Marc Berman of the NY Post quoted Knicks forward Al Harrington in an article today who said, “A lot of teams would love to have him [LeBron] and the Knicks are one of them. But if he’s as loyal as he says, I would think it’s very hard for him to leave, especially because he’s home. If it was a different city, maybe not as much a connection, but at the end of the day, he generates every single thing for this whole state. It would be tough for him to make that decision to leave.”
Is LeBron’s loyalty to his home state strong enough to keep him in Cleveland, Ohio? Does loyalty exist in sports today?
I believe loyalty exists to some extent, but some players follow the money and some players go where they have the best chance to win a title(s).
LeBron wants to win. He’s made that clear. He can make a little more money by staying in Cleveland, but I don’t believe that the extra salary will affect his decision.
It is some people’s belief that if LeBron wins a championship this year it will be easier for him to leave Cleveland because he’ll have given the championship-starved city a much needed title. Other people believe that winning a title this year will lead him to choose to remain in Cleveland in order to establish a legacy and win multiple titles in the city.
On the other side of the coin, some people believe if he doesn’t win a title this year then he’ll have a better reason to leave because the Cavs have had their chance to put the right players around LeBron to win and couldn’t do it. Other people believe that if he doesn’t win then he’ll want to stay in Cleveland in order to keep the city’s hopes of a winning a title alive.
I side with the group that believes if LeBron wins a title, he stays, and if he loses, he leaves. Where he goes if he leaves is still a mystery, but New York is definitely up there.
There are many opinions out there and we can sit here and speculate all we want about whether LeBron is going to leave Cleveland or not, but we’ll have to wait until the summer to find out for sure. It sure is fun to dream, though, isn’t it?
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I think it’s more than just about loyalty; i think if he wins a title in Cleveland, he’ll want to stay and perhaps build a dynasty there. On the other hand, if they get knocked out of the first round, i doubt he’d stay
Thanks for the comment. That’s how I feel too. If an Eastern Conference team can’t stop the Cavs I hope the best out of the West does.
Its amazing how loyalty is only questioned when it comes to the players, not the owners or franchises. Say cleveland signs him to a 3 year deal and he becomes a bit injury prone and they start losing in the 2nd round when that deal expires, will we question the loyalty of those in charge? Probably not. It is fun to speculate and dream, but no one really knows. Ill wait until july 1st.
Good points. Thanks for the comment, Joel.