When the Dallas Mavericks finished off the Miami Heat in Game 6 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night, the happiness in Dallas may have been eclipsed in only one place, Cleveland, the city that Heat star LeBron James left to take his talents to South Beach.
CNN affiliate WOIO-TV in Cleveland had a one-word headline on its sports page under a picture of James holding up his Heat jersey: "LOSER!"
"LeBron James still has no rings,"Â the site's story began.
Cleveland.com quickly jumped on James' failure to bring a championship to Miami, something he promised would happen multiple times when he and former Toronto Raptor Chris Bosh joined Heat superstar Dwayne Wade in Miami.
The site posted a video of James, Wade and Bosh made as Miami celebrated their arrival last July.
"It looks even sillier after the Dallas Mavericks clinched the NBA title with their win at Miami tonight," the site says. "Hear James say, 'The way we're gonna challenge each other to get better in practice, once the game starts, I mean it's gonna be easy.'
"Best of all, hear James count up of how many championships Miami will win. No limit."
Cavs fans may be chuckling over that Monday morning, but Yahoo! Sports Dan Wetzel writes they were laughing at James as they watched from a Cleveland bar during Sunday night's game.
"A crowd of Clevelanders gathered here to watch their onetime hero turned all-time traitor, and with each disinterested LeBron offensive possession, each failed LeBron chase down of Jason Terry, each embarrassing LeBron crunch-time turnover, the prevailing emotion was simple.
"Laughter.
"They weren’t hating LeBron here. They were laughing at him," Wetzel writes.
SI.com's Michael Rosenberg says James needs to take the loss the right way, with a heavy dose of humility that is needed to achieve true greatness.
"I hope he acknowledges that he brought this criticism upon himself and, I hope he admits it publicly and candidly. ... But after a year of being hated, LeBron can change and show the humility and desire we admire in all of our best athletes."
As far as becoming a true champion, James could learn a lesson from the Mavericks and their star, NBA Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki, writes Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Jennifer Floyd Engel.
"On its very best day, the game is about a guy like Dirk refusing to quit, to give into the doubt, to fail. And his guys, like (Mavs' coach Rick) Carlisle and (teammate Jason) Terry, backing him up. And not about an egomaniacal athlete named LeBron."
SI.com's Chris Mannix writes that Nowitzki's Mavericks won as a team and James' Heat "abandoned any semblance of a team game in favor of selfish, one-on-one play."
SI.com's Ian Thomsen points out that in getting his first NBA title, Nowitzki took a course that James rejected.
"He had drawn strength from playing with the same teammates year after year. Altogether he and they built a championship team that James and his newly assembled Heat could not beat. As far as they had come in one season together, they hadn't had enough time to resolve issues that had taken the Mavericks' several years to overcome," Thomsen writes.
As the game finished Sunday night, Nowitzki bolted off the court in Miami's American Airlines Arena toward the visitor's locker room. He wanted to cry alone, writes ESPN.com's Marc Stein.
"I could already feel the tears coming," Stein quotes Nowtizki as saying. "I had to recover, bro."
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said in an ESPN interview that Nowitzki "had the heart of a lion." Watch what else he had to say about his team's first NBA championship.
While Cuban was talkative Sunday night, he changed his form and stayed out of the spotlight during his team's playoff run, writes Jeff Caplan on ESPNDallas.com.
And now he has an NBA championship trophy and apparently he's not letting go of it. At least that's what it looks like on his Twitpic account.
One of those congratulating Cuban was Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert who posted on his Twitter account: "Congrats to Mark C. & entire Mavs org. Mavs NEVER stopped & now entire franchise gets rings. Old Lesson for all: There are NO SHORTCUTS. NONE."
Even a former Cavalier, Los Angeles Clippers guard Mo Williams, was happy to see his old teammate James without a championship ring.
"Dallas just healed my HEART," Williams tweeted.
Half a world away, hearts were cheered too in Wurzburg, Germany, where fans of the NBA Finals MVP and hometown hero Dirk Nowitzki partied into the night, CNN affiliate WFAA reported.
And at least Cavaliers fan had a warning for a possible finals fallout:
"Just be careful when shipping the Miami Heat champs T-shirts to the poor in Guatemala," NBA.com quoted Avon, Ohio's, Nathan Obral as saying. "They could be a choking hazard."
@Racist Joe
I have noticed you only seem to respond to posts where you can use generalities and anytime anyone makes a solid arguement in defense of whatever racist comment you decide to post you typically seem to just disappear in terms of any sort of response. And i have yet to see a single person whether black or white agree with a single thing you have said. You have fun on your racist island my friend
New LBJ customized phone from TMobile. It only vibrates, no ring.
Lebron spoke prematurally as many youngsters do. He will learn from this and contiue growing to become a superstar.
He's 26. He's not a youngster anymore.
Hey, guys, LeBron's failed predictions aren't all his fault.... he got them from Harold Camping!!!
Basketball's past greats Bird, Jordan and Johnson all were great because they made the teams that drafted them great. Non of them made their own all star team to win. LeBron will never be great in my eyes even if he wins 5 championships.
How cruel and funny that people can just turn down the HEAT.. The world is full of HATE, not only do I live in Miami, but I was born and proud to be from GUATEMALA. Why is there always a recism comment, instead of saying donate the heat shirts to kids in the ymca programs you have to say to the POOR people of Guatemala. yes darling i am a US citizen, but the reality be NICE don't HATE .. I love my HEAT, Sending you all lot's of SUNSHINE..!
I was super happy to hear that LeBron James and his gang LOST!
Money !!! That all these players think about.
I hope LeBron James and his two friends never play for a winning club again.
They couldve gotten the money anywhere for any team but they wanted to win thats why they went to miami dummy
Jasper, they did NOT win, who's the dummy now?
Actually they took less money. LOL @ this moron!
Clevelanders are laughing at LeBron, the rest of the league is laughing at the Cavs
I'm at a loss as to why the citizens of Cleveland, the Cavaliers owner and the pathetic Ohio governor are wasting so much time and energy on Lebron. He has absolutely no effect on their lives. If the owner had the chance to get a better player then Lebron he would have traded him in a NY minute. If Lebron offered Kasich a campaign donation tomorrow, he too would take it in a NY minute. If any Cleveland fan had a chance to trade places with Lebron, if just for a day, they too would do it in a NY minute. Stop whining and wishing ill will on this man and handle your own business!
I am by no means a Miami or LeBron James fan, but I am sick of hearing about Cleveland crying all year long about how LeBron left... If I were an NBA superstar and in my mid 20's, I would much rather be living in Miami than freaking Cleveland...
Maybe it's not about you. WHo give s flip where you wnat to live and how does that matter to anything buttcheese?
John, nobody cares about Cleveland. Shut it, Butthead! Grammer>John
Cleveland,
I do not thin they were crying because Lebrpn left, it was HOW he left, pompous and all......His words sank his glory in their eyes to start with then the lack of "talents" being displayed just cemented the deal. Just laugh it off, it is human nature.
Cleveland is way over Lebron: we are not over the way he left. He had Coach Mike Brown FIRED and blamed the city, his team mates, and his own mother for crying out loud, as the reason why he couldn't win a ring. He had the whole world thinking Cleveland is the reason for his chokery. Now you see-Cleveland had not a dayum thing to do with it!! He is OVER RATED and spoiled. And I'm glad you would rather live in Miami, we don't want people like you here:)
congrats to the mavs from a Miami fan, not lebron fan (raised in Miami), so lebron was shut down or choked no matter, let it go and lets congratulate the mavs for their hard work, cleveland needs to let it go. every team WANTED to signed lebron, and who says him choking woudlnt had happend with the other team? I told everyone that the heat would not win this year, everyone in miami is glad they made it this far.
and many mavs players are as childish as lebrons comments. specially stevenson. but he got his ring, and should focus on the next season.
lebron wont loose any sleep over this, and i bet right now he is laughing on his way to the bank to cash all the endorsements he got this year.
someone cracked a joke today saying " stevenson told james u can borrow my ring for ur next birthday party, but let me borrow some dough since i will never make a third of your money"
congrats mavs
oh thats right, they werent. sounds like a town/team that is still butthurt.
still seems weird to judge a teams ability based on the merits of one player... this is still a team game, right?
although, it is basketball, so it does suck out loud
@ Clevelander 101 seems like you and everyoe in Clevecrap should get over everything not just Lebron leaving. Seems like Lebron leaving is the biggest thing to happen there since he got drafted, freaking sad. Then again we are talking about Cleveland! Lol
A star team beats a team of stars hands down any day of the week and twice on Sundays. Just ask the NY Yankees.
Dwade was kind of acting like a punk too, those guys will get it together next year or they will split.
What an embarrassing state. I'd be ashamed to ever be associated with such a state.
MOVE!!! I love Ohio!
Dan Gilbert is a joke, he did not own LeBron and for him to still be negative and bitter about the whole situation is absolutely ridiculous. But I do know since LeBron has left he has lost over 40 million in revenue so maybe that's still a sore spot with himl. To all you HEAT fans you may know already that LeBron had the number #1 selling jersey this year. Choke on that Dan Gilbert your nasty letter still didn't detour is true fans and your ignorant tweets still will not get you into the playoffs next year or the year after that. With all your money see if you can buy your team into the playoffs, oops, don't think so it takes talent to get to the playoffs. Watch in the next year or two the Cavs won't even sell out an area. Fans only came ths year because they were so bitter at LeBron but they really knew their team SUCKED!
You must be a child! Dan Gilbert don't care about a jersey! He don't make money off of those, numb nutt! He makes money off of selling tickets: which the Cavs have sold out for the past 8 years-yeah that includes this one. We came out to support our team. Something you Heat fans won't be able to do for long. DWade's knees and ankles are shot, Lebooboo is overweight and over rated, and Bosh, is Bosh.....Plus, the rest of the league is on the rise. Chicago, Philly, Memphis, NYC-all beasts next year. Let's see your court jester get past 'em. Bet money; Cleveland will get a ring before he does.....:D
I'm really happy to know that Dan Gilbert didn't own Lebron. That would be slavery, and as you know that was abolished a long time ago.
It's not a race issue. brett favre was hated just as much or more by the packers when he left.
FORBES.COM LISTED MIAMI #2 ON THE 2011 MOST MISERABLE U.S. CITY LIST! MAYBE IF THEY WORK REAL HARD,THEY CAN FINISH #1 NEXT YEAR! BY THE WAY,THEY REALLY DID MAKE THE LIST AT #2. LOOK IT UP!
Is that the best you think of right now, seriously? I bet you are scared little punk with no friends, short, low self-esteem, acne prone, and on some sort of medication to keep yourself calm. Well go ahead and hide behind this message board because you know your not an important person and saying what you said makes you big and tall. But you know your a punk! Go ahead and keep your dreams alive of what you want to be in life, LeBron has achieved his! By the way your year prescription of ProActiv and how to move out of a trailer park book came to my house by mistake you wimp!
Is this what they refer to as the pot calling the kettle black? ......... It is
Lebron's dream is to win a championship. He did not acheive that. Miami will not even go to the Finals next year. Go Bulls!