By Dave Zarum
Sportsnet magazine
Even as LeBron James was hours away from winning his first championship, a nearly decade-long pursuit that left us all at times second-guessing the greatest talent of our generation, there was a huge faction that wanted to see him lose.
They wanted Oklahoma City to come back from 3-1; for Kevin Durant to put in an MJ performance and cement his status as heir to the throne; for James Harden to bounce back from what had been an ugly series; for Russell Westbrook to continue his dominance; for the series to go seven games so they can root for the young and loveable Thunder.
They wanted to see David beat Goliath.
LeBron, of course, just wanted his ring. He wanted to silence his many critics, the chorus of fans and media folk who turned the greatest talent of our generation into it¹s most hated villain. He wanted to exorcize his demons and prove to everybody (including himself) that, while handled about as well as George W. Bush and the "Mission Accomplished" sign, his Decision to take his talents to South Beach was the right one.
Of course it all comes back to the Decision. That was the moment LeBron James turned heel. "Heel" is a pro wrestling term used to describe the bad guy, the one you¹re supposed to root against (as opposed to the good guy, known as the "face").
Before he sat across from Jim Gray in the Boys and Girls Club, LeBron was the perfect face, the force of nature who continually carried a crappy Cavs team into the playoffs –and once to the Finals — and never made excuses when he fell short. He wasn’t hated in Cleveland; he was a role model, absolutely beloved by a city and revered by the rest of the world.
And so it was the perfect turn, a complete 180, lifted straight out of the pages of the WCW. Literally. Excuse the analogy, but this one¹s too good to pass up: You know who the greatest face of all-time was? Hulk Hogan.
In the 80s and early 90s, he was the biggest crossover star on the planet, a movie "star" and role model who told the little Hulksters to drink their milk and take their vitamins. But it all changed at the Bash at the Beach pay-per-view in 1996 (the Decision), when Hogan came to the ring to seemingly defend his tag-team partner at the time, "Macho Man" Randy Savage (the city of Cleveland), from a pair of superstars, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall (Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade) who had just turned the wrestling world upside-down when they joined forces to become the New World Order, a.k.a. the nWo (the Miami Heat).
The people cheered as Hogan, in his trademark red and yellow tights, ran to the ring as the nWo cleared out in fear, leaving him and Macho Man alone inside the ropes. But then Hogan leg-dropped Savage, knocking him out cold. Fans stood in stunned silence as Nash and Hall joined Hogan in the ring as the three began high-fiving (the post-decision Celebration). Soon enough he had grown a badass beard, spray-painted it black, and tossed the red and yellow outfit for a pair of black jeans. Hogan was instantly a heel, the biggest bad guy of them all.
Of course, that’s wrestling- a fake world with fake characters engaged in fake storylines and plot twists. Aside from the physicality, there’s nothing real about it. But when LeBron unleashed an ESPN-endorsed leg-drop on the city of Cleveland, the reaction was very real. LeBron had joined the nWo. He was a bad guy, and so we treated him like one, booing him, basking in his struggles, the whole deal.
At some point, we went too deep, treating LeBron as if he was, like Hulk Hogan, a fictional character, a manufactured storyline in a male soap opera (even he acknowledges he got caught up in playing a role). There was a cognitive dissonance between LeBron, the character, and LeBron, the real-life basketball player.
And it stayed like that for nearly two years. Until these playoffs, where James finally seemed to be at peace with himself and his game for the first time since the Decision, unleashing one of the most dominant performances we’ve seen in the history of the league (30.3 points, 9.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists per game, shooting 50% from the field).
Will he ever become the face he once was? That’s for you to decide. If his performance in the Finals, isn’t going to win fans over, what will?
Wilt Chamberlain, another player who received criticism for his lack of rings (two in 16 seasons), despite his obvious physical advantage over the rest of the NBA, used to say “I’m Goliath in a world of David’s. And nobody roots for Goliath.”
Maybe not, but we’ll make an exception for LeBron James.
