OK, so it's a sad week in Ohio. King James is packing up and heading to South Beach. Is he now the most hated sports figure in Ohio? My ABN Radio colleague and resident Ohio sports guru Gary Jackson tells me that statistically speaking, Art Modell is still the most despised figure in Ohio sports history. He had some polling data to back him up.
I have a startling admission to make: I'm not all that disappointed. Here's why: while I feel for the true fans, and for the people in Cleveland in general, LeBron James leaving town may be the gut check the Cavaliers need to step up and seal the deal in the playoffs. If they couldn't do it last season (and one could argue that LeBron's performance left something to be desired), they need something intangible to put them over the top. That certain something might just be a little dose of reality: LeBron James is not, nor will he ever be, God brought to the basketball court.
Here's the second thing that most folks probably won't say today: sports fans need a nice tall glass of "wake up and get real." Sports figures, while exciting, energizing, potentially motivating, are just people. They are humans, and as Charles Barkley put it so infamously, not role models to be idolized. More to the point, LeBron should also be considered as "LeBron, Inc.," and one should assume that he will make rational decisions in his own self interest - NOT in the interests of any specific team, city, or state.
In this case, that means that LeBron's most rational move was moving to Miami. He's going to have a much nicer tax base in which to rake his multi-million dollar endorsement deals, and while reports indicate he's actually taking a pay cut on the court, his salary with the team is one of the smallest contracts he'll sign this year.
Likewise, it's in his best interest to actually win a championship, something he's been unable to do in seven seasons with the Cavs. For a player of his magnitude, there isn't much else to accomplish that doesn't involve winning a title somewhere. While I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt that he'd have preferred to win it in his home town, great players have almost always had to make big moves to win big. Michael Jordan didn't grow up in the Windy City.
My friend Scott McKain has a great business perspective on this situation, most importantly how the reality of the James debacle relates to business and loyalty: "It's not that LeBron James wasn't loyal. It's that he chose to be loyal to something other than the organization." As McKain points out, employees are loyal to people, not to companies.
"The people who work for and with you are loyal to their managers, their colleagues, and their own respective friends and families," McKain said. "Visionary and dynamic businesses understand the need to create the kinds of compelling connections that move employees to enhance their loyalty and affirm their commitments to your team."
Analyzing James' relationships with players, the former coach, and the ownership of the team, it's not difficult to imagine why his loyalty might not have been as strong with the Cavaliers' organization as many of us may have imagined.
A final, somewhat related thought: I'm tired of hearing all the moaning about the "big money" in sports, both at the collegiate and professional levels. At the end of the day, players play to earn a living. While these elite athletes' salaries in a single game may eclipse the annual income of many of their fans, that is irrelevant. The market will bear a fair price for a given set of talents and abilities, and in the case of professional athletes, that figure is often tens of millions of dollars.
With that in mind, how many of those fans have ever left a job, career, or employer they really enjoyed or respected to take more money somewhere else? A WHOLE LOT of them!! If it's OK for you and me to consider improving our circumstances by accepting a "better" position somewhere else, why hold elite athletes to a less reasonable standard?
This is similar to my position on college athletes turning pro early. Take the example of Greg Oden: Oden could have potentially won a national title for Ohio State with another year or two under his belt. OR, he could have blown his knees out and never played the first minute of professional ball. As stands now, he signed a good deal while he was healthy, got some endorsement deals of his own, and can now afford to support himself regardless of his future in the NBA.
People act in their own rational self-interest. Athletes are people, too.
Andy Vance, a native of Hillsboro, owns and operates the Agri Broadcasting Network (ABN), Ohio's Voice for Agriculture.
