Our Lord and Savior, Lebron James
A depressing and miserable city turned into a dreamland of pride and hope in a matter of seconds. Lebron was coming home.
It was Friday July 11th, 2014 when it was announced that Lebron was returning home to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers as a free agent. For any Clevelander, this was the best day in history. The sun was shining, there was not a single cloud in the sky, the temperature was a perfect 70 degrees. Everywhere you looked there were people walking down the streets with the largest smiles on their faces. People driving their cars were honking their horns and blasting Skylar Gray’s song “Coming Home.” A sense of pride, hope, and inspiration filled the air — Cleveland was ready for a change.
For the past couple of decades, Cleveland has had a nationwide reputation of being a miserable city to live in with not a single positive thing going for it. The population had been decreasing since the 1950s, the poverty rate was incredibly high, and gang activity and violence was rising tremendously. There was very little pride that Clevelanders had in their city, but there was hope in the success of their sports teams — the Browns, the Indians, and the Cavaliers. But even there, there was very little hope. All three teams have always been horrible. Cleveland has never been or even been close to seeing a championship.
But here we have Lebron James, the natural born basketball prodigy, coming from the small city Akron right outside of Cleveland. The sport of basketball had never seen a player like him. When the Cavalier’s had the privilege of the number one draft pick in 2003 as a result of being one of the worst teams in the NBA, it was a given that they would choose the Cleveland native Lebron James. He was everything that the falling city needed. Hope.
After seven seasons of playing on the Cavaliers, Lebron left his home to play for the Miami Heat. Cleveland was a wreck. He was the city’s hero, chosen to bring the city out of suffering. And just like that, he abandoned his city. The life was sucked out of Cleveland. All hope that Lebron gave the city was lost. Clevelanders were reminded of what living in Cleveland means — a life of constant disappointment.
But on that beautiful summer day when Lebron had announced his return to Cleveland, the whole attitude of the city changed. Cleveland’s hero was back to save it from misery. Lebron was returning home on a mission to bring a trophy to Cleveland, but he wasn’t doing it for the title. He felt that he had a responsibility to Clevelanders, “I want to give them hope when I can. I want to inspire them when I can. My relationship with Northeast Ohio is bigger than basketball.”
Lebron identified with Cleveland. He was a poor kid without a father growing up in a city where all things seemed to work against him. But he was gifted, and he made something out of it despite what seemed like his predestined failure. He wanted his city to do the same, “In Northeast Ohio, nothing is given. Everything is earned. You work for what you have.”
Cleveland being “The Mistake by the Lake” had the same fate of failure, but Lebron knew that his city had potential and he wanted to reveal it to the world.
A month after Lebron’s announcement that he was coming back to Cleveland, a homecoming celebration was hosted at the University of Akron’s stadium. 30,000 Cavalier fans were there to welcome him home with open arms. Overwhelming emotions of excitement and love filled the stadium as Cleveland’s hero walked the stage with his wife and two sons. Lebron said with passion and pride, “I love you, I’m back.”
Lebron recognized that him coming back to Cleveland was what the city needed to make for a brighter future. It was finally time for Cleveland to shine. Believeland.