LeBron James And The City Of Cleveland’s Complicated Relationship
By Ben Gibson
LeBron James and the city of Cleveland’s relationship is complicated and that puts more pressure on the Cleveland Cavaliers to win a title.
Roughly 40 miles separate the cities of Akron and Cleveland, Ohio.
While the two are connected by more than Interstate 77 North, it isn’t as if they are of one mind, either. When LeBron James made The Decision in 2010, those two cities couldn’t have been further apart.
USA Today’s Martin Roger spoke to LeBron’s former high school coach in 2014 and he highlighted a fact that often gets lost on the national level.
"“There were people that hated LeBron in Cleveland for leaving,” says Keith Dambrot, who coached James in his first two years at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School and has spent the past 13 coaching at the University of Akron. “They never hated him here.”"
Time and James returning to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers healed some of those wounds, but there has always been an unwritten clause in that agreement.
LeBron James must win a championship for Cleveland.
He’ll always have a home in Akron, but his relationship with Cleveland isn’t fully repaired until he wins a title. The fans will always begrudge him for winning his two championships in Miami, not in Cleveland.
The city of Cleveland has a tortured history in sports, as well as plenty of real world issues. With tens of thousands of jobs being lost in the city since 1990, watching their teams come up short certainly isn’t making the city any happier. It is hard to have civic pride when your river is on fire, but other than the pipedream of all of those jobs coming back to the area, nothing could make the city prouder than a championship in any sport.
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The Cleveland Indians don’t look like title contenders and the Cleveland Browns are their own factory of sadness so that really puts the entire weight of the city’s collective sporting hopes on the Cavaliers’ and, in particular, LeBron’s shoulders. When you’re the best basketball player of your generation, these sort of things are expected.
It doesn’t matter that LeBron isn’t really from Cleveland. Ironically enough, his decision to take his talents to South Beach in 2010 might have forever linked the city and his fate. The Decision ranks up there with The Fumble, The Drive, the Browns leaving for Baltimore in 1996, and a number of other mishaps in the city’s sporting history. But the biggest difference is James has a real chance of righting that perceived wrong.
Before The Decision, LeBron wasn’t expected to owe much to the city besides his hard work, which he gave every night with the Cavaliers. His heart’s always been in Akron and that partially shows when you look at his charity work and where is is focused.
That’s not to say he never had any love for Cleveland or has done anything charitable for the city on the lake, but it was just another place compared to his hometown, really. Those 40 miles are a lot, and they probably seemed like hundreds of miles as a kid growing up. He never needed the city, but it needed him.
Next: The Decision and the Return of the King