Even if you aren’t a basketball fan, you could not have avoided hearing about LeBron James in the last month. For those that are fans, you probably heard about the agreements with two hometown favorites: Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. Their move to Miami Heat left two major voids, but also an open door for their pal LeBron James.

The pressure was on for LeBron and all of the basketball scoreboards in the country were silent, just for a moment. Sports channels and the internet was a buzz with opinions, ideas and guesses. But I think, everyone knew in their heart of hearts that LeBron was headed for Miami.

For anyone that can remember the day, there hasn’t been so much made of a single player making a team move, since the time that O.J. decided to leave Buffalo. In that time, Buffalo paved a golden path for O.J.. They are a city that firmly stands behind their teams and did everything for O.J. that they could, including building a custom home for him. In the case of LeBron, Cleveland went above and beyond the call of duty to prove to LeBron that they wanted him to stay. Cleveland also takes great pride in their teams and went so far as to have multiple commercials, broadcast locally and eventually caught nationwide. The participants covered all areas of politics, people and fans. After a while, the singing started to actually sound closer to a plead and then down right begging. Just as in the workplace, once a member has made a decision to leave, they are mentally gone. To keep the person there is to ask for a lesser performance of that individual.

Now that the decision has been made, there is a bit of a sigh of relief that it’s done. The basketball scoreboard in Miami is ready and waiting and LeBron is joining his compadres Wade and Bosh to create what seems to be an unbeatable team. Miami has historically excelled in everything sports and it looks like the scoreboard is going to be lit with the electricity of some of the best games ever.

So how are the people in Cleveland feeling? It is a mixed bag of emotions. Some are hurt, others are angry. Still others feel the same way that the rest of the nation feels: they are glad that the choice is done so that they can move on.

While everyone is caught up in their own personal attachment to LeBron and the game, sometimes they forget that the player is a person and is not an object to be owned. Yes, a player with LeBron’s talent can bask in the glow of stardom, but the move that LeBron made is his own personal choice. We don’t own our players. Just as we make life choices, LeBron made a decision for his career and happiness. He set himself on a different path and we must respect it. For LeBron, it is the next part of his journey. He grew up and it was time to move out of the house.