LeBron James — formerly the most beloved superstar in the NBA — had the worst offseason for an athlete that didn't involve a DUI, drug bust, accusation of steroid use or Tiger Woods−ing his wife.
The source of King James's troubles? He had the audacity to utilize some new−fangled system called "free agency" to leave a Cleveland Cavaliers team that was utterly dependent on him and go to a Miami Heat squad that's much better positioned to win championships both now and in the future. And he even ended up taking a smaller contract to do so. So an athlete took less money for a better chance at winning — we're supposed to like that, right? Well, yes and no. Under normal circumstances, definitely yes, but there were two reasons LeBron's circumstances are far from normal.
The first reason is his loathsome "The Decision" special. Never mind the unbridled narcissism in putting on a one−hour special to tell the world not only where he'll be playing next year, but also just how freakin' awesome he is in general. He even had his people script out a tortuously long and stupid interview about how hard the decision was before he even revealed his choice.
LeBron also, in effect, went on national television to break the collective sports heart of Cleveland, arguably the most tortured sports city in the country. When I heard that LeBron was announcing his decision on his TV special, I was sure he was staying in Cleveland — there was no way he would do that to Cleveland. When I mentioned this to a friend who knows absolutely nothing about basketball, her response was, "No, I think he's going to Miami." Her reason? "People.com told me he wants to go to Miami to play with his friends Chris and Dwyane." And who was right?
The second reason LeBron's decision caught him so much flak is that he's so damn good at basketball — good to the point that we want him to be able to carry his own team to a championship. We want him to loathe Dwyane Wade with every bone in his body, not want to join him in Miami. We see his absurd physical gifts and want him to want to eviscerate his rivals the way Michael Jordan wanted to eviscerate Karl Malone and Charles Barkley. He's one of only four current NBA players of whom we have this expectation (the others being Kobe Bryant, Wade and Kevin Durant, whom I'll get back to in a minute). The rules are different for LeBron, and he either didn't understand that or didn't care.
The other thing tangentially working against LeBron is the rise of Kevin Durant. No longer can LeBron be the "young, freakishly talented phenom" when Durant, who hasn't even turned 22 yet and already has three NBA seasons under his belt, just led the league in scoring and led Team USA to gold at the World Championship last month, averaging 33 points in the tournament's final three games. Instead, fairly or not, LeBron already seems to have acquired the "veteran who can't win one on his own" tag.
Furthering this positive image of Durant is the fact that he just signed a contract extension with the small−market Oklahoma City Thunder in very low−profile fashion. Despite the fact that Durant's situation was completely different from James's — due to the rules of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA), Durant still had another year on his contract and would only have been a restricted free agent, not to mention the fact that there will be a new CBA soon, which probably would have diminished any potential contract not signed this summer — some more easily duped members of the media took the opportunity to juxtapose the "arrogant" LeBron with the "humble" Durant. In the end, LeBron's decision was a possibly fine, possibly brilliant move. His "Decision," however, was an absolute Lebracle.
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Ethan Frigon is a senior majoring in economics. He can be reached at Ethan.Frigon@tufts.edu.
