Krause: LeBron should focus on leadership, not selfishness, this time around

If LeBron James wants to know why he became one of — if not the — most despised basketball players in the NBA, he need look no further than what he engineered four years ago, after his Cleveland Cavaliers were eliminated from the playoffs by the Celtics.James became a free agent, for which no one could, or should, blame him. But what he did to get the “Big 3” together in Miami went a little too far, in the eyes of some (well, perhaps most). He was every youth sports coach?s nightmare: the guy who went out of his way to make sure his team was stacked.It was as if James concluded he was never going to win a title in Cleveland, where wrapping him up for another four years would come at such an astronomical cost that the Cavaliers would never be able to afford the ancillary talent needed to compete. He?d never have his Scottie Pippen, or his (name your favorite sidekick).So he shopped himself around and no doubt heavily influenced Chris Bosh to also join Dwyane Wade and take his talents to South Beach. It just seemed like such a weasely way to win a title. And it certainly stood in stark contrast to the thousands of other elite athletes over the years who have willingly embraced the position of “leader” and “go-to guy” without worrying too much about having any crutches to lean on.James went to Miami and right into a situation — pretty much of his making — where he could run onto the court and win. That seemed to be a little much for more traditional fans.And the Heat did win … just not enough to justify the stacking of the team. It was, no doubt, a wonderful thing to see the San Antonio Spurs, with players who have lived and died with that organization, beating the prefab Heat earlier this month for an NBA title.And it does seem as if, after four years, James got a little karma thrown back at him, between calf cramps and bathroom breaks.If he does not return to the Heat, he has a chance to at least rectify that egregious “taking my talents to South Beach” overblown announcement … and the equally egregious counting of championships before they happened. For a guy who, when he was with the Cavaliers, seemed as if he was pretty much unaffected by his growing fame, James made some terrible decisions in those few weeks in 2010. And they have followed him around.Now, he has a chance to go to a team that needs his leadership and is counting on him to raise everyone else up to his level … instead of glomming onto one where the parts were either in place or he was allowed to ship those parts in himself.The problem was this: With James making sure he was comfortably surrounded with talent, we have no real way of measuring his legacy. No one?s going to deny he?s a great player. He is awesome. However, I wish people would hold off on putting him in Michael Jordan?s category, and I still think Kobe Bryant — whom I detest — was a much better clutch player in his prime. James seems to come up lacking almost as much as he comes up big. Kobe?s ratio was much higher.So here?s what I think: If LeBron James can go to the Knicks and turn that team into a winner, then he deserves every accolade he gets. It?ll have to be without Carmelo Anthony, because ?Melo can?t exist without the ball, and James would have it almost exclusively. But put him in New York, where he will probably be without the two mighty oaks he?s leaned on for four years, and let?s see how he does.And please, for his sake, let?s hope he doesn?t try to do any more athletic engineering so he can glom onto any more championships. Let him earn the next one he gets.