What We Can Learn from LeBron

No, this blog did not just turn into one about fantasy basketball, but we do need to discuss what happened on Sunday.

The just-concluded NBA season turned into a referendum on "The Decision" even before it started. On the day after Dirk Nowitzki and Mark Cuban got their hands on the Larry O'Brien Trophy for the first time, everyone seemed to have something to say about LeBron James. As usual, Bill Simmons' Game 6 diary had more than its fair share of insight. One of his observations: James surrounded himself with a lot of enablers, including "his high school friends (who assumed an inordinately crucial role in his life without any real experience), his agents (who never threw their bodies in front of "The Decision"), and Miami's management (who walked him into another fiasco with the Heat's Welcome Party)."

Yes, James has made his share of mistakes, including the "my critics have problems of their own" comment. But he did not get here by himself. Here is a partial lists of the errors and their makers.

1. Anyone who counseled James to go directly from high school to the NBA Draft. There is an old joke about the only person who could hold Michael Jordan to under 20 points a game: Dean Smith. Football players are surrounded by coaches who can (and do) teach their players and use the threat of the bench to drive their lessons home. But James' resume does not have anyone playing an analogous role. No one at his high school or the Heat really could have said to him, "You're not getting any playing time until you learn how to solve a zone defense." (Pat Riley could change that, but we'll have to wait and see.)
2. ESPN. Everyone has villified James for orchestrating "The Decision," but no one seems to realize that the alleged Worldwide Leader could have stopped that fiasco dead in its tracks. They could have said, "This thing is a cluster bomb waiting to happen, and some of the shrapnel will tear through us. We're not going to be a part of it." They didn't. They failed us.
3. The Miami Heat front office. Yes, James and Dwyane Wade and that other guy wanted to play together, but someone in the front office could have decided not to bring them together. They stopped putting together an NBA team and decided to assemble a fantasy team.

Anyone who has put together a fantasy team, in football or NASCAR or basketball or anything else, will tell you that one of the dumbest things you can do is pull all your players from the same team. Yes, Peyton Manning throws a lot of touchdowns, but you want to have receivers from other teams, just in case...well, let's not even say it. The Heat decided that they did not have to worry about things like chemistry or role players or any of the things that help a team win games, even when things are not going so well.

All-star squads don't win real championships. Teams do.