LeTraitor James

LeBron James had every right to choose to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers last summer and go play for the Miami Heat. He was a free agent, and if he wanted to leave his hometown of Cleveland where he was revered by all and played for a team that did everything in its power to keep him happy and get him a winning team to surround him he could. If he wanted to go to Miami to play with his superstar buddies because in his own words it was "what would make LeBron James happy," he could, and that is exactly what he did.

James Cavaliers jersey burned by Cleveland fans
photo from hoopsjournal.com

Well, lets hope LeBron was happy with his decision, because no one else from Cleveland was. How making hundreds of thousands of people hate him - from his home town no less - was going to make him happy is beyond me. Must be nice to think you're a king.

A lot of players abandon their teams. A lot of players let down their fans. Not a lot slap their cities in the face quite like LeBron did.

First of all, he is FROM Cleveland. Being from Akron, he had fans that had been his fans his whole life, who remember watching him in highschool. He was really a part of Cleveland, not just someone brought in by the Cavs from who knows where. So while fans are for the most part realistic and know that players can always leave their team, LeBron seemed like a special case.

Second, most players don't announce that they're leaving the team they've been with for seven years in a LeBron James special on national television. He got as many viewers as he possibly could to hear him publicly diss Cleveland. Some thanks for seven years of LeBron worship.

photo from waitingfornextyear.com

And third, he screwed over the Cavaliers by not telling them that he wouldn't be returning. According to this AolNews article, Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert could not get LeBron to return a phone message or even a text since the end of the season. Probably, this was so that his big TV special wouldn't have the ending spoiled. By the time the Decision came out, all the key free agents that the Cavs could have pursued had signed with other teams.

The Cavaliers have definitely suffered this season, but they did beat the Heat (and LeBron) last night, which somehow seems to make the whole thing at least a little bit better.

Derek Jeter: Always a Yankee

Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter
image from whatisthetrend.net

Derek Jeter has never played for a MLB team other than the New York Yankees, and he intends to keep it that way. When the franchise didn't immediately renew his contract at the end of last season, allowing him to become a free agent, there was worry that the Yankees did not feel as strongly about keeping Jeter in pinstripes. But through the coverage of the negotiations, much negativity somehow wound up on Jeter himself.

With so many players not caring about their teams, it's easy to forget that sometimes teams don't care about their players. My friend Blake's blog Clutch talks about exactly that this week.

The Yankees did finally sign Jeter to a three-year guaranteed contract. In this USA Today article from December, just after the announcement of the deal, Jeter talks about how he was most annoyed by the way the media portrayed him in the negotiations. He makes it clear that he was always loyal to the Yankees and did not play hardball to get the franchise to meet his demands. "I basically said this is where I wanted to be. So, what could I demand?" he said.

The assumptions that Jeter was greedy and demanding undoubtedly are reflections of the trend of professional athletes becoming more and more focused on nothing but their salaries. The greedy ones are having a poor reflection on the entire industry, and loyal players like Jeter are suffering the consequences in the public eye.

With Jeter's batting average dropping to a .270 for the season there might have been a few less "Yankees suck, Jeter blows" shirts selling outside Fenway Park, but he is still the quintessential Yankee, and the team captain. Even Yankees Manager Joe Girardi said that Jeter "embodies what the Yankees are all about," after Jeter signed his new contract according to the USA Today article. Hopefully this is what people remember, not Jeter's "huge ego" and "greed" that was implied by all the media speculation.

Just to be clear, as a Red Sox fan, writing this post putting Jeter in a positive light was very difficult for me.

Starting at center, ___________!

image from celticsstore.seenon.com 

Earlier this season, I decided that I needed to own a Celtics jersey. As I began my shopping, I started thinking about what would be the best name to represent.

With all the trading and players moving from team to team in professional sports these days, knowing whose name you can wear on a green jersey for more than a season or two can be difficult. And with jerseys being as overpriced as they are, I wanted to be sure that I won't have to toss mine anytime soon.

But it is almost impossible to know which athletes will stay with a team. Do I have to buy the jersey of the player whose contract expires last? And even if I took that approach, how could I anticipate trades? How many jerseys were thrown away (or burned) by Cleveland fans last summer when the heart of the Cavaliers decided he would have more fun somewhere else?

In this time of free agentry, have professional athletes lost all their team loyalty? Sure, there are still a few loyal players in the professional leagues like Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs, but they are surrounded by so many athletes that put their own wants so far above their team that it is easy to forget that true team loyalty by athletes like Jackie Robinson, who is believed to have chosen retirement over being traded to the New York Giants, ever existed.

So, would I be better off getting a blank green and white jersey? After all, isn't that all that makes a player a Celtic? I thought about getting a Larry Bird jersey, or even one that just said "Lucky." But in the end, I decided to represent my team (of the moment) with a Ray Allen jersey. Lets just hope he continues to represent us, Boston.

In this blog, each week I will pick a different athlete from any professional sport and examine his loyalties, or lack there of, to the franchise for which he plays or has played for in the past. If anyone has a player suggestion or request, please post it in the comments.