An open message to LeBron James. A challenge, if you will:
Dear King, now that you have delivered a title a half-century in the making to The Land, how about taking your miracle healing powers to the next level and delivering a championship to The Lanta?
Let's see how good you really are.
Look, you’re never going to be on par with Michael Jordan. Let’s bury that hollow argument now.
But you can be the NBA’s version of Mother Teresa – certainly no one else has applied for that position in the league – bringing comfort and hope to the downtrodden. (In relative NBA terms the Atlanta Hawks are lepers, and you are just the man to wash their feet). All while making $30 million a year.
You have wrapped Miami and Cleveland in the warmth of a championship. It seems it is your role in life is to plant the seed of victory, watch it grow and move on to some other previously barren patch of hardwood.
You want to really prove yourself a special talent beyond just numbers, someone capable of practically raising the dead? Cleveland certainly was a good start. But now do it with the Hawks, a team that never before has been to a NBA Finals – never mind winning one – and a team you have swept out of the last two postseasons like ash from the fireplace.
There are all kinds of rumors that you will opt out of your Cavs contract come July 1 and shop your talents. We’ve heard Los Angeles and New York – even a return to Miami – as possible destinations. I believe you’re staying put in Cleveland, because you’re not blind and you see that playing with Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson is a very good idea.
But should your gaze wander, why L.A., why N.Y.? Those places already have championships and iconic figures throughout their history. In the realm of Magic and Kareem, Clyde and Willis, you can never be the singular savior there like you could be here.
And, frankly, looking at the parts, you could win quicker in Atlanta than you could with the Lakers or Knicks. Youth, like your hairline, is fleeting.
You already have established yourself among the elite basketball players of all time.
But if you could walk away having produced championships in both Cleveland and Atlanta, a much larger legacy is possible. Sainthood may even be in play.
