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RPUETT said: I'm a Cavaliers and Cleveland fan. I actively will root against Lebron James until the day he retires for what he did to the city and fans. He will never achieve Jordan status in my eyes because he didn't have the internal fortitude to continue what he started and make Cleveland the multiple championship winning team that Jordan did. With that being said, it took Jordan 7 years in the NBA to win his first championship. Jordan was 21 years old when he was drafted. So Jordan didn't win a championship until he was 28 or so and some of his biggest competitors were on their downward spiral (Bird and Johnson). Lebron has been in the NBA 8 years now but looks poised to possibly winning his first championship (I surely hope he never wins one), if he does however he will have won a title before Jordan in a similar amount of time. I think it's a little overboard to say that if he were more like Jordan, he would have a title. People forget about Jordan and the Bulls struggle to become a great team for almost a decade. That's what makes what Lebron did so much worse and weak. One title win in Cleveland would be equal to 5 in Miami because it was earned 150% by himself not his trio, or Pat Riley. He was loved in Cleveland and NBA fans while maybe didn't like him, didn't have a total lack of respect for him. The tables have flipped on him after his whole Free agency fiasco. He's now a villain for a lot of fans even outside of Cleveland, who can never touch the legacy of Jordan. True champions don't leave mid-way through their legacy building somewhere to take an easier path. |
I can see different angles with this. I think the way he left the cavs was in bad form. Due to the way in which he left he created a lot of enemies, not just in Cleveland. We don't know if the Cavs would have ever put together an all star team. I will say the players they had surrounding Lebron were all around good players, but not great/exceptional players. Without Lebron they will be an average team when everyone is healthy. With Lebron they were a very good team and had the components to win a championship albeit a difficult one when you consider the all star teams of Lakers, and Celtics among others. In Lebron's eyes, he did not see his team winning a championship, even though they had a chance to. He thought he had a better shot at a championship by joining up with other star caliber players. That is why he went to Miami. At the same time, however he stabbed cleveland in the back. In time Cleveland could possibly have put together an all star team, but Lebron just didnt want to wait, and it seemed he was already giving up on the team during the 2010 playoffs. IMO Lebron still has some imaturity issues and needs to grow up more.
If you think about it, all of his life he has had things handed to him and been in the spotlight. Whatever he needed the Cavs would give him. Even in his younger years Im sure the scouts did him favors. He is used to having the red carpet rolled out for him. Now that he hurt his home town he is having to deal with people that dislike him. By Lebron leaving his hometown, he essentially robbed Cleveland of having a legacy. Chicago is known for their greatness with the Bulls. Cleveland was robbed of that oportunity. I think this betrayal did this to that city. In retrospect no one can really blame Lebron for wanting to win a championship and doing whatever he needs to do to be in better position to achieve that, but it was at a very high cost. He has a better shot at winning championships now, but his legacy will always be tainted by what he did. If he won titles in Cleveland it would have been his great legacy in his hometown, and a great story. Now it will be the story of the great basketball player, Lebron who betrayed his hometown in bad form, and then went on to win championships at another team. Lebron will always be remembered as a great player, and may even win as many championships as Jordan, but at the cost of his integrity and devotion.
