Tears well up in my eyes as I read it.
http://www.si.com/nba/2014/07/11/lebron-james-cleveland-cavaliers
I don't care if someone edited it, polished it or refined it for him. The message tugs at your heart.
"Before anyone ever cared where I would play basketball, I was a kid from Northeast Ohio," James begins in his letter to fans. "It’s where I walked. It’s where I ran. It’s where I cried. It’s where I bled. It holds a special place in my heart. People there have seen me grow up."
Right there, I'm already choked up.
Maybe it's because I have become so used to athletes making spectacles of themselves as James did when he announced he was bailing his hometown and taking his "talents to South Beach" in a live, televised ESPN reveal four years ago.
Even last night during Major League Baseball's All-Star game, when Seattle relief pitcher Fernando Rodney ended an inning with a strikeout late in the game, he shot an imaginary arrow in the air in a clear act of ego and showmanship that really is no different than how James acted when he abandoned Cleveland.
But it wasn't that he abandoned Cleveland as much as how he did it that truly upset fans, causing many to burn his jerseys, with Cavs owner Dan Gilbert even writing a scathing letter to about/to James that said some pretty angry things. And that's putting it mildly.
This, however ... this is the new LeBron. Wiser. More mature. A father to several kids of his own now. That perspective changes the way a mature person thinks, makes decisions. The message you create for your own kids suddenly matters even more.
"My relationship with Northeast Ohio is bigger than basketball," James continues in his letter. "I didn’t realize that four years ago. I do now. Remember when I was sitting up there at the Boys & Girls Club in 2010? I was thinking, This is really tough. I could feel it. I was leaving something I had spent a long time creating."
I'm glad he mentioned the Boys & Girls' clubs. Just a few weeks ago, I donated $10 to their cause on behalf of former White Sox skipper Ozzie Guillen at a semipro baseball game, knowing it's an organization making a tangible difference to underprivileged kids every day of the year. I've seen it with my own eyes.
Some of those same underprivileged kids who looked up to LeBron like he was their hero, their everything, many who don't have a mom or dad, were hurt when LeBron left Cleveland. I'm sure of it.
Then, comes an apology of sorts. Remember, this is a guy who has the '303' area code of Akron, Ohio, tattooed on his arm. You don't do that for fun.
"If I had to do it all over again, I’d obviously do things differently, but I’d still have left," James adds. "Miami, for me, has been almost like college for other kids. These past four years helped raise me into who I am. I became a better player and a better man. I learned from a franchise that had been where I wanted to go. I will always think of Miami as my second home. Without the experiences I had there, I wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing today."
Sure, a small portion of people will say that James bailing from Miami has the same negative effect him bailing Cleveland did for fans and kids alike. But you'd be wrong.
The difference now is, that mother or father in Miami can explain, rationally, to their child what James did this time was for the right reasons. Ones that matter, that a child can comprehend and understand. Ones that when a child grows older, they can look back bummed James left Miami, sure, yet understand he did so for the right reasons and still look up to him. Cleveland or not.
There's a certain dignity in that. Doing something as James now has for family, friends and those who grew up with him. Playing in the same parks. Going to the same schools.
Him returning is the kind of thing that gives people hope again. The same hope us Chicago fans have clamored for from our very own Chicago Cubs for over a century, in fact.
"After the season, free agency wasn’t even a thought," James said.
Which means something convinced him. We'll call it maturity. Perspective. All things he has learned since his ill-fated ESPN announcement.
That there is class in doing things old school still.
"But I have two boys and my wife, Savannah, is pregnant with a girl," James adds. "I started thinking about what it would be like to raise my family in my hometown. I looked at other teams, but I wasn’t going to leave Miami for anywhere except Cleveland. The more time passed, the more it felt right. This is what makes me happy."
To be honest, I didn't really respect LeBron for a long time. As a sports fan. As a person. I always knew he was the best basketball player in the NBA right now. But something was missing. I felt there was a deeper side to this man, the one an entire city has now forgiven and re-embraced.
"I'm not promising a championship," James says.
Thing is, to many in Cleveland, this letter, this announcement, the way he did it ... in many ways it's bigger than any NBA title he's won.
And it was one of the biggest breaths of fresh air I've had in a while in a pro sports world that can be filled with stench far too often.
LeBron was the last person I thought would provide me with that. But boy am I glad he did.
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