Cleveland and Ohio have good reason to be upset. Their home-grown hero has left town, for an easier run to a championship. If news reports are accurate--and they rarely are--his departure will mean a $20 million loss in revenues for small businesses in the Cleveland (or perhaps, just arena) area.
But, do not put the blame on James.
I know, I know, the "sport mirrors life" analogies are way overblown, but this is not really a story about basketball per se. It is more a matter of business, and social values. Indeed, perhaps this "sports" version of what has been happening to our middle class will penetrate our collective psyches more than what seem to be a series of isolated events, such as closing of manufacturing plants first here and then there, and the dominance of the non-value producing financial sector on the economy.
So, put the blame where it belongs--a rejiggering of our cultural values foisted upon the country by rightwing media. And, the Lloyd Blankfeins of the world.
Rightwing media, and their belief tanks, preach that our economy works best for everyone when each person does what is best for himself. No obligations to anyone but the shareholders, who are spread far and wide. Sure, throw in a bit of charity, but heaven forbid to think of justice, or even loyalty. (See, e.g., "My Response to Mortimer Zuckerman: Charity Should Be a Way Station on the Road to Justice", December 29, 2009).
Move your workforce offshore, increase profits, and then set up a charitable foundation in the city you decimated to take minimal care of a small fraction of the lives and livelihoods ruined.
Contrast this with the ethos of Bill Russell who led the Boston Celtics to umpteen championships. He stayed in Boston for his entire playing career. The Celtics bought no one. All of his teammates rose through the ranks in Boston. He made them better players, and together the team--let's repeat, the team--won.
Russell and the Celtics worked at building championship teams. They didn't cobble them together with pieces from elsewhere. They worked.
Enter, Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs's CEO.
He claims he does "god's work". Work? What exactly does Goldman Sachs produce? Money, to be sure, lots and lots of it. And, today, to hear the rightwing ethos, that is the only measure of value. Sure, Goldman Sachs provides some value as facilitators and lenders, no doubt about that. But, their billions come from trading for their own account.
Compare him to Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. They also made money, lots and lots and lots and lots of it. But, they did it by producing a lot of tools and gadgets we all use today to make our work and lives better, more efficient, and more fun. Or, to Stanley Cohen and Herb Boyer. They made money, lots of it. But, they invented the way we can produce human proteins in large amounts, uncontaminated by what may be swimming around in peoples' blood. Anemic because of kidney failure? Now, blood counts can be normalized by taking a small amount of a human protein produced by normal, but not diseased, kidneys. Diabetic because of pancreas cell failure? Now, blood sugar can be controlled by taking the same insulin the body is no longer making. Painful arthritis not controlled by standard medicines? Now, symptoms can be eased by injecting a human protein that sops up one of the major disease-causing molecules before it reaches the joints.
So, it's not the money. It's the ethos, the work, the relationship of what is produced to that money.
LeBron was not 'patriotic' to the place that nurtured him, that gave him his start. But, Blankfein and his friends are not very patriotic to the country that gave them not only their start, but also weakened the rules of play so they could make huge fortunes, only to tank the rest of the economy.
And, what have Blankfein and his cohorts done since that man-made disaster? Used their money and clout to enable them to continue the same activities, paid themselves enormous bonuses and fought against taxes to help pay the expenses for the damage they did. Sorry, I did forget the $500M they will set aside to give to worthy causes. Thanks Lloyd. The trillions in middle class wealth your (and your colleagues) activities cause? Someone else's responsibility, eh? What about the $13B laundered through AIG? Tough luck.
And, we let them get away with it. Yes, we did.
So, Lebron James is going to make a lot of money, and the Miami Heat paid a lot of money to three superstars so they can all be champions together. What in our culture has taught him that doing anything differently, for any other reason, is of equal or greater importance? In fact James did not even take the highest bidder--an easy road to championships was more important.
And the owners of the Cleveland Cavaliers are furious--after all, the value of their franchise just dropped precipitously. It would be interesting to check their business histories to see what they did when loyalty would have cost them a deal, or a profit margin. What did they do?
Don't put the blame on James. It is how we raised him. Yes, us.