I tried to stay away.
I really, really did. I unfollowed several twitter friends during the ’10 playoffs because they talked about it too much (Don’t worry, I later re-followed them). I feel myself get angry and flushed whenever I hear it discussed on the radio.
But every time I pull away, it brings me back in.
So, unless I want to burn every bridge I have and stop listening to sports talk radio, I should come to grips with and discuss my feelings on LeBron Watch ’10. Frankly, I am angry. Not at the process, which is necessary in the free-market sports economy that is the bane of every true sports fan. But rather at the implications of my opinion that LeBron will leave the Cavs.
Seven years ago Nike coined a phrase that fits LeBron and his personality perfectly: We Are All Witnesses. And we were. And he loved it. The phrase implies expectation; an expectation to see something unforgettable. People “witness” miraculous works. Acts that make them believe, even. And Cleveland fans thought they were seeing, or witnessing, these works. Playoffs, All-Star game appearances, NBA Finals, his take-over of games, last second shots, and MVP seasons.
Possibly a championship? That one word, above all others, was promised in that simple phrase. We are all witnesses. We will be all witnesses. To something great. One day. Surely.
And that’s what makes this process the hardest. That the expectation we had all come to . . . well . . . expect, was misguided. Were we wrong? Cleveland fans and general basketball fans had different definitions for that phrase. New York fans, Chicago fans, Miami fans, New Jersey fans, L.A. fans, and Dallas fans have a different definition of that phrase now.
It is no longer an implied happiness for Cleveland fans, but an implied despair. People also “witness” car accidents. That is what I am afraid of now: that a man who has no good reason to leave Cleveland except for (1) the media’s wishes and (2) his own belief that megastars belong wherever the media wants, would actually crush the hearts of an entire region.
While we watch on, with no control over the outcome. As witnesses.
LeBron wanted us to watch, he likes the attention. His interview with Larry King was supposedly an introduction to the biggest middle finger to the Cleveland fans since Art Modell. It was to be the “girlfriend dancing with other men while you were at a club together” moment of our lives. And while the “screw you Cleveland” tour was either cancelled or a media invention, the thought just hurts. So does journalists talking about Cleveland’s “fear of rejection” and its “inferiority complex,” and New York and Chicago explaining why a superstar could never live in Cleveland. I mean, really, Cleveland? They don’t even have an ESPN page…
But LeBron forgot the other part of what that slogan implies: that people are watching and judging. Because “witnesses” never re-tell a story the way it actually happened. People have fears, prejudices, biases, limitations in eyesight. And an entire region is waiting to judge. Waiting to declare LeBron a bigger villain than Jim Thome, than Derek Anderson, than Ricky Davis. That is why we all make threats about burning his jersey, never buying tickets to the Cavs again, or not caring about basketball again. If LeBron refuses to re-sign with the Cavs, we will react how Cleveland always reacts, and no amount of excuses or reasons on LeBron’s part will justify it.
And that is the irony of LeBron: to make the decision to leave, he has to do so with everyone watching. He has to rip out our heart while millions look on in horror. He isn’t going to slip out in the night like the Baltimore Colts, nor deflect blame on politicians like Modell. He has to announce publicly that although he will not receive more money, or have an owner that will bend to his every whim, or live in a region that will adore him forever, Cleveland just isn’t good enough for him. And we will all see it. He has demanded our attention.
And so we wait, eyes ever on the papers. Our ears are glued to the radio.
LeBron wanted us to watch. And we are. And he better know it.
We are all witnesses.
The Cleveland Monk 