LeBron James takes his talents back to Cleveland on Thursday night. He might want to see whether he can find his reputation and legacy while he is there because “The Chosen One” seems to have left them behind.
It will be Cleveland and the world against LeBron and his Miami Heat squad, which already has replaced the Dallas Cowboys and New York Yankees as the team America loves to hate. By game time, Quicken Loans Arena may have a moat around it to keep the angry masses away.
Ever since LeBron dumped on his Northern Ohio fans by orchestrating one of the most sickening, self-indulgent acts we’ve seen in sports with the announcement he would be leaving Cleveland to play for Miami in an hour-long ESPN abomination of a show, Cleveland fans have had Dec. 2 marked on their calendars. It’s the day the second-most hated man in Northern Ohio sports history (sorry Art Modell, you owned that crown the second you took the Browns out of town) has to face the angry mob he left behind.
And make no mistake, the mob is angry, and security remains a major concern for Thursday night’s nationally televised NBA showdown.
“Honestly, I’m a little bit afraid,” an unidentified member of the Cavaliers organization told ESPN. “Some people don’t care. Their mentality is ‘I’ve got to get this off my chest.’ There’s so much negative energy around this game. People aren’t excited about the game itself. They’re just like, ‘I can’t wait to do something.’?”
So extra police, in uniform and undercover, will be at the arena, though I don’t know why they wouldn’t be angry, either.
The phrase “some people don’t care” in the ESPN report illustrates the atmosphere LeBron is facing Thursday. He is the hometown hero who spurned a city that has been reeling from one economic blow after another for decades.
A columnist wrote the following in the Plain Dealer last weekend:
“Ten years ago next June, this newspaper launched the ‘Quiet Crisis,’ an ongoing series that focused the community’s attention on a desperate need to get serious about jobs or face economic extinction. To an extent, the warning worked. A great many bright and dedicated people rallied to the cause of building an economic master plan suitable for the 21st century. There have been systemic advances in health care, pockets of potential in the University Circle neighborhood and widespread agreement on the need for regional collaboration.
“But it hasn’t been enough. Despite that good work, Greater Cleveland continues to get older, smaller and poorer.”
It is a city with streets lined with boarded up and burnt out homes and businesses. It is a city and a region that has seen one manufacturing job after another leave the area. It is a city filled with people who have nothing left to lose.
On Thursday night, those people will have a symbol that represents all the decay and defeat of a community. They have chosen LeBron James.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN 980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
