The Never Ending Decision

The Decision. Capital T, capital D. It will go down, at least in the world of basketball, as the biggest event of the summer. Lebron James extended a question that could have been answered in a one second sentence, into an hour-long special, gaining quite a large amount of criticism. Sure he donated the program's proceeds to the Boys and Girls club, but was it all really necessary? Did Lebron really need to demand all eyes be on him more than they already were? Did he need to set himself apart from every other baller more than he already has? Many think no.

Lebron (or his team, the jury is still out on who really set forward this movement) totally understood though. He had no hard feelings against the critics. He fully comprehended that it was due to his race that The Decision had such a backlash.

Yes, his race. Because he is the only black basketball player in the NBA. Because the rest of the superstar free agents, his new teammates included, who left their teams this summer were not black. Because I cannot more or less count the number of white men in the league on two hands.

Now I didn't seem to have as big of a problem with The Decision as some, even deciding recently to start using the phrase "I'm taking my talents to..." on a daily basis, but blaming the critique of it on race? That I can't allow. And it seems as though Charles Barkley feels the same.

Barkley, who already made his opinion the The Decision quite clear, had this to say about Lebron's recent race comments: "The only criticism I've heard about LeBron and it was my biggest criticism, that decision thing was just stupid. It was stupid. The second thing when they all came out there dancing around on stage, that was silly. That's the only thing I've heard LeBron get criticized about. That has nothing to do with race. It's like watching a movie...just when you think it couldn't get any stupider, it gets more stupid." Yes Barkley, it does.

The season is a mere twenty three days away and I sincerely hope as the fall begins, the summer, and The Decision, is put behind everyone. Enough is enough.