I started liking Lebron James when he was a sophomore in high school and he was ranked the best high school basketball player by Parade magazine that comes with Sunday papers. I said he was going to be great - that he was great, and that he was my second favorite basketball player ever (I began liking Michael Jordan when he was injured early in his career). During mock drafts with my brother and friends I picked BronBron over the college players. They all laughed at me.Then our referee friend told a story of LeBron grabbing the top of the backboard (read that again) and hanging there during pre-game at a high school basketball game. The laughter slowed down quite a bit. I watched him on DVDs from Kenya while we were missionaries and he was in high school.
Then everyone knew him. It did not take long. I rooted for the Cleveland Cavs and LeBron James. So did a lot of people. I had the opportunity, like many others, to watch him at a game in Indianapolis. He has obviously been blessed with ability from God.
Then he decided to go to Miami and everyone began to hate him. People did not hate me when I went to Kenya, or Kentucky for that matter. Why would anyone hate someone for moving? Isn't this, as I have heard all my life, a free country? Or is LeBron James really the PROPERTY of any man or town or state? When kids from Cleveland or Akron go to college somewhere else, are their pictures burned and their memories erased?
Maybe we need to rethink what it is to root for someone versus what it is to root against someone. Why the great need to root against anyone? Why, as a Hoosier must I root against the Boilermakers? Why, as a Buckeye must I root against the Wolverines? Why as someone from Ohio must I root against #6 Heat?
So as Lebron comes back home I will still root for him. If you are a Heat fan or a Kobe fan or a whoever fan, remember - you do not have to root against LeBron James. I won't root against your team or your player or your son or your daughter.
That is why I have always liked LeBron James. Looking forward to a great season.
