LeBron James: The Man Who Doesn't Want To Be Michael Jordan

Somewhere along the way, sports fans forgot what it's like to actually play sports.

Most of us may have never been the best player on our team and may never have known the pressure it takes to carry a team on your back.

LeBron James wasn't just carrying the Cavaliers; he was carrying the entire city of Cleveland. The closest thing he had to a sidekick was Mo Williams. 

Somewhere along the way sports fans forgot what the fun part of sports was.

It was making sure you got on the same team as your best friend. It was winning the game.

I know I'm comparing recreational league sports to the highest level of basketball in the world, but for LeBron James it obviously boiled down to something that simple.

The chance to play with two of your best friends, and most importantly, to win a lot. The choice was probably more simple for James than he will ever let anyone know.

Shame on you, Michael Jordan. You went on an ego trip and assumed LeBron James wanted to be you, grasping onto the media cliche of what "Michael Jordan wouldn't do..."

Really Mike?

Here's a man who, time and time again, has done everything he could to avoid not being you. Yet you had to throw your two cents into this conversation.

Jordan was known for his competitiveness. Not to say James isn't competitive, but he obviously has a better grasp for the "fun" side of the game.

Something people seem to have forgotten that pro athletes can have fun while doing something they are paid to do.

Just a few months ago it was Jordan's son telling people that Kobe Bryant would never be MJ.

What the Jordan family fails to realize is that basketball players may very well be content to NOT being like Mike.

MJ is a basketball god, but he wasn't without his flaws. MJ couldn't win a title until the Bulls surrounded him with Pippen and Grant.

I guarantee you that if Cleveland had given James that kind of cast, he would have stuck around too.

Then there is the fact that MJ is criticizing James's decision making ability. This from the guy who retired to try his hand at baseball? This from the guy who signed with one of the NBA's worst teams just to lead a cast of nobodies in scoring?

Then Charles Barkley, Jordan's best friend, had to add that James's decision "clearly takes him out of the conversation." 

Everyone knows Jordan's legacy, but for Barkley to speak up? When his legacy these days is about his gambling addiction. Or how he himself is Wade's sidekick in a T-Mobile commercial. Or maybe its that horrible golf swing.

These former players all seem afraid. Afraid their own legacies will soon be overshadowed, and they are rushing to defend theirs.

What MJ's comment really came down to is that he's just another owner who happens to feel scorned by how the Heat managed to create the Biggest Three.

But he decided to make it about himself, just to give all of us a glimpse of how big his ego truly is. 

LeBron came to the Heat with the idea to leave a legacy.

And that he will, but it won't be Larry Bird's legacy. It won't be Jordan's legacy. It won't be Kobe's legacy. 

His legacy will be the Wade, Bosh, James legacy, and he seems just fine with that.