When LeBron James went to the Heat, I thought everyone whose hair caught fire had gone insane.
Akron didn't raise Mr. James. Cleveland didn't raise Mr. James. I know people from Akron. I know
people from Cleveland. A lot of those people helped elect John Kasich. Would LeBron James be
confused about the people of Akron, as though he owed them indentured servitude?
His mom raised him. His family reared him. Some guys his age and race really did need Akron. They
got nothing but grief, and a shrug or two of the city shoulders. Does anyone doubt LeBron James saw
that growing up where he did?
His first loyalty was to himself and his friends when he left Cleveland because Akron was not too
important to see principally when he had time for frequent visits.
His indebtedness made for great journalism; but unlike good journalism, there was nothing real about
it. Because it wasn't real, Mr. James was free to play where he wanted to play...thank goodness!
All of America has always been as unfair to black men who work as possible, in countless instances.
LeBron James honored every last one of them by doing exactly what he wanted to do exactly when he wanted to do it. Good for him. They were and are the ones to whom is in indebted, to whom we all
are indebted. This time, one of us who was paying them back got noticed. Hallelujah.
And now if Mr. James worked out a deal where he can go back to Cleveland, I hope it is again a time
where he has been able to do exactly what he wants to do, at exactly the time he wants to do it, in the way he wants to do it.
He also owes all the young men whose labors are robbed each and every year for the sake of everyone else's athletics, and everyone else's million dollar salaries and pensions.
He is in some sense paying back their spirits, the spirits of decades of young black men who worked hard to get millions into the coffers of American colleges and universities with little or nothing
promised to them in return. Thank you Mr. LeBron James.
You owe Cleveland now what you owed them then, and not one drop of worry or perspiration more-
a day's work for a day's fair pay, for as long as your contract lasts there. If you and Cleveland love
one another, so much the better. I'd have to imagine it will be because you are both having fun, and
both getting rich. Miami is no less deserving, never has been. It's your call LeBron James. Do what
you like. That's your job at this time in history, and at this time in your life.
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