LeBron James fans
Look, I know that LeBron James never left for the team that had just beaten him and he never left for a team that won 73 games, but come on.
James had every right to leave Cleveland in 2010. The team was awful with no real chance of going anywhere anytime soon. They were a lottery team that looked like a contender because he was there.
He formed a super team, recruiting Chris Bosh to join him on Dwyane Wade‘s Miami Heat. James had just won his second Most Valuable Player award. Bosh was tied for twelfth and Wade was fifth in MVP voting.
The Heat didn’t win 73 games the year before, but they did win 47, enough for the fifth seed in a much more competitive Eastern Conference. The team he joined didn’t have the best record in the NBA because it was his own team that he was leaving that owned it.
James joined two other top players in the league and, eventually, recruited the man with the most three-pointers in NBA history.
Then, when Wade’s knees had failed him and the Heat lacked young talent, he left. It was also the right decision. He left the team he built, trading in his older slasher with a new one that also has a three-point shot. James then actually traded away Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love.
Twice James left bad situations for greener pastures and both times he was absolutely right.
Many of his die-hard fans have argued that his decision(s) and Durant’s are completely different. And sure, they are different to some extent. The Warriors eliminated the Thunder and they had a historic season after winning a championship.
But, at their core, the struggle is the same and the desire to win a championship drove them to make an unpopular (yet fair) decision.
Next: Sir Charles