For most of Cleveland, it will take years to mourn the eventual loss of LeBron James to New York and its bigger, brighter stacks of money. Most are still in the first of the
five stages of grief: denial: (
But he’s building a mansion here!) Perhaps a smaller number has reached anger. (
Screw him! We don’t want a guy with alligator arms anyway!). There’s a lot of bargaining going on these days. (
What if we get Elton Brand? Then would you stay?) And depression? Well, this is Cleveland, so we’ve always got a fountain of that at the ready.
But as far as I can tell, Bill Livingston, the Plain Dealer columnist known more for his incoherence than his level-headedness, is the first Cavalier fan to reach the final stage: acceptance. This morning,
he writes:
This is a man made for the biggest stage. He craves the attention. It helps make him great. Spike Lee sitting at courtside helped inspire James to a 50-point game in New York this season. ...
If he leaves, I would wish him well. That would be seven years and many thrills here, and that is a long time.
What a load off that must be for Bill. As for us, we’re still in denial, mostly because we’re not sure LeBron’s ready to leave his mom, and as far as we can tell,
she’s not quite ready for the big city. What stage are you in? –
Joe P. Tone
