LeBron James decided to join his two friends, Team USA teammates, and fellow 2003 NBA draftees - Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh - down in South Beach to play with the Miami Heat.  The reason LeBron gave was the team offered him the best chance of winning championships (yes, plural), which is his main focus.  What player, be it professional or recreational, doesn't like to win?  It's the main point of participating, isn't it?

 

So, to blame LeBron James for, not only wanting to win, but take a lot less money to do so, is ridiculous. He, Wade, and Bosh will form a trio of terror not seen in the NBA since Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, and Wilt Chamberlain wore Los Angeles Lakers uniforms during the 1968-69 season. Of course that trio lost to the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals that season, which should give the rest of the NBA sine hope going into the 2010-11 season. However, the difference is this current incarnation of "The Big Three" are all in their primes and playing in the perceived weaker Eastern Conference. So, there's a good chance they do well their first season together, dependent upon how the rest of the roster fills out. Regardless, one has to like the powerhouse nucleus of the Heat... unless you're a Cleveland Cavaliers fan.

 

And this is where you can blame LeBron James.

 

For a few years, the hype of James' impending free agency began to simmer and boil below the surface of (choose your team)'s hope. The Chosen One. The King. The Savior of (choose your team). If there was one player that could turn around a franchise, it was LeBron, be it for the good of a new team or, as we came to find out, the bad of the Cavaliers. But, let's get it straight, LeBron James didn't owe the Cavs and their fans anything once free agency hit. James had a choice to stay or leave. He was the proverbial bird you had to let go and hoped it loved you enough to come back.

 

It turns out that LeBron didn't.

 

However, James could have spurned the Cavs and the city of Cleveland without the unprecedented frenzy of hype, publicity, and palpable slap in the face with his televised decision. It was the equivalent to breaking up with your fiancée on the day of your wedding during the part where you're supposed to say, "I do," but instead say, "I don't." For all intents and purposes, both LeBron and Cleveland were engaged to each other for seven years. The city loved him and he loved them, until LeBron realized he couldn't win there despite all of his efforts in the regular season and the playoffs. He didn't have the cast of players, though basically chosen by him, to get that first and elusive championship ring. It's difficult to argue that he doesn't now in Miami. However, for LeBron, it wasn't necessary to break the hearts of millions of people that invested so much time and adoration for a player the way he did.

 

The practice of ego-stroking built this monster of a severing and to some degree, honestly, both the Cavaliers organization and its fans are to blame for allowing James and his crew to have carte blanche. However, they really can't be blamed for the execution (in both the sense in the way it was done and the ending of) of the relationship. At all. They deserved more respect than what they were given, but the inflated value of self and third person addressing proved too overwhelming for Lebron and it blinded from decency and appreciation.

 

The ultimate irony is that while you can't and shouldn't blame LeBron for chasing an NBA title, for all of his proclamations of being the king and chosen one, he left for a team that won't be his. Where he won't be "the man" as he believes himself deep down to be. In Cleveland, it was undeniably his team. In Miami, at best, it will be his and Dwyane Wade's team. However, consider who left to join whom. LeBron James' legacy, no matter how many titles the Heat win in the next five years, will always be that of NOT being the king or chosen one.

 

And this fact won't be more known than in Cleveland.