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Depending on who you ask, LeBron James' legacy will be defined by his championships, accolades, and accomplishments, or his penchant for leaving in free agency, his supposed "LeGM" persona, or whatever negative thing that his many, many naysayers may think about bringing up.
Simply put, the four-time NBA champion and surefire Hall of Famer is one of the most polarizing players to ever play in the NBA.
But that wasn't always the case.
From the time he was drafted up until 2010, James was seen as a widely beloved prodigy who had the fortune of being drafted by his hometown team and took that team to new and unparalleled heights. Perhaps the main criticism against him was his inability to get over the hump and win a championship and this was probably what ultimately led to the landmark moment that caused a shift in how people perceived the man who was once labeled as "The Chosen One.
When James entered free agency in 2010, he decided to announce his new team via a television special, which was entitled "The Decision". This was an unheard-of move, even in today's era of social media virality.
James ended up leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers after seven seasons to sign with the Miami Heat and uttered the now-immortal "I'm taking my talents to South Beach" line, which has been meme-fied and repurposed to eternity over the decade or so.
The audacity of this move was something that rubbed a lot of hoops fans the wrong way, especially since at the time, James hadn't won anything yet, apart from a pair of MVP trophies. It also became a trigger for Cavaliers fans, who felt that James had humiliated the city of Cleveland and the franchise for publicly spurning them and signing with a different team.
The rest, as they say, is history.
James ended up winning two titles with Miami, going back home to Cleveland to win another title and then went to L.A., where he won another championship.
One interesting tidbit about James' 2010 decision event was that the Cavaliers' current franchise star was there too, as a 13-year-old kid waiting to see where his favorite player would end up going.
Donovan Mitchell's The Decision Experience
As it turns out, Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell was in the building when James made his historic, NBA landscape-altering decision.
"I was staying at a friend's house and we went up and sat there for about two hours, waiting for LeBron to show up," Mitchell recalled. "LeBron was my favorite player. It happened right down the street from where I went to middle school, Greenwich Country Day. Was just waiting for him to say he was going to Miami because that's where I wanted him to go, I wanted him to play with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade."
Mitchell, in a different interview, shared that this nearly got him in trouble with Knicks fans.
"It was me and every Knick fan in the world that thought he was coming to New York. I was the only one cheering when he went to Miami and I got 30-year-olds ready to fight me, 'cause I'm over here like, it's about to be him, Dwyane and Bosh and I'm hype and they're out there throwing Snapple bottles at me," Mitchell shared.
And even though Mitchell grew up a Knicks fan, he shared why he was excited to see James form a big three in Miami.
"At that time, I was just like, this was like, the Big 3 was a thing, like, go join the Miami Heat and be with Dwyane Wade, who obviously I love and respect and Chris Bosh, it was like, just go join a super team and that was right at the beginning of the super team-type vibe era," he explained.
By the time Mitchell entered the league in 2017, James had already gone back to Cleveland. Nine years later, things could potentially come full circle.
Home for the third time?
16 years after James' "The Decision" spectacle, James is once again a free agent and once again Miami and Cleveland are among his possible landing spots.
If James does what many expect him to do and comes back home for a third run with the Cavaliers, he'll be teaming up with Mitchell, which is quite the story, given that Mitchell was there to see his 2010 decision unfold.
On the basketball side, it would also be interesting to see how James fits alongside the Cavaliers' core of Mitchell, James Harden, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen. With the Cavs letting Dean Wade walk in free agency, it opens up a spot in the small forward spot, where James will fit in quite nicely.
Plus, given that James likely won't want to be the main option on the team, he'll have a lot of co-stars to defer to in the form of Mitchell, Harden, and even Mobley.
The Cavaliers reached the Eastern Conference finals last season. LeBron could get them over the hump.
