Why You Should Care About LeBron James
Friday, July 9, 2010 at 12:03PM As soon as LeBron James opened his mouth on ESPN and told the world he was going to South Beach, my Twitter feed lit up. Two people who had lived in Cleveland were particularly vitriolic, and I felt their pain. Then I see a tweet from a childhood friend: I do not care about LeBron James.
I knew this guy wasn't a sports fan, but I wanted to respond to his reaction, because, in my opinion, he should care. He should care a lot.
This is not something I would typically ever write about. I don't like to get involved in controversy. I don't care about basketball; I couldn't tell you who won the title the past few years. I don't know if the Cavaliers could have done anything different to keep LeBron James on their roster, and I don't know enough about basketball recruiting to know why this even happened in the first place, but I know that we should all care, because this is bigger than basketball. This is about the choice of the individual to pick profit over community. This is about the commodification of self. This is about the death of a city. This is about an American narrative that has been unfolding for years, that is still unfolding. This is the myth of hero manifested in a sports star's body, and the story of what happens when heroes turn their back on a city.
LeBron was the hero in Cleveland. He brought a spirit to a city with a strong sense of pride that needed a little boost, a little air in their sails to keep them moving when things got bad in the economy. Someone who would bring people to Cleveland. As Tracie said in her post: "He's the only reason people go downtown anymore." LeBron James acknowledges it himself: "I know what I've done for the city of Cleveland, for that area."
His decision to pick up and move south was a direct affront to the already hurting city of Cleveland. There is no getting around that. The city's economy is in tatters, and the one shining Son of Cleveland (technically Akron) decides he needs to do what's best for himself. You could see it on the faces of the ESPN commentators who grew up in the midwest: this announcement was the death knoll for their towns.
This is happening everywhere. Too many people jumping ship. Forbes recently published an interactive feature analyzing migration data from various counties around the United States, and the way the lines poured in or out from various counties is a brutal visual reminder of how our middle cities are bleeding resources. (Austin Kleon, who originally pointed me in the direction of the map, calls the migration out of Cleveland an explosion, but I think that's far too kind. And to be fair, Miami looks like it's exploding/bleeding too.)
You can't blame Cleveland for reacting the way they did. The Plain Dealer said it best: "Gone." LeBron left them to bleed to death.
Again, LeBron James, reacting to the news of people burning his jersey in Cleveland: "I mean, I can't get involved in that. You know, one thing that I didn't want to do was make an emotional decision. And I wanted to do what was best for LeBron James and what LeBron James is going to do to make him happy."
Why not make a decision for yourself? This Ayn Randian notion of self-preservation and self-enhancement is part of the American Dream, is it not? At New York Magazine, Will Leitch writes of how stupid it feels to be a sports fan now that there's no shame in admitting freely that it's all about the self, about the commodification of narrative: "It felt like a break, the moment when the tide crested, when we looked at the games, and their players, and ourselves, and wondered: Why in the world are we watching these awful people?"
Certainly this pressure should never have been put on one man to begin with. Cleveland never should have got to the point where one man will decide the fate of a city. Unfortunately, the state of this country is now such that one man does have the power to decide the fate of a city. It's happening all over.
We should care.
I would love for someone to prove me wrong. Tell me that Cleveland will be okay without LeBron James, and that everyone's making a big deal over nothing. Tell me that all of our cities will be okay. That the Dying City is a myth made up by media outlets to sell ads next to features bookended by photographs of empty factories and people pushing shopping carts. (I should know; sometimes you just have to see the life to believe it.) Tell me that these lines bleeding from these flyover cities will reverse, that people will flow back into the heartland, that people still care about where they've come from. If you can tell me that, then I'm happy to let my childhood friend go about his sports-oblivious existence, not caring about LeBron James.
Somebody please prove me wrong.
(I'm fully aware of the irony that I'm writing this from New York, when I really belong in a city that's bleeding too. But you already know my feelings on that.)
© Zan McQuade. All rights reserved.
Reader Comments (11)
Right on. Chris also made a good point, that regardless of how upset we are by his decision to leave Cleveland--and we are very, very upset--the worst part of this whole thing was The Decision. Why did he need an hour long prime time special to break our hearts? Why not do it quietly with some dignity. I used to think Lebron was a decent guy, was actually managing the stardom pretty well, not letting it go completely to his head, but it turns out he's probably the biggest megalomaniac out there.
And, yeah, I left Cleveland, too, but trust me the last thing that city needed was another unemployed graduate student. Nobody came downtown because of me. In fact, the Boneyard is probably happy I'm not there every Friday eating all of their free peanuts for dinner.
You and Tracie have both written posts that changed my perspective on LeBron James' choice to leave Cleveland. This is VERY well written.
But I'm still stuck on this:
"Cleveland never should have got to the point where one man will decide the fate of a city. Unfortunately, the state of this country is now such that one man does have the power to decide the fate of a city."
It's so sad that there are a TON of midwestern cities dying. But how do you (the royal "you") pin that all on one guy? There are so many historically terrible decisions that contributed to the downfall of Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland. How can we point to one guy and say "It's all your fault?" Would it be more honorable to sink with the ship, or jump in the lifeboat?
I know I'm playing devil's advocate here. I respect you so very much, and my heart hurts for the city that you call home. I hope you understand that I feel everything you've written right in my guts.
I don't know why LeBron James made the decision to leave. I don't know much about him or anything currently happening in the NBA. The whole thing seemed like a spectacle to me. I guess at the end of the day, all I really know is that LeBron let a lot of people down. But I want to believe that Cleveland will be okay without him. That people will still flood the downtown streets when the Cavs have a home game, that restaurants will still turn on the games while people pass around plates of food and mugs of beer. I'm not counting Cleveland out just yet.
I know it sounds like I'm pinning it on one guy, but what I really wanted to say (and perhaps didn't convey very well) was not that it's his fault, but that he's symbolic of hope and hope has just flown the coop (or the hoop?). That can be soul-destroying in so many ways. I know we should never put all our faith in one person, and that this can lead to all sorts of disastrous outcomes, but whether he wants to or not, he represented something for Cleveland, and he could have made a huge impression by choosing to stay.
Like I said, I hope they'll be fine. I may have painted too broad a swath over the city, and in fact the Plain Dealer seemed happily surprised to report how quickly after the decision Cleveland got back to being Cleveland. But to me the issue is that LeBron James made the decision for the good of LeBron James. I was shocked to hear that. Like Tracie, I'd always thought he was a decent guy, doing things for the good of his community, and it saddened me to find out he's just out for himself and "winning." I'd like to think that not all people in this country are making decisions based only on what is best for themselves, but sometimes I just don't know.
Maybe the lesson here is that we should never put all our eggs in one basket(ball player)? Or maybe the lesson is just that I shouldn't get so emotional about things I can only partially begin to understand. I'm sure there'll be an essay written by someone from Cleveland that will put all this talk to rest, and prove that the city can do just fine without him. Perhaps I jumped in with both feet... Still, I think people should pay attention to this story, if only because it's an interesting metaphor, and the discussion of narrative can go beyond basketball and get people talking about some really interesting things happening to our country.
(P.S. I'm from southwestern Ohio, not Cleveland. I almost didn't post this because I thought I might be speaking out of turn for my sisters and brothers in the north. But I still was passionate enough about it, and I feel it applies to a lot of places in a way that I wanted to try to address.)
I just emailed my husband this morning talking about how I couldn't care less about LeBron James (or, rather, his decision). I am NOT a fan of the NBA - give me baseball (go Reds & Braves!). But. Now I've read this excellent essay about why I should care. Sigh. So I guess I do. But I'm still not going to read about it - all this focus on one human being is hard for me to take :)
Perhaps the same thing that happened with The Galaxy and Beckham will happen to South Beach—a whole lotta nothing. How much did they pay Beckham there to do absolutely nothing? OMG, a lot of money! Granted, when they did this and I was super excited falsely believing that one man could change America's view on soccer. That didn't happen. (But maybe this Cup has! GO DONVAN! See, again, one man.)
I don't have much more to add because the most I learned about this whole ordeal I got from your post. And as I mentioned on my Twitter feed, I didn't care AT ALL until I read this. Now, I get how it's bigger than just one dude.
I'm still thinking about this. Thank you for that.
Yeah, I think you're wrong. I mean -- this is a beautifully written post and I get what you're saying about hope, but as someone who lives in a city like Cleveland, sports are just sports. Detroiters love sports, and every time one of our teams is doing well (Red Wings, Stanley Cup finals) or poorly (Lions, always), journalists write about how the team is lifting or dashing the spirits of our entire depressed area. What it comes down to is that even if LeBron had stayed, Cleveland would still have all its problems. Hope is nice, but it doesn't give people jobs.
I think the real benefit of sports to cities is that it gives people something in common -- something to talk about, something to watch together, and something to get excited (or angry) about. And LeBron leaving still does that for Cleveland -- I am sure that everyone in Cleveland is talking about it and sharing their disappointment. And maybe people who otherwise wouldn't talk to each other are talking about LeBron today.
Wood, thanks for the perspective. I knew you especially would know what's up.This is where I feared I might be overstepping by posting this: it's been ages since I've lived in a city like Cleveland, and I've apparently forgotten that the success or failure of the Bengals wasn't necessarily what decided Cincinnati's fate.
I'm still interested in the narrative that this will create; I'm going to be reading a lot more Plain Dealer over the next few weeks. If this did anything, it got me to pay attention to the dialogue in a part of the country I haven't visited in a while.
(More comments like this please: people telling me I'm wrong and that Cleveland will go about its merry business and LeBron James doesn't actually have the metaphorical power I fear he has.)
this isn't really relevant, but this video on youtube made the rounds in detroit a year or so ago. We all thought it was funny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM
Oh, dudes, no fear, Cleveland will be FINE. We are nothing if not resilient. Have you ever spent a winter in Cleveland? It starts snowing at Thanksgiving and you don't see grass again until Easter. We are a tough people. Besides, football starts soon and the Browns might actually play above 500 ball this season.
I did want a address a couple of things. Yeah, Lebron was just a guy, and just a basketball player, but in a way, he did create jobs. He brought people downtown. I have no idea what's going to happen to all the new restaurants and bars and shops that opened downtown since I left Cleveland. Who's going to eat in them? And maybe that was never Lebron's job in the first place. Maybe it's the urban planners and development people who should be figuring out how to turn Cleveland around now that it's not the town it once was, and never will be again. But I love how quickly the city latched on to the spirit that he brought. Some people might see it as pathetic that he was so important to Cleveland, but, hey, it was magical and fun and there was such a contagious feeling of joy and fun and brotherhood and all kinds of other hyperbole during those basketball games. Cleveland needed that. And, the thing that really gets to me, is that I can't get over how un-cynical Cleveland has been throughout this whole drawn-out process of Lebron's The Decision (Trademark, Registerred, etc.) I was a cranky skeptic the whole time, saying he'd leave town, but Cleveland always thought he'd stay. They were so, so positive about it. I mean, the owners made a cartoon full of inside jokes as their sales pitch to get Lebron to stay. Again, people can be cynical about that, but that's what he was to Cleveland. He was our guy.
Also, sometimes I think sports can be more than sports. They do bring people together and lift the spirits of a city, especially a city that doesn't have much else going for it. And in a way, I thought Lebron was more than sports. But he's not. He just cares about the ring. I just feel so disappointed. But I guess I should have managed my expectations better in the first place. What can I say, I'm a sucker for a happy ending.
Hey Zan, I discovered your blog a few months ago through a friend. This is a really well-written and convincing post. For an articulate counter-argument, you might check out Penelope's Trunk's LeBron essay on a life of interest: http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2010/07/09/lesson-from-lebron-james-how-to-decide-when-to-relocate/ Peace, Becca
Becca - Thanks for the link! I think part of why I got so emotional over this comes down to my own desire to move back to Ohio. It's hard for me to understand why anyone would want to leave home, since I want to return so badly. (Also, I think I've met you before, at one of my brother's shows, ages ago?)