By the time you read this, Chicago's most ardent sports fans and more than a few of our casual sports observers will have pretty much calmed down now that LeBron James has announced that he is going to try to rule the basketball world from Miami and not Chicago. These folks will have long since returned to their regular routine, and continued devoting attention to doing well those things that have directly affect their life.
Chicago sports fans are a Teflon bunch; we're some of the most passionate, well-informed sports fans around. Most of us (contrary to media coverage and a few billboards and websites) didn't jump on the James bandwagon. We waited on reality. We knew better.
Now, in the frenzied aftermath of LeBron Cuts Cleveland, here are a few of the truths and back stories from an old school sports fan's perspective (for you young folks, count the number of times you call me a hater and then multiply that number times 10 to determine the degree to which you're clueless and living in a vacuum about the business of pro sports):
* Chicago is a world class sports city, renowned for its international commerce and industry, fabulous food and stupendous shopping. But the Oak Street beach is not South Beach. We don't offer the sexy Caribbean and South American flair that makes Miami alluring and seductive for young, rich, testosterone-filled pro basketball players who are hell bent on fathering multiple women by the most exotic, Coke bottle-shaped women imaginable. Yes, basketball players love groupies and the groupies love them back -- and there's way more gorgeous groups in Miami than everywhere except for maybe New York.
* The sheer allure of Miami - not to mention the to-die-for weather and lack of state personal income tax - compared to that offered by Cleveland in the mind's eye of an international sports superstar in the friggin' prime of his life is intoxicating.
* ... AND you get to play with two fellow superstars in Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade, the latter of whom owns a star just a bit less bright than James'. These three guys are trying to craft their own younger version of what the Boston Celtics assembled for their title run with Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett - only Miami wants to rule for years.
* James toiled in Cleveland - Cleveland! - for seven years, trying to bring a desperately needed title to his home state. He was mentally shot and frustrated at not winning a title, and tipped his hand about his future when he quickly pulled off his jersey in disgust well before he reached the locker room after the Cavaliers were bounced from the playoffs. If the folks who live in the so-called "Mistake On The Lake" don't understand that, especially given their sports pedigree, shame on them. Yeah, they feel like second-class citizens but comparing Art Modell absconding with the entire Cleveland Browns franchise in the dark of night to one player moving on is born of fans acting like the longer version of the word fan: fanatical.
* James idolizes Michael Jordan, and the likelihood that he comes to Chicago and wins enough championships to prompt the Bulls to erect another statue outside the United Center is slim and none. And Slim is forever out of town. You need big, big marbles to think you're coming to the Chi to follow in and overtake your idol's footsteps. Jordan's the guy who reinvented basketball and re-introduced it to the world; the guy whose name is a brand and division within a multibillion dollar sports company. A guy whose name is used as a damn verb. LeBron is not his heir.
* Because I still haven't grown to trust or respect James' jump shot; because I grew up on Jordan who stuck with the Bulls through thick and thin and found a will and way to stay with one team until the team reinvented itself to reach the top and stay there; and because I have (conditional) faith that the Bulls are on the road back to respectability, James not coming to Chicago is not a colossal loss.
Surely I'll watch the Heat play. It will be a great show, especially when the Heat returns to Cleveland. If you see a fan foaming at the mouth, flipping James the bird, and yelling the most vile put downs ever heard, that won't be a drunk, jilted fan, that would be the team's majority owner Dan Gilbert whose statement about James' defection was unbecoming, to put it lightly, but reflected the ire and disrespect felt by miserable Cavs fans.
When he's winning and living a new king's life in South Florida, something tells me James won't exactly miss the unfulfilled dreams he chased with his former team or what could've been in Chicago had he played in the long, inescapable shadow of the real king.
Chicago and the Bulls are better off without James. Just watch.