LeBron James Is Married; It's Time For Love Spurned Cleveland to Move On

Before the game LeBron James put the chalk on his hand, and answered all the speculation with a chalk toss.

There was no response.

James turned, stretched, and smiled to himself.

It made you wonder if Darth Vader ever smiled behind his mask. 

At the introductions, the fans started to boo before his name was even announced.

He smiled again. 

Mo Williams said of tonight's game, "it's like your ex-girlfriend is coming to your wedding."

Not quite.

It's more like getting invited to the wedding of the girl that dumped you.

When the game started, he sank his first shot and it was a pretty nice one at that.

For Cleveland it wasn't supposed to go this way. James was supposed to have a horrible game. He was supposed to be "LeChoke" or whatever he was being accused of by whatever shirts that played on the "Le" in some original manner.

Cleveland tried to convince themselves that the team was really great. They were going to be better without him because now the ball hog who was preventing them form being better was gone! Yessir! Cleveland was going to win more games than Miami!

These are the things you tell yourself when the girl that dumped you isn't just getting married, but getting married to a guy who is a better looking, has more money, a better job, and a more charming personality to boot. 

James sank a whole lot more before it was over.

The same couldn't be said for the other Cavaliers.

It wasn't long into the second quarter before all those prognostications about how much Cleveland wanted the game was going to compensate for the fact they just weren't very good started to show themselves false.

Cleveland was down by 19 at the half, and it wasn't really that close. 

In the third quarter James became unstoppable.

When it was over, in just 30 minutes of play, James had scored 38 points to go with eight assists and five boards.

He'd had arguably his best game yet for the Heat, against Cleveland.

If Karma was paying anyone back tonight, it sure wasn't James.

I know, I know. He's a "quitter" and "narcissistic" but truthfully, Cleveland, if he was those things, he was those things before he ever announced his "Decision", before those words, "I'm taking my talents to South Beach" ever came out of his mouth. 

I know after you get dumped, you have to convince yourself you didn't want the girl anyway. You have to tell everyone at the wedding who will listen all her faults.

But that doesn't change the fact that you wanted to be with her, even if they are true.

She was good enough, in spite of all her faults before. The only thing that changed is that she didn't want to be with you. So you have to smear her, say nasty things about her, and hide the hurt.   

For Cleveland,  the embarrassment wasn't what the team did, it's what some of the "fans" did. Not content to simply take the loss, and apparently heavily inebriated, decided it was time to throw things at the Miami Heat bench.

Like the guy who got dumped that gets drunk at the wedding and gives the drunken awkward toast that is intended to make her look bad, but just exposes his own ugliness. 

It's time to stop feeling sorry for Cleveland. And really, maybe it's time to take another look at what was so horrible about LeBron in the first place.

Was there really anything wrong with what he did?

Or, for that matter, was there really anything that wrong with the "way he did it"?

Are we just siding with the jaded lover out of sympathy?

Maybe, just maybe, Karma did return the favor tonight.

But maybe, just maybe, it wasn't going the way that everyone thought it would. 

In the post game interview James just said, "We came here with one goal, to win a basketball game, and we did that." There was no anger, no bitterness in his voice. 

Asked if there was anything he wanted to say to Cleveland, James responded, "It was seven great years. I loved every part. I loved every moment, from the growth when I was an 18 year-old to a 25 year old man and you know we tried our best. As a team we tried our best to bring a championship to this city and just tried to play hard every night. So, I have the utmost respect for this franchise, the utmost respect for these fans, and—just continue the greatness for myself here in Miami and try to get better every day."

There was nothing nasty to the reply.

Sure there was some ego in the whole "greatness" blurb. He was kind to the team, and to the city which had just spent the last two and a half hours reigning hatred on him. 

Then he was given the opportunity to apologize.

His response, "I don't want to apologize. My intention was not to hurt anyone. My intention was solely on kids during the whole process. I always say, the decisions I make, I live with them. There's always ways you can correct them or ways that you can do them better, but I live with them. And I'm satisfied and happy right now."

Here is the crux of it all—Has anyone ever considered that the possibility that he actually did it "the way he did it" for the charity?

I mean after all, here's the reality. He had spent the entire summer with the kids, doing his basketball camps. He'd literally donated over a million dollars of his own money to the same charity, the Boys and Girls Club of America,  previously. 

So maybe when Jim Gray says it was his idea, he's not making it up.

Maybe it's possible that LeBron James really did it "the way he did" because he wanted to do it for charity.

Is there any way he would have done it which wouldn't have broken Cleveland's heart?

The question was bandied about by the commentators on TNT. They all agreed that he would have broken Cleveland's heart. One said that he could have not done it on national TV. 

Yeah. That's realistic.

We all know there wasn't really any interest. But again, it avoids the one simple point. What if it was for charity that he did it the way he did it?

What if it's not vanity that makes him say, "I don't want to apologize." 

Either way, it's over.

She married another man Cleveland. It's time to stop lamenting. It's time to move on. As Reggie Miller said, "Get over it." Belaboring the issue now is just embarrassing.