Move over, Art Modell. You’ve got company.

In fact… Grab a pitch fork, Mr. Modell. We need some help chasing this rat out of our city.

Since game 5 of the eastern conference semi finals, I defended him. I stuck by him and made excuses for him. His elbow was hurt more than he let on. His coach didn’t put him in the right schemes. His GM didn’t surround him with the right players. I was the biggest apologist on the planet for him because I thought he was a special talent.

I was wrong. Dead wrong. He is a quitter and he is a whiner and he is a rat.

Making the decision to play with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami should tell us all we need to know about his true make up.

He convinced us he was a hero. He’s a coward.
He convinced us he was Batman. He’s Robin.
He convinced us he was loyal. He’s a turncoat.

He’s not a winner. Winners don’t disappear in the biggest game of their career. Winners don’t ridicule fans after a playoff loss by saying that he has “spoiled them for seven years.” Winners don’t ignore phone calls from coaches and owners and teammates when the need for open and honest communication is at its most crucial.

He constantly complained that the roster wasn’t what it needed to be, but he brought that upon himself. By not committing long term to an organization that would have done anything to make him a champion, he scared away many free agents that doubted his commitment. They were right to question his integrity.

The way that he approached the end of the Boston series made me sick.
The way that he refused to take Tom Izzo’s calls made me sick.
The way that he taunted his fans with Yankee hat and Bulls shirt in public made me sick.
The way he had an hour long press conference to declare his decision made me sick.
Even the way he made the announcement made me sick… “I’m going to take my talents to South Beach.”

Absolutely sick.

He didn’t even have the class to call Dan Gilbert to tell him man to man that he was walking away. Gilbert, the man who befriended Lebron over the past 7 years, had to learn the news like the rest of us. An absolute classless move by an absolute classless rat.

The entire Jim Gray interview made me sick. He said that he was a loyal guy. Those actual words came out of his mouth during a nationally televised special where he stabbed the entire city of Cleveland in the back.

He said his mom’s advice helped make his decision easier, and that speaks to the root of his problem. As a 25-year-old multi-millionaire, he has surrounded himself with only a few close childhood friends. His circle is small, and I assure you none of them have the stones to ruffle the feathers of the goose that laid the golden egg. He has never been wrong in that circle.

But that’s not what he needed. He needed someone to look him in the eye and explain to him that he hasn’t done a damn thing yet. Check the overly inflated ego, and make a name for yourself if you want to be remembered as one of the greatest… but that’s obviously not what he wants.

It’s still unclear what he wants.

If he really wanted to join a team that had a shot at winning multiple titles, I’m still not convinced Miami is a better option than Chicago. With three max deals, the rest of the Heat roster will be filled with developmental players.

If he really wanted to become a Global Icon, he would have chosen to lace them up at Madison Square Garden every night with the Knicks and Amar’e.

If he really was worried about loyalty, he would have stayed in Cleveland.

Whatever it is that he wanted, it certainly wasn’t about the money. He left a ton of cash on the table. He passed on the cheddar. He didn’t take the cheese.

And that is a surprising move for a rat like him.