4 Years Later: Was "The Decision" Lebron Made Really That Bad?

"It's fascinating to me that we crush LeBron James for doing that television show 4 years ago but clearly we want that television show. We're doing that television show without his help. Without his information. LeBron and his people aren't saying ANYTHING and we're creating everything around him. We're using his silence to create the soap opera that everybody wants" -Dan Le Batard

Time often gives us perspective on things. So, 4 years later, can we now look back at The Decision and admit that we overreacted?

After the television show in which LeBron announced that he would be "taking (his) talents to South Beach", James became the most hated man in America not named Osama Bin Laden. It wasn't that he left Cleveland that we decided to mob up on him, it was "how he did it."
On National Television! Raising money for kids! (Well, we leave the second part out)

It's always been silly to act like ESPN making a television show around it was somehow different, fundamentally, than holding a press conference that would be aired on live television anyway.
It was silly to say that announcing his decision on television was selfish....while celebrating kids skipping class to do the same on National Signing Day.
It was silly to act as though LeBron somehow owed Dan Gilbert (who bought the Cavs after James was already there) a in-person visit the day before. Yanno, because Dan Gilbert handled it so well and all. Gilbert would have just broke the news on Twitter himself. And Fuck that guy!

Now, we're so thirsty for a The Decision 2 that we've forgotten that was the reason we decided that LeBron is a jerk.
They say James doesn't forget when people wrong him. So if he does return to Miami, him making fans and teams show their thirst for him to join their franchise, and their thirst for another television special, only validates everything his did the first time around.

On the other hand, his last moment playing in Miami was American Airlines Arena crowd booing the team off the court. Heat fans better hope that he doesn't right that wrong.

• WARNING: Jabari, Wiggins, Exum or Embiid or I am Quitting the Orlando Magic!