#CavsRank Villains: No. 1, “Miami” LeBron

Editor’s Note: A few weeks ago, we had seven CtB writers rank the biggest villains in Cavs history. We tallied up the results and they were a surprise to me as much as anyone. I thought Jordan would win in a landslide. Using a reverse ranking system which gave 25 points for No. 1, and one point for No. 25, LeBron received 168 points, just edging out MJ who nabbed 166. Interestingly, LeBron garnered only two first place votes while Jordan grabbed four. (Ted Stepien received one). But one writer game-theoried the ballot and ranked MJ fifth, which pushed LeBron to the top (the same writer had the Heat listed as No. 2). After thinking about the results, I’m glad it turned out the way it did.

David Wood

I didn’t hate LeBron James for going to Miami or – after about a year – even the Decision. My ethos of, “I’m still a LeBron fan till I die, but there’s some room for hate in that fandom,” started after game five of the 2010 series against the Celtics when I looked at who LeBron was at that time. That game he went 3-14 for just 15 points to go with six rebounds and seven assists. All of Boston’s starters, aside from Kendrick Perkins, scored more than him. The Cavs lost 88-120. It was a straight up stomping. The Celtics did whatever they wanted, as the Cavs messed with their rotation, lacked motivation, and got booed by their own fans with over 22 minutes of game left. Bill Simmons summed the game up pretty well in a diary entitled, “The end of pro basketball in Cleveland?” if you want to relive it.

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My LeBron hate seed was planted all the way back when the King entered the league in 2003, even if I didn’t know it at the time.

I’m not entirely sure who first said the phrase, “LeBron James won the genetic lottery,” but it’s an obvious enough statement that it could have been said by anyone. At just 18 years old, LeBron was 6’7” and 240 pounds. His out of high school body was as good as or maybe even better than the best bodies in the NBA. And, let’s not forget, he was as coordinated, strong, and smart as the best guys in the league. He was the robot you would design if you wanted to take over the NBA single handedly: able to pass like a point guard, able to score like a shooting guard, able to cut like a small forward, and able to hold his ground like a center. In just threes years in the league, he upped his weight to 250 pounds (270 pounds at times in later seasons). All of the extra weight being just muscle. LeBron has arguably the most natural talent of any athlete, ever.

Talent is the word I want to really focus on.

Not only is Will Smith a great actor, he is a great philosopher. Looking back at LeBron’s time in Cleveland, you see that the King really relied on his raw talent. It’s not necessarily a bad thing seeing as he consistently scored above 25 points and had at least five rebounds and five assists a night after his rookie year.

After his rookie season, LeBron improved as a shooter ever so slightly, but still wasn’t amazing. As a rookie, he had a true shooting percentage of 48.8%. During the 2004-2005 season the King became a little more comfortable and his true shooting percentage reached 55.4%. His true shooting numbers hovered around that area until the 2008-2009 season when he was able to increase his true shooting number to 59.1% thanks to a Cavalier team with near perfect chemistry and construction. Check out John Krolik’s description of that season for LeBron (This article is also wonderful if you want a more detailed history of LeBron’s development as a player):

With Williams and West spacing the floor and keeping the ball moving on the perimeter, Anderson Varejao and Ben Wallace making smart cuts to keep the defense honest on the weak side (Ben Wallace used cutting and passing to be FAR more effective than he should have been offensively that season), and gigantic former point guard Zydrunas Ilgauskas keeping the ball moving from the high-post and hitting release-valve 18-footers, LeBron finally had the toys he needed to play with. There were some new sets to free Mo Williams for corner threes on picks, or get LeBron free on the weak-side, but mostly it was LeBron making the defense react on every possession and having four teammates on the floor with him at all times who knew how to make a reacting defense pay.

LeBron could no longer be the total focus of defenses, unless they wanted to be burned by other guys. The King also started making more long twos and more threes that season, which helped him become a more effective “shooter”.

However, he was still hitting less than 35% of his deep threes during these pre-Miami years and had the bad habit of taking long 2s (defined as 16 feet out to the 3-line). In fact, during his first seven seasons with the Cavs 24.5% of his shots were long twos, the most inefficient shot in the game, and he made 37.5% of them. That number isn’t entirely dreadful, but when you make shots at a 70% rate around the rim it is by comparison. LeBron’s final season with the Cavs, 26.2% (the second highest percent of his career thus far) of his shots were from that dreaded long 2 zone.

While in Miami, 22.5% (just 19.3 during the playoffs) of the King’s shots were long 2s and he drained 41.4% of them. He also shot 36% from 3-point land in Miami. It’s pretty apparent he developed better shot selection, and really improved his overall playing while on his four-year vacation. Bron learned how to post-up and learned discretion in shooting, his true shooting percentage stayed above 60% his entire time at the beach. He also shot 79.6% percent at the rim his final season there, which is absolutely absurd.

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Let’s flashback to arguably LeBron’s best performance as a Cavalier. His best display of pure talent. LeBron was just 22 years old. In 2007, with the Eastern Conference Finals tied at 2-2, LeBron went head to head to with Detroit Pistons, who had knocked him out of the playoffs just one season before, in a pivotal game five. The game ended up going to overtime. The King scored 29 of the final 30 points in a double overtime win. Bill Simmons gushed:

This wasn’t just about the improbable 29-of-30 points barrage down the stretch, those two monster dunks at the end of regulation, the way he perservered despite a crummy coach and a mediocre supporting cast, how he just kept coming and coming, even how he made that game-winning layup look so damned easy. Physically, LeBron overpowered the Pistons. This was like watching a light-heavyweight battling a middleweight for eight rounds and suddenly realizing, “Wait, I have 15 pounds on this guy,” then whipping the poor guy into a corner and destroying him with body punches. The enduring moment was LeBron flying down the middle for a Dr. J retro dunk and Tayshaun Prince ducking for cover like someone reacting to a fly-by from a fighter jet. The Pistons wanted no part of him. They were completely dominated. They didn’t knock him down, they didn’t jump in front of him for a charge … hell, they were so shell-shocked by what was happening, they didn’t even realize they should be throwing two guys at him.

Simmons summed up what LeBron’s first stint in Cleveland would come to be known for in my mind:

Put it this way: They won’t need to change the rules to protect LeBron. If Jordan was a receiver, then LeBron is one of those scary tight ends who runs a 4.35 40, outsprints safeties and occasionally carries five tacklers into the end zone just to see if it can be done. Physically, he’s the most imposing perimeter player in the history of the league. Nobody else comes close.

Just look at these highlights.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHaSiWClteQ

Watching that video should make one thing really clear. LeBron’s go to move at the time was absorbing contact, taking his two steps unphased, and making a pass or finishing. It’s unworldly how strong he looked. At that time, a semi-truck could have driven onto the court, blasted LeBron in the shoulder, and the King probably would have completed whatever it was he wanted to do: pass, shoot, or dunk. The King’s go to move was putting his head down and getting to the rim. It’s the same move that he still shows when he doesn’t want to work someone over in the post. It’s genetics.

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Unfortunately, for the King, the Celtics figured out how to defeat those genetics. In game 5 of their 2010 battle, the Celtics opted to let Paul Pierce just focus on LeBron. He was going to keep the King from getting to the rim. A lot of times this meant sagging off of him and conceding the 3-pointer or mid-range jumper. It worked. The King’s talent couldn’t overcome the Celtics. For the series LeBron made just 7-24 shots from behind the arc.

LeBron’s Game 5 against Boston in 2010.

LeBron bounced back the next game putting up a triple-double, but the Cavs still lost the series in six. The King was still one of the best players, but after that game five, we all knew something was up. LeBron had no go-to move based on refined skill. If a team could cut LeBron’s physical presence down, his skill set couldn’t make up for it.

Another part of the issue was that LeBron still thought his shot was one of his skills in 2010. That season he took five 3s a night hitting just 33.3% of the time. Only 28 others guys in the NBA took at least that many triples a night. Of those 28 guys, only Stephen Jackson made less of his long balls hitting only 32.8%.

Now, back to game five. My hatred for the King started after that game because it was then that I saw he had probably been coasting just a little bit on his natural gifts. Up until that point, I had never noticed this. I always blamed the Cavs’ playoff failures on lackluster supporting casts, bad luck, and outside factors. I can’t blame him though. I was always willing to say “Good job,” when it came to LeBron, which was actually the problem. He could do no wrong and I usually defended him, as did most of Cleveland, when people criticized his game.

Fast forward to the 1:40 mark of the video.

Terence Fletcher: I told you that story about how Charlie Parker became Charlie Parker, right?
Andrew Neiman: Yup, Jo Jones threw a cymbal at his head.
Fletcher: Exactly. Parker’s a young kid, pretty good on the sax. Gets up to play at a cutting session… and he fucks it up. And Jones nearly decapitates him for it. And he’s laughed off-stage. Cries himself to sleep that night but the next morning, what does he do? He practices. And he practices and he practices with one goal in mind: Never to be laughed at again. And a year later, he goes back to the Reno… And he steps up on that stage and he plays the best motherfucking solo the world has ever heard. (beat) So imagine if Jones had just said: “Well, that’s okay Charlie. Eh… that was alright. Good job.” Then Charlie thinks to himself, “Well, shit. I did do a pretty good job.” End of story, no “Bird.” That, to me, is… an absolute tragedy. But that’s just what the world wants now! People wonder why jazz is dying. (beat) I’ll tell you man. And every Starbucks “jazz” album just proves my point, really. There are no two words in the English language more harmful… Than “good job.”

That scene is very applicable to LeBron. The world came down on him the season after he left. He felt it; he failed that first year in Miami. During the Finals against Dallas, he would again take too many 3s, even though he wasn’t hitting them. LeBron’s play allowed the world to throw a cymbal at his head. The NBA laughed and no one said “good job,”when the King lost this time. There was no scapegoat. His team was stacked. The world said he was choking and his talent couldn’t save him. But, that was what the King needed. He won the title the next year.

Ironically, it was probably all of the Cleveland and general hate that helped him work on the skills he needed to be good enough to win a title. So Cleveland fans rejoice, you all sort of have a claim to James’ Miami titles. And, you all have a a claim to his now legendary skill set. Those skills are what makes it all okay that he’s back. I also pretend the four years in Miami were just a quasi-Hakeem camp. I just hope the King still has enough of his game five Detroit destruction talent left to make his four year trip worth it.

LeBron’s Shot Chart for the 2011 Finals.

All stats from Basketeballreference.com unless noted otherwise.

Nate Smith

LeBron James is the greatest player in Cavs history. He tops almost every career statistical category, and probably will top them all by the time he’s done. LeBron is rivaled only by the immortal Jim Brown as the greatest sports figure in Cleveland history. Yet a year-and-a-half ago, when a group of Cavs blogs got together to turn out #CavsRank and rank the best players in Cavalier history, the King was ranked only No. 2. He was topped by Mark Price, a great player and by all accounts a great person. But Mark Price isn’t the force of nature that LeBron is, and there’s no chance that he’ll go down as the greatest basketball player of all time, like LeBron has a good chance of doing. At that time, though, LeBron was “Miami LeBron.” If we bloggers retook that same poll 17 months later? There really couldn’t be any other No. 1 other than LeBron James. He’s the team’s greatest hero, greatest player, and most notorious villain.

People try to forget the levels of insane hate and agony LeBron’s departure caused. LeBron’s tale is one of a kind. No player as great as LeBron has ever had a story like LeBron James. We watched him in high school when he became a national phenomenon at 16. We celebrated joyously when the Cavs won the lottery to draft him. James traveled just 30 miles north to Cleveland to play. He became arguably the best player in the league by his third season. And we all watched him grow up before our very eyes. We were all invested in that story, and his departure devastated our egos and broke our hearts.

LeBron’s departure for South Beach wasn’t “The Shot.” It wasn’t Ted Stepien making the team a national joke, and running it into the ground. Michael Jordan’s greatness was, while agonizing, explicable. We could see it with our eyes. And Ted Stepien’s incompetence was apparent from very early. If the man had moved the Cavs to Toronto, we’d all be living different histories. Stepien would be our Clay Bennett. But Larry O’Brien and the Gunds saved the Cavs. No, what LeBron did was worse.

I’ll spare you a recap of the details. We know the events of July 1, 2010 like we know the back of our hands. We’ve all wrote about it here ad nauseum. There’s four years of LeBron agony and anger in the archives of this blog. Tom wrote a three part series on The Decision entitled, “Why I want LeBron to Fail (Forever).” He summed up why LeBron’s exodus hurt so damned bad.

The media and the trolls could take their uninformed pot shots at Cleveland but they certainly couldn’t de-legitimize the game’s best player, and our homegrown son, not on our watch.  And that is how he became more than a player playing a game – he became our face to the outside world.  That is why we hung a monstrous Christ-like image of a man in our city – that is why we bought Witness T-shirts, that is why we took it so personally when he refused to represent the Indians – since they were also a part of our collective psyche.  It became unhealthy...

LeBron’s decision, intentionally or not, meant this to me:  “I don’t care at all about you or your city.”  Quite simply, there are a lot of people that don’t care about me or my city – in fact MOST people don’t.  But this stung – it really really hurt.  It cut both ways.  I didn’t spend thousands of hard-earned dollars on t-shirts, shoes, jerseys, posters, and other memorabilia bearing the name of most people – I bought LeBron’s… I did it in support of LeBron.  I fought an NBA sub-culture war, (quite possibly the silliest thing I’ve ever admitted to) in defense of LeBron’s honor.  Because to me, LeBron became Cleveland – and I will always support Cleveland.

I felt rejected, betrayed, and those feelings quickly gave way to embarrassment and shame.  Embarrassed that I would go so far and expend so much energy on someone that did not even know I existed.  Someone that, at his core, could literally not care less about what I thought of him.  Someone who’s “fans” existed solely to elevate his already incredible ego – disposable fans.  It was the ultimate disrespect.

[From Part II]

LeBron quit before he started.  He quit because he never went all-in.  He quit on his teammates, he quit on the Cavalier franchise, he quit on Cavs fans, he quit on NorthEast Ohio, and he quit on the game of basketball.

LeBron didn’t quit on his teammates in the box score – he quit when he made himself bigger than them.  When he preached to us about his love for his teammates for years and then left them with the same constant anxiety as us fans.  They had no idea what his plans were, where he was going.  He didn’t fill them in at all.  He didn’t even hint at it.

Yes, LeBron hurt us badly, from Dan Gilbert, to the fans, to Mo Williams. LeBron left us all searching for answers and wondering why we weren’t good enough. The truth is we had heaped a ridiculous amount responsibility on one young man’s shoulders. Few people can carry that weight: governors, presidents, mayors, civil rights leaders, CEOs. Asking a 25-year-old basketball player to be Atlas was, in retrospect, ridiculous.

But what made Jame’s departure so villainous, was not that it broke our hearts our damaged our regional pride. It was the fact that our reactions to it turned us into worse people. Dan Gilbert wrote a letter in Comic Sans that I’m sure he’ll regret forever. He went on talk radio shows and made ridiculous accusations and proclamations about LeBron’s future failures. Mo Williams was never the same. I spent four years referring to LeBron as LeFraud, LeQuit, and a thousand other all too cute LeNicknames. I’m sure Tom will cringe when reading some of his wishes for LeBron’s perpetual failure. “Miami LeBron” became the antitheses of Cleveland LeBron. While Cleveland LeBron was held up as a “Christlike figure,” Miami LeBron became the magnet for all our blame, derision, and irrational anger. It was equally ridiculous.

And let’s not forget that LeBron got a little nutty himself. We all know the “Welcome Party” video. Where LeBron predicted eight Heat championships. And there was the 2010-2011 season where LeBron seemed to relish his heel turn, and the villain role. But by and large we acted just as insufferably. The flaming jerseys were not the face of Northeast Ohio that we wanted to show the world. In the wake of Forclosureville a wretched recession, and The Decision, we kind of lost our minds. I mean we rationalized re-hiring Mike Brown for Christ’s sake. I didn’t start getting mine back till I started writing here.

It took me a long time to realize that what made this area awesome had nothing to do with LeBron. It had something to do with this feeling that we’re all in it together…

And even if you find the idea of regional allegiance bizarre, as Colin did in one of his best pieces, I still hope there’s a character to the region that rubs off on even the most distant fan. “Cities –” Colin wrote, “though they’re really just a mass of flesh, concrete, and steel—breathe. They are frighteningly organism-like. And what better way to celebrate that almost-organism than by watching your favorite sports team— ambassadors of your favorite city.” I still hope that the guys on my team represent some of what I value: hard work, individuality, class, humor, diversity, decency, effort, originality… And I hope they can split double teams, hit corner threes, and convert around the basket.

There is a point at which players – those ambassadors – have been a part of the team and the area for so long that they’re not “players” any more. They’re people. They exist outside of the game. They become part of the mythology of the realm. Instead of our team/our place leaving their marks on them, they leave their marks on us. Jim Brown, Bernie Kosar, Bob Feller, Jose Mesa, Jim Thome, Omar Vizquel, Zydrunas Ilguaskus, and LeBron James (for good and ill), have imbued our folklore with spirits that it didn’t have before they were here.

So we all spent four years healing, and growing up a little bit. I, for one, learned to take sports less seriously. I think part of me at the end of LeBron’s Heat run even empathized with LeBron’s inability to conquer the Spurs: a perfect basketball machine.

In the last five years, we’ve become better people, I hope. LeBron Jame’s legacy on his Cleveland return continues to grow, and transcends the arbitrary notion of a championship. He’s committed himself to helping kids get to college, and helping adults get their GED’s. As LBJ said in his “I’m Coming Home” essay, he’s committed to something that means more than a championship:  helping make this area a better place to live, work, and raise a family.

I feel my calling here goes above basketball. I have a responsibility to lead, in more ways than one, and I take that very seriously. My presence can make a difference in Miami, but I think it can mean more where I’m from. I want kids in Northeast Ohio, like the hundreds of Akron third-graders I sponsor through my foundation, to realize that there’s no better place to grow up. Maybe some of them will come home after college and start a family or open a business. That would make me smile. Our community, which has struggled so much, needs all the talent it can get.

LeBron is shouldering some of the weight that we always wanted him to before he left. He didn’t have to do this. He could have stayed in Miami. He could have gone to New York, L.A., or any city in the world. He could have stayed our greatest villain. But he chose to return, forgive, and carry that weight, despite everything that he said and we said. In choosing that, instead of having it chosen for him, he’s become our biggest hero.