I'm not... Certain

as in, I'm not totally sure I agree with people lately.

I don't agree with national media, my friends, athletes and all the people mocking our "better than you think it is" city. And that's not meant to be sarcastic. I don't agree with Patrick Hruby, whose column here isn't worth wasting my breath on calling him an a-hole.

Let me back up and hopefully avoid confusing anyone. I won't go into the details around Lebron and "The Decision" because if you don't know them already, you're probably not reading this. In the aftermath, though, some things came to light. Among the, umm, "highlights" were these revelations:

- Dan Gilbert is a fierce owner, salesman and entertainer.
- Jesse Jackson is a racist.
- David Stern is impartial, fair and an impeccable leader.
- Cleveland is either the butt of the nation's jokes or the recipient of its sympathy, and either way, that's not a good thing.

Recently, a coattail acquaintance of mine named Kevin wrote a dynamite cathartic blog (which can be found here) that focused more or less on the last bullet point, and it got me thinking. By and large I agree with his words, especially his statement that, "your portrayal of Cleveland is ultimately the picture that is in the minds of others." However, there is one little piece that strikes me as inaccurate; namely, the notion that Lebron's leaving has, "...no discernible impact on your [day to day] life."

I get it. I understand that I will still wake up in the morning, go to work and do my job for the better part of 8 hours, drive home, eat dinner, exercise, sleep, rinse, repeat. I get it. On surface level, there is no impact because I am still going through the motions, but let's dig a bit deeper.

GENERALLY SPEAKING, there are two types of Cleveland sports fans:

Group A is segmented by generation, but are basically your not-so-typical die-hards who've been through the ringer more times than any of us care to remember. It's completely unnecessary to run the list of near misses because you've seen it 30 times in the last two weeks.

Group B can be found in any city, anywhere and are your stereotypical "fair-weather fans" (Note: You can find these "fans" by going to flashseats.cavs.com and seeing whose season tickets were recently posted for sale as a set for the upcoming season).

Group B will not be entirely affected by the "former" King's departure. They'll go about their business complaining with colleagues and clients about our subpar sports teams and Browns game blackouts and why the Cavs couldn't win in the postseason and how the Indians have terrible owners. Blah, blah, blah...

Group A, though, the group in which I belong (along with Kevin, I'd imagine), will most certainly feel this pain on a day to day basis.

Here's some trivia. If you searched "Cavs" on Google news two weeks ago, and clicked the tab on the left that said "Past 24 hours," do you know how many search results you'd find? I do, because I did just that. Over 2000. ESPN posted hourly updates, sent correspondents to Cleveland and tracked the progress of the Cavaliers front office. They have done so each summer since the Cavs have become contenders.

I just performed the same search. 4 results. 2 were links to the Cleveland Plain Dealer's "Cavs" page.

Group A is filled with sports junkies who talk and text and email and play fantasy sports and can't get enough talk about our teams. With Lebron, we came close. On lunch, we could read about our team, talk smack to our friends and finally feel some pride in the city, err, the city's sports representatives. I know, because I did just that. From October to May, I was in a very good mood most of the time. Because, like other A'ers, my team's success was something that kept me energized. Now? I can't do that. You can only read 4 articles so many times in the bathroom.

As a basketball fanatic, watching Lebron make history was a once in a lifetime experience (for 7 solid years). As a Clevelander (and world class homer!), watching Lebron make history while rocking the wine and gold was enough to fill a lot of my old sports voids, ring or no ring. And since I was in such good spirits so often, my general mood improved, as did my work performance and my life with family and friends. There are few bonds stronger than those you share with fellow fans, especially your friends.

So my point is this: I'm not in a great mood lately. The team won't be near as "historic" as it's been. In an ideal world, this wouldn't affect my home or work life, and on paper it definitely doesn't. But this is no utopia and it's not Dr. Parnassus's Imaginarium. I mean, at this point it isn't even the King's court. And to say there is no effect on my life (as well as the life of my fellow Group A boys and girls) seems quite short-sighted.

Life goes on, but that doesn't make it the same. And Cleveland businesses will suffer, despite some people thinking the contrary. And these places will certainly be affected day to day, and you can read more on their expected struggle here. Bartenders, wait staff and other crew downtown might want to start looking for second jobs because less people downtown means left shifts to go around.

And I have one last gripe, though it has nothing to do with Kevin's post. And really, it's not a gripe at all, but a statement on how sad life can be for "fake" fans, or people who focus only on results or check the paper and websites just to get final scores. They are really missing the point of sport, the competition.

We don't follow sports for the 30 second clips, we follow to be amazed. Last I checked when we sign up for recreational sports leagues we actually play the games, we don't just look at the other team and say, "Well, what do you think the final score should be?" You can't simulate life. Those of us who watch the "meaningless" games in November know that starting in 2010, we are going to be missing out on something spectacular 82 plus times a year. It might not matter to scoreboard watchers, it matters to fanatics.

And to really drive this point home, when Lebron only signed a 3 year contract extension in 2007, the "Later on, C-town" writing may have been on the wall. He may have been destined to "take his talent to South Beach." We, the true fans, recognized this as much as anyone. HOWEVER (I know, this is like the 90th "however" of the blog), we also recognized that what we were "witnessing" was truly incredible and, rather than fear what might await us down the road, we chose to watch and marvel in ignorant(ish) bliss.

What a damn ride it was...


For the last 3 years, Group B'ers (the scoreboard watchers who, incidentally, were the reason the Indians sold out 455 straight games and now can't crack 10,000 fans on Dollar Dog Night, but that's another blog) have incessantly talked about "what if" Lebron leaves and chose to focus so much on the inevitable that they missed out on being amazed night in and night out, and that's a shame, because it may never happen again in our lifetime. But, as a true fan, I can be at peace knowing, at the very least, I was there. And yeah, I loved the person I WAS when Lebron was rolling down Prospect every night from "deep in the Q!" But that's over now. And my life has changed because of it.

It's better to have loved and lost, I guess.

Be well.