Cleveland

Sports, You and LeBron

Sports are a microcosm of life. There are struggles where heroes fall short and there are struggles where a heroes rises to the occasion. Its almost like reality T.V., where we can see every facet of an athletes life. Sports can even give us confidence when the story enters our lives with humble beginnings. We see the underprivledged kid that works his way to the top (Lebron, McGrady). We love the stories of hard work, dedication, desire and discipline… these stories can resonate through our very own lives. Sports allows us to live through these mega athletes’ lives where we envision ourselves taking the last shot, either on the court or in real life.

Or even the kid that was born into a family of stars, that one kid that had it all but wanted to prove to his family and his self that he can strip himself of everything and gain stardom on his own (Kobe, Grant Hill) Work hard like everyone else and earn a living.

Through it all, the real story happens when a young athlete/ star to-be enters the league wet behind the ears, gets his rookie hazing and falls flat on his face. He suddenly isn’t the superstar he was in college or high school. He thought he knew what hard work was but its actually a fraction of his “best” efforts. We see the struggles, we see the efforts and we feel for them. Wishing and hoping that next year “we will get it done” If you work harder and I cheer louder “WE” can get them!

The great thing about a good story is that it is not predictable. I want my popcorn so I can follow this story all the way to the end. We are not really sure what will happen…but it’s going to be good. That young star wet behind the years has grown up right before our eyes, we are a team. He’s bigger, faster and stronger but he falls short…by an inch. (Ewing, Malone, Barkley) We still love em and thats why we feel the pain together. Some of them breakthrough and become the champions we expected (Garnett, Drexler, Jordan). A true story book ending, it began when you high-fived him in the arena, or when you got his jersey, better yet when you committed to him when he was drafted and no else did.

These stories recycle every 2 or 3 years with a superstar. For this story we will look at Lebron James. Home town kid, loved by many adored by all. I honestly don’t have a problem with what he did…but he did mess up the story. It’s predictable, anticlimactic and sad, no popcorn needed here.

You want to think he’d give Cleveland another 2-3 years especially with all the changes Powe and Shaq injured, Jamison new to the team, Hickson getting better every year and a new head coach. Quite as keep no one is discussing the Delonte West issue and LeBron’s mother: THE ALBATROSS! OK forget about all that! The news conference, his brand and all the witnesses are done and its whack. But the biggest disappointment is the story is whack. We will never see him bring a championship home to a city that needed it. We wont see a hero stumble and rise, we wont feel for someone taking the easy route because we don’t and again, the story is predictable.

No one likes a predictable story

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