[kIwOk168Participant]

Kevin Garnett leaves Minnesota to form a big 3 and pursue a championship in Boston and Minnesota wishes him luck, LeBron leaves Cleveland to form a big 3 and pursue a championship in Miami and Cleveland (and a lot of other fans outside of Cleveland) burns his jersey topped with harsh comments from the owner.

When Kevin Garnett went to Boston, it was still Paul Pierce’s team (as mentioned by Garnett), but Garnett’s legacy wasn’t in jeopardy nor tarnished in any way. Now that LeBron is going to Miami, suddenly he’s “piggybacking” and “buying a free ride to a championship?” That this is “Wade’s team” and LeBron would be settling for player 1A. That LeBron’s potential legacy as the same level as Magic’s, Bird’s, and MJ’s (and soon Kobe’s) is no more since he chose to switch teams as those aforementioned players stuck it up with their teams althroughout their careers.

Everyone is preaching about the team concept and importance of winning championships. The Celtics is currently the personification of the team concept in the NBA as 3 superstars took backseats from their own personal achievements and decided to make way for the team. They are praised for that. Now the same thing can happen in Miami as 3 superstars decide to take backseats, embrace the team concept, and take paycuts to build a championship team and they are already taking hits and negative comments.

The only thing I can surmise here is Garnett was nearing the twilight of his career when he shifted while LeBron is in his prime (that’s why Orlando had the same reaction when Shaq left for LA, he was also young at that time). If so, that would put the hypocrisy on us. We respect our superstar’s decisions when we feel deep inside that they are already done and out and “have no use to us” while we criticize our superstars for their decision is we feel we can still use him to win? People are pissed maybe because the Heat doesn’t need LeBron to stay relevant (Wade and Bosh is enough really) while the Cavs will be wiped away from the map without LeBron.

I don’t know, but I think it’s unfair for LeBron to take so much of the heat (no pun intended). Either way, many people would have been disappointed anyway. 5 out of the 6 teams in the running for LeBron would end up expecting but heartbroken, LeBron can still only sign for 1 team.

It’s just unfair for LeBron to be held on a different (and very unrealistic, unfair, no way to win) standard compared to anyone else in the league who simply wants the chance to win championships.

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