LeBron James left Cleveland for one reason above all others, to win rings. Now, working with evil mastermind Pat Riley and fellow superstars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, King James has completed step two of the master plan. Although it's entirely unlikely that James and the Heat will win seven titles as he so wistfully proclaimed three summers ago, it is likely that the NBA has discovered it's latest dynasty. However, many factors could alter the path of where James will set up his kingdom, and while the present is once again bright in Miami, the future is just as murky as it has always been. The Heat are in place to compete for a title in 2014, and potentially in 2015, but what happens after that? Perhaps we can look into the past to find the keys to the future.
First, what do we know about LeBron James? Obviously, he is from Akron, Ohio, only minutes away from Cleveland. Also, when James left the Cavaliers for the Heat, he didn't necessarily leave Cleveland for Miami. Yes, he has moved to South Beach, but in the offseason James calls Akron home, and recently bolstered his high school with a generous cash contribution to aid the athletic program. James still calls Ohio home, he has family in Akron, and most importantly, it could be where his heart lives.
The one thing Lebron cares most about is winning, James understands that greatness is measured by championships, so his quest to become the greatest player of all time, which he has openly claimed to strive for, will always be the driving factor for what LeBron James does and where he goes. The man pictured above is Larry Hughes. If you are familiar with who that is, than you receive 100 basketball brownie points. If you aren't, that's entirely fair, because Larry Hughes was the best player on one of the worst supporting casts in NBA history. The city of Cleveland had every right to be mad at LeBron James, but owner Dan Gilbert did not. Dan failed to put even a competent team around LeBron for years, gradually improving as time went on, in the same way that Russia did after the Soviet Union collapsed. It was better, but still so horrendous that it barely deserves to be noted. For the record, an old Shaquille O'Neal and and aging Antawn Jamison, and Mo Williams do not count as a supporting cast. Certainly not a good one at least. Regardless, Gilbert decided to act like a child and pretended that LeBron was the only person to screw up Cleveland's situation. Ohio went into a rage over James' departure, but would they welcome him back? Of course! They'd have to. Especially if adding Lebron meant finally capturing and elusive title.
So LeBron left Cleveland so he could have a chance to win, right? Why would he go back to the place that turned him into a perpetual loser? Is he tired of winning? I thought he was driven by it!
That's absolutely true, three years ago, Miami was a better situation than Cleveland. Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were NBA superstars, and the Heat added so many role players they seemed unstopable. Cleveland had what? Old Shaq and Jamison? JJ Hickson? Delonte West??? That's awful, it certainly wasn't good enough to compete with some other elite teams. That was then, what happens in two years? Wade proved this series that he's still capable of playing at an elite level, proving all his critics wrong, including myself, but in two years, will he be able to do the same? Wade plays at breakneck speeds and constantly throws himself in harm's way, can he sustain that at the age of 33? He definitely won't be able to at 35 or 36, and he hasn't developed much of a jump shot. Bosh will be aging, and the Heat's role players are mostly old guys or are not capable of taking the next step as elite level helpers. And Cleveland? Well the Cavs now posses rising star Kyrie Irving, a young group of talent, and the first pick in this draft. What's more is that Cleveland has a lot of cap space, enough to sign LeBron James and then some in 2014 or 2015, depending on if he opts out of his contract early or not.
See this? This never would have happened. Jordan was a career Bull, excluding his late career stint with Washington that no one was offended by, and Bird and Magic are as pure to their teams as pure can be. LeBron James had to leave to earn a title, how bad his supporting cast was is irrelevant in this discussion. The greatest players to ever play were revered as heroes, not villains, like LeBron. If LeBron wants to be hailed as a champion, he will do so by proving himself to be a hero, something he can only do if he wins back the hearts of Cleveland, given they weren't all destroyed when he left.
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