I do not know Dan Gilbert personally, I have met him a grand total of one time while he was out here in San Diego a year or so ago. He talked to me directly, seemed like a really nice guy. He had a charisma about him that I would assume billionaires would have. After his “letter” yesterday after Lebron decided to trash the city of Cleveland in a prime time hour long train wreck. I have gained much more respect for the man. I am proud to work for someone that has the fire and the passion that he exhibited in the “letter.” I am use to the comic sans emails that he sends out every now and then to the family of companies, he is a solid motivational writer and I must admit, I have drank the Kool Aid. I am fired up by it. It almost makes me want to shed the Clipper fan moniker and jump over to be a Cavs fan.

What was Lebron thinking? Actually, what was anyone thinking in regards to this live one hour special? ESPN loved it, they were not going to get much bad press (even though they basically mortgaged their credibility) over it. This was all going to be on Lebron and his marketing group. How can one of the most likable guys in the NBA fall so flat on his face. He fell so hard that his face went through the ground and he buried himself. This had nothing but bad written all over it.

I can understand him leaving Cleveland. I totally can understand it. He is 25, all he really knows about living is in the Cleveland area. He wanted to spread his wings a little bit, live in a new environment, taste what was out there. That is totally understandable. I did it when i was 21, I moved from Los Angeles and went to San Diego, away from the thumb of my family. All I can say, it was the worst decision of my life, it probably set me back a number of years, cost me finishing off my education, just for the perks of partying hard and learning that people are really out for themselves.

Will that happen to Lebron? Probably not, but I do think in retrospect, in about 10-12 years after he has left the NBA he will look back and say that it was probably not a good choice. He has basically villified himself to the people that adored him. His relationship to his home town will never be the same. He is going to be seen as the straw that broke the camels back. He was Cleveland. He made the people of Cleveland believe in something. He gave that region something to hold on to. Now they are not back to where they use to be, but they are far worse off.

It is not that he left Cleveland, it is how he left Cleveland. He basically created a 60 minute infomercial where if Cleveland were a woman, that stayed by his side through thick and thin, may not have been the prettiest, but she would look past your faults and be there whenever you needed her, dragged out in front of the nation, if not the world and was basically told, you are not good enough for me and got replaced by some hot big titted woman wearing a tube dress that could probably be on the cover of any magazine cover. It was just so public, it was just so damning. It was the worst possible way to do that, especially to the people that had followed him for so long, to people that adored him to no end. It was just downright disrespectful.

If Lebron just held a press conference in Miami and said that he signed with the Heat and left it at that. The backlash that he is getting right now would not be so horrific. It would be understandable, it would be something people could swallow. It would have been painful, but not as horrific as what he actually did.

I live in San Diego, the Chargers had a player that was beloved, #55, an Oceanside product that went up to USC to play college football, drafted by the Chargers in 1990. Junior Seau, one of the best linebackers in history. He stayed in San Diego, he probably could have gone off and got more money going somewhere else, but he stayed true to his city, to his fans. He lives here today, even though he did not end his career as a Charger. The difference between him and Lebron. The Chargers traded him away. It stung, it really hurt losing him, but it was a decision by management and he went on to play in the super bowl with the Patriots. He is still loved and endeared in the community. Lebron will NEVER be loved in the great lakes region ever again.

Lebron will win titles, I am almost positive of it. But his name will never be mentioned along the greats. He is never going to be thought of as being able to play in the same stratosphere as Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan. He has in affect signed away his legacy to be the Scotty Pippen to Dwayne Wades Michael Jordan. He is Pau Gasol to Kobe Bryant. He will not be the billionaire that he has wanted to become. He has proven that he can’t do it on his own. He needs someone that can carry him over the top. Sadly the people that will carry him over the top are just better than he is.

He has in essence become Dwayne Wade’s Robin. He will most likely not get any Finals MVP’s, he will most likely not get any regular season MVP’s. Dwayne Wade is the leader of that team and if he really thinks that Dwayne Wade is going to step aside to appease a meglomaniac, I seriously think Lebron has another thing coming.

He went to Miami to play with the dream team. The only problem is that they are not going to be beating up on Angola every few days. When one of them start to see their numbers dropping, that will eventually create tension between the big three. It may be all good for a season or two, but by the third year, when they are starting to look at a possible contract again in two years, you will see some serious issues with those three.

Bye bye Lebron, I really hope you grow up and start being what you were meant to be, a damn good basketball player, but I am not sure that will ever happen with the decision that you made.

Sign on San Diego Story

LT may mean Lawrence Taylor to many, but in San Diego, it means LaDanian Tomlinson. It was not like he was ego driven, it was not like he was one of those guys that just came to play the game, he was a class act, he was a professional on the field and off the field.

Since it is a game of numbers and a business, everyone in San Diego knew that it was over. He did the right thing in restructuring his contract last year to give it one more go. AJ Smith acted like a complete jackass last year before the negotiations. It almost got to the point that Charger fan would have wanted to jam a rocket up AJ’s sphincter and sent his ass out of town at how horrifically he treated the icon of the Chargers, but the deal got done and LT would be a Charger once again, for at least one more year.

It is sad to see him go, much like it was sad to see Seau go, much like it was sad to see Rodney Harrison go, it was a painful day hearing LT was walking out the door. The writing was on the wall, not just last year, but the year they let go of possibly the greatest fullback in Charger history. When they let Lorenzo Neal go, they basically stopped Tomlinson from being the greatest running back in the history of the NFL. You get rid of the primary reason that LT got the NFL single season record in TD’s and you replace his battering ram in front of him with a rookie that could not block a wet napkin and you basically killed his career. Who got rid of Lorenzo Neal? AJ Smith.

AJ Smith is the reason that once a team emerges in Los Angeles, that my allegiance will turn. AJ Smith is the reason that the fans are frustrated with Charger football. AJ Smith has amassed great talent, but AJ Smith is an egomaniac that cannot seem to understand that sometimes you have to concede things to make people happy. Sometimes you need to bite your big fat lip and keep a competent coach on the sidelines that knows how to coach as opposed to hiring a coach that you can basically control. This team should have won at least one super bowl a couple of years ago when LT was MVP, but this team should have been in this years super bowl.

Not only does LT walk away from being a Charger this week, but I bide my time as well. Eventually a team will grace Los Angeles, be it the LA Jaguars, or the LA Vikings, or even the LA Bills, they already have one fan waiting. AJ Smith needs to understand that the fans follow the team, they follow their favorites, they do not follow an egomaniacal General Manager.

With that being said….

Look back on 2006 and his 31 TD’s: