And that's exactly what adds fuel to the fire as well. In this day and age you don't get that hometown hero anymore. Hell Brett Favre played for the Vikings. If you told me 8 years ago Favre would play for the Vikings, I would have asked if you had a bridge in Brooklyn to sell me to go with that statement. Lebron was supposed to be the "next Jordan". The man who turns around the luck of a franchise, He was supposed to be the man for the Cavs for his entire career. Yes it probably was a fairy tale idea, but it was an old school mentality that many had hoped would ring true at least one more time. With that said it also nags those fans with that type of mentality. Back in the day NBA players hated each other. It was about proving who was the best. The common example would be if Larry Bird and Magic teamed up on the same team to win a title. It never crossed their minds because they were so focused on defeating the other. If Lebron and Wade played in the 80's this sort of thing would have never happened. Hell in the 90's I highly doubt it would have happened. Instead of Lebron taking that route and being the alpha male for his own team, he jumped ship to join a different alpha male's team if you will. That bothers the living hell out of fans that you don't want to be "the" guy for your team and rather join another team where you could be seen as second fiddle to someone else when you have all the capability in the world to be the very best.
It's true, but the times have changed so much. The free agency era in all of sports has ruined the mystique of a team player. Plenty of sports franchises have one of those guys who is THE GUY, a guy who could have taken more money to play somewhere else but stayed where he is because of his love for the team, the fans, the city, or any combination of things. Of course this was common before free agency, the only way you were leaving a team is if you were fired or traded. But since the creation of free agency, players are free to give up the glory for the money, and 99 out of 100 of athletes today will take the money. It's sad, but it's true, and LeBron James is really the poster boy for the end of the era of the hometown hero. Maybe that's why people hate him so much, he delivered the final blow to the legend of the loyalist.
Now I know the Shaq/Kobe thread to this can/would be brought up. They were both alpha males on the same team, but at the same time look what happened towards the end. The team fell apart because neither wanted to give up that spot of the team belonging to them. Kobe stayed, Shaq went. It very well could happen to Wade and Lebron if things don't go according to plan. Then who stays and who goes?
Interesting question. It's D-Wade's team, he was there first, he is the one that has the ring, not LeBron. On the other hand, I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who says Wade is the more talented player. That's the type of thing where you can't tell who it will be until the situation unfolds. Maybe then there will be a more distinct good guy or bad guy.