So I saw the Browns game, even though I myself am not a Browns fan. It was on prime time, and with so many additions, I wanted to see what the Browns could do. I have no real rooting interest, although my love of the Buffalo Bills has left with a strong distaste for the Dallas Cowboys over the years. So I guess you could say I was pulling for Cleveland, but the loss didn’t really affect me on an emotional level.
I say this only to introduce the reason I’m writing this post. It’s probably not that hard for you Cleveland diehards to come to terms with the fact that while this blog and it’s relative success are tied to the Cavs, that doesn’t mean that I root for other Cleveland teams.
Or then, maybe it is that difficult to accept.
Yes. I saw Lebron at the game. And I saw him fraternizing with T.O., Jerry Jones, and Pacman (photo below).
Yes. That is a Cowboys shirt, and a Yankees baseball hat. So I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised to see the outcry from protective Cleveland fans absolutely incredulous that Lebron could root for anyone outside of Cleveland. And yet I am.
I haven’t yet spoke with Mike over at WFNY during their weekly podcasts, so I’m not sure whether the article he wrote on the subject was meant to serve as a satire or genuine outrage. In either case, I think it’s a good example of an argument I just don’t get (from Waiting for Next Year):
I wonder how many people are still hoping that this guy is staying here after 2010 out of loyalty to our region? He doesn’t even care enough about us to pretend to root for the Browns when the Cowboys are in town. Hell, he won’t even take off his Yankees hat when the Indians are playing New York in a playoff series. Yesterday was just another open slap to the Cleveland sports fan base courtesy of flight number twenty-three.
Count me amongst those who don’t care if he roots for “the region”. I don’t care if he even rooted for the Cavs as a kid. Any solace I take in Lebron growing up in Ohio comes from the fact that his friends and family are here. Not the Browns. Not the Indians. The personal connections are the more relevant ones as far as I’m concerned. My love of the Bills didn’t keep me in Buffalo. My family may have.
Can anyone imagine Lebron’s idol, Michael Jordan doing something like this in Chicago back in his prime? You wouldn’t see him wearing a Yankees hat while sitting at Comiskey Park and you would NEVER see MJ wearing a Cowboys shirt at a Bears game. Never would happen and the fans in Chicago wouldn’t let him get away with it.
Not to be difficult, but this example may be a little silly. Dan Gilbert doesn’t own the Indians. Jerry Reinsdorf, who would later give MJ over $30 million for one season of work with the Bulls owned the Chicago White Sox in addition to the Bulls.
You don’t walk up to your employer and tell him you want his stock options to shit the bed. Even if you do. There’s no point in going to a game and flaunting to the guy who pays you directly that you root against his business interests. That being said, if MJ was that big of a fan of another team, he could have cheered with no real consequences because he was THAT good on the court. He just didn’t. Maybe being in a casino or the local OTB sucked up too much of his time to make it out to the ballpark.
MJ, unlike Lebron had aspirations at one point of being a baseball player, and the guy who could help facilitate that happened to also be his boss with the Bulls. Maybe that factored in, although I doubt it. Lebron doesn’t need Randy Lerner or Larry Dolan to achieve any of his ambitions.
Mike continued:
There is a right way and a wrong way to represent yourself as a professional athlete in a city and I honestly can say that LeBron openly rooting against the other pro teams in Cleveland is wrong.
Getting busted selling drugs is wrong. Hitting women with your SUV and driving away is wrong. Rooting for your favorite teams is not wrong. It’s the right of every red-blooded American. Being an athlete doesn’t mean you’re a second class citizen. Nobody is going to tell me who to cheer for. So why would it be any different for Lebron?
I’ve read the argument elsewhere. “Well he makes millions from Cleveland, so he owes it to the city”.
Wrong.
Lebron is not a mascot. He’s a basketball player. He makes millions from the Cavs and Cleveland fans who gobble up merchandise and tickets. But he’s given more than a fair return on his salary given the market for a player of his skills. If the NBA was a truly free market, he’d make even more money. And a LOT more at that.
The only ones taking anything for granted here are fans who think they can suck more and more from Lebron just because he’s so greatly exceeded expectations. It’s not enough to be an MVP candidate year in and out. That’s old hat. Now he’s unofficially been given the title of “Cleveland Ambassador in all things Cleveland”.
Many of the other NBA teams that would line up to pay him wouldn’t even care what he brought off the court. That’s what the PR staff is for. They’d be happy to have him solely for the results on the court.
Lebron is not obligated to play the role of ambassador or politician 365 days a year, as much as everyone expects everything he says and does to be the calculated, politically correct thing. It’s asking too much. If he’s trumpeting the virtues of Cleveland on a national or global stage even a fraction of the time, it’s above and beyond as far as I’m concerned.
You don’t see Michael Redd talking about the virtues of the Brewers during the Olympic medal ceremonies. Fuck that guy for loving America!
It would certainly make it easier for those fans who find themselves being assaulted by friends/coworkers if Lebron never did things like wear Yankees or Cowboys gear. I understand as well as anyone that the fallout is always the same. Some jackass says, “Lebron had a Yankees hat. That’s why he’s leaving for New York”
Instead of just disregarding it though, half of Cleveland goes on the offensive when it happens. It’s the reason why the term “inferiority complex” gets thrown about by outsiders.
It’s simply too much to ask of any person, let alone a 23-year old who grew up with 24-hour coverage of sports trumpeting the virtues of the Cowboys and the Yankees, to ignore what exists in the outside world in favor of living in a Cleveland-centric bubble.
Drew Gooden was friends with Deshawn Stevenson. DESHAWN STEVENSON!!! That guy is a dickbag who not only hates the Cavs, but he disrespected the one player Cleveland fans can turn to as being “better than their guys”. Lebron’s game should be bulletproof from scrubs and yet Deshawn just fired away like the stupid cops in all the Terminator movies. Yet, there was no outrage with Gooden maintaining his allegiance with Beardsly McKidTouch because, quite frankly, nobody cares about Drew Gooden enough to write on the matter. Megan’s Law websites care about who Stevenson is befriending, but for totally different reasons.
I have even more devastating news for you all. Lebron Jr. will probably end up a Patriots fan. I guess Lebron should just give him up for adoption and concede that he’ll be part of the 2030 Celtics.
Let’s just get this out of the way now. Rooting for teams in other cities as opposed to the home team means nothing. And quite honestly, no fan, no matter how committed to the Cleveland cause, is entitled to have expectations on athletes rooting interests in sports independent of the ones they play.
Now if Lebron started wearing Knicks or Bulls hats in pregames, well then I’d be pissed…..
UPDATE: Philip Morris from the Plains Dealer wrote on the subject as well. Give it a read here. And Bill Livingston. And Amar at Cavalier Attitude.
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