Click here for part 1 of The Reaction

The poor city of Cleveland and Cavs owner Dan Gilbert won’t agree with what I am about to write here, and I guess that’s ok. They’ve had their collective guts ripped out enough, and they can only react irrationally and emotionally.

But for those of you actually applauded the jersey-torching and the harsh words of Gilbert (if anyone could take them seriously in that ridiculous Comic Sans font), let me contend with this: who’s the best player the Cavaliers have brought in to play alongside LeBron in the seven years he was in Cleveland? Mo Williams? Antawn Jamison? Shaq? None of those guys were a top 25 player in the league when they were brought in. And all of basketball history shows that every single superstar needs an elite sidekick to win championships.

So if Gilbert wasn’t willing to spend the money to bring in a suitable running mate for LeBron, let’s say that five more years go by without a title in Cleveland. Are the fans still going to love him then? The anxiety for winning a title was bad enough this year so you can’t convince me that Clevelanders would still be backing LeBron at 30 years old with no titles. Throw in the fact that Miami has the weather/nightlife advantage, and why in the world would LeBron stick around with an organization that had not yet given him proper help in seven years?

Here’s the best comparison I can make: it’s like a doomed teenage relationship (again, I’m 20 – I’ve seen plenty of these) in which one side (in this case LeBron) is always on the verge of leaving. The other person (city of Cleveland/Cavs) makes desperate attempts to keep them together (signings of Jamison/Shaq) but won’t really make a sacrifice for their significant other (such as flipping JJ Hickson in a deal to get a worthy sidekick).

Eventually the person finally leaves (The Decision) and the other is devastated for a moment before going into an angry frenzy in which they purge themselves of that person and swear to never forgive them (jersey burning/letter). It’s explosive and it’s not fun, and it probably would have been better off to end the relationship years ago (instead LeBron re-upped three years ago so he could hit free agency with Bosh and Wade).

Bottom line, it was not going to end well for LeBron in Cleveland. No one in that city would agree with me right now, but if you can look at it rationally just trust me on that.

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My final plea is this:

I realize that some journalists are hardened souls who have lost faith in the goodness of men or purity of sports, but I’m 20 years old and I haven’t reached that point yet. I’ve played basketball with the same group of friends since I was in elementary school. I went to college to play basketball and found new teammates to play with – guys that I loved being around – but it just wasn’t the same. The game is different when you’re playing with guys that you genuinely like and have known for years. We can’t blame him for choosing to play with his friends, especially when playing with them gives him arguably the best chance to win championships.

Yes, the move officially takes him off of the Jordan/Kobe level of superstars who’ve won titles “on their own” (though nobody was talking about the legacies of Garnett, Pierce, or Allen being tainted when they joined forces before the ’08 season). LeBron apparently just isn’t wired the way those guys were, but as long as he starts winning titles the critics will be quieted.

And as fans, shouldn’t we be satisfied? How often does a superstar take a paycut and a limelight-cut to play alongside his friends and win championships? Isn’t this what we want to see from our superstars?

For LeBron, it’s a win-win. Playing with his boys and the prospect of multiple titles is just too perfect for him to pass up.

I know it’s not a popular sentiment, but I actually think he made the right decision.