It’s far too early to say. Because even after the confetti flies in downtown Dallas, it’s only one year. Miami’s big three will get another shot next year, and the year after, and the next. Ignoring that the Heat’s disgustingly gaudy pep rally[1] brought down the ire of the basketball world, few people can deny the talent of the team, and the commitment their owners have made to a championship. So surely, it’s too early to say it.
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| Cursed? |
But it’s still fun to ask. Is Lebron James…. cursed?
It’s a strange thing to ask in basketball; curses are a baseball thing. The Boston Red Sox cursed themselves by trading away Babe Ruth. The Chicago White Sox spent the same time without a world series pennant for throwing the 1919 series, and don’t get me started on the Cubs’s ‘Curse of the Billy Goat.’[2] Or my personal favorite, Osaka’s ‘Curse of the Colonel.’
When the local Hanshin Tigers team won the Japanese championship for the first and only time in 1985, fans resembling the victorious Tiger players were pulled out of the celebrating crowd in a shopping district of Osaka and given the honor of jumping into the Dotonburi river. Lacking a lookalike for American player Randy Bass, the revelers pulled a statue of Colonel Sanders from a KFC storefront and threw him into the river.[3] Attempts to restore the statue the next day failed as it mysteriously disappeared in the river’s murky depths. The Tigers have failed to win a series since, despite two appearances. Most of the statue was finally found and recovered in 2009, but its glasses and left hand are still missing, as is a Tigers title.[4]
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| The Tiger's Bane? |
Curses are not limited to baseball. Philadelphia had a curse of William Penn, explaining away 20 years of failure in the four major US sports by the fact a building rose higher than the William Penn statue on city hall. The curse ended after a replica was built atop the tallest building in Philly, a year before the Phillies (maybe curses are just baseball…) won the 2008 series.
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| Billy Penn on the left. His figure was added to the top of the tall building on the right. |
And so to LeBron James. For those with a short memory, James’s contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers ran out last year. “King” James had many suitors, and for an inexplicable reason decided to make his big ‘decision’ a cable TV event. He spent an hour stalling on ESPN before famously announcing he was “taking his talents to South Beach.” The Cavs organization didn’t find out he was leaving until moments before the show aired, via a call by someone from Lebron’s entourage.[5]
Shortly after, Cavs majority owner Dan Gilbert issued an open letter. A link to the full letter is below, but the two most important quotes are these:
“"I personally guarantee that the Cleveland Cavaliers will win an NBA Championship before the self-titled former 'king' wins one." And, “The self-declared former "King" will be taking the "curse" with him down south. And until he does "right" by Cleveland and Ohio, James (and the town where he plays) will unfortunately own this dreaded spell and bad karma.[6]
Looking at these other curses, the formula fits personally. An act of bad will heinous enough to feasibly cause a cosmic backlash. A wronged party, and even a declared curse. And opportunities to break the curse, struck down by failure at the last moment. Buckner. Bartman. And now James’s tweet in game 5, ‘now or never!!’[7] It seems the stage is set perfectly.
But again, it’s one series. One year. Surely it’s too early to say Lebron James is cursed… isn’t it?
[7] http://twitter.com/#!/kingjames, June 9 2011
Photo credits:
"Cursed": Keith Allison, http://www.flickr.com/photos/keithallison/5276245612/
"The Tiger's Bane": jpellgen, http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpellgen/1893562085/
Philadelphia skyline: RobertFrancis, http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertfrancis/411345951/sizes/m/in/photostream/
