LeBron James: The in-depth reasoning why we hate him.

Given this week's Cavs/Heat matchup and all of the LeBron talk that has been around, I was just trying to articulate my thoughts on the matter. What I wrote down seemed like the best description I'd heard of why the Cleveland fans feel so slighted by LeBron James.

Here is why we hate LeBron:

As soon as LeBron made his ‘decision’ the first thing I thought was: this city never has been the city of 'chosen one' type of players. I feel we have a lot more respect for the guy who gets into the league through the back door and works his balls off to get a shot. For example: we love a guy like Josh Cribbs who was doubted at every stop along the way but still found a way to show that he has what it takes to succeed. I knew there was a reason that LeBron was never my favorite Cleveland Cavalier, even though he was obviously the best. I thought this might be it, but I now know that our hate for LeBron comes from somewhere deeper.

I want to call attention to two specific occasions where one of our professional teams used a valuable draft pick to select an elite local talent from northeastern Ohio. Coincidentally, one came here from Miami, and the other left here for Miami.

Of course, the two players I am comparing are LeBron James and Bernie Kosar. I suppose things have gotten to the point where we hate LeBron almost as much as we love Bernie.

I'm sure many of you who read this page already know, but for those who don't: Bernie faced a choice that could be compared to Lebron's: In 1985 Bernie Kosar chose specifically to withhold required draft eligibility paperwork so that he would not be eligible for the normal NFL draft. He did so because he knew that the Minnesota Vikings had traded two picks to move up to #2, specifically in preparation to select him (even before he had declared that he would forgo his remaining two years of NCAA eligibility). Kosar decided instead to enter the 1985 supplemental draft, in which the Cleveland Browns already held the first pick, having struck a deal to trade several draft picks to Buffalo for the opportunity to select first in the supplemental draft (again, specifically targeting Bernie). Bernie chose to play here, even though he could have gone somewhere else or stayed in college.

In essence: through his actions, Kosar told the whole country that there was something special about Cleveland. Cleveland Municipal stadium was decrepit, as we all know Art Modell was one of the worst owners in professional sports, and the Browns were coming off of a 5-11 season in which coach Sam Rutigliano was unceremoniously fired. Our climate is certainly not a major selling point, and the city was just a few years removed from the embarrassment of falling into default. In truth, this certainly wasn't the most appealing locale for a 20something professional athlete.

However, whatever it was Bernie had his reasons. Be it the passion of the fans or the rich atmosphere of the area, Bernie made a choice that some just cannot understand. He confirmed something to us that we already knew. We know because we can feel it too. There is a reason we all go down to an open-air stadium in December with no shirts on, just so we can watch a perennial loser football team. There is a reason our baseball team can sell out 455 straight games even in a small market with a struggling rustbelt economy.

There is a reason that in one of the toughest economic downturns in recent memory (2008-2010) we made sure that the Cavaliers had no trouble selling season tickets. Which really is something considering: The Miami Heat are in a much bigger city with a much better local economy, and of course have no winter weather to discourage fans. Yet they still can't fill an arena with a smaller capacity than the Q, even though LeBron’s new team boasts not one but THREE bankable mega-stars, which should theoretically be a huge draw for fans, right? LeBron may not have anticipated that every away crowd would shower him with an avalanche of Boos, but I’m sure he didn’t count on every home fixture feeling like three hours in a funeral parlor.

Bernie Kosar could sense that passion. He could feel what we die-hard Cleveland fans feel. You know when one of your out of town friends looks at you and thinks: "How can you follow those teams? I mean after all they have done to discourage you?" In your heart you know the answer; but you also know you’ll never be able to explain it to them.

The moral of the story is this: Cleveland has its positives, even if they aren’t immediately obvious to outsiders. When Bernie chose to come here, he showed that he was one of us. He showed that he understands why we do what we do in a way that only someone who spends an extended period here can understand. He chose us because he respects our passion, understands our iron will, and we will always love him for it.

If you ask me the animosity towards LeBron comes from frustration more than anything else. We were allowed to think that another world-class athlete had emerged from northern Ohio. "And this time," we thought "he is a truly transcendent talent. Maybe the most gifted individual in the world, in terms of physical ability."

"And beyond that," we continued "he plays the team sport where an outstanding individual player makes the most impact! Surely if our championship drought is ever going to end, he is the one that can do it?"

And that is when he had us. He sucked us in and we went right along willingly, even sacrificing some of our principles in the process. I mean if a guy from any other team had "chosen 1" tattooed on his back, we would have thought it was the epitome of arrogance, and clearly not the type of thing that we wanted our players to do. But he had us going! We thought that finally things were looking up in Cleveland. Fate had sent LeBron’s ping-pong ball our way, and the local kid from Akron had actually lived up to the hype!

On top of all that, we allowed ourselves to think that he was a mentally complete player too! He had the maturity to pass the ball, when most 18 year old phenoms only want to score. He had the humility to say all the right things to the media, praising teammates and telling the fans that he wanted to win a championship for them. He even showed the determination to work hard in the offseason and come back every year an improved player, rather than just rely on his immense natural talents.

Most importantly, we thought that his being from Northeast Ohio meant something. We thought he ‘got it’ like Bernie did, despite some evidence to the contrary. The first alarm bells went off when he was seen on television wearing a Yankees cap on television while attending a Cleveland Indians – New York Yankees divisional series game in a Jacobs Field suite that was comped to him by the Cleveland Indians. Seriously, dude? I don’t even mind if you are a Yankees fan, but you had a hundred million dollars in the bank before you ever played a professional game, couldn’t you have just flown to New York and bought a suite in Yankee Stadium? You can wear your hat there and get cheered! But we forgave him. We forgave him because he said he wanted to bring a championship to Cleveland. We still wanted a championship and after the Indians cratered in the ALCS, we knew he was our best chance to get it.

We all know what happened next, the Cavs crumbled in the playoffs amid (and perhaps partially because of) LeBron’s free agency speculation. LeBron ballyhooed the his free agency future all the way up to the eleventh hour and in the end announced his ‘decision’ on a narcissistic hour-long television special that was at its core all about LeBron showing everyone how important he is and never about what team he was going to play for at all.

I think we are mad at LeBron because we are mad at ourselves. We are mad that we let ourselves believe all the things we wanted to believe about this young man. We thought the world of him even to the point where we were willing to forgive some of his worse qualities. In one fell swoop he showed us his true colors and showed that our belief in him was totally unfounded. We thought he respected our passion as fans, but it turns out that he is among the worst of superstar athletes: The guy who thinks the fans are just around to buy his shoes. He never ‘got it’ the way Bernie had. He was never one of us, as much as we may have wanted him to be. I like to think that only now is he realizing what a great thing he had here in Cleveland and I hope he regrets ‘the decision’ the rest of his career.

Perhaps the most insulting thing of all is the new commercial. LeBron has the nerve to ask us "What should he do?" After all the overpriced tickets we bought to see him prance around, after all the times we plunked down $7 for a beer and $50 for a jersey and another $150 for a pair of Nikes, there are plenty of things he LeBron should do. He should start by thanking Cavaliers fans for making him the kind of star that he is today. He is awful quick to forget that it is our money that built his house, bought his Bentley and paid for the tattoo on his arm that reads "Loyalty."

What should he do? He should have kept his promise, or at least kept trying to win a championship for the city of Cleveland and for our fans, just like Bernie kept trying. LeBron could play in the NBA for a thousand years and still not experience the kind of adversity Bernie Kosar dealt with in one (or two) playoff games against the Broncos. Bernie never quit on us, not even after our coach unceremoniously cut him and ended his career as an NFL starting quarterback. He never took out his frustration over such disagreements on the fans or the city, but LeBron did.

In short, we in Cleveland harbor animosity toward LeBron James because we knew what it was like to have a humble, talented, classy, home-grown star choose to lead our team rather than someone else’s because he had a certain respect for the passionate fanbase.

Right up until the fateful moment when LeBron announced that he would "take his talents to South Beach" we held out hope that LeBron might show everyone that he had a little bit of the heart that endeared us to Bernie Kosar. We held out hope that he would come back and finish what he started here and maybe even give us that happy ending we have been waiting for. But in one critical sentence he showed us all that he was not the man that he’d let us think he was. Our worst fears about LeBron were confirmed and we all realized in unison that we’d been duped by a spoiled-rotten manchild who actually had the audacity to classlessly dump his former team, fans, and hometown on national television and not even have the common courtesy to call the owner ahead of time and let him know.

What should he do? LeBron should spend the rest of his life thinking about what he could have meant to this city.