Witness To Goodness: LeBron's Done in Cleveland

Lake Erie must be filled with sports poison. During the 4th quarter, ESPN felt it necessary to show many haunting Cleveland sports moments, just to stick a needle into the eyes of Cleveland fans.

Just because their superstar LeBron James, the homestate superstar, will become a free agent, that fact shouldn't have detracted from a #1 seed overall and a great shot at the NBA title.

After game 3, the Cavs looked dominant and ready to roll over a very good but older Celtics team. Then Rajon Rando had the game of a lifetime in game 4 and screwed everything up for the Cavs and their fans.

Rondo's game will eventually go down in Cleveland annals with the next montage of haunting moments.

After game 4, all LeBron was talking about going into game 5 was handling Rondo, how to defend Rondo. Nothing at all about how he was going to score 40 and demolish Boston. His language was passive in game 5 and he frankly wasn't all there.

Maybe he was mad at his supporting cast and that was a sign of his frustration. If so, his cast gave LeBron a big screw you when he finally did show up for game 6.

Mo Williams showed up in terms of scoring, but the rest of the team was sluggish and sloppy. LeBron was just good, even though he deserves credit for a strong effort.

His supporting cast felt betrayed and Mike Brown looked clueless in his decision making mostly because his team built around chemistry fell apart when it mattered most.

Last year after game 2 against Orlando, LeBron James highlights were followed with proclamations of "Witness to Greatness," like hitting a miraculous shot blinded basketball fans from a team almost blowing a 20+ point lead at home.

This Cleveland team wasn't beating Orlando, and they lost to Boston because they faced a more focused group that wasn't distracted by their star's business plans.

LeBron's free agency has become its own entity. Teams have made crazy moves to free up cap space to potentially get him.

The Knicks entire franchise revolves around trying to get him (Chants of New York Knicks while shooting free throws probably did more damage to his teammates than him).

All of this jockeying is taking place to sign the greatest player in the NBA, in the regular season.

LeBron has had his great playoff moments. Game 5 against Detroit in 2007 is legendary. His supertravel against Washington where he took four steps to get the game winning layup was beyond human.

Scoring 45 in a losing effort against Boston in Game 7 in 2008 looked great, although he tightened up at the end and missed some huge free throws.

During the regular season, LeBron makes a mockery of the MVP voting with multiple tool and dynamic play that illuminates the arena like a spotlight. In the playoffs, he tends to have just as many Game 5's against Boston than Game 3's.

For the Knicks of the world viewing Lebron as the savior, consider this information. LeBron made the quote after game 5: "I spoil a lot of people with my play. When you have three bad games in seven years, it's easy to point them out."

In 2008, in Games 1 and 2 vs. Boston in 2008, Lebron shot 2 for 18 and 6 for 24. In the 2007 NBA Finals, he shot under 40% in three of the 4 games, including 4 of 16 in Game 1.

He struggled in the game 6 elimination game against Orlando last year, and was awful in Game 5 against the Celtics this year. I'm not picking out random games for the most part, I'm picking out significant games where he has been good or below good.

There is definitely more than three, and quotes like the ones above show that Lebron's head is big because he's confident, but his head isalso too big for Cleveland at this point in his career.

He did his time with Cleveland, and Cleveland management doing everything they could to get the best team around him after complaints of a lack of supporting cast for Lebron in 2007, ended up with 0 Finals victories, 2 Conference Finals Appearances, 2 #1 overall seeds and nothing to show for it.

LeBron isn't going to stay in the small city when the meccas are calling. The King, the entity that is LeBron James gave all that he could to Cleveland, and the Lake Erie sports poison won again.

He knows he can't win a title there. His teammates' actions in game 6 showed they don't want him there anymore either.

In the time of greatest need for Lebron, his team quit on him, just like he failed them in game 5. The relationship is done, severed, ready to move on to the next depressing chapter in Cleveland sports history.

For Cleveland fans reading this, please let go. The sports poison has written he will leave. Accept it now and feel less pain once July comes around.

ESPN had Jamal Mashburn on and he said that LeBron would stay in Cleveland because of loyalty. To what? If LeBron truly wants to achieve greatness and be the King, he needs to head to Chicago or New York and win a title there.

He's not winning it in Cleveland, as long as Lake Erie remains it will be there to haunt Cleveland and Buffalo fans for a long time. New York offers the media magic, the ability to grow even further the entity that is LeBron.

Of course the chances of winning a title are slim to none, with little talent and a coach that stresses a wearing and individual style of play. Boston and 2010 Phoenix prove that cohesiveness and teamwork have great value.

As soon as the announcement came out that LeBron wanted to change his number from 23 to 6, I felt he was going to Chicago. The explanation was that he would stay in Cleveland, because filing a change request would not be necessary if he went to a different team.

I viewed it as a symbol that he will be No. 6 next year, on a team where No. 23 is not available.

Chicago is the perfect setting for him. Jordan is the greatness of the franchise, so LeBron can follow in his footsteps. James can basically pick the coach since they have none.

He can play with Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah and other decent pieces to where a 2010 playoff team can go from second tier to top tier quickly.

Plus Chicago is a big media market without the back pages of New York. He still keeps that Midwestern feel he had in Ohio while stepping up the King James franchise.

For Chicago or New York or whoever signs LeBron to the giant free agent contract, please remember this simple fact. LeBron is not the savior of your franchise, he's just really good.

Really good could work in Chicago. It doesn't work in Cleveland, and unless New York or New Jersey can pull off seismic miracles, it won't work there either. Lake Michigan will probably beat Lake Erie again.