If You Can't Stand The Heat...

Hah, what a clever title! It's a double entendre in honor of it being the day after Bastille Day but also relevant because of the villainization of a 'King'.

LeBron James recently captivated a nation--dare I say, the world--with his free agency Decision (ESPN's lawyers will crucify me if I don't capitalize that word) to join Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh with the Miami Heat.

So the jerk proved me wrong but now he's consensually hated by pretty much everybody outside of South Beach so I'm still going to chalk up the victory to me.

Which brings us to why exactly LeBron is hated now. Like Louis XVI, James was given a raw deal from the start.

War-happy Louis XV basically bankrupted France and left the people poor and hungry. Then he tossed the reigns to Louis XVI and said, "Good luck, sucker!" Naturally, the most reasonable course was revolution and Louis XVI soon found himself without a head.

Was that necessarily his fault? Of course not. The people need to find somebody to hate when their lives suck and that person is usually the one who has it so much better than everybody else.

Enter LeBron James. James, the most talented basketball player, maybe ever, was sent to toil away in Cleveland for seven years with the likes of Damon Jones, Eric Snow, and some guy named Sasha Pavlovic. Sasha, for crying out loud!

Then having paid his dues and fulfilling his contract, and also realizing that it's impossible to win a championship by your own damn self when nobody else in the NBA is having to do it by their own damn selves, he's martyred for leaving for a new team.

Words like 'traitor' and 'coward' were thrown out there from people who were singing his praises just the night before the Decision.

Why haven't we heard reports out of Toronto of people burning Chris Bosh jerseys and calling him a coward? Because the people of Toronto know that he made the right decision!

Cleveland, you have been duped yet again. LeBron isn't the villain, it's the complete lack of intelligence on the part of ownership and management to not deliver help for James. The Cavaliers for the last seven years gave Lebron the reigns and said, "Good luck, sucker!"

Louis XVI wasn't the real villain of France, it was Louis XV! Yet, Louis XVI is the one who gets his head lopped off.

Dan Gilbert, the owner of the Cavs, did a marvelous job of what we call in the 'biz' of creating a smokescreen. He releases a letter (which contains one of the best temper tantrums I have ever seen) blasting James credibility and distracting us all from who is really to blame in this whole mess.

The result? Riots in the streets, the burning of jerseys, and a security threat to LeBron James.

Viva le resistance!