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(AP) LeBron James’ first NBA title met with acceptance by Cleveland (Some bitterness)

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Everyone should hate Lebron for leaving cleveland because the nation has to endure these shit articles talking about Cleveland's sports miseries for the next xxx years.

I'm so bored of them.

Let's show The Drive ... one more time!

can't you just let us be good at not winning?
 

george_us

Member
When the man is quoted as saying "I will bring a championship ring to Cleveland" or whatever it was, it doesn't really matter if he's from Cleveland, or 30 miles outside of Cleveland. For all intents and purposes, he was a hometown hero.

And yeah, we still hate him.
He wisely gave up on that dream when he realized he was never winning a ring in Cleveland. That city is cursed.


I don't think most fault him for leaving Cleveland (lord knows everyone should want to leave that shithole), it's just the teaming up 2 other greats is what pissed a lot of people off. Ask Jordan if he wanted to team up with Reggie Miller and Patrick Ewing instead of making them look like clowns every year.
Maybe but the best thing about this particular championship is that it was clear as day Lebron was the best player and that he absolutely carried the Heat to this championship. Indisputable really.
 

cashman

Banned
I was about ready to not hate lebron, until I saw him wearing that shirt of himself. Guy will always be a grade A douche.
 
I was about ready to not hate lebron, until I saw him wearing that shirt of himself. Guy will always be a grade A douche.

You know, thats his Nike gear right?

With that logic, you hate fashion designers who wear their own work. Ummm, see how dumb that is?
 
Did suck. Over it.

Obviously some aren't over it because the team is relatively irrelevant secondary to the *way* he departed. Because people really did love him. He and the team they assembled brought a lot of sports happiness and excitement to one of the better small market towns. But hey, at least they didn't get the Supersonics experience.

He will likely always be the #2 most hated sports figure in Cleveland history, sandwiched between Art Model and John Elway. That can't be helped now...but could have if he had been more up-front with his decision before the team was completely built around him. If people had had an opportunity to give him a "thank you" send-off. If he didn't give up and mail in his last game in a Cleveland uniform. But he was young, and I think people forget that...and it's clear that he really did need more help than Cleveland had on their roster at the time. He really did need 2 other All-Stars. Could they have acquired the talent needed? Who knows. Had they landed Stoudamire instead of Antwan Jamison, perhaps James never leaves. Perhaps they win the 'Ship that year with a starting lineup of Mo Williams, Parker, James, Stoudamire and Shaq. Or maybe we just have 2 more years of put-outs by the Celtics. We don't have access to parallel universes yet, so we'll simply never know what could have been.

Either way, he's reached the level of success he wanted and that everyone in Cleveland wanted for him. We just wish he could have done it in Wine & Gold. As any NBA fan knows, it's difficult to reach the level of annual success LeBrons Cavs enjoyed. 55-65 wins a year is hard to establish. Ask any GM. Who knows if and when the Cavs will get there again. Hopefully for the fans sake, it will be sooner rather than later because they're some of the most loyal to their teams of any fans in any city in America. Decades without a Championship in a major sport starts to feel unfair after awhile.
 
I hated "The Decision." I respect his talents as a player, even if he seems like an arrogant asshole.

I hate Cleveland more. I wanted him to win for bitter tears more than anything. I wanted bitter tears written in Comic Sans. Fuck you, Dan Gilbert, for being a complete disappointment to me.

You don't own him. Your team didn't give him enough surrounding talent to win. And Miami is much better than Cleveland, even when you are poor. Can you imagine how much better when you are fabulously wealthy and famous? Yeah, get over it.
 

ToxicAdam

Member
Cleveland should hate Dan Gilbert more for giving a teenager (back then) the keys to the kingdom and The GM for giving him shitty teammates

Gilbert became the owner after Lebron was drafted, but he certainly coddled him when he owned the team. He also did make dramatic improvements to the team from 2005-2008. He just hit a wall because he couldn't attract big free agents and didn't have a good coach.

Not that you can blame him. The difference between having Lebron James and not having him will probably cost Gilbert over a billion dollars over the next decade. Hard not to coddle something that is so important to the bottom line.
 
So glad he left Cleveland.

People need to stop romanticizing the shit....it's his life, he wants rings, wasn't going to get them in Cleveland....why would he rot there?

Never been to Miami, but it's probably a paradise compared to Cleveland, which I have been too, and is a typical rust belt type big city ala Pittsburgh or something (I'm from Pittsburgh and love it btw, I just recognize that it probably has significantly less to offer than a place like Miami, especially for a young wealthy athlete).

The Decision was a terrible move on his behalf, but I still don't give him 100 percent credit for it, lots of others involved.
 

remnant

Banned
I've hated Lebron for years. He has been shoved down the throats of basketball fans for years and was dubbed a legend before doing anything of importance.
while other players who were just as good were completely ignored. It's funny that OKC lost to them considering Durant and Westbrook are two of the players that were put under Lebron's shadow for years
Add onto that he is a huge egotistical douche

I thought I had stomached my hate of him but seeing him win the title literally made me ill. It justified all the bullshit and coverage he got for nothing. He is the only athlete I truly hate.

Fuck him
 
I've hated Lebron for years. He has been shoved down the throats of basketball fans for years and was dubbed a legend before doing anything of importance.
while other players who were just as good were completely ignored. It's funny that OKC lost to them considering Durant and Westbrook are two of the players that were put under Lebron's shadow for years
Add onto that he is a huge egotistical douche

I thought I had stomached my hate of him but seeing him win the title literally made me ill. It justified all the bullshit and coverage he got for nothing. He is the only athlete I truly hate.

Fuck him

lol you think KD and Westbrick are even in Bron's league? He's been the best player on the planet for going on 5 years and it hasn't been close.
 
I've hated Lebron for years. He has been shoved down the throats of basketball fans for years and was dubbed a legend before doing anything of importance.
while other players who were just as good were completely ignored. It's funny that OKC lost to them considering Durant and Westbrook are two of the players that were put under Lebron's shadow for years
Add onto that he is a huge egotistical douche

I thought I had stomached my hate of him but seeing him win the title literally made me ill. It justified all the bullshit and coverage he got for nothing. He is the only athlete I truly hate.

Fuck him

How would that be his fault? Wouldn't all of that be the result of others building him up in the first place? And the fans going along with it?
 
Cleveland should hate Dan Gilbert more for giving a teenager (back then) the keys to the kingdom and The GM for giving him shitty teammates

You can only get the players who you can trade for. What they traded for netted them multiple 60-win seasons. What they tried to trade for may or may not have been enough, but it certainly wasn't for lack of effort that they couldn't get certain players. Other GM's have to sign off on trades too.


So glad he left Cleveland.

People need to stop romanticizing the shit....it's his life, he wants rings, wasn't going to get them in Cleveland....why would he rot there?
perpetual 60-win seasons is not what I'd exactly consider a "rot" experience. Whether he was going to get them in Cleveland or not is an unknown, but it's certainly not a matter that one can definitively conclude unless you have access to parallel universes and time travel. Definitive statements about things that didn't happen are just stupid, and I'm not used to you being stupid.
 

ToxicAdam

Member
I've hated Lebron for years. He has been shoved down the throats of basketball fans for years and was dubbed a legend before doing anything of importance.


You hate the media, you don't hate Lebron.

Lebron had no control by how much the media slobbered on him early on.

If anything, it's amazing he was able to overcome those expectations/adulation and not become the next Kwame Brown or Gilbert Areneas.
 
You can only get the players who you can trade for. What they traded for netted them multiple 60-win seasons. What they tried to trade for may or may not have been enough, but it certainly wasn't for lack of effort that they couldn't get certain players. Other GM's have to sign off on trades too.

They could have gotten Amare but refused to part with JJ Hickson. Granted, Amare is no prize himself anymore, but he still had some left in the tank then.
 

JABEE

Member
The fact that Lebron James had "The Decision" and didn't even have the decency to tell Ckeveland he wasnt coming back beforehand just revealed the kind of person he was. The Boys & Girls Club donation was a way to save face. If he wanted to make that donation he didn't need to give Cleveland fans the finger while doing it.
 
I've hated Lebron for years. He has been shoved down the throats of basketball fans for years and was dubbed a legend before doing anything of importance.
while other players who were just as good were completely ignored. It's funny that OKC lost to them considering Durant and Westbrook are two of the players that were put under Lebron's shadow for years
Add onto that he is a huge egotistical douche

I thought I had stomached my hate of him but seeing him win the title literally made me ill. It justified all the bullshit and coverage he got for nothing. He is the only athlete I truly hate.

Fuck him

Go read up what anyone (save Jordan) who is a legend has to say about LeBron now. Those guys didn't like the way he came in, hell I wasn't a fan of his until he joined the heat (but I'm a grown up, so I don't "hate" sports figures unless they've murdered someone or something), but those LEGENDS do nothing but gush over his gameplay. Legends like Larry Bird (who had his team booted from the playoffs by LeBron), Charles Barkely (who says whatever the fuck he wants to say), and Magic Johnson are LeBron fans. If those guys recognize how great his play is, who the fuck cares what some spittle spewing gaf poster has to say. The dude is legit, and all the "chosen one" stuff as annoying as it is, has consistently been legitimized by the numbers he has put up.

"Players just as good as him." Hahahah, get the fuck out of here with that. Durant is in the conversation, who else? Oh, and by the way.. LeBron's hype has done nothing to keep Durant from getting the hype he deserves. Some people were even calling him better this year.


The fact that Lebron James had "The Decision" and didn't even have the decency to tell Ckeveland he wasnt coming back beforehand just revealed the kind of person he was. The Boys & Girls Club donation was a way to save face. If he wanted to make that donation he didn't need to give Cleveland fans the finger while doing it.

Fuck that. GMs give players a ring the night before they're supposed to pack up and head to another franchise. Have you seen how Pau Gasol has been dangling in limbo for over a year?


And did he contribute to any being built himself? Or just off being a massive douche bag?

No. I believe when he was last asked to donate to charity he paid to have the charity's building lease terminated. Then he went to the children that the charity helped and made them pay for his autograph while spitting in their faces.
 

ToxicAdam

Member
They could have gotten Amare but refused to part with JJ Hickson. Granted, Amare is no prize himself anymore, but he still had some left in the tank then.


Steve Kerr on a recent Bill Simmons Podcast said he had no intentions of trading Amare because the Suns got hot and were back into contention that year.

Granted, they probably could have pushed harder in the off-season and got him. But Amare wouldn't have stopped the Magic from draining all those threes in the ECF.
 
They could have gotten Amare but refused to part with JJ Hickson. Granted, Amare is no prize himself anymore, but he still had some left in the tank then.

My understanding was that Kerr simply got cold feet at the end because the Suns were doing okay. Thought he might be able to keep him. I don't recall Hickson being off the table. But I don't keep the shit filed away in memory either. I'll defer to your memory on it.
 
Lol they mad. It's pretty much the cavs fault anyway, lol at the players they got to help Lebron stay.


Heh I'm more disappointed and mad at the Thunder for letting this happen.


Although, those NBA memes that have been made since the Heat won have been awesome.

Lol at that LeChoke --> LeChamp pic , made me lol.
 
Lol they mad. It's pretty much the cavs fault anyway, lol at the players they got to help Lebron stay.
1.) You can only trade with GM's willing to accept what you have for what they have. Look at the roster Gilbert inherited and tell me who they trade for better talent than they got when they were winning 55-65 games a year. Good luck.

2.) Cavs didn't have any potential sweetheart dealers to gift them a Pau Gasol.

3.) They lost a potential talent upgrade when the former owner got suckered by Carlos Boozer. Ended up empty-handed just like they did when James left. Both make building harder than it's supposed to be.
 

MIMIC

Banned
251807_469434286418434_177447205_n.jpg

OMG

lmao
 

remnant

Banned
You hate the media, you don't hate Lebron.

Lebron had no control by how much the media slobbered on him early on.

If anything, it's amazing he was able to overcome those expectations/adulation and not become the next Kwame Brown or Gilbert Areneas.

How would that be his fault? Wouldn't all of that be the result of others building him up in the first place? And the fans going along with it?

I don't absolve the media of this either, and they are doing a similar thing with Tebow. However I don't buy into the "Lebron couldn't stop it" bullshit. He is a big boy. At the very least he could have came off as humble, sincere or just not as an ass when the mic is in his face.

People are pissed about that decisions special like it's unique but that is how Lebron portrays himself all the time, just on a larger scale. He comes across as a guy I probably wouldn't like If I knew him persoanlly and his celebrity just amplifies the disgust I have with him.

Now he is going to ruin sportscenter for weeks. Lebron James and baseball highlights. Fucking great.

"Players just as good as him." Hahahah, get the fuck out of here with that. Durant is in the conversation, who else? Oh, and by the way.. LeBron's hype has done nothing to keep Durant from getting the hype he deserves. Some people were even calling him better this year.
He was better for parts of the season and that probably suprised people. Why wouldn't they be. For years we've been told no one matters except Lebron james.

And then Durant or Rose or whoever have a good season and people are shocked.
 

Zekes!

Member
I guess I can't claim anymore that Sonic the Hedgehog is Lebron's least favourite game 'cause he could never get any rings
 
He was better for parts of the season and that probably suprised. Why wouldn't they be. For years we've been told no one matters except Lebron james.

And then Durant or Rose or whoever have a good season and people are shocked.

This is wrong on so many levels. Someone putting Rose and Westbrook (yes you mentioned Westbrook earlier) in the same conversation as LeBron is either a homer, a hater, or just a post-season NBA watcher.
 

remnant

Banned
This is wrong on so many levels. Someone putting Rose and Westbrook (yes you mentioned Westbrook earlier) in the same conversation as LeBron is either a homer, a hater, or just a post-season NBA watcher.

Westbrook isn't as good as James but he is a solid hand and a big reason why OKC got as far as they did. Him and Harden deserve more credit than they get.

But whatever, if you don't kiss Lebron's ass you must not watch basketball.
 
Westbrook isn't as good as James but he is a solid hand and a big reason why OKC got as far as they did. Him and Harden deserve more credit than they get.

But whatever, if you don't kiss Lebron's ass you must not watch basketball.
You're not making any sense. LeBron has nothing to do with coverage of Westbrook or ... Harden. You're definitely sounding like a homer now. The less coverage Harden gets, the better for him after his display in the finals.
 

Derrick01

Banned
Maybe but the best thing about this particular championship is that it was clear as day Lebron was the best player and that he absolutely carried the Heat to this championship. Indisputable really.

Yet I don't think they would have even reached the finals if Bosh didn't come back or didn't come back healthy enough. They were struggling pretty good even with Lebron being the "best" player.
 
It isn't his Nike shirt. Come up with a new excuse.
same guy that made jay z's and kanye west's watch the throne tour shirts designed one for lebron.

lebron likes how it looks.

he just won a fucking title.

he's happy as fuck.

he wants to celebrate and wear a shirt that he likes.
 

Loxley

Member
I'm not from Ohio, but I've been going to college in Cleveland for the last three years...it's not the greatest city in the world.

I will say that they're making more serious efforts to clean various parts of the city up though, so at least they're trying. Hell, the area where I live (near the Cleveland Institute of Art) has done a complete 180 since I started going to school here.

The area was littered with old crappy buildings that used to have restaurants in them but hadn't for a few years. They demolished all of them two years ago and built two new high-end apartment complexes next the Institute of Art, which have a few new restaurants attached to them. They're also nearing completion of the new Museum of Contemporary Art which looks slick as hell:

museumcontemporaryartcl.jpg


The University Hospital behind the new Museum also finished their gigantic new cancer research center last year.
 
I'm not from Ohio, but I've been going to college in Cleveland for the last three years...it's not the greatest city in the world.

I will say that they're making more serious efforts to clean various parts of the city up though, so at least they're trying. Hell, the area where I live (near the Cleveland Institute of Art) has donea complete 180 since I started going to school here. They're nearing completion of the new Museum of Contemporary Art which looks slick as hell:

museumcontemporaryartcl.jpg


They also just built to knew high-end apartment complexes next the Institute of Art, which have a few new restaurants attached to them.

when they get fat puerto rican asses like Miami then maybe Lebron will regret leaving.
 
I'm pretty much over it.

We've got an awesome owner who is determined to make the Cavs a success and is spending a shitlaod on developing downtown Cleveland.

And we've got the Rookie of the Year in Kyrie Irving and a ton of draft picks. I'm optimistic about our future and I don't give two shits about LBJ anymore.

What I'm most bitter about is the ridiculous shit people did to convince him to stay. Fuck everyone involved in this. No single person is worth humiliating yourself and your city like this. (I got ripped on something fierce for criticizing this video when it first came out.)
 

alr1ght

bish gets all the credit :)
News flash, you dont need to post that "tourism" video in every single cleveland thread. Its been done ad nauseum and you're not as clever as you think.

Either way, Lebron is still a bitch and took the easy way out. Do i blame him for leaving? No. He was just being an idiot being led by other idiots with his exit.

Onto other things.

Dan Gilbert <3
 
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