Shane Bieber’s Early Success Foreshadows a Bright Future
July 2, 2018This decision is just different: While We’re Waiting
July 2, 2018When you left the Cleveland Cavaliers the first time in 2010 it sucked, to say the least. No one thought that “Just a kid from Akron, Ohio” would actually leave his hometown team, let alone do so in a nationally televised show in primetime on ESPN. The Decision hurt, but you more than made up for it in 2014.
You didn’t have to return to the Cavaliers, especially to an owner who you lost trust in ultimately due to a letter that was written in Comic Sans that guaranteed that the LeBron-less Cavs would win a title before you did after you “betrayed” us. The letter criticized you from beginning to end, but yet you still decided to return to the wine and gold when you decided that you were “Coming Home”.
In a fantastic letter to Northeast Ohio, you made it known that you wanted to come home and deliver on a promise, which was to bring a major sports championship back to Cleveland for the first time since 1964.
Although you seemingly didn’t fulfill everything you said in that letter, including staying with the Cavs the rest of your career, you came through on your biggest and most important promise, and that’s really what matters the most in the end. Things change, emotions change, relationships change, but one thing that will never change is the fact that the Golden State Warriors blew a 3-1 lead and the Cavaliers won the NBA title on June 19, 2016, a night many Clevelanders will never forget.
You’re one heckuva basketball player, but somehow, you’re an even better person off the court, which truly is incredible. What you have done for Akron and all of the youth in Northeast Ohio can never (and will never) go unnoticed. Even you have said that you want your legacy off the court to be remembered far more than what you have done on the court. To imagine that that could even be possible is mind-boggling considering everything you’ve accomplished with a basketball. But it shows you the type of person you really are. You didn’t have to start the LeBron James Family Foundation. You didn’t have to provide 2,000 full scholarships to the University of Akron for kids who participate in your “I Promise” program and meet testing, education, attendance, and community-service criteria. You didn’t have to create an I Promise school, which will debut this upcoming school year.1 All these things not only help the youth in your hometown, but they allow those kids to see a much brighter future and allows them to have goals and realize that they can have a success no matter what situation they were brought into.
In all actuality, you didn’t have to do anything but play basketball. But you decided that you wanted to provide so much more than just that, and that’s truly what makes you incredible. While some people have stated that you should just shut up and dribble, you continue to do so much off the court, all while being the best player to ever play the game and saving your best and most efficient season for Year 15. Somehow, you have continued to defy the odds, much like you have since the day you were born, all while making sure it’s possible and doing the best you can do to help Akron’s youth defy the odds as well.
Even though you grew up without a dad and a true father-like figure that you could have learned from, you are very much a family man, providing for your wife, two sons, and daughter. You have continuously stated that whether you stayed in Cleveland or went to Los Angeles or anywhere else, the decision would be made based on wherever your family wanted to go. No one can blame you for going to LA. I mean, who wouldn’t, honestly? If that’s the place where your family will be the happiest, along with the fact that LA provides you with so much more off the court as well, it’s a smart move on your part. At 33 years old and with three kids growing up so fast, you need to worry about them and your wife much more, and you seemingly have done so.
This isn’t to say you’re not at fault for seemingly leaving the Cavs in shambles. You never gave the team long-term assurance by signing a four-year deal like you have with the Lakers. That made things tough for an organization that wanted to continue to make moves to improve the team all while saving themselves in case you did in fact decide to leave again. Not only that, but the contracts that were brought in and re-upped leaves the Cavaliers in a tough spot as well. I’m not mad you left because I understand why you did, but I’m disappointed that it happened (again). It also sucks because there’s a good chance that Cleveland will never have a basketball player like you, but the Cavs mag never be as good as they have been the last four years either.
Although it sucks to see you leave again and I won’t be able to trek 40 minutes up I-71 to watch you play every other night (or so) during the NBA season, along with basically not being able to guarantee that the Cavs will make the NBA Finals year in and year out anymore, I just wanted to show my appreciation for what you did for both the Cavs and Northeast Ohio over the past four years. While you’ll continue to provide for the city of Akron even though you may now be living across the country, it just won’t feel the same, which is why I wanted to do this letter now instead of later.
I know you will never actually see this, LeBron, but you provided me with the best sports-related moment of my life and I will forever be grateful for that. You have done so much for Northeast Ohio, so much that truly does go unnoticed if people just focus on what you do on the court. You should never just “Shut Up and Dribble”, and I’m glad you haven’t and never will. Although a simple “Thank You, LeBron” will never be enough, thanks for everything you’ve done, especially over the last four years. I will never be able to say enough words or do anything to truly pay you back. When you left in 2010, the sports fan in me hated you, to be honest. It’s like you shattered any hope of a Cleveland team winning a championship for the foreseeable future. But then 2014 happened, and I am forever grateful you returned to the Cavs four years ago, and because you did that, I am a LeBron fan for life. In 2014, you yelled “Cleveland, this is for you!” after you helped the Cavs win the title. Today, I would like to respond back by yelling, “LeBron, this is for you!”.
Thanks again, King.
P.S.: Any chance the Lakers can move up their tip times to 7 p.m. ET? I want to continue to watch you single-handedly dominate the rest of the NBA without needing to stay up past 1 a.m. ET during the season. Thanks in advance.
- It’s being reported that there won’t be an introductory press conference or welcome party for LeBron and the Lakers and instead he will make his first public appearance following Sunday night’s announcement at the opening of his I Promise School in Akron on July 30. [↩]