Saying goodbye in kind

True landmark moments don’t come around too often. Events that change the course of history or an entire peoples perception or realities simply CAN’T come around too often, we’d be living in a world with constant upheaval if life changed at the drop of a hat. Yesterday’s LeBronathon was one of those moments. No, LeBron announcing he was going to the Heat on ESPN didn’t alter the course of history (as far as we know anyways), but is anyone ever going to look at sports and athletes the same way again? The idea that modern sports fandom is ultimately nothing more than rooting for laundry isn’t a new concept but neither has it ever been so plain to see, dangled mockingly in our faces. What happened? Yesterday LeBron James did his best to murder sports in the state of Ohio. His home state, the state his friends and his family live it. The state he grew up in.

I’m as sarcastic and cynical as the next guy but even I feel bad for Clevelanders. No sports fan deserves the emotional pain that LeBron has caused them over the past 2 weeks. It’d have been one thing if the pain was a necessary evil, an exorcizing of the demons so to speak that would allow all parties to move on. It wasn’t.

At this point I can’t imagine many people other than the very young or very naive thinking that LeBrons decision to go to Miami wasn’t made until the morning talk with his Mom. Clearly there is some basis to the rumours out of the 2008 Olympics that there was some pact between Bosh/Wade and LBJ to play together.

Still, if LeBron was even 50% sure he’d be leaving Cleveland, how could a native Ohioan risk destroying the lives of the people he grew up with, the people he lives(d) with. He’d have to have been completely blind to not see the potential damage that he would be doing to his loved ones, his former classmates, the teammates he played with growing up by leading the Cavs along, then ultimately dumping them at the alter. He had to have been able to see what such a move would do to his family, his friends, his co-workers and the employees of the Cavs. Hell the dude who goes grocery shopping for him, let alone the people who have loved and supported him for 9 years (yes, maybe he was only a Cav for 7, but he was a celebrity and a cause celeb in Ohio for at least 2 years previous). He could have even made two LeBronathons, the first to announce he was leaving Cleveland, the second to announce a team. ANYTHING to mitigate the damage of his leaving and dumping HIS team and HIS city, live, as the world watched.

On it’s own, with no LeBronathon or anything, his leaving the Cavs puts their existence in Jeopardy. This was obvious to everyone, everyone but one man apparently. If he isn’t as egotistical an ass to not be able to see the bomb he was about to drop, then he simply didn’t care. Didn’t care what anyone thought of him, didn’t think of what it’d do to the state of basketball in his home, didn’t think of a potentially very real and very dangerous situation he was created. Clearly, he is more important then basketball fans in the Midwest. They were lucky to have the opportunity to pay ridiculous prices to see him not win a title while wearing his jersey and emulating his every move. They were lucky to be along for the ride. Time to get off.

Fair warning: I am a casual Heat fan. I consider Miami to be a 2^nd home and support all their teams from The U to the Marlins. Obviously I don’t care even half as much about Miami as even the Suns, let alone the Raps but still, I’m happy that the Heat will be good and I look forward to watching and supporting them. That said I truly believe yesterdays announcement special was a tipping point in how athletes will be viewed by their community. If there was any athlete who could REALLY ‘get it’, now just on the court or field but in the stands and on the street, it was local boy made good King James. If even he not only didn’t ‘get it’ but could act so callously, so selfishly and with complete disregard of not just his time with the Cavs but his life as an Ohioan, who can we trust?

Sure there are guys like Kevin Durant, who without fanfare signed an extension with Oklahoma City, even leaving an opt out clause on the table, but we all know whether we want to admit it to ourselves or not that we are more surprised at KD’s acting without fanfare then LeBron’s embracing that same hype and media buzz.

After all, now that LeBron has set the precedent are we as a society naive enough to think every narcissistic athlete won’t try to pull the same stunt? It’s not like the world is short of narcissistic athletes. The NFL might be safe from this new phenomenon, simply due to the lack of impact that a single player can really have on the game (though god knows Dion Sanders would have been on that like a fat kid on cake). The NHL might also be safe from this, due more to a different cultural attitude that seems to prevail in the sport as well as how much less money is involved compared to the other Major sports. It’s the Basketball, Baseball and Soccer players that are going to go nuts. You don’t think CC Sabathia is kicking himself right now for not thinking of this first? Or A-Rod? Hell, the majority of the Yankees and Red Sox could do it. What do you think will happen when Jayson Heyward becomes a free agent? What if Cristiano Ronaldo hit the open market? Half the world could be shut down.

What’s going to happen when LeBron hits free agency again? Assuming the Heat win multiple titles, it’s unrealistic to expect 3 superstars to continue to take less money to win. Conversely assuming they don’t win anything it’s unrealistic to expect 3 superstars to continue to take less money to win. No, no matter what LeBron will hit the open market again in between 3 and 5 years. As will Bosh.

I don’t know what will happen when he’s back on the open market, but I know a few things. Firstly, I know people won’t be surprised by ANY decision and everyone will be expecting the worst. Secondly I don’t know if fans will put themselves in a position to get hurt like Clevelanders got hurt ever again. The North American sports world woke up this morning 10x more cynical then it was when it woke up yesterday. As a sports fan, I hate this. I love being optimistic. I love hearing my friends say “Eric, in all our years of knowing each other I’ve learned 2 things. 1) you know a LOT about sports. 2) you are totally incapable of evaluating any Toronto team”. Some might take offense to a statement like that, I look at it with pride. I don’t understand how people watch sports without that passion.

James and I have a longstanding argument about what makes sports GREAT. To me the passion is what makes sports great, the rollercoaster ride of living and dying with your teams. The hope, the jingoism, the xenophobia, the irrationality, the prayers, the impossible sadness, the terrifying lows, the dizzying highs and the creamy middles all mingle with the tension and poetry of the actual competition to make it mean THAT much more. I know some of those characteristics aren’t exactly considered the ideal values for people to have, but you know what? That’s what sports is! It’s about saying “my city is better than your city”. You find it offensive, I think So You Think You Can Dance is on.

It didn’t used to be like this. I may be youngish but I know how sports used to be made up of mostly local players due to economic considerations. Athletes had lives and full time jobs, they weren’t making enough money to warrant moving cities simply to play a game, so teams had to find local guys to play. Back in the day it really WAS Toronto vs Montreal in hockey. Nowadays, athletes come from all over the world and coagulate under one common logo and colour scheme for contracts with more 0’s than the code this site’s written in. Sure we pretend the feeling of belonging and the passion hasn’t changed, that sports today is the same thing it was, but in our heart of hearts we know it’s not. I know that they’re only representing ‘my’ city because my city offered them the best opportunity to maximize their potential for money and fun.

I don’t begrudge them that at all, I would do the exact same as them, as much as I wish I’d act differently. And that’s fine, as long as they’re still carrying the banner for my city I could care less where they’re from. It’s not like the majority of North Americans are natives, we’re all immigrants from somewhere at some time. We all move cities, and provinces or states, or even countries. In fact I’d go so far as to say in this day and age I’d say it’s pretty rare for a person to call one city home for their entire lives. That’s not what this is about though.

What we learned yesterday is that it’s not just non native athletes who see sports as purely a business decision anymore, it’s the local ones too. The principles that built big sports, a neighbourhood creating local clubs that come together and challenging other clubs for local supremacy, the winner ultimately picking up the flag of their community and representing it in their field of battle wherever that battle may take them, is dead and gone and it’s not coming back. Part of that vital connection between athletes, teams and fans has gone with it. I’d lament the passing of the ‘pureness’ of sport but I’m 25 years too late to jump on that bandwagon.

What worries me is that this morning I asked myself the question, if I could go back to when I was 5 and do it all over again would I invest so much time, energy and money in sports? Would I give half the emotional investment? The answer sadly, is no I wouldn’t. I’ve known for years that ultimately sports wasn’t really worthy of the pedestal it’s placed on, the love its supporters show it. I’ve KNOWN that. And yet, I ignored that feeling in my gut that I was wasting time and energy, I continued to hope that it wasn’t ALL of sports that was being corrupted, merely one aspect of it.

Yes the almighty dollar runs the show. The money was inexorably tied to pro sports and while it may not have been ideal situation, it was an acceptable compromise. They make a lot of money, we get great arenas, awesome TV’s with great HD feeds, hours and hours and hours of entertainment and talking points and some fun. We get something to love, to hope for, to look up to, to aspire to. This morning we woke up to the realization that the money isn’t merely a part of sports, it IS sports. That’s not what I signed up for. That’s not what any of us signed up for.

Like in any bad relationship, I can’t just wake up and not love sports. I can’t. Sports is part of my DNA, I’ll love all competition till the day I die. Yet I can feel in my bones that I don’t CARE nearly as much about any sport, any team as I did yesterday. The images of jerseys burning, of baseball games being paused while everyone, fan and player alike watched with bated breath to see what would happen. The images of bars around North America, maybe even the world, full of people speculated and hoping and praying, and all of them coming away disappointed, hurt, let down and a little more jaded is… I don’t know how to describe it other than saying that the sports world lost the last vestiges of its innocence yesterday.

I’ve put a lot of thought into what my reaction would be to this whole fiasco if I was a Clevelander. The only conclusion I can come to is that I’d stop watching basketball at least, potentially even sports in general. If the greatest player in the world, who happens to be a local kid, who carried the local team to the finals, to 2 MVPs, could cut and run in the bloodiest way possible, what is left for you to hope for? Remember what sports is about; pride, nationalism, honour and hope. We knew pride and nationalism/patriotism walked out that door a long time ago, now I guess I have to go pour one out for honour and hope.

The only hope I’m holding on to right now is that the chain of events that LeBron has started doesn’t end in the disintegration of the major sports in general. That a profound the disconnect between Fans and Players will cause us all to go “wait, I could NOT spend $100 on tickets, go to a buddies house with a 24, order a pizza and some wings, play some cards, pause, fastforward or rewind at our whim and spend $20 on the game!” With how economically top heavy the league is, if fans decide to slow down the turnstiles, decide they’d rather invest in a TV than a jersey, the advertisers will follow. And then what happens? Well, eventually the whole thing topples over or collapses. The jig would be up.

The real problem we’re facing now is that for the life of me I can’t come up with a single good reason why that scenario would be a bad thing for any of us.

David Liam Kyle/Getty Images

I don’t have the exact date that this conversation occurred, believe me I wish I did, but sometime towards late November or early December I was talking to James about the Raptors’ struggles. I looked at the calendar, saw the teams the Raptors were playing from January 27 to February 24, and got excited. All we had to do, I kept insisting, was stay afloat through the tough stretch, and eventually we would get to the “Month of winning”. A concept most Raptors fans are fairly familiar with by now. A cursory glance at the Raptors schedule shows home games against such quality opponents as the Heat, Pacers, Nets, Kings, 76ers, Grizzlies, and Wizards. Add to that the only road games to be found were trips to Madison Square Garden, Conseco Fieldhouse and the Izod Center. You can see why I’m dubbing it the Month of Winning (MOW).

At the time I was talking to James, I figured the best-case scenario is that the Raptors would be .500 heading in to that stretch of games, and a nice 7-3 or 8-2 record would allow them to easily coast to the playoffs in the 7^th or 8^th seed where they would get spanked by whoever happened to finish 1^st or 2^nd overall. I thought I was being optimistic. Well, the Raptors showed me what optimism really is, setting up for the “MOW” by beating San Antonio, Orlando, Dallas and the Lakers. More importantly than those wins, and the wins over the Heat, Knicks and Pacers, was how the team played. In my optimistic prediction of the Raptors’ season, I spoke about swagger. About the ability to get clutch stops even if the overall defensive numbers weren’t great. I hoped those things would eventually happen, but didn’t really expect them to. Well, I sure as hell didn’t expect them to become staples of wins in January. I also didn’t expect the Leafs to crap the bed again, and the city of Toronto to rally around a rag-tag group of players playing .500 basketball, holding the 5^th seed in the East. Even I, the eternal optimist, am consistently amazed and surprised by the ways the Raptors find ways to win. Winning by gutting out efforts, playing tough physical ball down low, passing the ball around to find open looks, shutting down super-duper stars in crunch time. Guys jumping up and down on the bench, sell out crowds going so crazy that Phil Jackson himself mentions it.

All of the above has me re-evaluating my expectations for the rest of the season. In addition to the Raps’ creampuff schedule over the next stretch, the division-leading Celtics seem to be a bit adrift. Age seems to have caught up REALLY fast with Doc Rivers Big Three. Now, the only reason the Celtics are even competitive in most games is Rajon Rondo. Without him, who knows where they would be? We looked at the Raptors schedule through February (well not completely, they finish off the month playing Portland, Cleveland and Oklahoma City. Assuming they win 1 of those games, the Raptors will win 7 or 8 games that month), but what about Boston’s? Well friends, Boston gets screwed. They start off with a few winnable games, Washington (tomorrow, coming off a back to back. In Washington), Miami and New Jersey are visiting the Toronto Dominion Garden. After that, the poop hits the fan. Home to Orlando, then a 5 game 11 day road trip to New Orleans, Sacramento, the Lakers, Portland and Denver, before coming back home to face New York, Cleveland and New Jersey. Boston would probably be satisfied winning 5 or 6 games in the month of February.

Wait a minute. If Boston wins 5 or 6 games in February, and the Raptors win 7 or 8, that means, that means, by the end of the month the Raptors could be shocking the basketball world and being 2.5 games out of the division lead, and the home court advantage in the playoffs it brings. What? In fact, by Feb 21^st (the Celtics last game of the West Coast trip), the Raptors could be only a SINGLE GAME out of the division lead. WHAT?! Are the Raptors good enough to win this division? It’s starting to look possible. Unfortunately Raptors fans, it is still the Celtics title to lose and I don’t see them giving up their hold on the division crown just quite yet. The Raps still have lessons to learn, and winnable games will still slip away. No, the Raptors will almost assuredly finish the regular season in 5^th place. Which could end up having dire consequences for the Raptors.

The problem is simple, of the four teams in that group atop of the Eastern Conference there are 2 teams that match up very favourably for the Raptors. Cleveland and Orlando are both structured in such ways as to be vulnerable to the Dino’s. It would take an upset, no debating that, but both the Cavs and Magic can be beaten by the Raptors, as we’ve seen from contests thus far (well, assuming the Cavs don’t upgrade from Jamario Moon to Andre Iguodala – that’d change things slightly). Atlanta and Boston however, are quite the opposite. Cavs/Magic vs. the Raps is probably going to be a 6 or 7 game series that could go either way. You know, the type of series that’s decided in the last two to three minutes of every game. I would be shocked if it took more than 5 games for either the C’s or Hawks to dispatch the Raptors. The problem: as it stands today, one of those two teams IS going to finish fourth. Unless, that is, Boston turns their season around, Orlando starts losing games, or Atlanta goes crazy winning/goes crazy losing. Any one of those scenarios coming to pass would create a situation where the Raptors could win their first playoff series in almost a decade.

The question for Raps fans then, is which scenario do you cheer for? Well, if Atlanta slows down and drops to 5^th, the Raptors could wind up 4^th. That’s no good. Home court advantage only comes into play in game 7. The series needs to GET to game 7 before that’s a factor. I am of the belief that no true Raptors fan can cheer for Boston under any circumstances, even selfish ones. The Celtics could be playing the all-stars from Moron Mountain for all I care, still not cheering for them. So that’s out. That leaves a single scenario: Raps fans should be cheering against the Magic and for the Hawks as hard as possible. Lemme lay this scenario out for you; try it on for size.

The East finishes like so: Cleveland, Boston, Atlanta, Orlando, Toronto, Miami, Charlotte, Chicago. The winner of Orlando/Toronto would go on to play the winner of Cleveland/Chicago. Or just Cleveland (ya, I’m going on a BIG limb here). That means back to back winnable series for the Raptors, avoiding the bad matchups until the Eastern Conference finals. Unlikely, incredibly unlikely. The odds are against the Raptors in each series, and I’m no mathematician but I’m pretty sure odds compound when you place them in a sequence like that. However, just because something is unlikely doesn’t mean it’s impossible. In fact, should the East finish that way, an Atlanta/Toronto eastern conference final would not be that much of a stretch, and who would have seen THAT one coming.

Unlikely, again, but not impossible. The Raptors are what they are. They aren’t an elite team (yet), but if I’m coaching a team in the East I do not want to play a team that can score like the Raps can, nor one that can win games in such a variety of games. No, these ain’t your older brothers Raptors. There are going to be ups and downs the rest of the way, but hang with them. The Raptors are a better team than they seemed in November and December and they’re probably a worse team then they’ve seemed in January. But they might not be. That’s the hope we have to hold on to. That, and the hope that Atlanta passes Orlando. Toronto hasn’t asked much of the Sports Gods, well that’s a lie, I’ll try again. Toronto hasn’t received much from the Sports Gods in the past 16 years. For some reason though, 2010 just FEELS different. In 7 Seconds Or Less, after the Suns come to Toronto to play their former General Managers new team for the first time, then assistant coach Alvin Gentry commented that “They [the Raptors] are the Chevrolet version of what we are”. Meaning the Raps were a high octane team without a high octane ride. Well right now this Chevy’s riding high. And I’m going to enjoy the view.

Rocky Widner / Getty Images

In our first podcast, Julian, Eric, and I discuss the Iverson/Memphis debacle, Earl Smith III, Stephen Jackson’s agent vs. Nellie, the ridiculousness of the Raptors, the success of the Suns and Nuggets, the failures of the Cavs and Hornets, and Kobe’s newfound appreciation for the post-up game. Oh, and we play a little game.

We recorded this yesterday, before watching the slew of awesome games covered here and here. So, we didn’t get to talk about Brad Miller’s near-buzzer-beater or Travis Outlaw’s vicious dunk on Rudy Gay. We’ve got you covered on Matt Bonner dunk analysis, though.

Click here to listen to the podcast.