LeBron James Again Discusses The Decision

LeBron James was interviewed by one of England’s premier newspapers, The Guardian, during his most recent visit to America’s strongest ally, and given the British are not necessarily up to date with James in the media circles, the common questions of his NBA Finals failure and The Decision found their way into the discussion.

We’ll give the poms a break, mostly because they have a funny accent and have no sun all year round, so we feel bad for the poor guys.

Nonetheless James was more than willing to discuss these issues that have plagued his last 15 months and resurface his feelings on these topics that he was desperately trying to distance himself from.

"“It stayed with me a couple of months. It was definitely heartbreaking. I really believe it’s made me a better player. And I’m a better person as well for it – just in terms of focusing harder, zeroing in even more. It’s made me critique my game and work out who I am as a person. We faced a great team in Dallas and I don’t think enough people gave them the credit they deserve. They were so excited to write and talk about us they often forgot about the Dallas Mavericks. But they have two Hall of Famers in Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd.”"

It’s a relevant point and something that everyone agrees with, but it doesn’t change the fact that teams with your LeBron James’, Kobe Bryants and the like will always draw more attention, even in a loss, than another more balanced yet superstar less franchise. Not that Dirk Nowitzki is not an incredible player, but he is not in that upper echelon of stars that James, Bryant and Wade find themselves in.

It then got a little more personal…

"“It’s definitely tough, sometimes, when you read a lot of negative things that say you’re selfish or you don’t play the right way. But, for me, I’ve only played one way: for the team."

And on The Decision..

"“Um, yeah. I was surprised by it because I was making a decision for myself. I was doing something that I believed was going to make me happy and freshen me up. But looking back I can understand why a lot of people were upset. That definitely wasn’t my intention: to upset people.My thinking was built around those kids who would benefit from me making this decision, all these underprivileged kids that would get the millions and millions of dollars that I would receive. That was my whole motivation.You can get angry but, you know, I’m satisfied when I go to those kids’ clubs all over the United States that they don’t forget the moment when their gymnasium was refurbished, or their library or media centre, and they went from big old computers to laptops. To be a part of those clubs makes me smile. As a professional athlete a lot is going to be said about you – but I just try to move forward and achieve my goals. You’ve got to go through the tornado to get to the clear weather. I feel we went through it and now we’re headed on the right path.”"

The common consensus was to present James as the bad guy and nonsensically say that he made the show to somehow hurt Cleveland, yet few give credit to him for holding the show in a charity building with all proceeds going directly to charity. People let their anger that he did not join their team, or more so stay with their team, get in the way of their real feelings towards LeBron, which led to the current state of anarchy the country is now in over this genuinely nice guy.

James then admitted he missed the hate before again giving a logical and completely correct analogy of his current situation.

"“I miss it right now with the lockout, feeding off the opposing crowd and them booing you – in a good way. Some of ’em, they boo you because they don’t like you personally – but they don’t know you personally. They haven’t had the opportunity to sit next to you. If they did, they might have a totally different idea about you.”"

The people that have had the opportunity to sit next to him have said nothing in the slightest bit negatory. You’d think that would hold some weight.

Has he been charged with sexual assault, dog fighting, murder, drink driving, domestic violence or illegal possession of fire arms? Absolutely not.

Yet for some reason, other high profile athletes that have done those things and more are given a second chance for whatever unjustifiable reason. James is not forgiven for being misguided under an ambition solely of charity.

Rather than James taking a good, hard look at himself, it’s the majority of America and too the world that should be doing so.

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