TheAgitator.com
Hey, Cleveland. I Have an Idea for You.
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010Let me start by saying I have no problem with LeBron James leaving Cleveland for a bigger city, for a team with more talent, for more money, or for any other reason to his liking. It’s his talent. His body. He’s free to market his skills as he pleases. But like just about everyone else outside of Miami, I thought his decision to schedule a 1-hour prime time special on ESPN to make the announcement was tacky and gratuitous. (And shame on ESPN for playing along.)
So I don’t blame Cleveland for hating him.
When LaBron and the Heat visit Cleveland for the first time next season, the game will almost certainly be nationally televised. Cleveland fans could go ahead and boo and hiss when James takes the floor as expected. But that would really be no different than the reaction of every other city who lost a hometown hero to a bigger market. As these things go, what James did to Cleveland was uniquely insulting. So when James comes back to town, Cleveland needs to come up with an appropriately unique collective middle finger to let James know just how his home city feels about him. It needs to be special.
Here’s my idea: Make him play before an empty arena.
Go ahead and buy your tickets to that game. Sell the place out. In fact, for this idea to work you may need to sell the game out way ahead of time. There’s no sense in punishing the Cavs organization for all of this. If you want, have a city pep rally or two the afternoon before the game to let current Cavs players know it’s nothing personal.
But come game time, don’t step foot in the arena. Do go downtown. Patronize the local bars and restaurants. Watch the game from a sports bar. Do some shopping. But keep your tickets in your pocket. Set a goal: See if Cleveland can set an all-time record for lowest attendance at an NBA game. Put so few people in the stands that LeBron’s first dribble actually casts an echo through Quicken Loans Arena. And on national TV to boot.
Any crowd can boo. This would show some civic commitment. It would take some coordination. Some advance planning. It would demonstrate a lingering anger still potent enough to compel an entire stadium of fans to eat the price of a couple tickets. And if it works, it would be a pretty awesome spectacle to behold.
Even better: There’s a pretty good chance that the first Miami/Cleveland game in Cleveland will be on . . . ESPN.
This was actually suggested on some of the local radio stations…
But Clevelanders are too much of gluttons for punishment when it comes to sports… the people out here will still go, they’ll just bitch and moan about it.
My personal favorite news through all of this was Great Lakes Brewing’s response. They pulled Wit Till Next Year, and promised to release a new beer named Quitness.
“But like just about everyone else outside of Miami, I thought his decision to schedule a 1-hour prime time special on ESPN to make the announcement was tacky and gratuitous. (And shame on ESPN for playing along.)”
The special may or may not have been a good idea, but ESPN did more than play along. It was entirely Jim Grey’s idea, and ESPN pressured James to participate.
Personally, I think Dan Gilbert deserves his share of Cleveland’s anger. Gilbert’s accusation that Lebron quit during the playoffs had been floating around the organization since they were eliminated. Gilbert may not have ever said anything to James’ face, but he was certainly aware of what Gilbert had been saying behind his back. Lebron James may have ended up leaving for Miami anyway, but Gilbert sure made the choice easier.
The temptation may become too great to sell those tix to out of towners eager to see LeBron’s first return to his old home. I still like it tho.
The only people that handled this worse than Lebron are in the Cavs front office. They deserve absolutely no mercy here — they made no attempt to turn the Cavs into a legitimate championship-caliber team, and then shat all over the only guy who even let them pretend they were any good.
Boo hoo, his shit was over-hyped. Did anybody expect anything other than a circus, no matter where he ended up? Crying about it and sitting out games would only make this whole thing more pathetic.
oh my goodness, I LOVE that idea. that would be amazing!
It was the classic heel turn, the NBA and WWE are pretty much the same now.
Check out the full costume debut: http://dai.ly/die2Tp
What a bunch of crybabies in Cleveland.
“Wah Wah Wah. LeBron did a one hour show on ESPN to tell everyone he was going to Miami. Our feelings are so hurt. Waaahhh!”
Give me a fucking break. James wasn’t going back to Cleveland. Anyone with half a brain could have told you that. Yes, I’m a little cheesed that he didn’t decide to come play in New York, but you know, I think I’ll get over it…eventually.
@4 – Two 60 win seasons and people still claim they didn’t have a legit team, I am sorry, but get over it, the Cavs were a top team for the past couple years, even made a finals appearance!!!
I honestly could care less where LeBron James plays. But, I think Cleveland fans should be pissed at their state government more than at James. As Dan Mitchell points out, it appears that LeBron just followed the money and, on that basis, the Cavs could have kept him had state and local taxes not conspired against them. The Cavs offered him a $4 million higher nominal salary, but taxes make it so that he would still end up taking a $1 million dollar hit to stay in Cleveland versus Miami.
So, instead of expressing their anger at James for leaving them, Cavs’ fans should be expressing their anger at their greedy politicians who wanted to punish him for staying.
(Same, but worse, issue for Nicks’ fans who wanted LeBron in New York.)
BRILLIANT!!!
@Rhayader #4 “The only people that handled this worse than Lebron are in the Cavs front office.”
No kidding. I don’t watch basketball, don’t care anything about it, and from my perspective Gilbert came off worse than Lebron ever could have. I didn’t watch the special and don’t care where Lebron went, or even if he quit altogether, but it isn’t like the “special” didn’t draw a crowd. I’m sure he was paid well for it, and if the people want bread and circuses (and they clearly do) then give it to them.
7 years is longer than I’ve spent at any job yet. If it feels like a dead end and you have a more enticing offer, then knock yourself out.
Even if the Heat become the heel of the NBA, plenty of people will tune in, even buy tickets (esp on the road). Just like the Yankees – the most popular, and most hated, baseball team.
This would be absolutely epic if pulled off. Very low chance though.
I see the Lebron/Cleveland situation as akin to being dumped by a girlfriend. To boo him just shows him that you care, and that you’re bitter. To make a massively coordinated effort to avoid him when he’s in town betrays even more hurt and bitterness.
Yeah, I’m sure the Cavs players will love that.
Sorry, Radley, awful idea.
The real reason he left is that FL does not have an income tax. Professional athletes make money at a high rate, but not for very long. He, or his financial advisor, made a prudent decision.
But why have people pay for a game they aren’t going to see? Here’s my idea: I say the city of Cleveland have a fair on the day Lebron comes to town. The people who paid for the game get to go to the fair, and they live it up while Lebron plays in front of an empty crowd. Just my two cents.
How about pack the arena with EVERY PERSON wearing Delonte West masks like the Celts tried pulling with Mrs. Odom during this past Finals.
Oh, for cripes sake, why doesn’t everyone grow up?
Dan Auerbach has more positive comments at Rolling Stone:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/17386/179964
How about this, for his first appearance back at Cleveland, a standing ovation for the years he worked with the Cavs?
@#13Justthisguy: That doesn’t compute. He could have moved to Florida and played where ever he wanted. He could have moved to Delaware or New Hampshire, two other states with no income tax, that are a lot closer to Cleveland. Also, we may not have an income tax here in Florida, but we have an everything else tax, especially property. If he wants the plush mansion everyone else wants when they move to Florida, he’ll pay plenty of taxes.
In terms of Radley’s idea. I think it is pretty good. It is the same idea we had when I lived in Baltimore and the Indianapolis Colts first came to town. We settled for the Ravens winning a Super Bowl before the Indy Colts did instead. (Ravens, that’s another thing Cleveland lost. Does anyone else think the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will someday move to New York? Or maybe Vegas when they are bought by the Hard Rock Casino)
Radley-
Why was LeBron’s decision “uniquely insulting”? Are you talking about LeBron’s actual actions? Or the response of the fans?
James will get his punishment, dribbed and drabbed out over years. It will come from Dwayne Wade.
As the twitter wags put it, “Poor Lebron. He woke up as the next Michael Jordan. He went to bed as the next Scottie Pippen.”
Regarding Gilbert… maybe he has acted that way towards Lebron behind closed doors for a long time. Or otherwise demonstrated himself to be a petulant, pathetic little whiner. LeBron worked for him for 7 years and probably had a sense of who he is as a man and as an employer. I wouldn’t be surprised avoiding Gilbert was a major factor in LeBron’s decision.
@4
The Cavs front office made all the moves they made with the blessing of Lebron James, part of making yourselves a championship team is being able to bring in free agents to assist your star, the fact was no top line FA was willing to sing in CLE as James wouldnt confirm that he was going to be there past his contract, that factor was probably the biggest one which prevented CLE from surrounding him with talent.
Gilbert failed before hand by kissing Lebrons ass and giving him the king treatment, putting his friends on the payroll, flying them on the team jet, building a 20 million dollar practice facility closer to Lebrons house etc, he fed the beast that James became. He also failed after the fact as his rant and accusations make it difficult for me to believe that any FA wants to go to a city where the owner will trash his players like that. Not to mention if those were his true feelings, why would he have wanted James back anyway? Thats a huge question that needs to be asked.
Above should be sign, not sing.
Cleveland, get over it. You guys surrounded Lebron with crap players. Mo WIlliams was basically the 2nd best player on that team and he shouldn’t be starting in the NBA. You had junk management (Paxson? Danny Ferry? Both of whom are now fired). You guys made bad personnel moves (no attempt to get a point guard for the entire time Lebron played there). You guys made desperate and half-assed attempts to surround him with second-tier players. Not one player on the Cavs could start on the Lakers, the Celtics, the Spurs, etc etc. You should be so lucky that you guys had Lebron for so long.
First I am a fair weather Cavs fan.
Dan Gilbert got rid of the coach who got us to the playoffs every year he was here. Got rid of a great GM in Danny Ferry all to please Lebron.
He spent money to bring in Shaq and a bunch of other people to help Lebron win.
He went above and beyond to help this team win. For his efforts Lebron went on ESPN and gave him the finger after all the good free agents were gone.
Lebron did not return the Cavs phone calls before “The Decision” aired and blindsided them on national TV.
There were other things to such as Lebron showing up at Indians playoff games wearing Yankees caps after the Indians provided special treatment to him and his Entourage.
And Dan Gilbert was right about Lebron quitting in the playoffs, its hard to watch the tape and come to any other conclusion. Add that to Bosh letting slip that he Lebron and Wade had been talking about this for months and it makes people suspicious.
Hey, even us folks in Miami found that TV special a little overhyped. And being Miami, we’re experts in hype.
However, LeBron will learn quickly when he gets to Miami. He’ll learn how to show some class from Wade and Mourning; and he’ll encounter at close quarters someone with an ego even bigger than his own–Pat Riley.
Poetic justice, of course, would be for the Cavs to go all the way this year and the Heat to get the lottery, but justice doesn’t seem to be a poet very often.
Much more seriously, and totally offtopic, but if you haven’t seen it, there’s another case of someone being murdered by the police, this time in Las Vegas.
http://www.8newsnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=12796152
This is a GREAT idea. However, we Clevelanders like to punish ourselves and look like the losers we often are. We would rather pack the Q, boo LeBron and watch our boos pump him up so he can pose and lay 50 points on us in a 30 point blow out on national TV.
Wouldn’t it be a far better statement to have the place empty in front of a national TV audience. Hey LeBron we don’t care about you! What an insult that would be to this egomaniac.
It would take some planning in advance but this post has mapped out the basic plan.
“BLACK OUT” The Q night vs. Miami Heat
1: What Cleveland should have done when they first got LeBron James was gut their team except for him. Then, they should have added players around his age, so that he came into his prime as they came into theirs. This is what Oklahoma City did with Kevin Durant (who signed an extension with the team). What Cleveland did instead was to make bad signings the one year they had cap room and to try to sign stopgap players. Face it, if the Cavs had ever won a title with LeBron, they would have been the championship team with the worst 2nd best player since… at least the Rockets. The Bulls without Jordan were still a 50 win team. The Cavs might not win 30 without James. Outside of LeBron, that was nowhere near a championship team.
Cleveland fans are no worse than any other sports fan. They will throw an athlete under the bus the moment he is no longer useful to them, but until then they demand absolute loyalty. They refuse to accept that professional athletes don’t think about a team the way a fan does, but the way an employee thinks about an employer. What Cleveland fans will do is… show up and boo. All the cute “if we all did X, it would be amazing” stuff never happens.
First off, I live in the Cleveland area. I am a “fair weather fan” at best. I don’t really care for the NBA, I much prefer the college game.
My take – Gilbert’s response was embarrassing. LeBron’s handling of this was poor, but Gilbert’s response was worse. LeBron has shown class by not responding. The fan response has been about what any city would have done.
Those of you who are saying the Cavs didn’t do enough or put enough guys around him are wrong. The Cavs did a lot work to build this team, but there is an issue. Any player that came in was going to be new “Pippen”. That’s one reason Boozer left. Most big time players don’t want that tag. So Cleveland grabbed good second tier guys (let’s face it, not that many big time players are available generally – this year has been pretty unique) and built a pretty strong team. They didn’t win, but it wasn’t for lack of effort by the front office. And LeBron certainly had a lot of say in how the team was built, perhaps too much.
In the end, it is only a game.
its been a joy to watch cavaliers basketball and frankly, they are one hell of an exception as the team with the best record for the past 2 years isnt exactly… that good. Take away lebron, maybe jamison can regain his offensive touch, but with the next best player at Delonte/ Mo, i think we all know they have became an instant lottery team.
To the Cleveland fans (if you havent jumped on the florida bandwagon), lebron james singlehandedly brought the cavs to the playoffs, the finals, the best record etc.. can u imagine it was a young kobe bryant playing for your 20-win team? he would’ve demanded a trade straight away..so im pretty happy for lebron to leave.. given the reaction he was given by this city after such achievements.
@20 adolphus: It doesn’t work that way in most states. If I work in Virginia, and live in North Carolina, I still pay Virginia income tax. If North Carolina’s income tax were lower (which it isn’t), I’d still have to pay the full VA income tax, even if I didn’t live there.
adolphus
I am not familiar with the exact tax regulations for Ohio and Cleveland, but he could not avoid their taxes by having a residence in Florida, Delaware, etc while playing for the Cavs. Most states tax you for income you make in that state, regardless where else you have established residence. This is why so many high-earners are looking for more portable jobs (or moving the corporate HQ) and fleeing gouger states like New York, California, etc.
Once again, Cav fans should be throwing tomatoes at their legislators and not at LeBron. Those politicians are making it harder to land and keep top-tier talent, and not just in areas like pro sports, which are really irrelevant despite all the misguided emotion/devotion people show.
D’oh! Too slow… :-) Nice post, Brian.
Incidentally, I’ve read that the record for lowest attendance in top-level basketball goes to the Houston Mavericks of the ABA. Their final game in Houston had an announced attendance of 89 people to see the Nets in town.
http://www.remembertheaba.com/Houston-Mavericks.html
@steve, winning 60 games with LeBron doesn’t mean you’re a legit team. They never gave him a reasonable second best player.
Re: #20 –
1) Delaware has no sales tax, but it most definitely has an income tax.
2) As already mentioned, states (try to) tax income where it is earned, regardless of domicile. One then hopefully gets some kind of credit from the home state for the income taxes paid elsewhere.
I thought it would be good enough for the fans to react to James being announced at the start of the game by going silent and turning their backs to the floor. After all, James turned his back on the fans. His right, sure.
The guy would be stunned by that reaction.
First, you will never get 20,000 people to go along with your idea. Most will be looking forward to booing LeBron and wouldn’t miss that for anything. Besides, Clevelanders want to support the rest of the Cavs and Dan Gilbert.
Second, it was more than just the way LeBron left that has people angry. If you haven’t already read about it, LeBron, Wade & Bosh had been planning this for YEARS. It was no last-second dramatic decision the way LeBron pretended it to be. Also Pat Riley was involved in the plan so collusion needs to be investigated. Furthermore, LeBron held the entire NBA hostage for years pretending he didn’t know where he was going. NY, Chicago, NJ, and other teams traded away some of their best players to create cap space so they could try to lure LeBron. They thought they actually had a chance to sign him when he was playing the entire NBA all along. (These are facts, BTW.)
Third, don’t blame the Cavs owner for not giving LeBron a good enough sidekick. For 7 years, Gilbert gave LeBron whatever he wanted. Special privileges of all kinds for him and his “team” of high school pals. Gilbert got rid of players LeBron didn’t want and signed players (like Shaq & Jamison) that LeBron specifically wanted. The Cavs did their best to work out trades for others too but weren’t always successful. But they sure as hell tried to keep LeBron happy. Meanwhile all the moves that LeBron wanted ended up tying up salary for years to come and costing the Cavs draft picks (traded away) just to keep LeEgo happy.
Fourth — check this out for yourselves — LeBron definitely appears to have quit during the playoffs. That’s the nice way to put it. “Throwing games” is another way. Watch the films for yourself. Eventually there will be an investigation by the league. But you can watch the games for yourself in th meantime.
Fifth, there is much, much more to all this than I can even summarize for you here. It’s far from being as simple as it looks. It is NOT just a matter of a superstar leaving his home town. It’s all the activities surrounding what REALLY happened (collusion? fixing games? fake injury?, etc) that has people angry. Keep your eyes and ears open for all the details which will unfold over the next few months. LeBron fooled everyone for years but the truth will come out eventually. Check the sportswriters at Yahoo sports, or Brian Windhorst of the Plain Dealer, or writers at Sports Illustrated for the stories they’ve already written about “the plan”. The public has only seen the tip of the iceberg so far.
I’ve never been a fan of LeBron, the Cavs, or professional basketball, but as a resident of Northeastern Ohio, I’ve had to put up with Cavs and LeBron nonsense for years. I’ve still had to endure the monotonous, Chinese-Water-Torture-Like drum beat of media and local officials fellating the Cavs and LeBron at every opportunity. If anyone has a good reason to dislike LeBron, I do.
Nevertheless, I can’t agree with Dr. Balko’s idea or “LeBron hate” in general, it gives LeBron too much attention. Attention, not love is what he and his ego-manic colleagues feed upon; forget about him. It’s easier and more effective.
Here’s a better idea: Let’s pretend we’re not going the way of the Romans and quit paying ridiculous prices to see overgrown boys hit balls with sticks or throw balls through metal rings or run into each other over and over again or slide around on ice (and paying them huge sums to do so).
LeBron is guilty of poor form and nothing more.
Open Letter to Cleveland Cavs Fans:
Dear Cav-Fans,
Cleveland has no beaches, so how did you get so much sand in your vagina?
We Clevelanders are good at empty buildings…
Also, Boyd, we do have beaches, as the city sits on the shores of Lake Erie. You can get not only sand there, but rusty nails, broken bottles and diseased fish!
Cleveland was a victim of geography as much as anything else. I’m having trouble thinking of any NBA city other than Detroit or possibly Oklahoma City that would be less desirable for a multi-millionaire than Cleveland. Cleveland is known for its food, a river that’s periodically lit on fire, and not much else.
Geography definitely played a role in Cleveland’s inability to attract any big-name free agents in the last few years. Some guys may not have wanted to be second-fiddle to Lebron James and tax considerations may have played a role in some cases, but mostly, nobody wanted to spend the winter in Cleveland.
NBA players have lots of free time and lots of money. And rich young men like spending their time and money in places with an active night life, surrounded by scantily-clad women. In Cleveland, the bars close at 2 a.m., and scantily-clad women get frostbite for about five of the six months of the NBA season.
Back in the early 70′s the Indians were real stinkers (this is well before the movie). But they had a utility player named John Lowenstein (correct the spelling). John was the only bright spot on the team and played pretty much every position. To sell tickets he created the annual “Apathy Day” event. You would by a ticket and then stand outside the stadium for the entire first inning. It worked. An entire game? No, but if you just catch the last 10 minutes of a NBA game you’ve pretty much got it.
Kind of reminds me of my idea of collective universal non-voting being the only effective means of demonstrating exactly where the State derives its power.
Logically speaking, if one agrees with Balko’s idea for Cleveland basketball, one must also agree with my proposal for universal non-voting.
It’s a slam dunk.
The only people that handled this worse than Lebron are in the Cavs front office. They deserve absolutely no mercy here — they made no attempt to turn the Cavs into a legitimate championship-caliber team, and then shat all over the only guy who even let them pretend they were any good.
Bull. Everyone loved the trade for Antawn Jameson, 2-time all star, when the Cavs made it. Most analysts thought it made them title favorites. They got Shaq for little more than a bag of basketballs. Part of the problem is that the Cavs had a defensive minded coach and won with defense, but kept making moves for better offensive players with mediocre defensive games. Not to mention, there was insufficient time for them to gel within the system. So when they played teams that could defend well, like the Celtics or the Magic, they folded. The main difference between the 2008 Lakers and the 2010 Lakers is that the latter were a far superior defensive team and ended up with the title. My guess is the Cavs will be a 40 win team and make the playoffs. It’s mediocre, but comparable to what the Lakers would be without Kobe.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/ian_thomsen/02/17/cavs.jamison/index.html
[...] easy way to excerpt, so I’ll just quote the whole damn thing: Let me start by saying I have no problem with LeBron James leaving Cleveland for a bigger city, [...]