Unbeknownst to the Natter Wife and me when we made our 2010 summer vacation plans, we would fly into the area where one of the larger sports stories of the year would occur. Roughly 36 hours after LeBron James made his announcement to the world on the LeBron James-themed show “The Decision,” which aired on ESPN, we were winging our way to the Cleveland Airport and the nearby city of Akron, Ohio, home of you guessed it, LeBron James.

To review the bidding, Thursday, July 8, 2010, James, the two-time defending NBA Most Valuable Player, announced on the aforementioned special that he would be moving after seven seasons from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Miami Heat. There he would team with two other high-profile NBA stars Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. One thing to keep in mind is that the NBA MVP award recognizes regular season excellence. After promising his extended hometown that he would bring an NBA title to the Cavaliers, James left with a lot of victories and notoriety, but without a championship ring.

The Cleveland area’s problem with LeBron started shortly before the cable broadcast began, when a member of James’ extended posse called Cavaliers’ owner Dan Gilbert to relay the information that the self-described Chosen One (or King James or LBJ as the brand is occasionally known) would “take his talents” to South Beach. James. Who likely earned more than $100 million from the Cavaliers alone over seven seasons, dismissed Gilbert and by extension Cleveland, with the back of his hand.

Honesty compels me to say that I watched the whole hour-long LeBronfest, in part because it was a train wreck from a production stand point. The LeBron camp stated when the show’s concept was announced, that the decision would be revealed within the first 10 minutes of the cablecast. They missed slightly, as it took 40 minutes of painful programming before the LeBron announcement was made.

During the seemingly endless questioning from on-air talent Jim Grey, Michael Wilbon and then Stuart Scott, James did say something of note, which was, “The only reason we are in this business is to win championships.”

Shortly afterwards, things started to spiral out of control. Gilbert, obviously embarrassed that he had been shunned by James, scolded his former star, saying about him of the worst thing a professional athlete can be accused of, quitting in a game. In this case, quitting in four playoff games. These charges came in the form of a website communiqué to the Cavaliers season ticket holders.

Shortly thereafter, civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson weighed in on the issue, saying Gilbert’s approach to James was that of a “runaway slave.” In the form of a rebuttal, it should be noted that in 2009 a “Forbes Magazine” analysis noted that James earned $14.5 million from the Cavaliers and another $27.9 million in endorsements income.  As a former political science and history major, I have some Civil War history books at Nado Natterings World Headquarters. Perhaps the definition of “runaway slave” has changed since my college days.

The morning after our wheels touched down, I scurried out and purchased copies of “The Sunday Cleveland Plain Dealer” and the “Akron Beacon-Journal.” The Cleveland paper had a front page picture of the dismantling of the 100-foot tall billboard of James which was located across from the Quicken Loans Arena, home of the Cavaliers. The headline was, “Rage wasn’t only response as star played out his plan.” The sub-heads stated, “The fans: Those who support him explain why LeBron is still King” and “Analysis: James’ departure was longtime plan brewing for years.”  And lets not overlook the four-page special section  entitled “The LeBron Years 1999-2010” which detailed his high school playing days at Akron’s St. Vincent St. Mary’s, where he lead his team to three Ohio state titles. The spread included several Cavaliers pictures of LeBron as well.

On page 14 of the front section, we have “LeBron’s Cavalier History,” which is two columns wide, and the length of the paper. Two more columns graced the front of the sports page, including one entitled “We’re all fooled by a different James” by Terry Pluto, who has covered NBA basketball for 40 plus seasons. 

The Forum section, the “Plain Dealer’s” opinion section featured, “Another taste of treachery, Modell hurt city more, but LeBron cared less.”  The column equated James with the most despised man in Cleveland sports history, former Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell, who took his pro football team to Baltimore despite strong regional support for his franchise in Northern Ohio. Akin to being accused of being a quitter, comparing James to Modell is seriously strong stuff around Lake Erie.

An editorial cartoon of James in the same section was subtitled “LeQuit.” Page four had an editorial entitled “King has a suit of new clothes; Cleveland fans sight has cleared.” In the Metro section was a column, “We will survive the heartbreak.” You get the idea by now.

Monday July 12, NBA Commissioner David Stern weighed in on the James Matter, fining Gilbert $100,000, saying “The remarks… though understandable were ill-advised and imprudent.” Stern added that the ESPN “The Decision” special was “Ill-conceived, barely-produced and poorly executed.” The commissioner was correct on all counts.

“Plain Dealer” editorial cartoonist Jeff Darcy ran a cartoon, which was a drawn version of a dollar bill and suggested that Cavalier fans cut out the faux buck and mail it to Stern as a form of payment toward Gilbert’s fine. 

My take on “The Decision” is that James was well within his rights to depart Cleveland. He toyed with the market place, played by the rules and won. However, he received some spectacularly bad advice from his ‘team’ of advisors. Not contacting Gilbert ahead of time was bad enough, but a virtually content-free hour special has already drawn guffaws and resentment.

A very funny take-off on the painful Jim Grey interview of James was done by Steve Carrell and Paul Rudd on the ESPY Awards show. This essentially equates to ESPN making fun of ESPN, with James thrown in as the parsley on the plate.

Basketball has evolved over the years. Back when Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) was at UCLA, the common thought was that the 7-2 center and four biology majors could win the NCAA title. In the current NBA, a team need to go nine players deep to win a title. The Miami Heat now has three stars who collectively are consuming 77.6 percent of the available salary cap space. It’s going to be tough to assemble a roster deep and talented enough to win a title with those financial restrictions, although team President Pat Riley has made strides in that area in the past week.  

LeBron and Kobe Bryant are the top two basketball talents in the world, with James being more spectacular, but Bryant owns five championship rings. Wade has a title with Miami that has eluded James thus far and is one of the best three players in the world.  s

If James’ primary consideration was winning titles, he should have gone to the talent-rich Chicago Bulls with either Wade or Bosh. They have a more complete roster and should last well into the playoffs even without James.

James now has a target on his back the size of the aforementioned 100-foot billboard. Dragging out his announcement for two years has endeared him to no one, especially now that it seems that the decision among James, Wade and Bosh was made between as many as two years or as few as two months ago.

Media over exposure has now become the ultimate American sin and James has been found guilty. Cleveland and Akron, located 40 miles apart, nurtured James and protected him. Now he belongs to the world and the scrutiny will be severe.

Track and Field News

CHS Head Track Coach George Green notes that two incoming Islanders are having successful summer seasons. “Rising Freshmen Abigail Callahan and Sierra Smith have been busy this summer with Abigail qualifying for the youth high jump Junior Olympics at the end of this month in Sacramento and Sierra winning the Cal State Games youth division high jump last Saturday.

In that same meet Will Bartsch won the Young Men's Pole Vault. Also, the CHS Cross Country Team is meeting several times a week to get in some early season training before all coaches must lose contact with all athletes during the CIF's mandatory No-Contact period. Check the islandertrack.com website for more information.

Alumni Update

CHS Baseball Historian Bill Seager dashed off a series of E-mails this past week regarding his favorite sport. Included in the material were some recent statistics compiled by Kevin Couture (CHS ’06 and USC ’10).

Pitching for the Class ‘A’ short season Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, Couture owns a record of 2-2 with a very fine ERA of 2.45. He has yielded only seven hits and five earned runs in 18.1 innings. He also has 19 strikeouts vs. one base on balls, which is also outstanding. For those of you seriously into baseball stats, Couture has a WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) of 0.44, which as Seager noted, “That’s actually ridiculous.”

In his last game pitched, Couture earned the victory after pitching six innings and yielding only one earned run. The Volcanoes are part of the San Francisco Giants organization.

World Cup Soccer Finals

 One of the funnier episodes of the recent Midwestern trip was watching the World Cup Soccer Finals between Spain and the Netherlands with my in-laws. They are both in their mid-80’s and were wondering why I was watching a game for more than two hours, that had no score, but instead had blaring horns playing in the background on a continuous basis.

Honestly, I didn’t have an answer.