Just Say It, LeBron: Are You Leaving or Are You Staying?

Say you're leaving, LeBron .

Just say it, dude. Go ahead.

Say it now, and spare your hometown the heartbreak and angst that will come as it counts down to July 1 for you to go.

What other reaction can your city have? It has given you everything and discovered not even that was enough.

Just say it ... let this down-on-its-luck city -- its woe-is-me mentality justified because of the other stars it loved who fled to markets with bigger, brighter stages -- get on with the mourning that will accompany another rejection.

But be honest. Tell the truth. Say to all the men and the women who have fawned over you that your decision to forsake Cleveland is based on dollars and business sense. Admit to them that your desire to join the ranks of billionaires like Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison and Bill Gates means more than the undying love the city showed you.

This city can't deny you that. It can give you many things, but it must refuse to sell itself to the whims of a man who has everything and still seeks more.

Now, go build your global brand elsewhere if you must. Take the iconic figure you are here and ditch it like last week's Sports Illustrated . Your hometown can't ensure you achieve such stature, although it has tried. Your city has rolled out the red carpet for you, its native son, and it is the native son's decision on whether to stay or go.

Yours should be an easy call: leave.

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