Lo tienes todo

Hace tiempo que no pagas la casa.
Tienes agua y luz, pero no lo tienes todo.
Apenas tienes.
Y tienes compañía.
Miles y miles que también como tú
tienen agua y luz.
Pero los arropará el frío manto de su cielo
destechado a todos ellos.
Entonces sabremos juntos lo que pensaste
nunca sabrías ayer. ¡Jamás!
Tanta compañía. Tanta soledad.
Lo tienes todo y tienes nada.

cspellot, 2011

Dear LeBron

Dear LeBron:

I’m very sorry for your loss. I’m certain that if you take the time to review and reflect on your recent performance as a ball player in The Finals, you’d be heartbroken. Now, it wasn’t only your loss. Obviously, your loss means that your team lost too. Your organization lost. Your city lost. And I will go further and say we all lost. Save for the Dallas Mavericks, of course.

Thinking back almost a year ago, I remember the great spectacle you subjected all of us because of “The Decision” to leave your homies, the Cleveland Cavaliers, for the Miami Heat. But who are we kidding here? They were never your homies, not in the last few seasons. Certainly, not in the last one previous to “The Decision”. Many decisions throughout anyone’s life are done in the name of self interest, LeBron, but as far as recent history is concerned “The Decision” was second to none.

Let’s not fool ourselves here, brother. You had made up your mind even before the season had ended for you last year. Like this year, it ended badly. Although this year it was worse because you made it to the Finals, where you crashed and burned. Apparently, seven years without a ring was more than King James could handle. Had you won all the way up to the championship, no doubt you would’ve remained a Cavalier. No surprise there, right? You would have been not just the King but the Champion.

Let’s just say it like it is. Had you won the championship as a Cavalier, in light of what we witnessed throughout “The Decision”, save for Cleveland, we all would have been pretty sick of you, Bron. It’s not personal, amigo. It’s just the way things are when one happens to have too much of everything all too soon. Are you to blame? Yes, you are. You’re King James. You’re the Chosen One, remember? But are you the only one we should blame? Simply, no. We played a big hand in this too. We’re the fans after all.

I didn’t follow intentionally all the hoopla surrounding “The Decision”. However, it was pretty hard to be oblivious to it because every media outlet known to men in the western world and beyond was covering your every single blink trying to decipher what the heck you were going to do as a free agent. You played The System. Yet, what truly happened is that you only played your part in the grandiose system of professional sports and, therefore, ultimately The System played you. Yes, it played you and, in turn, it played us all too.

Let’s keep things in perspective, LeBron. You’re a basketball player. I’d like to think of you as something more but it’s pretty hard. We? Mere idolaters. Millions of miserable minions worshipping at the sidelines. The System spits fire and so far, for all your millions, you haven’t been the dragonslayer you were cracked up to be. Self interest is the name of the game. You made money. Lots of it. The NBA made money. Lots of it. ESPN and its cohorts made money. You guessed right! Lots of it. That is the hollow nature of our value system. Can I get a cha-ching! (Watch out, China, the speed train is coming your way!) One man and his apparently fateful single decision. I bet you felt powerful at the time.

Almost a year ago“The Decision Affair” crept into our lives whether we would have wanted it or not. Can you imagine? The decision of one, just one basketball player holding in suspense a whole nation? That’s pretty impressive, LeBron. I don’t know if you have had the chance to look back and think about it. To leave or not to leave? That was the simple question. Looking back, it all seems pretty silly to me now. Honestly, it all seemed pretty silly to me back then. I wasn’t alone there. You can ask Steve Carrell. And for you, looking back may happen to be a bit painful if you’re not as self-absorbed as everybody is making you out to be. Are you, LeBron?

Do you know how many players make “The Decision” year in, year out? A ton. And this not just in pro basketball. So why was your decision any more important than others? Why, LeBron? For so many reasons I don’t know where to begin. Prime talent comes at a high price in the world of pro sports, but that’s beside the point. What rings true is that loyalty is a higher priced commodity in professional sports. The fans know it. Kirk Novitzki knows it too. That should explain all the mad haters. But, honestly, can we blame them? After King James became King Betrayer? Not a chance, Bron. And welcome to the real world. Decisions have consequences. Often times pretty awful consequences. By now, the Heat is long gone, amigo. But not before having burnt us all.