I feel like I should say this upfront, but I don't fault LeBron James for leaving Cleveland. As someone who's had the privilege of living in numerous different cities all around the world, who am I to look down on someone who leaves what is essentially their hometown?

But it's not as simple as all that. There is no sports town as shat upon as Cleveland. If you can find me one, I'll give you my banking account number. The collective futility of the Cleveland Indians, the Cleveland Browns, and the Cleveland Cavaliers is enough to make one seriously wonder if Cleveland is some kind of LOST-like island where bad karma reigns. Like when the sports deities were up in the clouds divvying up which towns would be blessed ones and which ones would be cursed, they accidentally shafted Cleveland.

Baseball God: I love black and red, so give me New York and St. Louis.
Baseball Devil: I'm kind of red myself, so I'll take the Indians. And people always sacrifice goats for some reason, so give me the Cubbies, too.

Football God: I like being able to look down on my team, so give me the Dallas Cowboys.
Football Devil: I like the heat in Arizona, so give me the Cardinals. Plus, they have a helluva immigration law. I'll also take the Cleveland Browns. I'll send my minion Art Modell to look after the team. But you know what, I'm feeling generous so I'll send some Ohio State love their way. And just for good measure, I'll set Lake Erie on fire.

Basketball God: I'll take Los Angeles and Chicago.
Basketball Devil: Give me Cleveland and Sacramento. But I'd like to request that the Basketball God make sure and give us a player that can defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers in the cruelest way possible. Sound good? You take Jordan, we'll take Greg Ehlo.

So as a sports fan, especially one from Houston, which for a while had it's own history of chokes and misfires, I can feel for the Cleveland fan. Sports fans of championship deprived towns have a common bond. We're like Empathetic/Pathetic Brothers and Sisters in Arms.

Like I said above, I don't fault LeBron for leaving. If someone gave us the opportunity to go work side by side with someone who is widely regarded as being the best in the country at our line of work, would we really say no? God knows I've been dying to go worth with Joseph Adeline up in Wisconsin. He's widely regarded as being the best administrative clerk in the country. His filing skills are world class. Women swoon as his words typed per minute rate. Legend has it that he knows a way to type the + sign and the * symbol just off scent alone.

But where I do find fault with LBJ is how we went about this whole process. Did we really need a one hour "special episode" of SportsCenter to get this simple answer of where he was going? There's only so much one can look at Stuart Scott's glass eye without feeling uneasy.

I love that on the same day LBJ had his unnecessary ESPN special, Oklahoma Thunder star Kevin Durant announced via his Twitter, misspellings and all, "Exstension for 5 more years wit the #thunder....God Is Great, me and my family came a long way...I love yall man forreal, this a blessing!" It's official, Kevin Durant is the cute baby puppy of the league.

What's most confusing about this whole ordeal is that LeBron, or King James, or however he likes to refer to himself in the third person these days, is essentially taking himself out of the debate for "greatest of all time." To be the greatest, you have to be the clear cut number one for your team. Pippen was great, but MJ was clearly the best person on that team. Magic Johnson had Kareem at the tail end of his career. Same with Duncan and Robinson. But with the Heat, you have two people who can legitimately claim to be the best player in the league in the prime of their careers.

Either he doesn't care about that discussion and just wants to win championships, which I don't 100% buy, or he's so surrounded himself with yes men that he's lost all sense of perspective. If it's the former, I respect that. But I have a feeling it's the latter.

What he's essentially done is A-Rodded himself. Yeah, he doesn't have the max salary of A-Rod, but he's become the hired gun on a loaded team. Instead of sticking with Cleveland and saying, "I WILL win you that championship," he's opting for the easier route. It'd be like if after Bruce Wayne's parents left, he tried the whole Batman thing for a while but then decided to team up with Superman to fight crime.

Yeah, it's probably going to win him championships, but there's no feeling there. There's no magic. There's no Hakeem Olajuwon crying in disbelief that he finally got his ring in the same town where he played both college and pro-basketball. There's no Michael Jordan hugging that championship trophy in Chicago when he could have bolted for Detroit. When LeBron hugs the Larry O'Brien trophy, it'll be just as shallow for us fans as it was when we saw A-Rod hoist the World Series trophy.

LeBron never went to college, so it's understandable that he doesn't know his gods. Gods don't always succeed. Sometimes they fail. But what makes them memorable is how they're admired. Would we really look down on LeBron if he were to retire trophyless? He'd be loved by nearly every single fan in the NBA as someone who gave it his all and fought the good fight. Just look at the way we look at Stockton and Malone. Or Charles Barkley. As Yoda said, "Wars not make one great." What makes someone great is never giving up on your city, by not taking the easy road.

But I'm just a clown jester in King James's court. What do I know?