Business As Usual

  Everyone who follows basketball knows who LeBron James is. He has broken many records and created new ones such as the first forward to average more than 8 assists per game and received 2.5 million NBA All-Star votes three times. He went straight to the NBA after finishing high school at St. Vincent-St. Mary High school. He was selected as the number one draft pick by the Cleveland Cavaliers during the 2003 NBA Draft with a seven year contract. When his contract ended in 2010 he became a free agent and decided to play for the Miami Heat. Many basketball fans were disappointed with this decision, especially the Cav fans. But why? Basketball players who are free agents and go to another team is a common thing in the NBA so why should James get special attention?

   The Cleveland Cavaliers won the draft lottery because they had the worst record for the 2002-2003 season. This is the way it is done in all professional sports. When the Cavs won the lottery draft they said they select LeBron James. The Cavs wanted James for one reason, to win games. Unfortunately, that is not how professional sports work. LeBron James was called “The Savior” soon after he was selected by the Cavs, who would bring a championship to Cleveland. The seven years that James was with the Cavs they did not win a championship. They did not have much success at making it to the playoffs for the first couple of seasons. Dan Gilbert became the owner of the Cavs during the 2005 off season. They came close a to the championships during the 2005-2006 season. They made it to the NBA finals and got eliminated by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round. They came closer and closer to the finals each season.

    When James' contract ended he became a free agent and had the choice of staying in Cleveland or going to another team. On July 7th 2010 ESPN showed an hour special called "The Decision" where James announced that he would join the Miami Heat. However, the Cavaliers were not informed of this until the last minute. Dan Gilbert wrote an open letter to the Cav fans telling them that they have been betrayed by James.

   
   The letter did what it was meant to do; make the fans hate the man they use to call "The Savior". David Stern, a commissioner of the NBA, fined Dan Gilbert $100,000 for the open letter he wrote. However the Cavaliers was not the only team that was upset with James' decision. The other teams that he showed interest in were hurt as well. This turned out to be positive instead of negative. Every team that the Heat played against sold out because everyone thought he was a traitor and wanted to see him lose.

   The whole situation was blown way out of proportion. Dan Gilbert knew what he was doing. If he did not write that letter, the Cavs would not sell out each time the Heat come to Cleveland. The fact that James grew up in Ohio and was picked up by the Cleveland Cavaliers is a coincidence. The worst team just happened to be where he grew up. The fans did show him support; but only because he, and only he, was going to bring a championship to them. The worst team put all of their hopes and dreams into James. It only makes sense that he wanted to leave. The Cavaliers never treated him badly and he never said anything badly about them. He just got tired of trying to do it on his own. He wanted to be a team player, where as in Cleveland he carried the offense every night. The Cav fans were very upset because they knew that when he left, their shot at winning a championship was gone. That's why he was given so much attention. The Cavaliers had to make sure that they would still sell tickets so they turned the fans against him. It happens in sports all of the time.