Anyone who watched the spectacle of hate at the NBA game last night in Cleveland might decide the town could win the prize for the most bitter, angry and low life fans anywhere in the nation, including Philly.  Raucous, rude, angry fans and mobs of police were present as hometown boy LeBron James returned for the first time with his new team, the Miami Heat.  James grew up in Ohio, skipped college, and went directly to the NBA to play for the Cavaliers for seven years before moving to the NBA's Miami Heat this summer.

After LeBron's decision last summer to leave the Cav's for Miami, the Cleveland Cavaliers majority owner, Dan Gilbert, called LeBron's decision to leave Cleveland as "selfish", "heartless", "callous", and a "cowardly betrayal" in an open letter to fans. LeBron's 'decision' was also hyped to the extreme to improve ratings on ESPN.  Gilbert also vowed that the Cleveland Cavaliers would win the NBA Championship before LeBron ever would at Miami. That looks like a long shot after last night.

Jesse Jackson called the owner's letter and his reaction to James departing 'the escaped slave syndrome', where the white team owner thought a black man had no right to make decisions and be free to go where he desires to lead his own life.

From the booing, the signs, the yelling and the hate expressed by the 19,000 fans in the Quicken Loans Arena, the crowd seemed to agree with the owner.  Of course, each and every one of the fans would leave Cleveland for sunny Miami in a New York minute if given the opportunity themselves. But most of them aren't leaving, and I would doubt yelling or cursing LeBron made their lives better. It certainly didn't change anything, it didn't make Cleveland look like a city with any class, or Ohio for that matter, it didn't get LeBron back, and it didn't pay off that payday loan a fan may owe as they watched the game in the only arena in America with 'loan' in its name.

But hate seems to come easy in America these days. In politics as in basketball it doesn't get you anywhere you want to go. For many though, it may be all they have left. It got so bad a fan at an Cleveland Indians baseball game this summer, who was wearing a LeBron Miami Heat shirt had to leave the stadium under police protection to ensure his safety. Not content with hating LeBron, Cav fans seem ready to move on to hating the current Cav's team-a natural progression for these kind of folks. Get a life. Its just a game.

The hate didn't do the Cav's team any good either, they lost, and from the Cavs performance last night, it looks like that championship is at least a few years away. The Cavs lost, 118-90, with LeBron scoring 38 points in 3 quarters.

If LeBron does win the championship in a few years, and becomes as famous as Kobe or Michael Jordan, things will change. Those Cleveland fans will not care any more which team LeBron is on, they will say he is their man, born and raised in Ohio, and they will forget the hatred of today, as they try to get a piece of his fame and his glory, and they will line up for his autograph, when he comes to town. Below, fan yells at LeBron last night in Cleveland, from NYT.

T-shirt seen in Cleveland at the NBA game last night: