Loyalty and LeBron

LONDON (The Friday Eurovision] - LeBron James played a blinder at the 2008 Olympics.

He was breathtaking in a Team USA jersey.

He commanded a press conference like no other.

I remember that presser after the USA’s gold-medal win against Spain on August 24, 2008, as if it were yesterday.

There was so much pride and relief for LeBron that he'd finally won something, a title, unlike in his NBA career.

Dwyane Wade, the leading scorer of that USA team, and Chris Bosh, the side's best defensive player and most valuable reserve, were also in that press conference.

LeBron did all the right things and said all the right things after the win over Spain.

He praised the defending world champions for their battling performance in the gold medal game, but proclaimed that the USA were back on top.

The gold medal seemed to re-energize him and his teammates.

It meant something.

The American basketball icon, LeBron, hasn’t put on his best performance this week.

His advisors scheduled an hour-long program called 'The Decision' on ESPN on Thursday night for LeBron to announce to the world where he was going to play in the NBA next season.

With the fans of his team, Cleveland, watching, hoping and praying that their favorite free agent would remain a Cavalier, LeBron revealed he was going to Miami.

If he had hoped for well wishes from the Cleveland Cavaliers, he got something else entirely.

Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert let fly with the mother of all open letters to criticize his former star.

He wrote to the fans: “As you now know, our former hero, who grew up in the very region that he deserted this evening, is no longer a Cleveland Cavalier.

“This was announced with a several day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his ``decision'' unlike anything ever ``witnessed'' in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment.”

The rest of the letter, it’s fair to say, was not complimentary of LeBron.

It’s the right of all players, at least once they’ve put in the years of service as LeBron has, to choose where they want to play.

He had the opportunity to go, and has.

He wants to win a championship.

But then again, the Cavaliers haven’t been a bad team.

In fact, they’ve been one of the Eastern Conference’s best sides with LeBron.

I think LeBron has blown it.

His self-belief, or lack of it, and his decision to rub Cleveland’s fans noses in it with that TV broadcast, are the real issues.

If Michael Jordan stayed in Chicago because he believed he could lead the Bulls to the top, LeBron chose not to stay in Cleveland because clearly, he did not believe he could lead the team to the top.

What about LeBron’s definition of loyalty?

It’s strange because in his show, ‘The Decision’, LeBron used the L word.

"It was a tough decision because I know how loyal I am,” he said.

His decision to go, no matter how you slice it, was not a show of loyalty to the people of Cleveland, Akron and all of Ohio.

Cleveland needs its heroes, and LeBron was a hero for a place that’s known as the ‘Mistake by the Lake’.

What about Team USA? Where is the loyalty to them, and that burning desire to be the best?

Weren’t LeBron, Wade and Bosh in that American team that lost 101-95 to Greece in the Semi-Finals of the 2006 FIBA World Championship, arguably the most famous game in the history of the event?

He did play the following summer at the FIBA Americas Championship and helped the USA reach the Beijing Games, and then helped them win gold in China.

But the pride that LeBron felt playing for Team USA at the Olympics, where is it?

They didn’t play last summer because the USA didn’t need to qualify.

They’re not going to play this summer, either.

They have other things on their minds.

Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant, this season’s scoring champion in the NBA, is going to play for Team USA .

He has just, very quietly, signed a five-year extension with the Thunder.

Looking ahead to the FIBA World Championship, I want to see Durant more than any other player because he’s an exceptional talent at the beginning of his career.

It’s going to take some time getting used to seeing LeBron, Wade and Bosh playing together for the Heat.

What happens if Team USA, led by Durant, do win the gold medal in Turkey?

They will be the best team in the world and they will not then need to go through qualifying in Argentina to play at the London Games.

If that happens and Durant does lead the Americans to the gold medal, that is the team that I want to see play in London.

Jeff Taylor
FIBA