LeBron 'always wanted to win in Cleveland'

I was among those overreacting to LeBron James' departure from Cleveland to Miami in 2010. It has become a cliché to suggest the problem wasn't James' decision but "The Decision'' drama that played his home area and the Cavaliers for fools.

Whether it was that, or my perception that he was taking the easy way out, I was among those rooting against LeBron and the Heat in the first two of their finals.

The Heat split those, losing to Dallas in 2011 and beating Oklahoma City in 2012. By 2013, I was so impressed with LeBron's greatness – and so taken by the ferocity of the finals competition with the Spurs – that it was time to sit back and enjoy it.

The Spurs got some revenge last season, with the Heat and LeBron short-handed, and that was fine. I was at peace with LeBron that I found myself arguing that he was the greatest of all-time – better than Michael Jordan, better than Kobe Bryant, my previous top two.

The Michael fanatics scream bloody over such suggestions, but to me, everything LeBron does at 6-foot-9 adds up to more than Jordan did at 6-foot-6. I'm guessing that includes hitting a baseball, since I had the extreme displeasure of watching Michael try to hit in a couple of professional games and he would've batted eighth for the Union Hill Bulldogs.www.startribune.com/another-finals-on-tap-james-blossoms-into-living-legend/306079761/

I wanted to write a LeBron column for Thursday's Star Tribune print edition in conjunction with the start of his fifth consecutive NBA Finals against Golden State in Oakland.

I decided to go back to the roots of his greatness. I talked to Tim Rogers, the high school reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer when LeBron was coming up, and Keith Dambrot, LeBron's first high school coach at St. Vincent-St. Mary in Akron.

One issue not covered in the column was my long-distance view that LeBron is hyper-sensitive to how people feel about him – that the main reason he came back to play for the Cavaliers is that he couldn't stand the idea that so many people in his home area loathed him.

"There were other issues in his return, including a chance to win, but I do think part of it was healing the wounds here,'' Rogers said. "He does not like being disliked, that's clear.

"I had a hard time rooting against him with the Heat, but that put me in the minority in Greater Cleveland, from what I could tell.''

Dambrot was raised in Akron, was a baseball player at the University of Akron, and has been the head men's basketball coach at the university (very successfully) for the past 11 seasons.

"LeBron always wanted to win in Cleveland, rather than win somewhere else,'' Dambrot said. "He left because he knew where he wanted to go into history as an NBA player, and he didn't see a chance for that to happen in the near future with the Cavaliers.

"There was a bad economy in northern Ohio at the time – not much good news at all. LeBron was about the lone bright spot here, and when he left, people really were upset.''

Dambrot paused and said: "In Cleveland and other places. Not in Akron. The people of Akron knew LeBron, and we stuck with him.

"The most-important thing to LeBron as an athlete always has been winning. He did that in Miami. And when he saw a chance to win in Cleveland, he came back home.''