People need to wake up to the notion that there were more prideful and noble sportsmen 20 years ago. People also need to start realizing that arrogance off the court does not equal confidence on it. LBJ's handling of things may display a brash cockiness, but it shows an abundance of insecurity of his abilities ON the court. And he's a basketball player by occupation, so his on-the-court confidence and integrity is all that matters to me as a fan.

Not that it matters much. We are talking about pro hoops here :)

However, in my opinion, too many people have transferred their dislike of that event directly to the free agent move itself. Not to mention all the arm-chair psycho-babble about his manliness and the time-machine predictions of LeBron's career (which is a mere 1/3 of the way through) going down the tubes.

At the center of Klosterman's argument is that LeBron's free agent move, like everything else he's done since hitting the spotlight, has been about himself. Getting what he wants, when we wants it, how he wants it. He doesn't care about the fans, the franchises, or much anything else but himself and his people. Personally, I'm not inclined to celebrate that aspect of his personality, but I think Klosterman is right on. Those so-called responsibilities that "true fans (see my post above)" shove on athletes - LeBron cares nothing for them. Whether that's confidence, cold-heartedness, or both, I do not know.

And has been pointed out before, numerous times, which one of us would pass up a correlating opportunity in our lives due to loyalty to our current employer and their customers? Hell, what employer would expect that of us?

I understood Klosterman's point. However, the offseason actions of Lebron seem to be similar to that guy who responds to, "So and so is really smart" with "But I have an excellent theory on finding the Higgs Boson particle". Yeah he may be good, he's extraordinarily insecure. I think a lot of Lebron's offseason actions are probably due more to the incompetence of LRMR than a conscious eff you. I don't have a problem with what he did in Miami, but rather the way.

As Simmons and Klosterman astutely point out that this has to do with their individual stances as emotional and "atheist" sports fans. There are many, many hardcore sports fans in places like Boston, Chicago, New York, Pittsburgh, Phili, the list goes on and on. For many years they have carried the cache of being "the true fans." They were defined by loyalty and obsession.

Sports (and in particular ESPN) has perpetuated the idea of them being "the true fans," because they are most likely to watch sporting events, most likely to buy tickets, merchandise, and create buzz among their peers. But just as great players have lost sense of permanently tied to an organization, more and more fans have gone "atheist," like Klosterman.

And I can certainly identify. The last time I cried because of a sporting event was when the Blazers lost to the Bulls in 92. I was 13. But even then, it was because of a player and not the team. Clyde was and is my favorite of all time. After that heartbreak, I learned to grow a (in my opinion) healthy distance between my emotions and sports.

Of course there are exceptions. They are on the cusp of sports, but I cried when Guerrero and Benoit died. Or when Mohammad Ali lit the Olympic Torch. But those moments transcend sports.