Finally, We Can All Move On
The Miami Heat are NBA champions. Certainly not my first or second choice of teams I’d like to see win it all. But oddly enough, with this championship comes relief.
Supposedly NBA fans all hate the Heat, hate LeBron and despise everything the so called ‘big three’ stand for. Speaking for myself as an NBA fan, and I think for others (Cleveland fans aside), we’ve gotten tired of it, of this hate. Yes, LeBron walked out on the Cavs and chose a path some would consider easier and the ‘Decision’ really was distasteful. For that he was in our collective dog house for an entire year. But I for one, feel that after that, we’ve mostly gotten over it. LeBron made a choice, a professional one. I stopped holding it against him a long time ago, I probably let go of it when the Mavs clinched the title last year. I also think he deserves this ring, and I’m happy he got it. Another sentiment I feel as this season comes to an end is a relief. Everyone will have to let go of the anti-LeBron campaign, most of which was fuelled by his move to the Miami, which has gotten kind of old.
Miami’s title is the biggest sports headlines in a week that provided other ones from the courthouses instead of the playing fields. Those headlines should help us remember that as fans we might want to take a look at which athletes we vilify and aim our anger towards and why. Even Roger Clemens isn’t a villein. Maybe a liar and a cheater. Jerry Sandusky’s acts are so horrible that I’d rather not even bring them up here, as they are on an entirely different scale of wrong doing.
But my point is this. LeBron isn’t a bad guy, and it’s starting to look like everyone is getting that. In a sports society that forgives athletes of criminal wrong doings (Michael Vick) and sometime chooses to forget about things it shouldn’t let go of so quickly (Ben Roethlisberger, Kobe Bryant) we might want to do a better job of picking our fights. Hopefully the one against LeBron can be let go now.
Unless you live in Cleveland, those guys get a pass.
It’s time to move on. Photo: Keith Allison via Flickr
