"The Decision" Delusion

Recently both ESPN/ABC's Michael Wilbon and ESPN's Bill Simmons have written about what a boon LeBron james' "The Decision" show has been to the NBA. The gist of their idea is that James deliberately decided to cast himself in the bad-guy/black-hat role so as to drum up more interest in the NBA in general and LeBron James in particular. All I can say is about that is what a crock.

The truth is that James didn't plan on becoming a villain. He became a bad guy not because it was the plan but because he so badly misread how many people would not take kindly to how he ditched Cleveland in a nationally televised embarrassment. His ESPN Special, "The Decision" did not set out to make him the bad guy, rather, it set out to be a triumphant change of venue from Cleveland to Miami for the nation's, no, the world's, new basketball hero. Once that didn't happen, and James and his spinmasters are now trying to claim that they meant to do that all along. "We didn't see LeBron as a hero, no, we set out to make him an anti-hero." Sure they did. If you believe that then I've got a bridge to sell you.