By Aaron Goldhammer

It’s been over a year since I last wrote in this blog space, and since it’s not totally my area of expertise, I’m going to keep this post rather brief. I can’t sleep and I feel compelled to get something off my chest before tomorrow’s show in the wake of LeBron’s first championship. 

First, since the inevitable did actually occur tonight in Miami, I guess Cleveland owes him a tip of our collective cap.  To me, however, the championship is not the moral in this story.

When Jason Whitlock asked LeBron to deliver a message to his hometown just an hour after his greatest professional moment, James rambling tangent non-answer gave me the clarity and closure I have been searching for the last two years. “I’m sitting here today as a member of the Miami Heat,” James said. “I didn’t know when [a championship] would happen…I’m happy.”

While some might say that LeBron deserves a day to digest before addressing the Cleveland question, I had a different take. In the end, it didn’t matter to LeBron where, when, how, or why he won a title. He wanted to be a champion, regardless of the circumstances. By not answering Whitlock’s pointed question, LeBron delivered a clear message to Cleveland: “I have a ring and you don’t.”

Unfortunately for LeBron, life is a lot more complicated than sports. How you treat people and the “decisions” you make matter. What’s more important than whether you accomplish your goals is how you accomplish them.

Whoever breaks this miserable Cleveland curse will understand that concept because it’s an idea that I think helps to define the city. In that sense, LeBron’s the perfect champion for Miami. He was never the right guy to end the drought here.

Follow Aaron Goldhammer on Twitter @Hammernation19