Hate Me Now

I consider myself to be a pretty good basketball fan. I'm not a stubborn monogomist or a bandwagon hopper, but someone who can apprecaite different things about many NBA teams. I root for few, love to (insincerely) hate on many, but really I just want what's good for the game. Despite this, I'm convinced that there's an undeniable curse haunting the on and off-court lives of any team or player I've dared to call my "favorite" and shown unwavering affection for.

It all started back in '94 when I first started watching ball. Being young and easily excitable, I naturally began worshipping Shawn Kemp, who aside from being pretty damn good, was the most reckless abuser of other players' egos with his high-flying antics. The Sonics were an awesome team who seemed destined for a title, but then things didn't work out for Michael Jordan and baseball, and his 72-10 Bulls beat them in the Finals. Kemp thus doubled his weight, started doing massive amounts of cocaine, and was traded to Cleveland, where nothing ever works out for basketball teams (more on that in a second). Then came the Portland Jailblazers; a colorful bunch of NBA misfits, led by my boy Rasheed, who just happened to have themselves in the thick of the championship hunt. Again, they seemed destined to win it all; up 19 on the Lakers in game 7 of the West Finals back when the East stood no chance at all. Then they missed a few shots, Shaq caught that alley-oop on Sabonis, and an imminent title faded into the distance as the Blazers gradually degenarated into an abyss of selfish basketball, bad contracts and petty crimes. Things just weren't working out, so as an NBA fan, I played the field for a while.

In 2000, Slam magazine ran a feature about some high school sophomore named Lebron James who was trying to get drafted as a 17-year old kid and actually being taken seriously. This kid immediately struck me with his poise and composure; he didn't seem like some insane dreamer, but a young man who was not only determined to be the best, but was actually good enough to do it. I didn't start building it quite that early, but in my mind I was already drawing up blueprints for LBJ bandwagon.

The rest writes itself; the Sports Illustrated cover at 17, the ESPN games, the unheard-of attention and promise that surrounded this kid swept up a nation that was already quick to call for his head over a couple of f***ing throwback jerseys (again, more on that in a second). My admiration for Lebron's game and character kept mounting along with the insane expectations, because no matter how high, he always managed to exceed them, keeping a smile on his face and doing the same for the millions who Witnessed. Even when his NBA career dawned, it seemed we just weren't ready for what he was capable of. Maybe leaving high school early wasn't so far-fetched.

As the rest continued to write itself, Lebron became one of the most loved and high-profile athletes in the World, garnering more attention from the media for not only his stellar play and emerging brand identity, but trivial crap like baseball caps and jersey numbers (what is it with us and this guy's clothing?). As the plot gradually churned leading up to this past summer, things were inevitably going to get very thick for Lebron. Whatever choice he made be dissected under the mass media's most powerful microscope, and signing anywhere but Cleveland seemed like PR suicide.

Thing is, the Cavs just weren't getting it done. Maybe all the hype and expectation finally got to Lebron's head, or maybe he was sick of being a one-man show and still coming up juuust short every year. Whateve the case (likely both), he wanted to win championships. Now. And he found a better opportunity in Miami than the Cavs could offer. Plain and simple. Yeah yeah, I know, "The Decision" was a pretentious, humiliating way to break up with Cleveland, but James gave them a fair window to build a winning franchise around him. Fact is, they brought in some big names, but the 2-12 men came up short in the playoffs every year and visibly frustrated a guy who just wanted to win.

Now that he's Decided to go after greatness, James has been a punching bag, hell a pinata, for fans, talking heads, and even the game's legends this summer. The curse struck again. Not only was James denied a title in Cleveland, but suffered the worst imaginable blow to his image for chasing one. There have been (albeit, some very accurate) misled, exaggerated, out-of-context and just plain stupid things said about the guy who so recently was a basketball hero. One slight screw up and someone we'd spent years adoring was a trendy target for unabashed hatred; like last year when Tiger Woods couldn't keep it in his pants, or like in Scarface when Manny couldn't either. There has been more Lebron hatred raining since mid-July than over his entire career beforehand, and all this before the Miami Heat have played a single game of basketball.

Can we all just fuck off already? All we've ever built Lebron up to be was great. Now he wants to be, and we throw him under the fastest, heaviest truck on the freeway? So what if he's doing it on our terms, leading a team from his hometown to the promise land? He spent half his career slaving to while the team around him came up short. He took a once-in-a-lifetime chance to chase his dream; not money, not fame - he's already got too much of both - but glory. Is that so shameful? We as an audience demanded so much from Lebron that we lost sight of the reality that his own ambitions and desires are what should matter to him. We've seen it happen with countless pro athletes; the bigger the star, the smaller the fuck-up, the larger the outlash; but with James things seemed misguided...All the guy wanted to do was win.

There's not much more that can be said about Lebron's summer that hasn't already been tossed around by jaded, angry and stubborn basketball fans. So let's forget about the offseason, fuck it, it happened, move on. I can't sincerely say that I'll be cheering for the Heat this year - it's hard to root for a team that has the odds stacked so heavily in their favor - but Lebron's going to have a pretty good shot at breaking the curse with the Dream Team the Heat are fielding. It will be exciting, perhaps historical basketball, and if the Heat don't win multiple titles it will surprise many of us.

Keep that in mind, Because it's easy and trendy to hate Lebron now, but it was also trendy (and much easier) to hate Kobe Bryant at one point, and ten times less fathomable that he'd bounce back. Let's let the Heat go do their thing for a bit; let this summer's madness subside. Don't forget that underneath this alleged monster is (arguably) the best basketball player alive. He's got a fresh team - one that's far more talented than any he's been on - and plenty of critics to silence. We can shower Lebron James in Haterade all we want, but when him and D-Wade have their own Court Cuts segment every week, when the Heat win 60+, and when the King can finally hoist the Larry O and rest easy on his throne, it'll be hard for him to feel a single drop.