#CavsRank Moments 4: The Essay

Cavs fans won’t be forgetting the summer of 2014 anytime soon. In June, the world had just witnessed the San Antonio Spurs’ evisceration of the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. Still feeling the sting of the also-indelible summer of 2010, when LeBron James announced his decision to leave Cleveland in free agency, many Cavs fans delighted in watching their former king come up short in a championship bid once again. While James played valiantly in the series, he had little help from a supporting cast that ailed from the rigors of four consecutive Finals appearances. The Heat looked worn out, feeble, old and broken; their future was suddenly in question as they did not have the appearance of a team that was a lock to make another Finals, let alone win it. Of course, James just also happened to be a free agent that summer, and as the NBA’s July free agency period hit, speculation began to run wild about what King James might do.

Surely he would remain with the Heat, who sat atop a 4-for-4 streak of Finals appearances with two victories. Or maybe he yearned for the bright lights of New York City where close friend Carmelo Anthony played with the Knicks? Or could he possibly consider joining the ultimate team of teams, the Spurs who had just defeated him? Somewhere, though, deep down inside the hearts of many Cavs fans, shined a glimmer of hope that the son of Akron would return to the home state he spurned four years ago. It right around that time that the rumors began.

https://twitter.com/josh_tep/status/485086268640874496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Many of the free agency rumors centered around James’ desire to return “home,” to a place where his connections ran deep and where fans once worshiped him. It made perfect sense in a way — or at least, it was easy to convince oneself as much. The story wouldn’t die, though. The prodigal son returning home to right all wrongs and deliver Northeast Ohio a championship? It sounded too good to be true, yet fans and media alike ran with the narrative. Of course, in the social media age, the search for any possible hint of James’ thinking reached ridiculous levels of obsession, to the point where people were actually tracking the flights of Dan Gilbert’s private jet. Before long, the Cavs were being mentioned as the “front runner” in the LeBron sweepstakes. But as free agency stretched into its second week, the King remained silent and Cavs fans’ diets became increasingly fingernail-based.

Then a funny thing happened around lunchtime on July 11, 2014. James made his announcement via a heartfelt essay penned by Sports Illustrated’s Lee Jenkins:

I’m coming home.

You should take a moment to re-read that essay, if you haven’t already since the Cavs won the Finals. It said everything a wounded Cavs fan wanted to hear from the man who once spurned them like an ex-lover. The moment SI put that essay out, an entire region exploded in joy after months of hand-wringing and cautious optimism. “Fool me once…” was the thinking of many an Ohioan, but all the rumors proved to be true. July 11, 2014 is probably the second-least productive work day in the history of Cleveland.

To understand the mind of a Cavs or Cleveland fan, one has to consider the relationship between those people and their sports teams. For fifty-plus years, an entire generation of sports fans attached themselves to teams that seemed cursed to fail in infinitely excruciating fashions. An unglamorous region that had fallen on hard times identified with the downtrodden franchises in a way that was about more than sports. In regards to both sports teams and the region itself, why would any sane person continue to invest themselves in a less-than-ideal situation that was never guaranteed to improve? It was about faith. Staying true to who you are and the belief that things can always be better.

When the Cavs hit the lottery — literally — and drafted LeBron James from St. Vincent-St. Mary in Akron, Ohio with the No. 1 overall pick in 2003, it was like a small miracle. What were the odds one of the best basketball talents of all time would be born just down the road from Cleveland and then drafted to play for the city’s professional team? What hurt Clevelanders so much when LeBron left the Cavs in 2010 was the idea that he was “one of us” and should know better than to exit this once-in-a-lifetime fan-athlete relationship. Rising talent had been emigrating from Northeast Ohio for decades. How could he turn his back on us with no remorse? LeBron’s essay was perfect because it demonstrated that he WANTED to be here and that he understood the way people felt.

I want to give them hope when I can. I want to inspire them when I can. My relationship with Northeast Ohio is bigger than basketball. I didn’t realize that four years ago. I do now.

James explains in his essay that leaving to Miami was like going to college, and for someone more or less raised in the bubble of success that Ohioans created around him, it was a necessary experience. We get that now. Everyone comes away from the experience matured and wiser. Being the marketing genius that he is, some of LeBron’s sentiments are surely played up, but the gesture was more than enough. Choosing Cleveland was all Clevelanders ever wanted from their talented, native son.

There have been few athletes with such a profound connection to a home team and even fewer of James’ magnitude. Sometimes it’s important to remember just how special of a relationship this is. At the FIFA World Cup, the Olympics, you cheer for your countrymen because they represent you. They’re from the same place as you. The connection is very simple but profound.

However, in professional and club sports where individuals are drafted and free agency exists, this phenomenon is rare. Players are more like mercenaries and seek out situations where money, fame, or success (and sometimes all three) are obtainable. Sentimental notions such as playing for your hometown team are peripheral and often unrealistic. We fans cheer for laundry in these franchise sports. We cheer for people we probably wouldn’t have cheered for if they never happened to be drafted by or acquired by our team; a team that, in all likelihood, we root for in the first place simply because of where we were born.

And though money, fame, and success dovetailed after The Esay, LeBron’s relationship with Northeast Ohio is a huge part of what endeared him to earnest Cavs fans so deeply, and that relationship brought him back. As James described himself, it’s so much more than sports. This is a megastar, supreme talent, one of the most famous people in the world and on the top of a highly publicized industry. A man with the world as his playground. And that man CHOSE CLEVELAND. He told the world that home is good enough. For just that fact alone – not the wins, the championship, or the publicity – it was good enough – not just for us to forgive him, but to embrace him with open arms.

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.

Upon “winning one for the ‘Land,” James wept. He roared our name on live, international television. He’s even spread his support to Cleveland’s other sports teams, despite being a known Yankees and Cowboys fan.

.@KingJames got The Land hype for their @Indians.

@Indians lead Red Sox 4-0 through 2 frames on @TBSNetwork: https://t.co/C5qhPJ62VE pic.twitter.com/kKu30iKwf4

— MLB (@MLB) October 7, 2016

As he says in the above video, it is Cleveland against the world, and the denizens eat up that bunker mentality. LeBron has fully embraced his connection to Cleveland and Ohio in 2016. That’s really all anyone ever wanted to hear. The pull of home is a universal feeling anyone can relate to. After reading The Essay, I didn’t think there could be any moment — title or not — that could top LeBron’s decision to come home.

Boy, was I glad to be wrong.