Coming home: Lebron James and the city of Cleveland

With the NBA season underway, it might be of some interest to look at one of the most compelling storylines in recent sports history: the return of LeBron James to his home state of Ohio. James, a native of Akron, Ohio, made himself possibly the most vilified athlete on the planet when he decided to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers and join the Miami Heat, a move criticized by many as nakedly self-serving. James joined two other superstars in Miami and led the Heat to four straight NBA Finals appearances, two of which resulted in championships.

James is certainly not ignorant of the weight placed upon him in his return. He left and won two championships for a city not his own while failing to bring the hallowed Larry O’Brien trophy into his own state, for a city that hasn’t tasted a championship in 50 years. Indeed, the pressure has been on him ever since he arrived to the league back in 2003. Anointed “The Chosen One,” his high school games were broadcasted nationwide. He has been the center of attention, attracting adulation and vitriol alike, well before he could even vote.

This summer, before announcing his return, James penned an open letter to basketball fans everywhere, in which he discusses his thought process in the decision to leave Cleveland, and the personal growth he experienced in his time away. Most telling is his phrase “Miami, for me, has been like college for other kids. These past four years helped raise me into who I am.” James, who went straight from high school into the courts of the NBA, essentially had to grow and mature on the job. The pressure to be the hometown savior was enormous, and part of his decision to leave Cleveland may have been to start fresh, to allow himself to develop without the weight of an entire state resting on his shoulders.

His success in transitioning from a high school life to that of a professional basketball player is nothing short of astounding; I certainly consider it among his greatest achievements. It’s close to impossible for most of us to understand what that kind of shift was like.

Take me, for example. I have an ORF 309: Probability and Stochastic Systems problem set due today and two quizzes on Thursday. Hypothetically, I could fail all three of these assignments. Though this would no doubt drive me insane and perhaps prevent me from getting an internship at Goldman Sachs, the fact remains that my successes and failures end with me: I am the only individual reliant on my success.

At the age of 18, the city of Cleveland lived and died by James’ performance. This ridiculous increase in expectations is not unique to James. The NBA experienced a large influx of high school draftees from 1995 to 2005, and many of these “prep-to-pro” players were unable to handle the sudden shift in both competition level and in lavishness of lifestyle. A large part of the NBA’s decision to ban the drafting of high schoolers came from the horror stories of those who just couldn’t cut it — the high school phenoms who couldn’t make the necessary adjustments and thus proceeded to crash and burn.

It’s easy to forget that even worldwide celebrities are human and have to experience growing pains like the rest of us. James’ letter seems to catalog not only his journey to becoming a champion, but, ultimately, his journey to becoming a man. He proclaimed that he is ready to take the lessons he learned in Miami and become the champion and indeed, savior that Cleveland always wanted him to be. In an NBA season filled with tantalizing storylines, this is probably the most inspiring of them all.