yes, espn is a bookmark on my computer

alright, i've dated an athlete or two and a couple sports fanatics so i figure it's high time to discuss some sports [especially because espn often interrupted our pillowtalk].  i briefly touched on the 2010 NBA finals around game 5 [don't quote me on that.] but let me give you some background information before i go into my schpeel [i don't know if that's a real word because the little red line popped up but it's synonymous with rant, opinion and other like words.]


lebron james, drafted right out of high school joined the cleveland cavaliers and played with them for seven years. in those seven years, he's made some great plays, his talent is baffling and his power is what some have called superhuman.  his on court performances earned him the name "The Chosen One" and he also became the self proclaimed "King James." [what we're not going to talk about is all these biblical references that make me the f.ck nervous. i don't know about everybody else but i have one messiah and i have yet to see him/her/it/divine being supreme on anybody's basketball court.] anyway, in the seven years, the cavaliers didn't win any championships. and let's just point out that the cavaliers did not win, not just lebron. it's a little foolish to think one man is going to win a whole championship by himself. what the hell are we paying everybody else for? well maybe we're not paying them enough because lebron's ending salary was $15 million 779 thousand 9 hundred and 12 dollars. and yes i had to spell that sh.t out. this is not to say that the cavaliers didn't get close.  this year they got beat out of the semifinals but that was in the midst of learning his teammate delonte west might have been sleeping with his mom. that could throw off anybody's game.  anyway, lebron was a free agent for about a week. and he had a couple offers - the bulls, the nets, the knicks, the heat and of course the cavaliers.  after all this hoopla, with an hour special about his decision appropriately titled 'The Decision' lebron basically says ta-ta to cleveland and hell-O to south beach. to be completely shallow, who wouldn't go to miami after 7 years?


which leads me to my next point. dan gilbert (majority owner of the cavs) wrote an open letter airing out his feelings about lebron's decision. [please note that it was lebron's decision]. now i'm only gonna include a few lines from gilbert's rant because that's all it's gonna take for you to get the point.

ahem. dan gilbert said:


"I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIPBEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE
Some people think they should go to heaven but NOT have to die to get there.
This shocking act of disloyalty from our home grown "chosen one" sends the exact opposite lesson of what we would want our children to learn. And "who" we would want them to grow-up to become.
The self-declared former "King" will be taking the "curse" with him down south. And until he does "right" by Cleveland and Ohio, James (and the town where he plays) will unfortunately own this dreaded spell and bad karma."


ahem....how old are we? let's tackle this piece by piece. to the first line, i don't believe gilbert gets paid to tell the future. and if we want to rely on statistics [i can't help it, i'm a sociology major] chances are dan, it's not gonna happen as soon as you think, because it hasn't already. second line: we all serve different gods and different gods have different requirements. maybe lebron isn't looking for heaven. he made it quite clear, he's looking for a championship and your angels ain't cuttin' it dan, so he's no longer waiting for a miracle, i think he's trying to create one. third line. now he's not a role model? though we don't want our children thinking that they can ONLY be athletes or rappers, we do want our children to focus and excel which is exactly what lebron did. he plays this sport to the best of his ability every time he steps foot on that court so even if you're not a basketball player, we can only hope that our children respect their craft as much as he does. last line. that's just dumb.

i wrote this whole post because i can't forget that lebron gave seven years to cleveland. you know what seven years is? a clean credit report. it's 3/4 of elementary school. it's undergrad and grad combined with summers off. seven years is a long time.  how much do we want someone to give to something that's not working? and this is not just for basketball but in our relationships, in our jobs, in our friendships and families, how much f.cking time should we stick around if it simply isn't giving us what we want?  this is not to say that you aren't happy throughout the seven years but being unfulfilled gets tiring and it can build resentment. what if he gave it his all? what if the team's record wasn't as promising as its potential? all i'm saying is, i'm not mad. lebron, much like everybody else has to line up his decisions with his desires. if that man wants a championship, then let him go wherever he thinks he's going to find it.  if i want an apple pie bad enough, i swear i'll go to india if i think i'll find it there. [that was a terrible example considering i'm allergic to apples but you get the point.] and if we want to talk about loyalty? you can be loyal from a distance.  lebron didn't bad mouth cleveland, he didn't throw them under the bus. he simply said that he wants something that cleveland hasn't offered in the seven years he's been there.  men, women, we all know what the feels like. it sucks when two people that care about each other want two different things at the same time but it happens, everyday. basically dan gilbert had a waiting to exhale moment and i get it. but what i have learned from growing up is that it's ok to be mad, but don't be destructive. there are two things we cannot get back and that's time and words.  besides, it looks like lebron wanted to be with his bestie [dwayne wade] for a while.  [i would move to miami for dwayne wade too] who can blame him?