LeBron James' Championship Quest Puts Status As Legendary Player in Doubt

It has now been four full days since "The Decision," and the hurt still hasn't lessened. Before I go any further, I want to say that I stopped being a Lebron fan after his first two years in the NBA.

His maturation process was not one that lent itself well to his wonderful talents in my opinion.

The sense of entitlement he walked around with was enough to distance me even further as the years went by. Yet I still marvel at how he is able to give the game whatever is needed with seemingly little effort. Just like fame, the game came rather easy to him.

He turned ordinary players, like Moe Williams into all-stars; now Williams and the players formerly known as the Lebronettes will have to make it work without him.

It is a tough road to walk when much is given and expected of you when you have yet to earn or master the technique necessary to make those same arguments true.

David Stern's ingenious plan to promote the individual after Michael Jordan's rise to global fame is the root of LeBron's meteoric ultimate rise and the resulting backlash to his legacy.

Once Stern saw how much money could be gained by promoting individual stars, it was the end of team identity linked to team play. Your team sucks, don't worry we have a star player that can score in bunches and make the ESPN and NBATV top 10 highlight reel every night.

He forgot about the basketball purists who are the real fans of the game and James' announcement just proved their point. It is still about championships, but in the end, it still matters how you get those championships.

Robert Horry will never be a Hall-of-Famer even though he has more rings than Jordan.

This is what we get when we stare into the pit of adoration without proof that it is warranted.

The NBA draft lottery and free agency period is played like the futures market on Wall Street with some (wink-wink) insider trades. Sometimes it works other times they get caught like the Minnesota Timberwolves did with Joe Smith in their efforts to surround KG with more talent.

The Miami Thrice, a name that is already being bandied about for the new Heat triumvirate, turned the NBA on its proverbial heels by beating the NBA and the mass media at their own game. Their choreographed decision stunned and upset more than the Cleveland fan base.

You got the necessary pork barrel agreements i.e. Joel Alexander, Mike Miller et. al. to surround your high end products Wade, James and Bosh then you ride the speculation to millions and possibly billions of dollars. A brilliant marketing and financial deal that started bearing fruit before James' uttered a single word.

This may also open the door for Carmelo Anthony and some other star player (feel free to insert Tony Parker or Chris Paul in here) to join Amare Stoudemire in New York.

Kobe Bryant and possibly Kevin Durant may be the last stars to be the lone superstar on a team to lead their team to greater heights. It may also force the Hall-of-Fame selection committee to change the criteria for what it means to be a legacy player.

I say all this because I have seen the rise of the one legacy player that all modern NBA wing players are judged on, Michael Jordan. Kobe Bryant is one step closer to being in that discussion though his once and very public trial and indiscretion in Denver make it a harder sell.

LeBron hasn't done anything as bad. His improper use of etiquette in dumping his employer is not a particularly egregious offense, but the way he went about this public divorce does leave one wondering about his character.

He can never sit at the round table of champions and have the same stories to tell as Magic, Jordan, Duncan, Shaq and even Kobe. It just won't have the same flavor.

These guys will be able to tell how they learned to rely and build trust in their lesser skilled teammates.

They didn't have the luxury of hand picking their superstar teammates to help them get championships. They simply relied on the basketball savvy of their respective front office.

They probably won't say it publicly but I bet you they respect Wade and Bosh more so than Lebron.

Bosh was never really considered a NUM-BUH ONE. James on the other hand ran the gambit he exceeded NUM-BUH ONE status before he put on an NBA uniform.

Worst case scenario, Lebron James will be considered to be a better Scottie Pippen, the greatest second banana in this modern era. James has the same skill set as Pippen, except he brings a myriad of problems because of his speed size and strength.

By himself Pippen couldn’t carry the Bulls to victory, but when paired with Jordan he was phenomenal. Lebron could carry his team to victory alone, but he found it a lonely and heavy yolk to bear.

He had consulted Kevin Garnett on what it was like in Minnesota and I am sure that factored in his decision to move to Miami.

Another thing James and Scottie have in common, when the game was on the line is that they both quit on their team.

There are those in Cleveland who are actually okay with his leaving, but he would have been better served to leave with decorum than to leave with the false pomp and circumstance that had surrounded him for the last seven years.

Unfortunately this is the way NBA business is done and the rest of the sports world can only watch.

Grown men with obscene amounts of money are being brought to their knees, groveling at the feet of a 25 year old sports savant who is still locked in his own delusional sense of self.

Maybe this will force NBA owners and the basketball sporting world to pause before giving such praise and pressure on someone who has yet to be able to ride the waves of transition from childhood to adulthood.

On second thought nah...

James is not entirely guilt free, neither is his former employer or the NBA for aiding and abetting him in this duplicity for seven years. They enabled him and he willing took it; who wouldn't, I know I would soak it up.

To paraphrase Mark Jackson, he made a grown man move, now the NBA world awaits the result of his grown man play. It is a rather tawdry result even though he will get his championships.