Appreciating LeBron

I’ll never forget the first time I saw LeBron James’ first Sports Illustrated cover. I had graduated from college the year before, and was visiting some friends in Cincinnati one weekend when I saw it in a gas station. Grabbing a copy, I mentioned to some friends that “this guy is from the town my dad grew up in, and it looks like he’ll skip college to go right to the NBA.” Not much was said, but a year later, before the 2003 NBA Draft, I received a text from one of the guys asking if LeBron James was “the guy from the magazine”. Sure enough, “The Guy” was well on his way to being the first overall pick in the NBA Draft, although the Cavaliers did their due diligence on Syracuse star Carmelo Anthony before selecting James.

Months later, James burst onto the seen like no player ever had before, posting 25 points, nine assists, six rebounds, and for steals, in his NBA debut against the Sacramento Kings. Unlike other preps-to-pros stars like Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, and Tracy McGrady, James had the body of a pro immediately, which bode extremely well for how he would develop. Soon, James was garnering All-Star consideration on his way to winning the 2004 NBA Rookie of the Year award.

Fans had hoped James would become a regular All-Star who could lead the Cavaliers back to the kind of playoff runs the team had experienced with Mark Price, Brad Daugherty, and Larry Nance. He quickly turned out to be so much more. By his third season, James had established himself as one of, if not the, best players in the league. When he single-handedly carried the Cavaliers past the Detroit Pistons and into the NBA Finals, thoughts weren’t on how the Cavs were swept, but rather on how this would be the first of many such trips.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHaSiWClteQ

Then things began to change. It began slowly, almost imperceptibly, but it was there. The joy of success was quickly replaced by the pressure to succeed. Good wasn’t good enough anymore. Everyone felt it, from LeBron and his teammates, to the Cavaliers’ coaching staff and front office, to the fans and media. By the time he was 23, James was already judged from a championship or bust point of view by the outside world, a view that he was forced to take on himself.

As that mentality set in, so did the anxiety over LeBron potentially leaving the Cavaliers. Each postseason failure simply heightened speculation among fans and the media, and James did little to quell that speculation. Actions like flaunting a Yankees hat while they faced the Indians didn’t exactly make him look invested in the area. Even as the Cavaliers finished with the best record in the league in 2009 and 2010, and James won his first to MVP awards, there was more talk about him leaving than anything else. At this point, I, like many fans, appreciated LeBron’s play and his value to the team, but certainly didn’t have the same affection for him that I had for the likes of Zydrunas Ilgauskas or Kenny Lofton.

The came The Decision. We were angry at James for leaving, but we were enraged by the arrogant and oblivious manner in which he and his management handled things. Even as the announcement was made, he seemed shocked by the vitriol displayed by fans across Northeast Ohio. Watching with my wife and friends at The Rocky River Brewing Company, I remember thinking to myself “He just doesn’t get it.” “It” being what he meant to the people of Cleveland.

During his first season in Miami, I not only wanted the Cavs to show they could be successful without James, I wanted James and The Heat to fail at every turn. When the Cavaliers won their opening game against the Boston Celtics, who had just opened the season by defeating the Heat, I was more emotional than I had been for any Cavs game in the first LeBron era. I was disgusted when James led an evisceration of the Cavaliers in his first game back in Cleveland, and overjoyed when Baron Davis led the Cavaliers to a victory over the Heatles later that same season. When the Dallas Mavericks defeated the Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals, I thought “It wasn’t just the Cavs, YOU couldn’t hack it.” His behavior on the podium after Game Six affirmed this to me.

When James began his second season in Miami, I noticed a change. It seemed as if he had finally taken an honest look in the mirror and had stopped making excuses, he seemed like a more focused player than ever before, and handled adverse situations with a new level of maturity. By the time the Heat won their first championship, I was among the many fans who just wanted to move on, I even cheered for him during the 2012 Olympics.

When rumors of James returning to the Cavaliers began to circulate, I just laughed it off. After all, why would James leave a powerhouse team in Miami to return to a team whose owner had openly expressed his disgust for James’s actions during The Decision? It wasn’t until the days leading up to his return that I began to truly hope that the rumors were true. I driving to Holiday Valley with some friends when LeBron announced his return to Cleveland. Even though I was the only Cavs fan in the car, everyone appreciated the tone and openness of the letter. For the first time, LeBron seemed to understand what he meant to Cavalier fans.

Still, in that first season, there was no doubt that I looked at all of James’s actions with skepticism. When he missed games, argued with teammates, or threw then coach David Blatt under the bus, I had little patience for what I perceived as his shenanigans. In many ways, I still viewed him the way I had before he left, a great basketball player who couldn’t hold himself accountable.

Then, in March of 2016, I attended the premier of the ESPN 30 for 30 film Believeland at the Cleveland Film Festival. While talking about the film at a local bar with my wife and friends, it hit me how LeBron had the weight of 52 years of failures on his shoulders. He knew this when he left, and he knew that it would be back on him when he returned. Yet he came back. He took the burden, and a few months later, he delivered on the dreams we all had when he burst on the scene 16 years ago.

Now when I look at LeBron James, I see him for what he is, the greatest basketball player since Michael Jordan, and alongside Jim Brown as the greatest athletes in the history of Cleveland sports. He makes greatness see boring and amazing seem mundane. Is he perfect? Of course not, but neither are any of us. For all the unnecessary drama, his compassion for those less fortunate, particularly the children of Akron, far outweighs those annoyances. Now, with more of his career behind us than ahead, I watch LeBron James play basektball and marvel. I tell myself to appreciate every game, every awe-inspiring play, knowing that I will never see another like him again.