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LeBron James

King Taharqa

By King Taharqa,
in Charlotte Hornets

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In Akron, James remains KING

AKRON, Ohio — Standing on a street corner in downtown Akron, waiting for his hero to return, a pastor named Wayne Anderson reflected on the true meaning of basketball, business and betrayal.

“I worked for General Motors for 10 years, and they laid me off,” said Anderson, 48, of Deliverance Temple Ministries in Akron. “LeBron James could have stayed in Cleveland, and the Cavaliers could do the exact same thing to him that G.M. did to me.”

James, who was widely criticized for his decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat, and especially for the publicity campaign preceding his announcement, appeared Saturday for the annual bicycling fund-raiser organized by his charity, King for Kids.

James rode his oversize Cannondale on a mile-long loop through downtown, followed by 400 children riding bicycles donated by the charity. Each bike was painted neon green, with a large sticker that read “I ♥ Akron.”

The city loved him back.

“He’s accomplished a lot, but he needs a championship,” Rodney Roberts, 38, said. “I support anything he does.”

Akron is a city ravaged for 30 years by factory closings, where employers’ promises of pensions and lifelong health insurance disappeared down Interstate 77 with so many moving trucks. It is also a city where people have cheered James since he was a 10-year-old prodigy dominating the city’s summer rec league.

Perhaps that is why many people here view the question of loyalty differently from sports fans elsewhere. Corporations leave. Sports franchises leave. Friends stay.

In Akron, James remains a friend.

“Look, he’s here, isn’t he?” said Cornelius Jenkins, 34, a warehouse worker in Akron whose daughter received a bike from King for Kids this year. “So long as he keeps doing stuff like this for the community, I don’t have a problem with him at all.”

Before the ride, a dozen grandmothers from Akron stood across Main Street holding a banner. Hand-painted across a sheet of wallpaper, it read: “Thanks LeBron 4 Everything! Your grammies got your back!”

“We hate to see him leave, and we really miss him,” said Alder Chapman, founder and president of the LeBron James Grandmothers Fan Club, which made the sign. The club has more than 200 members. “But just like any child who leaves, we want him to know that we love him and we wish him well,” Chapman said.

People in the crowd who felt betrayed by James’s decision voiced their opinions quietly. They had little choice, since most conversation was overpowered by music from the rapper Travie McCoy, which boomed from speakers on the stage.

“LeBron said he was all about loyalty to his team and his city,” Cory Schweigert, 28, shouted over the music. “And now he showed that was all bogus.”

In a short speech before the ride, James mentioned Cleveland only in passing, and only as part of his larger fan base in northeast Ohio. On Tuesday, James bought a full-page ad in The Akron Beacon Journal, telling fans, “You can be sure that I will continue to do everything I can for this city, which is so important to my family and me.”

James did not mention Cleveland in the ad. Observers complain that James has made few attempts to thank fans in Cleveland, where the Cavaliers paid him more than $60 million over the last seven years.

“There are two pictures in the ad, none featuring him in the jersey that helped make him a rich man,” Chuck Yarborough of The Plain Dealer of Cleveland wrote in a blog post about the ad. He added, “Would it have hurt him at least to acknowledge the Cavs and the link to fans outside Akron?”

As James rode by on his giant bicycle, his Akron fans felt differently about the omission.

“LeBron is not a Clevelander,” said Marcellus Ripley, 43, who was dressed in a James Cavaliers jersey, jeans designed with the Cavaliers logo and Nike tennis shoes in wine and gold, the Cavaliers’ colors. “He’s from Akron. And I’ll support him wherever he goes.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/sports/basketball/08lebron.html

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NBA Hall Of Fame inductees weigh in on KING

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Don't blame LeBron James for leaving Cleveland. Don't fit him for a ring yet, either.

That was the message at the Hall of Fame on Friday, where James' move to Miami was a topic among this year's induction class.

With James joining Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, the Heat have become a title favorite. But Karl Malone is sticking with the reigning champions, and Scottie Pippen isn't even sure Miami will reach the NBA finals.

"I would say this: With the guys they got, they're going to be a hell of a team," Malone said of the Heat. "I pick the Lakers."

Malone also joked that former coach and current ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy "must have had some red wine that night, a lot of it," when he predicted recently that the Heat could break Chicago's record of 72 wins set in 1995-96.

Pippen, who played on that team, said the Heat need to start with smaller expectations.

"I'd like to see them win a championship first," he said.

James was criticized for deciding to announce his free agency decision during an ESPN special, rather than inform the Cavaliers and his other suitors himself. Pippen agreed that wasn't the best choice, but said there was nothing wrong with him leaving Ohio.

"I don't know what all the grief was about," Pippen said. "No fans, no organization, no one can decide what a free agent can do or should do or where he's going to go, and there's no reason for anyone to hold a grudge against LeBron for making that decision."

Oscar Robertson also defended James, saying the free agents were just taking advantage of the "Oscar Robertson Rule." Robertson, as president of the NBA Players Association, filed a class-action lawsuit against the league and its teams that the league settled in 1976, removing a team's option to keep a player for life and opening the door for unrestricted free agency.

Malone spent nearly his entire career in Utah before joining a powerful Lakers team that had Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant for a last-ditch run at a title in 2003-04. So he wasn't going to criticize James for bolting Cleveland for a better shot on a better team — though he didn't care for the way it was done, either.

"That's his decision. My decision, when I left Utah, I went to L.A. to win a championship and had an opportunity," Malone said. "Him leaving, that's him. I don't know what to tell you. The way it went down, I'm not into that."

Malone ended up getting hurt and the Lakers fell short, and he warns that injuries could get in the Heat's way. Pippen, meanwhile, thinks Miami's size could be a problem.

"There are a couple of teams in the East that they're going to have to contend with, that they're going to have matchup problems with," Pippen said. "You think of Boston, Orlando. I don't see anybody that they can get to run up and down the court with (Dwight) Howard right now and that's a game changer."

Malone said the Lakers also got better over the summer with the additions of Matt Barnes and Steve Blake. While admitting he's biased, he believes they will win a third in a row.

"As long as you've got Kobe on that team," Malone said, "and Derek Fisher on that team and Pau Gasol and coach (Phil) Jackson and his staff, I'm picking the Lakers."

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory?id=11397291

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Pippen is being pretty level headed about it.

I agree with what Malone said about the way it went down, but the proceeds went to charity, so watever.

Pippen gets alot of respect from me. He's not hating, he's not being bitter because LeBron is larger than he or many of the players of his era were, he seems to give genuine insight and criticism. Its what you would expect from a 40 year old ex-superstar and not the childish "I saw LeBron's tweet and I want to get my name in the headlines" approach that Barkley took. That was a bitch move of the highest order. LeBron needs to just ignore it and take the high road. Out of all this ordeal, he's handled it with the most class and maturity.

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The King will appear on the cover of the forthcoming September issue of GQ Magazine. In his interview, he speaks on a variety of topics...

On Cavs Owner Dan Gilbert

LeBron: "I don't think he ever cared about LeBron. My mother always told me: 'You will see the light of people when they hit adversity. You'll get a good sense of their character.' Me and my family have seen the character of that man."

On growing up rooting for Chicago and Jordan

LeBron: "It's not far, but it is far. And Clevelanders, because they were the bigger city - kids when we were growing up, looked down on us.… So we didn't actually like Cleveland. We hated Cleveland growing up. There's a lot of people in Cleveland we still hate to this day."

On Charles Barkley's comments

LeBron: "Charles was probably trying to be funny. It wasn't funny to me."

On the possibility of playing again in Cleveland

LeBron: "If there was an opportunity for me to return and those fans welcome me back, that'd be a great story. Maybe the ones burning my jersey were never LeBron fans anyway."

http://www.theybf.com/2010/08/17/lebron-covers-gq-would-like-to-play-in-cleveland-again

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