Last LeBron Post Ever. I Promise.

I’m not going to continue to rail about this.  As a Knicks fan for 30 years, I don’t know why I didn’t expect this.  The Dolans and the entire Knicks organization have made every mistake possible, blowing this chance was a layup for them.  I was also blown away by the callousness of ESPN‘s braindead, tone deaf infomercial/funeral dirge that aired last night.

New York Magazine’s sports column captures the disgust at last night’s bizarre televised event perfectly…

That trust felt broken tonight. Not because LeBron James went to the Heat, even though he referred to his destination as “South Beach,” not “the Miami Heat and their fans.” Not because LeBron James didn’t go to the Knicks, even though of all the cities he mentioned enjoying during this free agent “courtship,” New York was the one he omitted. Not even because LeBron was so, so cruel to Cleveland, not once thanking the fans who made him into what he was, the fans who have to wonder if their absurd investment in their sports franchises will ever be rewarded. No, tonight, it felt like everyone involved — LeBron, ESPN, Bing, the University of Phoenix, Stuart Scott, the man who once chastised fans for having the audacity to boo, Jim freaking Gray — treated the millions of people watching like stupid, mindless consumers, empty lemmings ready to follow Sport into the abyss. Here, here are the Boys & Girls Club props. Here, here is your search engine. Here, here is your online college, Here, here is your Athletic Hero. Eat. Eat. Consume. You like it. You love it. You’ll always come back for more.

Gross.  And here’s another fellow disgusted customer of the NY Knicks franchise, Barry Ritholtz, on the failure to attract LeBron…

There may be no more hapless, pathetic, incompetent owners of any team since MSG was founded in 1874. Long suffering Knick’s fans have be watched the team mismanaged into basketball irrelevancy. Since the Patrick Ewing era ended, incompetent management has been unable to field a competitive squad, retain a top flight coach, achieve any success in the playoffs, been unable to attract and retain all-star talent. The inability to attract Lebron James to New York is merely the cherry on a failure cake.

I have family members with seasons tickets and I didn’t go to a single game at MSG last year.  I’m not interested in watching something I’ve loved continue to die in slow motion.

This will be my last LeBron or basketball-related post for a long time.  Back to business.