I'm a big fan of both as well, and probably will always think MJ is the greatest, but people give too much flak to Lebron about leaving Cleveland. There wasn't a single player in Cleveland who you could say was a difference maker prior to him leaving at the end of 2009-2010.
Antwaan Jamison, who was a mid season addition was pobably the second best player on that team. And let's not even give a serious look at the 2006-07 team he took to the finals. Cleveland's management sucked. They made poor decisions prior to Lebron having any front office influence. Letting Carlos Boozer go, when they still had a right to match was a colossal mistake. Yes, they were probably pissed he reneged on a verbal agreement, but they in essence cut their nose off to spite their face. Trading a 2007 draft pick in 2005 for Jiri Welsh and another that year for Sasha Pavlovic, but you could say neither move hurt due to the available players around the pick. But they weren't able to add a legit second star like a Scottie Pippen or even a third all star caliber player like a Horace Grant/Dennis Rodman.
Even the Miami team...which he won two championships with...had Dwayne Wade who is undoubtedly an all time great. But where does he rank among other "second best" players on championship teams? Ahead of guys like Tony Parker/Manu Ginobili, sure. Jason Terry, definitely. But Scottie Pippen? I'd say so, at least early on for the first finals loss and the two wins, but the loss against the Spurs? Not really. Kobe Bryant, definitely not. And Chris Bosh, while a good player, imo was over rated. He was a stat stuffer on an *at best* average team in Toronto. He had a lot of good offensive qualities, but he was honestly a very good *role* player akin to a Horace Grant but not quite a Dennis Rodman, who was obviously limited as well, but offensively as opposed to defensively. And after that, they just had a bunch of role players. Birdman, Ray Allen, Udonis Haslem (who some how is still in the NBA...), Mario Chalmers, I don't know, I just don't see a stacked team, like say Golden State *before* they added Kevin Durant.
And in Cleveland 2.0, I see the same thing. Great second star in Kyrie Irving and an over rated big man in Kevin Love, who was a stat stuffer on a bad team. JR Smith? Definitely played well, but he's an erratic volume shooter. Tristian Thompson was okay that year, but nothing special. Iman Shumpert? I actually think JR Smith is better...
So it's not like Lebron is joining these stacked teams and collecting rings. He's not suffering through ineptitude like Kevin Garnett or even being contempt with great success just short of a championship like Dirk was, which before everyone jumps on me, this is not a shot at Dirk. I just think it was more important for him to *compete* for a championship *in* Dallas than getting a better opportunity else where.
And let's be honest, all season everyone talked about how the Clippers were just better than the Lakers, so it's not even like people here think he had the best team.
