Lebron and the Distinction Between Disappointed and Angry

Anger is the result of felt injustice. Injustice is the breech of a moral contract, spoken, or written, or unspoken, or unwritten. Do we as Cleveland fans have a right to be angry at Lebron James? It depends on what we're angry about. Because just because it feels unjust doesn't mean that it is, and as it pertains to Lebron's decision as a free agent, he broke no rules, written or unwritten. He never promised the city of Cleveland that he would stay for his career. He may have promised owner Dan Gilbert. We'll never know, but that would explain his anger at least. Of course, before Gilbert goes out calling people disloyal he needs to have a conversation with Mike Brown, the the winningest coach, percentage wise, in Cleveland Cavaliers history. Perhaps we are angry about the way that he went about it, carving out a one hour time slot in prime time just to take a piece out of our hearts. That was mean, granted. It was classless and ill-conceived. It added fuel to the fire, but how much less angry would we have been if he had made the same decision quieter. I think we might not have reacted so emotionally so quickly, but I think the burning of all things James would have been inevitable, and it might have squelched a Dan Gilbert email that he is now regretting forever. The seat of our anger comes from our belief turned expectation Lebron not only would stay in Cleveland, but more importantly wanted to win a championship in Cleveland. We gave our hearts to him. We wouldn't have done that had we not been convinced that he wanted to be for Cleveland what Jordan was for Chicago. The story was set up beautifully. James was being criticized for all the same stuff Jordan was in roughly the same period of his career, and then Jordan got Pippen, and Jackson, and the rest is history. All Lebron needed was "Pippen" and "Jackson", and the Cavs could be a dynasty. Alas, it seems that James had a different idea. No doubt, James decision was based on wanting to win championships. He took less money to go to Miami. He also wanted to stay in Cleveland. He wanted Bosh to come and be his "Pippen". Bosh wouldn't come. Lebron looked at the roster, post Bosh signing with Miami, and said, "to win the title, we have to get through Boston, Orlando, Miami, and Los Angelas". Gosh, I'm just one guy" This was the identical thought that went through his mind in the Boston series. He just didn't have it in him to carry them through the playoffs. He believed it in '07, '08, and '09, but not in '10, and you could see it on his face, the last three games of the series. I agree with Dan Gilbert, Lebron quit in the Boston series. He felt the burden of an entire city and folded underneath the pressure, and when Bosh sided with the Heat, Lebron decided he couldn't take that again. This is interesting because we're really hard on our athletes that lack a competitive spirit, but in some sense, it was Lebron's drive to win that led him to despair, and led him to choose Miami. Regularly we declare cynically that players always go where the money goes, and we kill them when they go to inferior teams for more money. Well, Lebron went to a superior team (with him on it)for less money, and we kill him for being disloyal. I point out this double-standard adding one caveat. A truly competitive spirit tries to win, always. Even if he's down two games to Boston in the second round, and he still has to get through Orlando, and the Lakers. Losing brings out character. I appreciate that Lebron hates losing. At least he didn't just smile and peace out, but he was a sore loser, and still is. He has to still play hard in Miami to win, not to mention with 9 summer league bench warmers. Winning is hard no matter where you are, and one would've have liked to see Lebron stay in Cleveland in sheer recognition of that fact. I mean, they did have the best record in the NBA two years in a row. (Combined Record- 127-37!)Perhaps there's stuff going on with management we'll never know. You can take this rant as an outsider's opinion, but this is how things appear to me given the facts that I have. What hurts is that through deciding to go to Miami, Lebron James communicated that he was not as enthusiastic or optimistic about Cleveland as we had believed him to be. The jury's still out for me whether this was misguided. I think it was spurred mostly by the media constantly comparing Lebron to Jordan. I think we were self-deceived. Lebron is a great basketball player who truly wants to win, but something's missing, that thing that Jordan, Kobe, Magic, Bird, and Wade have. The Derek Jeter factor if you will. He never had that look in his eye. He's actually a perfect Pippen to Wade's Jordan. We should've saw it coming. As second fiddle, Lebron doesn't have the pressure of a city's expectation and cursed history. He can be his goofy self and let Wade lead. He can make pretty passes, nasty dunks, and put on a show while Wade brings the necessary leadership. He wasn't who we thought he was. We should've known that championships are more appealing than Ohio, or where you grew up. We should've known that Lebron wasn't the King, but the Knight. But we wanted to be witnesses of the next legend, the next greatest player, the next dynasty. Lebron didn't see it that way, and he left, and it hurts.
If Lebron was unjust he was unjust in the way he went about leaving Cleveland. But this is not the issue is it? To call him disloyal assumes a moral imperative, and that loyalty is morally imperative. Only when the spoken/unspoken,written/unwritten contract is breached,is anger justified. Truly loyalty is nice. But in this situation, is it imperative? What loyalty are we asking Lebron to hold? He was drafted. He didn't have a choice to come to Cleveland. Is he disloyal to his word? What word did he give that he would stay in Cleveland. He finished out his contract without ever asking to be traded. Was he morally obligated to stay here? If he was, what's the meaning of "free agent". Of course he's not obligated to stay in Cleveland. Loyalty is based on a promise, and he fulfilled his. We feel betrayed because we let ourselves believe things that weren't true, but Lebron never shared them. A little look at recent history makes that clear. So somebody turned out not to be who we thought they were, but he never led us on, we led ourselves on, therefore, the anger, the bitterness, is unjustified. But the disappointment, the shock, and the loss of respect, well, at least that's how I feel for now.