Most people believe no one player is bigger than the team. Clearly that is not the case with Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The city of Cleveland has been through so much heartache from a sports perspective that it almost feels like pouring salt on the wounds to say this, but the Cavaliers will never recover from Lebron taking his talents down to South Beach.
It all started with the King's return to Cleveland for the first time with his new team. The whole city was fired up to see Lebron fail and let him know first hand how much they didn't appreciate how he spurned them for greener pastures. Instead Lebron torched the Cavs for 38 points in 3 quarters and in the process made the team look like a bunch of guys with an inferiority complex. The look in their eyes told the whole story. "We're not any good without you" was the impression everybody got and since the thrashing Cleveland has lost 12 of their last 13 games.
The good news is Cleveland is on their way to the NBA lottery and has a chance to get the #1 pick in the draft. The bad news is there is no Lebron James waiting for them at the end of the rainbow. The team has completely lost it's confidence with no sign of getting it back. The Quicken Loans arena will slowly but surely turn into a ghost town as everyone realizes the party's over and there is no reason to be optimistic about the future. Never has a free agency move single handedly crippled an organization the way Lebron's move crippled the Cavs. I wish there was some words of encouragement or signs of life for Cleveland fans, but there simply isn't any. This story will get worse before it gets better and the city will never be the epicenter of basketball again. Cleveland deserves better. What could have been.
No comments:
Post a Comment