By JOHN P. WISEOne Great Season
Dear LeBron:
I saw on your Twitter page Thursday morning that you opened the floor for questions, assuring your followers that you'll try to answer some of them during your self-orchestrated LeBron-A-Thon on cable television later this evening.
As you might imagine, some people have questions for you that they can't fit into a 140-character Tweet, so I'm just going to post mine right here. I know you like to check One Great Season from time to time. You ready?
+ Who is advising you? Kim Etheredge? If you're staying in Cleveland, then put Cavs fans out of their misery and say so. If you're leaving Cleveland, is a one-hour ESPN special the best way to say goodbye to a city and an organization that have been so loyal to you?
+ Can you picture Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant planning -- and naming -- a television special to make such an announcement?
+ If championships are more important than money, as you claim, is maximum talent definitely the right answer? One thing I've always recognized in champions of team sports is that they always have impressive chemistry. Can you and two other superstars share just one basketball -- and for those mindful of ego -- and one spotlight? That team and that town belong to Dwyane Wade. Are you prepared for that?
+ There's nothing wrong with wanting to take your career elsewhere while you're still in your prime. Sheesh, I left the Midwest for a job in New York at age 35. But you realize that a frail town like Cleveland, with its heartbreaking history of sports almosts, probably is the last city you'd want to do this to, right? There's got to be a better way to leave than to orchestrate a nationally televised circus and all the sideshow carnival acts leading up to it. You're seriously going to string Ohioans along like this?
+ You've sent four Tweets since joining Twitter this week. Do you realize that there's no humility in any of them?
+ I don't disagree with Chris Broussard's fair take that an hour-long special is fitting considering how we've hyped your impending free agency for two full years. It is certainly proportionate. But LeBron, didn't the show idea come from you or someone in your camp? Are you or ESPN making money after the check goes to the Boys & Girls Club?
+ On a side note, wasn't it funny when Amar'e Stoudemire put on a Knicks cap the other day and proclaimed, "The Knicks are back?"
+ OK, back to you, which is where I know you prefer things to be. Anyone remotely familiar with the great game of basketball should know a little something about John Wooden, the legendary UCLA coach who died last month. Do you think he'd support a circus like this? Do you think you're not setting the worst example possible for future sporting divas who think they have some significant development to share?
+ Do you have good home insurance in Akron?