My take today is about athletes who made decisions, became the bad guy, and could not recover.
I think LeBron James is different. He made the decision, was looked at as the bad guy, but he'll come back even stronger with the fans. He's about to go from good, to evil and back to good.
There are different kinds of bad decisions, but the concept is the same. It is tough to get sports fans to forgive you. Usually when an athlete crosses over to the dark side, they don't come back.
Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Alex Rodriguez and Lance Armstrong are now associated with the word cheating. They have never come back to the good side. Armstrong has raised millions of dollars for cancer research, but is still linked to the word cheater.
Michael Vick will always be known for the crime that sent him to prison.
Tiger Woods made a bad decision about his family life. He could come back and be forgiven by fans, if he can get healthy and start winning majors and TV ratings.
Those are all athletes who made a bad decision and sports fans still hold it against them.
But LeBron is different. His decision turned him into a national villain. He stayed popular, but most people watched him hoping he would play for, but lose titles.
Now, LeBron can ride into town and revive his home team Cavs from the dark depths of losing, and make them rise to NBA champion. It's also about a winning economy bringing jobs and $500 million a year to Northeast Ohio.
For athletes, commit a wrong and sports fans are not programmed to forgive. We care about our sports too much. LeBron is changing that.
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