LeBron James went on national television the other night to inform the world that he would be signing a deal to play basketball for the Miami Heat.

I don't think I've ever seen something quite like this. What should have been a simple press release or conference turned into a prime time media circus. Done in a way that has made a villain of one of the most likable, popular athletes in the world. The only way that LeBron could have come off worse in all of this is if he had told Jim Gray that he recently raped a hotel worker in Eagle, Colorado. I was going to make the comparison of Hulk Hogan going evil and forming the nWo, but too many other Bill Simmons readers have already done that. Besides, it's not that great of a comparison -- wrestling is fake, after all.

It's clear as day that LeBron handled this wrong from a PR perspective. Which is not surprising, because a quick Google search informs me that his manager is none other than his cousin, Maverick Carter. And it's not that he just handled it wrong. He handled it wrong on such an epic scale that it's mind boggling. The fallout from this has been so entertaining to watch over the past few days, and it just gets weirder and weirder and weirder.

Before we get into the fallout, let's identify where LBJ went wrong in all of this. What would possess him to make such a spectacle of this -- a one-hour TV special watched by ten million people? It came off as phony, staged, contrived -- do I believe that he made the 'decision' that morning? No. No I don't. The rumors of his joining forces with D-Wade and Boshy Bosh (I don't know if Chris Bosh has a nickname, so I just made one up) have been swirling since the 2008 Olympics. Were the Nets ever seriously in the running? And was Cleveland? I say no to both -- the Nets just posted one of the worst records in league history, and couldn't even land John Wall out of it. The Cavs... they have screwed up building a team around @KingJames since the day he was drafted. Carlos Boozer carries some of the blame here -- after all, he screwed over a blind guy for some extra money from the Jazz... but who has Cleveland put around LeBron in his seven years? Off the top of my head I can think of Donyell Marshall, Eric Snow, Anderson Varejo, Shaq's Corpse, Mo Williams, and Antawn Jamison. Other than Varejo and Jamison, I'm not sure how many of these guys should be starting for an NBA team.

And let's not even begin to talk about Mike Brown.

So, can I blame LBJ for leaving Cleveland? Not at all. It was clearly the right thing for him to do. It was no accident that the Cavs landed the #1 pick to get LBJ -- they were an awful team. Poorly run on every level -- wasn't Ricky Davis their franchise player for a while? So to expect them to start to understand how to build a basketball team as soon as The Chosen One enters the building? That's not realistic. For whatever reason, there aren't that many people out there who have shown the ability to correctly run an NBA team -- Sam Presti, Pat Riley... can we name some others? It's much easier to rattle off a list of atrocious GMs (I'm looking at YOU, Billy King) than of competent ones.

He needed to leave. He needed to go someplace where he could win it all -- where he had confidence that the folks running the show knew what they were doing. Miami was one of those teams -- although it's not the ideal team. Chicago would have been the best choice of the final selections. If LBJ *really* wanted to win ring after ring, he would have gone to play for the Team Formerly Known as the Seattle Supersonics -- put him and Durant on a team with the pieces they already have? Scary.

Anyway, enough about our villain. Let's talk about Dan Gilbert.

I didn't really realize who he was until I read his open letter, posted on the Cavs site in Comic Sans font -- COMIC SANS! Obviously, the typography world was abuzz about his... interesting choice of typefaces. If you haven't yet read it, you need to  -- done? Good. It's amazing, right? Delusional, right? The rantings of a madman, right?

I imagine this is the type of letter that Elin Nordegren would have written after she discovered Tiger's infidelities. She might have used Times New Roman, but the tone is the same. Gilbert comes off as someone who was lied to, cheated on, spurned... and perhaps he was -- we don't know what @KingJames was telling him before 'The Decision' special. To further reinforce his insanity, Gilbert has recently slashed prices on the formerly $99.95 life-size LeBron FatHead decal to $17.41 -- the year that Benedict Arnold was born. I'm not making this up -- Roger Ebert tweeted it and I checked the price and looked up when ol' eggs Benedict was born unto this world. Gilbert has also publicly stated that he believes that LBJ quit on his team in the playoffs, which begs the question -- if he quit on you, why would you want him back to begin with?

I'm personally looking forward to what Gilly has to say or do next -- is he going to go all Tonya Harding on LeBron? Will he put out a contract on @KingJames? What is the ceiling of crazy here?

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the matter... what's your take?

Jesse's take

Jim, let me just say how pleased I am to be able to go through this process with you. I was looking forward to this process, this process has been everything I thought it would be, and its been a great process.

There was a moment at the end of Lebron's last game in Cleveland that made it so obvious he wasn't coming back, even The Suze remembers it: Lebron taking off his Cavs jersey after the game while still in the tunnel heading back to the locker room. And by taking it off, I mean ripping it off like it was on fire with a disgusted look on his face. His Decision to leave Cleveland had been made right then. Maybe you can't blame LBJ for leaving Cleveland, but I can. His team won over 60 games each of the last two seasons, which should put the lie to the "his coach, GM, and teammates" weren't good enough. It was Lebron that wasn't good enough.

Which has sort of been lost in all the kerfuffle about where he ends up: isn't Chicago a better team right now than Miami? Shit, Miami might be the fourth best team in the Eastern Conference, considering the fact that they have so little money left, I was just invited to work out for their backup point guard position. There's a concept in engineering called redundancy: its better to have two units that can deliver at 50% than one which can deliver at 100%, because if one goes down, you can still get half of what you need. Miami has no redundancy: a single injury to one of their players and their going to need to dress a hot dog vendor.

Now, let's be realistic: Lebron wasn't JUST interested in winning. He could have gone to LA for the minimum if that's all he cared about. But he also isn't interested in making his own way, either: the Cavs or the Knicks both offered a better opportunity to do that.

A fundamental truth underlie Lebron's decisions, about both Miami and the Decision special itself: he's a immature self-absorbed man-child. Put yourself in the shoes of, say, a 12 year old. Wouldn't it be cool to go on TV and announce that you're going to form, like, the coolest greatest team EVER with all your best friends, and you're gonna do it, like, on the BEACH and stuff? I think that's about all the thought that went into it. That we expected more from him is our own fault.

PS: Comic Sans is tired of your shit.