Stay Classy Cleveland!

[thewiseguy]

LBJ put the Cleveland Cavaliers on the map. Now his contract is up and he is leaving, does that actually mean he is betraying the city of Cleveland? Get outta here! Are you kidding me? He is the one who transformed Cavaliers. He is the one who brought so much revenue to the region and look at how he is being treated...

As if Lebron had a life time obligation to play for Cleveland even if that meant not winning a championship.

After reading the Cavaliers owner's letter, I am more than happy that Lebron left. Cleveland does not deserve shit.

[Scurrilous]

1. Amen.

Another angry old dude heard from (this guy was so vile on ESPN they had to cut him short):

By rejecting his hometown team, LeBron James earns his slot on the Modell list of shame

<snip>

"Until 9:28 Thursday night, there was still the thought in Cleveland that reports LeBron James would go to Miami as a free agent were a vast smoke screen, like the volcano in Iceland. But they were not.

Defecting players usually say sports are a business. But while James' decision certainly crushes businesses around The Q, for Cleveland, this was personal. How could it possibly be business when the Cavaliers could pay $30 million more over a long-term contract than any of his suitors?

James is the local legend who severed his ties with the area and now becomes as reviled as any sports figure other than Art Modell. He is the great player who left unfinished business after quitting on his team on the court and left unanswered questions by quitting on his city off it.

The medium for the bad news was ESPN, which figured. The network represents much of what is loud, obnoxious and empty in sports today.

The smiley face that Miami will put on this will be that James placed a chance to solidify one of the NBA's potentially great teams ahead of his ego. But as the dog-and-pony show of James' free agency shows, it was always all about him.

There is no doubt, however, that Cleveland enabled him with the huge billboard-sized banner across from The Q; with the "Witness" signs, as if he were able to perform miracles; with the sing-along by city and state officials, pleading for him to stay. There was a clear indication from the moment he wore a Yankees cap to a New York-Indians playoff game in what was then called Jacobs Field that he felt he could do anything he pleased. No one in the Cavaliers' organization would ever tell him no.

What a surprise that he became monstrously self-centered."

http://www.cleveland.com/livingston/index.ssf/2010/07/whatever_his_voiced_reasons_it.html

[insanity]

4. The issue I take is that he had to do a 1-hour special on ESPN

Pretty narcissistic and dickish move

[frylock]

5. yep

[Carnage251]

2. +1

[Ganja Ninja]

3. Although it may seem like it, being born in Ohio is not a life sentence.

He's free to go anywhere he wants to.