Defending LeBron

Wow, I guess everyone hates LeBron James. How could you not? The guy gets nothing but praise, yet couldn't win a championship with Antwan Jamison and Mo Williams. And instead of just choosing a team to sign with this summer, he forced teams to come to him, and -gasp- show him why he should sign there. And when all of the hype got to the boiling point, and it seemed everybody was fed up with the speculation, he had the gall to tell us all the exact time and place we would learn his new destination.

Can you sense my sarcasm?

I'd like to thank the sports fans of America for completely ruining the Summer of LeBron. I've been excited for this for awhile now, just waiting to immerse myself in talks about sign and trades, cap room and player movement. And for the most part, it was as good as I thought it would be. But the misdirected hate towards LeBron has soured it. I can't take it anymore. It's disgusting and completely ill-informed.

Take Yahoo NBA analyst Adrian Wojnarowski, who wrote the following:

The Championship of Me comes crashing into a primetime cable infomercial that LeBron James and his cronies have been working to make happen for months, a slow, cynical churning of manufactured drama that sports has never witnessed. As historic monuments go, this is the Rushmore of basketball hubris and narcissism. The vacuous star for our vacuous times. All about ‘Bron and all about nothing.

James is throwing a few foosball tables at Boys & Girls Clubs, an empty gesture out of the empty superstar. He’s turned free agency into the title of our times, a preening pageant of fawning, begging and pleading. Hard-working people are dragged into municipalities and told to hold signs, chant scripted slogans and beg a diva who doesn’t care about them to accept a $100 million contract.

This just about sums it up; everything is LeBron's fault. He has "dragged" people into this, made them "beg". Except, you know, he hasn't really done anything. He was in the position to ask NBA teams to pitch to him. Those teams were more than happy to oblige. Once the media showed fans where these meetings would be held, they took it upon themselves to come out in droves and show James their support. Wow, what a monster!

Writers like Wojnarowski are who you should direct your disdain towards. He has spent all this time regurgitating the same speculations and rumors everybody else has, and is getting paid for it. His Twitter account has gained in popularity. He has, in fact, talked it about more than most LeBron supporters. He is a hypocrite and is partly responsible for Thursday's circus.

The truth remains that James' decision is the single most important event concerning the future of the NBA. That's why the media is covering this in the first place. And it is they, along with Mr. Wojnarowski, who have beaten it into us 24/7 ever since the end of Game Seven. All any NBA fan needed was the rumors and inside information. And yes, ESPN might have taken it further, but it was the naysayers who first started talking about non-basketball related issues, like what LeBron was wearing during these interviews.

Don't be mad at LeBron going through the motions of what is not only a huge decision for his life, but for the welfare of the league of which he plays in. The NBA with him in New York is a different NBA than if he stays in Cleveland. And mind you, this is a 25 year old making this decision. You were probably doing Jager-bombs with chubby college girls when you were his age. So shut it.

If you don't like how this whole thing has played out, remember: LeBron has no control on how he is perceived. He holds a lot of power, but as this hate-fest has showed, he cannot shape our opinions. That's what newspapers and television do. And what New Media and the internet age does now, is break apart our heroes and beat them down into dust. We no longer want our athletes to be bigger than life, rather, we want somebody to show us why they are no better than we are.

Well, LeBron is better than you. I'm guessing he's better than you in just about everything. He is definitely more accomplished as a 25 year old than most people, more mature as well. His response to people saying enough was to push this whole fiasco into one hour on a Thursday night. He's giving us what we want without dragging it out any longer.

Save your hate for the media. There was a time when they would champion the best, now they want to become part of the story. Don't let 'em.

Just know that when this is all over, James' decision will still matter in the NBA while the media's coverage of this last few weeks will be long forgotten. The King will write his own book. Let's just hope Adrian Wojnarowski doesn't write one any time soon.