James's move to the Miami Heat with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade heralds a new era. Now sport stars create their own teams
As someone who grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, I understand the anger of Cleveland fans over the decision of the city's superstar basketball player, LeBron James, to leave Ohio in order to join the Miami Heat. Cleveland's great institutions ? the Cleveland Orchestra, the Cleveland Art Museum, the Cleveland Clinic ? evoke pride but not much joy. Pro-sports are what make the news and unite Clevelanders.
When I was in junior high school, students were allowed to skip class and go to the opening day baseball game of the Cleveland Indians. All we had to do was show our teacher that our parents had bought us a ticket. Supporting the team, like paying local sales taxes, was looked on as a civic duty.
What is hard to understand in the case of LeBron James is the rage of Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert. "As you now know, our former hero, who grew up in the very region that he deserted this evening, is no longer a Cleveland Cavalier," Gilbert wrote in an open letter to Cleveland fans. "This shocking act of disloyalty from our home grown 'chosen one' sends the exact opposite lesson of what we would want our children to learn."
All this rage is coming from a man who regularly buys and sells players. On the surface, it seems little more than the hypocrisy of a businessman who had a deal fall through. But behind Gilbert's rage is more than hypocrisy. What infuriated Gilbert was that his money wasn't enough to retain the services of LeBron James. James and two other friends from the American Olympic basketball team, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, decided that they wanted to become the nucleus of the best team in professional basketball.
Driving the three players was a perfectionist's view of the game itself. Their combined salaries ? each will receive more than $100m over the next six years ? were actually $15m less than they might have got through maximum deals with separate teams.
In basketball, as in most professional sports, it is owners working with general managers who are traditionally responsible for assembling a team. James, Bosh and Wade, in remaking the Miami Heat, were, in effect, saying that idea is old hat. Owners are not the only ones who can put together a great team. Talented players can do the same job just as well.
In one of the few businesses in America in which workers have greater name recognition than the executives who pay them, the result has been a sports revolution. Owners such as Dan Gilbert have now been warned: the old formula for making a profit based on fielding mediocre teams and charging high ticket prices is in jeopardy. Players who want to see their sport played at the highest level can create their own teams. The example set by James, Bosh and Wade can be duplicated by others.
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