LeBron James: Is He Annoying You, Too?

King Of Queens Loving
Attention From NBA Suitors

By BEN JACKEY
One Great Season

Just make it stop.

It's worse than a month of vuvuzelas. It's worse than the Brett Favre will-he-or-won't-he stories. It's worse than listening to Chris Berman talk about, well, anything.

This nauseating media frenzy can all end if a 25-year-old starts acting like a man.

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It's time to grow up, LeBron. I know you love the spotlight. I know you love the attention. But this is just absurd. I'm sure your ego is getting a kick out of the parade of executives to your business headquarters, (Thanks for getting dressed up, by the way; nice shorts and sweatpants) the reports about who's having dinner with whom and the hundreds of people lining the streets of Cleveland pleading for you and your economic impact to stay. If your ego was only 99 percent sure of the notion that the NBA revolves around you, these last two weeks have cemented it. So, now that all the hot chicks have shown that they want you and can't live without you. It's time to choose one of them.

It's time to grow up, LeBron. An ESPN special to announce your decision? Could you be any more full of yourself? By now, you know good and well where you'll be getting every fricking foul call in your favor for the next five years. Man up. Call a press conference right now and say, "I'm staying." Or, say, "I want to be a winner, so I'm leaving this dismal town, this Zagreb of the Midwest, and its history of sporting mediocrity," and then push the proverbial lever that blows up what was once a revived downtown Cleveland.

It's time to grow up, LeBron. There's no need to draw this out longer if you're staying. Your fans don't deserve it. There's no need to appear to be struggling with a decision to make the blow to the city of Cleveland any more palatable. No one will begrudge you for leaving. I can't stand you and I wouldn't even be mad at you. Your ego needs a big market where you can win rings, and you can't do that at home. Kevin Garnett said it best: "Loyalty is something that hurts you at times, because you can't get youth back." But you can stop behaving like a teenager.

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