one that has temporarily damaged LeBron James' image, but ESPN & LeBron's management team are equally to blame.

My take is probably much different than most others -- I think he did the right thing, although in a classless way (which was equalled only by Cavs owner, Dan Gilbert's classless response). He gave seven very good years of his professional life to his hometown -- they've been paid back. Because of LeBron, the Cavs put people in the seats, made some nice TV money, sold Cavs merchandise. Now he wants to go win an NBA championship and, in my opinion, you can't blame him. The opportunity to play with a coupla friends that happen to be better than ANY of the players that the Cavs handicapped him with over those seven years...Miami versus Cleveland (no offense, Clevelanders)...a team organization that has that same desire to win as LeBron does and actually acts upon it -- it's a no-brainer. And this garbage about LeBron not being able to "lead" a group of average players to the championship -- gimme a break. Try to think of an NBA championship team over the past 30 years that made it with one star & a bunch of really mediocre players (a summary of recent Cavalier teams) -- you can't.

For once in many years, I'm actually looking forward to the start of the NBA season.

Bedo