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Now comes "The Derision."

A city's anger toward LeBron James has been gathering like storm clouds over Lake Erie for five solid months now. The locals burned his jerseys, tacked his likeness to dart boards, pulled down his 10-story tall portrait off the side of a building across from Quicken Loans Arena and luxuriated in each and every one of the Miami Heat's eight losses so far this season.

And that was just the buildup.

That's why there will be plenty of extra cops in the vicinity of the arena hours ahead of the 8:17 p.m. EST tipoff. The Cavaliers' front office has been purposefully vague about what fans will be allowed to wear, scribble on signs or even say once they step inside.

Nothing "vulgar, obscene or profane." Everything else, apparently is good.

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James, whose decision this summer to sign with Miami as a free agent touched off an emotional response in Cleveland, will make his first trip back as a member of the Heat on Dec. 2 -- a return local fans have awaited since he left.

After numerous discussions with the NBA on how to best handle a potentially hostile environment, the Cavaliers will have extra security personnel in and outside Quicken Loans Arena. The Cavaliers are asking fans to refrain from wearing any obscene T-shirts or signs directed at James, who grew up in Akron and played seven seasons for Cleveland.

Team owner Dan Gilbert took issue with a headline proclaiming the Cavaliers would ban any anti-LeBron shirts. On Thursday, Gilbert said on his Twitter account: "Obviously no profanity, vulgar stuff U wouldn't want kids 2 see but we are not going 2 be the Gestapo (at) The Q."

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O'BRIEN (on camera): Do you think there's a role that race plays in this?

JAMES: I think so at times. It's always, you know, a race factor.

Calling all pitchforks, calling all pitchforks! The criticism piled up, and quickly. A few highlights:

Shaun Powell of NBA.com: "My advice for LeBron? Don't cite race anymore, unless you can give examples or prove you possess the power to look into someone's soul, because the (white) fan doesn't want to hear it."

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"If there was an opportunity for me to return," James says in the September issue of GQ magazine, "and those fans welcome me back, that'd be a great story."

A great story, undoubtedly, but one that will likely remain fictional. Cleveland, after all, is still licking its wounds after James slowly peeled off the Band-Aid in the one-hour "Decision" and announced his defection to the Miami Heat. And it remains the city where fans are doing one of two things to his jersey: burning it or selling it as toilet paper.

So it's safe to say Cleveland fans aren't thinking about a reunion. What they are pondering -- still -- is how James could be so cold, how he could leave them and remain so stoic and unaffected.

Turns out, the answer is pretty simple: James never liked the city.

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In the Akron Beacon Journal ad James says:

It’s where I started, and it’s where I will always come back to. You can be sure that I will continue to do everything I can for this city, which is so important to my family and me. Thank you for your love and support. You mean everything to me.

The messaged is signed "LeBron," and includes pictures of James' annual Bike-A-Thon, an event where he gives bikes away to Akron kids and makes donations to local charities.

It was the necessary show of emotion that was blatantly absent in the debacle known as "The Decision" -- the excruciatingly long one-hour special on ESPN, in which James announced his departure from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Miami Heat.

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Most fans outside his new home in Miami react as follows: “Yo, LeBron. First win something, then swagger.”

So it is with GOP congressional leaders already gloating in advance of November’s midterm elections. Several are even warning Democrats not to try any funny business in between the election and the swearing-in of a new Congress next January.

“The American people shouldn’t have to face the prospect of lame-duck Washington Democrats imposing tax increases or any other job-killing policies on their way out the door,” House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said recently. Tea Party guru Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks is circulating a petition. One-time Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer has basically called upon President Barack Obama to take a vow of legislative chastity.

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There is definitely a connection between LeBron James and China. James is a Nike athlete, and Nike is making serious money in the "Greater China area" -- pulling in $464 million in revenue in the recently concluded fourth quarter. (That's almost ten percent of Nike's overall $5.1 billion fourth quarter haul.) Nike has targeted China with LeBron-branded region-specific basketball shoes for years.

But according to SportsGrid, in China, Laker superstar Kobe Bryant is stomping all over LeBron James in the symbol-significant realm of jersey sales.

According to [CNBCs Darren] Rovell Kobe's popularity is "at least two times bigger" than LeBron in China, a fact that has caused Kobe's jersey to continue to be the number one selling jersey in China.

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I didn't see the comparison jump beyond Twitter until last night, when Rev. Jesse Jackson issued a statement blasting Gilbert for his "slave-master mentality" and claiming the owner saw James as "a runaway slave." I winced. As an editor and a writer, as well as someone who cares about social justice, I'm a stickler about language. I try not to use terms like "psychological rape," "emotional incest," "cultural genocide," "environmental holocaust" or pretty much any metaphorical variations on the term "slavery." All those words have real-world meanings, and to use them as metaphor diminishes that impact.

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Following James' announcement last week that he was leaving Cleveland to join the Miami Heat, Gilbert fired off an incendiary letter to Cavs fans, ripping the 25-year-old and calling his decision "cowardly behavior." Later, Gilbert told The Associated Press that he felt the NBA's two-time MVP quit during the playoffs the past two years and that James "has gotten a free pass."

On Sunday, Jackson responded to Gilbert's remarks by saying the Cavs owner sees James as a "runaway slave" and that Gilbert's comments put the player in danger.

In a statement released by the team on Monday, Gilbert tried to put an end to the issue.

"I strongly disagree with Rev. Jesse Jackson's recent comments and we are not going to engage in any related discussion on it," Gilbert said. "Going forward, we're very excited about the Cavaliers and the positive future of our region."

Gilbert is in Las Vegas attending the owners' meetings.

James' publicist, Keith Estabrook, declined comment to The AP.

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We’ll probably never know what exactly went down between Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James as they made their final decisions about where to play next year, but according to the media, it was certainly all LeBron all the time. But what about the other two, what kind of effect did they have on the outcome? This reminded me of something John Huber once said at a conference: that he liked formal modeling because it gave him a chance to understand interactions that he would never actually be able to observe. So with that in mind, consider my very modest attempt at asking what game theory might have to say about the end of the King James saga.

Consider a simple game with three players (no pun intended!) who all have to choose where to play basketball next year. They can each choose to stay in their own city or move to the city of another player. (So for the moment we leave out the option of them all going to New York or Chicago for simplicity’s sake, but I think the logic still holds fine if we expand the number of destinations.) The players get utility from the following four factors:

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This go-for-three philosophy isn't restricted to basketball. Or to sports, for that matter. From movies to musical troupes to deities and food -- all things, good or bad, seem to be come in intervals of three.

We can only speculate if Miami's three-player cocktail will result in championship rings, but the hype will be justified if they are half as successful as these historic trios.

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In his latest act of revenge, Gilbert's company Fathead, which makes life-size wall photos, has placed all items sporting James' likeness on clearance -- and everything must go.  After James spurned his hometown team for the Miami Heat, his three Fathead murals, previously available for $99.99, were slashed to $17.41, according to the Detroit News.

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Not anymore. There's nothing of value here. If sports are revealing of culture, then I hate our dumb, callous, corporate guts. This is all a cynical exercise in futility. We as fans are choosing to live vicariously through people who quite possibly hate us, or at least wouldn't mind manipulating us for a better TV rating. In the run-up to LeBron's announcement that he would leave his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers to play for the Miami Heat, I defended every sordid aspect of the exercise as great theater. The free agent hype was like the unveiling of a new Apple product or Harry Potter book. Detractors were merely stuck in the throes of humorless jealousy.

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The Nielsen Co.'s overnight measurement in the nation's 56 biggest cities show more than seven of every 100 homes with television sets was tuned to ESPN to see where James would play. It's expected to be the biggest audience ESPN has ever gotten for a news program.

In Cleveland, "The Decision" drew a staggering 26 rating -- meaning more than one in four homes had TVs tuned to ESPN to see James say he was leaving his hometown Cavaliers for the Miami Heat.

In Miami, the show had a 12.8 rating.

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At 9:27 p.m., James, looking nervous and somewhat unsure, finally announced his plans from a small stage in Greenwich, Conn.

"This fall, and it's very tough," James said to a national TV audience. "I'm going to take my talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat."

In Florida, there was rejoicing.

In Ohio, only heartbreak and tears -- then anger.

The most wanted man in league history decided Thursday night that it was time to leave the comforts of home to chase a championship.

The two-time MVP, a player with supreme skills but without a title, decided to join forces with fellow superstars, good friends and U.S. Olympic teammates Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh -- a dominant threesome that could rule the league for years to come.

"I can't say it was always in my plans, because I never thought it was possible," James said of this union with the two perennial All-Stars, players he has known for years. "I've looked forward to it. Those are two great players, two of the greatest players that we have in this game today. You add me, and we have a really good team."

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Whether you hate or love the furor over where LeBron James will end up next -- aka, ESPN’s LeBachelor, the NBA’s LeBronicles -- it’s a sports speculation spectacle for the ages. "Too much too soon" is an attribution for any LeBron misstep or missed shot. It’s a cliché, a condescending media explainer for the failings of impossibly famous black athletes. And it's also a proper lament for the digital insanity unleashed by these sweepstakes. A confluence of tweets, tips, misinformation and godforsaken salary math. It’s enough to give your iPhone an aneurysm. And unlike Apple's iPhone, the next phase is still a mystery.

Miami (probably)? Chicago? New York? New Jersey? Cleveland? How the hell did this stay secret for so long?

The story of LeBron is about a man turning his back on a supportive fan base: Obviously, I’m talking about the media. Nobody cares about Cleveland except Clevelanders, and they care with a fatalistic self-loathing of a million Louis C.K.s.

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Toronto Raptors forward Chris Bosh has agreed to play in South Beach with the Miami Heat's All-NBA guard, Dwyane Wade, according to ESPN.  The dynamic inside-outside duo could be the foundation for a title-contender in the NBA's Eastern Conference, whose reigning champions -- the Boston Celtics -- may be on their last legs.

Chris Mannix of SI.com believes the Bosh-Wade pair isn't enough.  The Heat have only two other players under contract for next year, Michael Beasley and Mario Chalmers, hardly an adequate supporting cast.  But that also means there's still enough salary cap space to sign another star.

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James arrived at Rhodes Arena at 10 a.m., wearing his signature New York Yankees' cap, T-shirt and shots. He plopped down on a courtside chair alongside former teammate Damon Jones and within minutes the back-to-back MVP was talking on his cell phone and sending text messages.

On Tuesday night, ESPN reported that James will end his free agency by announcing where he'll play next season during a one-hour TV special. James' publicist is expected to release a statement later Wednesday regarding James' ESPN appearance.

It is not known where James will be when he announces his decision.

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In a matter of hours, James compiled 150,737 followers, zero of which he is following himself, and only one rather prosaic tweet.  His first words to the Twitter universe suggest that New Orleans guard Chris Paul, James' closest friend in the league, goaded the two-time MVP into creating the account.

So far, that's it.  No earth-shattering bulletin that he is moving to New York, no hint that he likes the young talent in Chicago.  Nothing.  Maybe LeBron needs to tease us a little more.

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