People questioned his age. Whether he was capable of becoming the savior, or if his immaturity would interfere. His talents were unmatched–even unworldly. No one had ever seen anything like him before. But the fact remained he was probably over-hyped, cocky, incapable of working well with others, too emotional–all likely the result of the traumas he suffered when he was torn away from an already fractured childhood at a young age, and immediately burdened with the pressures of greatness. But that was the price he paid for his gifts. Despite all these questions, the people around him took the risk anyways. Not just the risk of seeing what he could become, but they placed the future in his hands. Some tried to protect him from the pressures, but the hype, and influence of others, overwhelmed those voices.

In the end, he collapsed amidst the pressure, lost himself, and went over to the dark side.

This story arc doubles as the fall of both LeBron James and Anakin Skywalker.

Anakin, under the influence of Darth Sidius, destroyed himself, betrayed the Jedi and the Republic, becoming Darth Vader, while LeBron James, swayed by a confluence of Maverick Carter, Pat Riley and Dwyane Wade, also destroyed himself–or at least the world’s perception of him–by deciding to do The Decision; betraying his teammates and Cleveland, he became possibly the most despised man ever to play professional sports.

But really, neither Anakin nor LeBron intended to betray everyone around them.

Throughout their lives neither had much, and they lost the little bit they ever had. Anakin lost his mother. Then, faced with the prospect of losing Natalie Portman, he sought the power to save himself from a life of loneliness and slavery. That led to his regrettable doom.

That’s what LeBron sought in Miami. Just as Anakin didn’t go over to the dark side because he wanted the power, LeBron didn’t go to Miami because he wanted easy championships. The potential championships were part of the means to an end, but I don’t believe they were an end.

When LeBron chose to leave Cleveland he was really choosing happiness, fun and companionship over the proverbial “struggle”, failing to realize how much that conflicted with our modern conception of greatness in athletes.

Prevailing through the struggle, or overcoming an alleged insurmountable obstacle, is the greatest storyline in sports today. That’s the reason the Brady 6 documentary was made. That’s why we love Michael Jordan, and praise Dirk Nowitzki for finally winning. It’s why we believe in Miracles.

LeBron took that away from us in some ways. He gave up on it in a way we’ve never seen before. But he didn’t even see that in the first place. He didn’t see choosing happiness as admitting failure, or showing weakness. He saw it as a logical execution of free will. He recognized how difficult it would be to win a title in Cleveland. So far, they’d failed to surround him with suitable teammates, so why would he want to stick around for that, knowing the burden might continue to fall on him to carry a team that was otherwise the worst team in the league?

This was a man who had to struggle his entire life. He struggled through periods of homelessness, his mother’s addictions, wondering if his mother would come home, his father leaving him. Many of the worst things a child can see LeBron saw.

Then he started playing basketball, and before he knew it the pressure was on to become the greatest player ever. So he’s been dealing with one struggle or another since before he can remember.

That’s why he chose the path of happiness. Because he had finally reached a point where he could easily have it. He saw glimpses of it playing USA basketball and he wanted more. The struggle didn’t appeal to him because it was the role he’d played his entire life.

I have a really hard time blaming him for leaving that.

I can however, blame him for two things.

First, embracing all the hype around him, from his junior year in high school on, and using it to expand his image and become a very, very rich man. Even there though, it’s difficult to place the onus squarely on his shoulders because there were a lot of agents, NBA officials, and Nike officials pushing this. They saw LeBron as an opportunity to grow the popularity of the league and their brands. And it worked. But LeBron does deserve some blame here because he wants all the benefits of being one of the most famous, rich men alive, without the burdens and pressures. He has to understand that when he fails, the media has to give him a hard time, and not to take it personally.

Second, how did he not think “The Decision” would backfire? How did he not realize Cleveland would take this personally?

This is where trying to get into LeBron’s head gets really confusing.

I believe LeBron genuinely didn’t believe “The Decision” would cause the backlash it did.

But, if that’s true, how the hell is that possible?

It probably stems from the treatment he’s received since he was 16. He was the darling of the media for a long, long time. In turn, he became one of the most popular athletes in the country. When he scored 25 straight points to beat the Pistons in that epic comeback, everyone loved it,–myself included–and saw visions of the next truly great player.

Everyone loved him.

That was his big mistake.

He actually came to believe the people loved him. Loved him the way they loved Michael, Bird and Magic. Loved him enough to want to see him happy. Loved him enough to forgive him for “The Decision” or to believe that he really just wanted to entertain us some more, while earning $2.5 mil for the Boys & Girls Club.

He must feel so betrayed now. Going from that, to everyone rooting for him to fail.

It’s enough to make me feel a little bad for him. And bad for myself. It was honestly more fun hating LeBron when everyone else loved him–practically worshipped him. That’s half the fun of hating Peyton Manning. Any Kobe haters will tell you it was way more fun hating him before those rape charges. Now no one likes Kobe, so it’s kind of pointless to make a point of disliking him.

Especially when you have no reason not to like him. Everyone seems to hate LeBron now. But for what? Because he’d rather live in Miami with his friends who are good, than in Cleveland with people he has to carry?

Who wouldn’t want that?

Yes, he did go about it the wrong way, but is that really a reason to give this guy endless amounts of crap, to basically make his life as miserable as possible?

Don’t get me wrong. I still don’t like LeBron. But that’s because he has a really good chance of beating the Celtics again next year.

I don’t like his Decision to go to Miami, but I honestly couldn’t care less about the morality of announcing that on national television. Who gives a crap? Really. Do you really care that much about Cleveland? (Sorry Cleveland.) I didn’t like the choice just because I thought he should have gone to NY to play with Amar’e. Wade and LeBron just aren’t meant to play together.

But whatever. All that stuff is in the past now. It’s time to get over it. LeBron made his choice.

He chose to make his “struggle” a little easier. He wanted to enjoy life in Miami, play with his friends, and win some easy championships.

Is that really the dark side?

(I know this completely ignores that fact that he played like crap in the Finals. He wasn’t assertive and it wasn’t completely clear whether he even cared. But that’s not the point. Unless you choose to believe he played so poorly because the media is in his head. That has more to do with basketball skill and personell–i.e. LeBron and Wade shouldn’t play together, they should have given the ball to Bosh, if LeBron is going to play on a real team he has to develop a legitimate go-to offensive repertoire, etc, etc.)