Barker: LeBron returns, so let bashing begin

This is the moment Northeast Ohio has been waiting for since The Decision, that embarrassingly self-involved reality show where LeBron James jilted his hometown fans on national television.

Thursday night, for the first time since James looked sheepishly into the camera and announced that he was going to South Beach, he will take center stage again in Cleveland. As he and his superstar Miami Heat teammates prepare to take on the Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena, it appears that James' grasp of reality - not to mention his grasp of basic etiquette - hasn't improved much in his five months as a member of the Heat.

For the past two days, James has been discussing weighty topics like whether he will do his trademark talcum powder throw before the game (he will) and whether the Cavaliers will one day retire his jersey (you can bet they won't).

What he should be discussing is what is the matter with the Heat and whether he has any culpability in their current struggle.

Isn't it strange how things have turned out?

The Heat, which has one of the most-star studded rosters in the history of the game, has not dominated the NBA or threatened to rewrite the record books. Instead, they have lost eight of their first 19 games. With last night's win over the Pistons, they have just one more win than the Knicks, a team whom James also strung along in free agency. And they are 31/2 games behind the Boston Celtics, a team many wrote off as has-beens the moment that James announced he was joining Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami.

The Heat are in third place in the Southeast Division, and their record is only three games better than Cleveland (7-10), which was supposed to be decimated after James pulled up his stakes.

But it's not just the losing that has to have Cavs fans squirming with delight. It's the fact that life in Miami is looking like anything but a vacation as controversy and finger-pointing rule the day. Only the U.S. State Department seems to be running a leakier vessel than the Heat. With each loss there seems to be another story with anonymous sources talking about what is really going wrong in Miami.

Most of those stories focus on the job status of third-year coach Erik Spoelstra, who is said to have had some run-ins with James and is widely blamed for the Heat's clunky offense. Other stories have focused upon Spoelstra's boss, Pat Riley, and the fact that it's just awfully hard to believe that he would assemble a team this talented and not want to coach them.

James and Wade seem uncomfortable on the court together. Wade, a career 48-percent shooter, is making less than 45 percent of his field-goal attempts. Critics have also come down on the Heat role players, comparing them unfavorably to those of the great Lakers and Bulls teams.

No matter whose fault this disappointment is, the bottom line is that the Heat's two best players, James and Wade, don't look like they have figured out how to play with one another. And until they do, any title aspirations - let alone the multiple titles that fans were promised in a garishly over-the-top ceremony at the start of all this - can never become a reality.

This team is not the eye candy James imagined bringing into Quicken Loans Arena. And they couldn't be happier in Cleveland. As much as the franchise says it has moved on, it hasn't quite gotten over being jilted. And they aren't the only ones who didn't like the way The Decision went down. "This game is not just for us," Cavs guard Mo Williams said after practice yesterday. "It's the 20,000 fans and the millions watching who will be pulling for us. We've got people who aren't even Cavs fans who will be pulling for us. We've got a lot behind us."