The fall-out over the announcement and how it was handled has not been pretty for James, to say the least. And if you expect me to be any kinder to the future billion dollar athlete, you might want to stop reading now. Since the announcement quivered off James' chattering lips, criticism of the once beloved baller has included everything from how he dealt with the situation to whether or not him winning a title in Miami will be lessened by the great players he has surrounded himself with.
While there has been more criticism than praise over the past 24-hours, he has received a great deal of praise for his supposed unselfishness in putting winning over money. However, I would argue that his decision was completely motivated out of self-interest. And while it is true that he will certainly give up numbers, a minut amount of money and his reputation in his home state of Ohio, in the end, if he is able to win multiple titles and cement himself as one of the greats in NBA history, he will put himself on a path to be a billion dollar athlete. For while I have heard many people talk about how it was so "unselfish" for LeBron to put winning over ego and money, I would argue that is just what he did. For if LeBron had stayed in Cleveland and never won a title, his brand for the future, which will certainly make him richer than any contract, would be in great jeopardy. For in the end, while he may take a slight pay cut, about 96 percent of the salary instead of the 100 percent he would have earned if he were to go back to Cleveland, he will in the long-run make hundred's of millions of dollars in endorsements if he is able to win multiple titles. Plus, Florida doesn't have a State tax, so in the end he will probably end up making more money than he ever would have in Cleveland, New York or Chicago. So while there are people in this country struggling to feed their families and pay their mortgages, analysts are praising LeBron for supposedly putting winning over money, and I am just not buying it.
Now if LeBron was truly being unselfish, he would have chosen to go back to Cleveland and help not only win the city a title, but continue to help rebuild the economy that has been left in ruins since the recession hit. For Cleveland's whole economy was built around LeBron, and maybe, just maybe, if he had chosen to stay and put the people that have cheered him on for the past seven-years over his future earnings, we could sit here 20 years from now and praise the man for choosing to sacrifice multiple rings and beautiful beaches, for the people who admired and needed him most.
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