Remember Kids, It's All About LeBron...

Charlie Klein

Perhaps one of the more nauseating aspects of my day (aside from watching Brandon League give up a grand slam to Luke Scott in the 8th inning of the Mariners game today) was watching the amount of coverage LeBron James was getting on his own. Now I am aware that he is the best player in basketball and his team is in the playoffs (yadda yadda yadda), but come on already, enough is enough!

One of my favourite aspects of the coverage is the angle taken by some which pities the plight Cleveland currently finds itself in: their hometown superstar is on the verge of leaving for brighter lights and bigger checks. This storyline is constantly played up in the media, as it is a very familiar story not unique to LeBron and Cleveland. Most people bemoan the fact that small market teams have to give up their best players within three or four years of having them. And yet Cleveland has had LeBron for seven seasons now. That's a pretty long time for a relationship to exist with a player of LeBron's caliber and a city like Cleveland.

So I do not exactly feel sorry for the city of Cleveland. You've had your chance with LeBron for seven seasons now and have not been able to get the job done. It's like a guy who is a 5 dating a girl who is a 10. If he has not managed to seal the deal in seven years, it is time for the 10 to move on to someone more on her level. And it is the same with Cleveland and LeBron.

The fact that people in Cleveland are giving a strong amount of credence to the idea that LeBron has quit on his teammates to make his departure easier shows the defeatist mentality of the city itself. Over the course of their seven year relationship, Cleveland and the Cavaliers organization has given LeBron very little with which to work. Mo Williams, Antwoine Jamison, Zyndrunas Ilgauskas, Delonte West, the list goes on. The only reason anyone knows who most of these guys are is because they happen to play with LeBron.

It's just like HBO's series Entourage, "Lebrontourage" as one Cleveland sports site refers to it. You have Eric Murphy, Vince's hard-working friend-turned-manager whose main source of success and fame is Vince (Cavaliers coach Mike Brown), Vince's childhood buddy Turtle (Mo Williams) and Johnny Drama, the past-his-prime actor (Shaquille O'Neal). And for everyone outside of Cleveland, watching the Cavaliers fail once again in the playoffs is almost just as funny as Entourage.

Cleveland fans, it won't be long before photoshop isn't the only thing that produces images like this...

If Cleveland fans want to keep LeBron in their city, perhaps they ought to take the Say Anything approach. 

And their season is not even over (yet). Imagine how much fun this summer is going to be!