No Longer Loathing LeBron

June 14, 2011|Pete Byrne | Upon Further Review

It’s been at least a decade since I can remember an NBA Finals that was so much fun!

Thanks, LeBron James, for turning the NBA Finals into Must See TV.

Never before has there been a championship with such a one-sided rooting interest.

Nothing makes for great theater like a villain vanquished.

When LeBron announced he was taking his talents to South Beach last summer, joining forces with Dwayne Wade & Chris Bosh, the trio instantly became the target of the American sports public.

Their Championship celebration, 11 months premature, was disgusting. And instead of jilting Cleveland fans, LeBron made enemies of all of us.

And that made the NBA Finals VERY interesting.

I wasn’t rooting for Dallas. I was rooting against LeBron. So was everyone else.

And now that team has trumped trio, and LeBron & company have sufficiently been humbled, it’s time for sports fans to obsess about something else.

Cleveland fans have the right to hate LeBron forever. He scorned them badly.

But for the rest of the sports world it’s time to move past LeBron.

Because he’s not as bad as we make him out to be. He didn’t cheat on his wife, or shoot anybody, of post pictures of his, uh…you know…on Facebook.

He didn’t leave town for the money, like so many pro athletes. He just wants to win.

LeBron’s a great player. He’ll be a hall of famer someday. He has plenty of time left to win his NBA title.

And the next time he has a chance: I don’t know if I’ll be rooting FOR him, but I won’t be explicitly rooting AGAINST him either.

There are plenty of other athletes -- who have done much worse -- to root against.

|

|

|