Another NBA All Star Game has come and gone and the league anointed its 75 greatest players during the annual showcase in Cleveland where LeBron James stole the show with a game winning fade away jumper to win the exhibition for Team LeBron.
During the homecoming to his nearby Akron, LeBron made all of the head waves with a notion that he may return to Cleveland after his contract is up with the Lakers and that he plans to finish his career playing side by side with his son Bronny, a high school junior at the school of the rich kids school Sierra Canyon.
Once upon a time, the ‘Just A Kid From Akron’ was obsessed with winning championships and eclipsing Michael Jordan as the GOAT, but now it seems as if LeBron’s interest have transformed to more selfish motives.
All the while, the Lakers the team he is employed by now is withering away, a COVID title in tow that nobody seems to remember except for LeBron who desperately wanted to have the Lakers share the Rams world championship parade.
I have always been fascinated with LeBron and admired his remarkable journey to the mountain of basketball Mt. Rushmore, but I must say that I am incredibly disappointed in his lack of community involvement since he came west from Northeast Ohio.
He’s gone Hollywood.
There will not be any I Promise Schools here.
His one prep hoops showcase is admittingly more than any other Laker or Clipper player has done, but those players never professed to be the second coming of Muhammad Ali and steadfastly challenged the status quo in sports and humanity.
LeBron put that cap on way before he was losing all of his hair.
He revolutionized player representation by empowering his childhood friends, stomped politically for Hillary Clinton in red meat Ohio, spoke out against police brutality and shunned Fox host Laura Ingraham when she told him to shut up and dribble.
LeBron James is my favorite athlete of all time and when I was in Cleveland for four years running the Call & Post, the hometown Black newspaper I noticed for the first time the crack in his glorious armor.
The hometown Cavs were more relieved that he was leaving for LA instead of disappointed.
They couldn’t wait for his massive Witness billboard to come down. It was thanks for the title and good riddance.
I am not so sure that Cleveland will be waiting with abated breath for him to return to their talented nucleus that is thriving without him.
Of course, they would welcome him home for a one day contract to retire as a Cavalier, but his act has since passed there.
The onus is on the Lakers.
What do you do when your star player undermines your general manger, floats his exit scheme while still under contract and appears to bail while the boat is sinking?
Did the Lakers make a deal with LeBron for his son to play alongside him when he came on board?
There is a way for LeBron to play with his son for a whole season.
Buy a team!
Other than that, I do not see any team in the NBA willing to acquiesce to a fading star and his prodigy son for novelty’s sake to be on the same team.