Is LeBron a LeFraud?

It's been a little over a week since LeBron James made his 'Decision' to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. At first I didn't care. Now I would say I am indifferent. I am getting a little tired of seeing The Super Friends all over the place and I know that this is only the beginning. It's good to be a Laker/Kobe fan right now.

Let me state clearly and for the record, I am a fan of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. They are both spectacular players and while neither will ever be able to top Kobe's spot in my list of favorite basketball players regardless of what they do, I must say that I enjoy watching them play the game of basketball. That being said, I have been watching basketball since I was around 6 years old. I have seen the greatest days of Magic and Bird and the great Lakers and Celtics rivalries of the 80's. I watched Isiah Thomas and the Bad Boys of Detroit batter and bruise the greatness out of the Lakers and Celtics as well. I watched some guy named Michael Jeffrey Jordan take the game to a whole other level and I hated of every minute of his worldwide domination. I watched the most dominant center to ever play, Shaquille O'Neal, restore championships to the Lakers with his sidekick Kobe and I watched that same dominant center derail what should have been the most dominant team in the 2000 decade. I watched the most boring superstar in all of sports history, Tim Duncan(Albert Pujols is a close second)place himself as arguably the greatest power forward ever. I have watched Kobe Bryant rise, fall down horribly, rise, fall again just a little and then rise to heights no one thought was possible a mere 4 years ago. I watched LeBron James emerge into the league as an immediate superstar. No one had captivated the league like he had since Michael Jordan played. I never would have thought that LeBron would do what he did last week. Never.

But he did. I am not talking about leaving Cleveland, I expected him to leave Cleveland the minute he was drafted by Cleveland. So did Adrian Wojnarowski(http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-heatfreeagency071610). All of these superstars I have mentioned created their legacies by being 'The Man' on their respective teams and leading their teams to titles. Note the plural on title. I fully expected LeBron to one day be like Mike and win around 6 titles on a team led by him. In all actuality I expected LeBron to be able to do this with the Cleveland team he just left on ESPN last Thursday evening. He is that good. Could be the best ever. But now we will never know. Any title he wins should be like how people think Barry Bonds' home run record should be noted.....with an asterisk. That's right, any future titles he wins should be treated like he was on steroids because in a year or so the Miami Heat will be like an NBA team on steroids.

Am I bitter? I guess. I wanted to see him excel without the help of the third best player in the NBA because I believed he didn't need that kind of help. I wouldn't be bitter had he gone to Chicago even though I didn't want him to go to Chicago and have to endure another dynasty run by the Bulls but at least the Bulls would have been his team. We can't call the Heat his team even if he is the best player on that team. There are t-shirts that say Welcome to Wade County. Wade has already brought the fans of Miami a title and now he has brought them LeBron James. Wade is the real King in Miami, not LeBron. Always will be and that will never change regardless of how many triple doubles or Finals MVP's LeBron gets in the NBA Finals. If he gets them. I don't think it's a secret that LeBron will have the game winning assists while Wade will have the game winning shots. I think what we are witnessing is a generational shift take place. My generation was a take charge-take your destiny in your own hands and I-am-the-leader type of generation. I'll call us the Kobe generation. The next generation, the LeBron generation, seems to be a let's-play-together-instead-of-beating-each-other-because-it-gets-us-there-easier type of generation. I think we will see more friends come together to play together before we see guys who are great friends like Magic and Isiah were battle it out in the Finals.

Truth be told, I look forward to watching the Heat. I look forward to watching the Lakers beat them in the Finals next year. After next year, I think it is over for the NBA.....until the next batch of Super Friends(I'll go ahead and call them The Avengers) Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire team up in New York. Honestly, I am not mad at them. Just befuddled by LeBron. He could have been the greatest ever and now he'll just be the greatest Scottie Pippen ever. What a waste.