The lifelong sports fan in me wants to believe Lebron James really does just want to come home.
I want to hang on the words of Lee Jenkins, who wrote the announcement posted on SI.com on Friday that James now knows his relationship with Northeast Ohio is bigger than basketball.
I want to get a little choked up that The Chosen one wants to show little Ohio kids there is no better place to grown up than Northeast Ohio.
But 30 years of journalism cynicism and doubt quickly creep in as I realize this is really just a basketball business decision. The simple fact is the youthful Cleveland Cavaliers offer The King a better chance at another NBA crown in the next few years than did the aging Miami Heat.
Kyrie Irving. Andrew Wiggins, er, Kevin Love. Anderson Varejao. Even Tristan Thompson and Dion Waiters. Three first-round draft picks in next year’s draft. Other pieces who will come with LBJ, like Mike Miller and Ray Allen.
Max contract for Lebron. Max control for Lebron. We will all soon be Max witnesses again that sports fans are biblically fickle as the Prodigal Son returns home. Kill the fattened calf. It’s time to party on the north coast.
But as the Good Side/Bad Side of my brain wrestled to find the truth, a former newspaper reporter – and huge Cleveland sports fan — friend of mine summed it up in three words.
It matters not.
In terms of WHY the best basketball player on the planet is coming back to Cleveland …. It matters not.
What matters is the best basketball player on the planet DID decide to come back to Cleveland.
What matters is the best basketball player on the planet wants to compete for a city that hasn’t won a major sports title (sorry, Cleveland Crunch fans) since the Browns won the NFL championship in 1964 (two decades before Lebron was born).
What matters is the sun is a little brighter today, the beer a little colder and the smiles a little bigger now – all because one 29-year-old man opened his long arms today and gave us all a big hug.
Who knew John Sebastian had Lebron James in mind when he wrote the theme song to the old 70s TV sitcom about Mr. Kotter? “
Welcome back
We always could spot a friend, welcome back
Welcome back
And I smile when I think how you must have been
And I know what a scene you were learning in
Was there something that made you come back again
And what could ever lead ya
(what could ever lead ya)
Back here where we need ya
The essay credited to James on Friday was also a powerful message. It said all of the right things. If it was its own piece of music, it hit every right note. He mentioned his wife, his kids and his own mother. He thanked Miami and its fans. He pointed out he and Cavs owner Dan Gilbert had already buried the hatchet. He talked about how hard it was to leave his hometown four years ago.
More importantly, he talked about great it was to be on his way back.
“I have a responsibility to lead, in more ways than one, and I take that very seriously. My presence can make a difference in Miami, but I think it can mean more where I’m from. I want kids in Northeast Ohio, like the hundreds of Akron third-graders I sponsor through my foundation, to realize that there’s no better place to grow up. Maybe some of them will come home after college and start a family or open a business. That would make me smile. Our community, which has struggled so much, needs all the talent it can get. … In Northeast Ohio, nothing is given. Everything is earned. You work for what you have. … I’m ready to accept the challenge. I’m coming home.”
It’s a great day to be a northeast Ohio sports fan. Win or lose, Lebron James chose us.
Why? Who cares. It matters not.
Carl Hunnell semi-retired a few years ago after 30 years of newspaper journalism, much of it devoted to covering all levels of sports in Ohio. He remembers a very young Lebron James playing a high school game at Crestview High School in what seems like a lifetime ago.