv special is titled like this is the strongest thing sticking in my gut that tells me LeBron is re-signing with the Cleveland Cavaliers. If LeBron, knowing full well the history of Cleveland sports, books an incredibly high-profile TV spot in order to embarass and divorce Northeast Ohio, and on top of that glosses it "The Decision" to line up with other singularly-named sports tragedies in Cleveland history--that would be an unconscionable decision. One which would likely be seen as cruel, and inexcusable.

Is this how LeBron wants to go out? Does he care? Everyone "knows" that LeBron loves Akron completely--is this how he wants to treat his home?

Opinion is about unanimous that this entire process is making LeBron look incredibly bad, no matter what the decision. Whatever LeBron calls the show, if it turns out the worst for Cleveland, this will be known as "The Embarassment", "The Backstabbing", or "The Ego Trip". Or much, much worse.

All the guesses mercifully end tonight.