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"My relationship with Northeast Ohio is bigger than basketball. I didn't realize that four years ago. I do now." With those words, LeBron James, the reigning King of the NBA, announced his return to his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers. The news came via a Sports Illustrated article with James's byline which means that, despite all the media hullabaloo, The Decision 2.0 was probably settled days ago--or much longer, judging by this Instagram post from James's wife three weeks ago.
Now if you happen to live in Cleveland, you might stumble upon individuals digging through trash cans, searching for the remains of rendered and/or torched official number 23 jerseys, hoping against hope that they can stitch them together and somehow undo the outpouring of loathing and sense of betrayal that occurred a little over four years ago, on July 8, 2010.
That was the night of LeBron James's ill-considered, one-hour televised special, The Decision --a ham-fisted public relations nightmare in which he announced that he was leaving his hometown team to famously, "Take his talents to South Beach."
But on Friday, it seemed as if that history might be erased entirely, as King James decided to ditch the Miami Heat, despite winning two titles over the last four seasons, and return to Ohio.
If your jaw is on the floor, I get that. For diehard Cavs fans and casual observers alike, the entire process has rapidly gone from a sad, grim pipe dream to a surreal reality, even if there have been some profoundly weird pit stops along the way.
It started innocently enough, when reports began to surface that team owner Dan Gilbert's plane may or may not have been in South Florida, either with or without Gilbert on board, for the purpose of meeting or not meeting up with LeBron. Seriously, this was a profoundly important NBA "news" item for a good chunk of Saturday.
Then, on Sunday, the bile-filled and hilarious "open letter" in Comic Sans that Gilbert had penned and posted shortly after James' departure was mysteriously scrubbed from the team's official website, followed by denials from...