LeBron James' decision to leave Cleveland for Miami and the television spectacle to announce it, is being decried by Cleveland, the Cavaliers' fans and first and foremost by the team's owner, Dan Gilbert. Why are they surprised? They tolerated it and defended him when it was in their best interest.
During the 2009 NBA playoffs, the Cavaliers were bounced in the Eastern Conference Finals by the Orlando Magic. Dwight Howard anchors the Magic and he is a colleague of LeBron's from Team USA Basketball. They won a gold medal together. They were brothers in arms during the summer of 2008.
Yet, when the buzzer sounded in after the Magic won the series, LeBron James walked off the court without a wave of his hand, a bro-hug, hand shake or even a look in the direction of Howard.
The team's milled around the court finding each other to offer condolences or congratulations. Not James. He stalked off the court; spoke to no one and that included the media.
He was fined by the NBA for blowing off the required post-game press conference and wasn't seen until late the next day when he didn't apologize to anyone.
In a display of poor sportsmanship, bordering on being a sore loser, he wondered aloud why anyone thought he should be asked to congratulate someone who just beat him. Huh?
Roll the tape forward a few weeks later. At LeBron's Nike-sponsored basketball camp, a young college hoops star that was helping out with the campers had the temerity to dunk on LeBron. It made headlines when the news was leaked.
Video of the happening, which Nike and/or LeBron thought wasn't good for James' brand or reputation was kept off the Internet and not only wasn't anyone speaking on the record about it, but LeBron and his entourage wouldn't entertain questions at all.
After a few days of embarrassing media demands and questions about James' ego, the video was released and can still be seen on youtube.com.
There are many outside Cleveland that got sick and tired of LeBron and his on-court posse rubbing opponents' noses in Cavalier triumphs during games.
They acted out comedic scenes, had special hand signals for when they made three-point shots and generally crossed the line that separates enjoying themselves and gloating. Again, an issue of bad sportsmanship. Teams got tired of it and fans of other teams started to hate The King and his court.
Most of us feel bad for Cleveland whose team now looks depleted and without any hope of being successful. Yet, we believe James was celebrated for his bad behavior while in a Cavs uniform and defended when he was just plain immature. What's that saying? You reap what you sow.
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