On July 9th, 2010, at roughly 9:25 p.m. Eastern, Lebron James did what some thought he didn’t have it in him to do…He plunged a knife deep through his former team’s ribcage, tore the wound open, and ripped the heart out of his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers (Use a spoon, it’ll hurt more. Why? Because it’s dull you twit!).

He single-handedly killed a town, and he did it in the most painful way imaginable. Through promotion and through the most public of channels. It was like Will Smith hyping his Micheal Bay-directed summer blockbuster through the media, and when the fans got their tickets and sat down to watch, the movie was just a video message of him to Jada, “Sorry baby, but I’m leaving you for a Swedish supermodel. I have to do what’s best for Will. You ain’t gettin’ any younger, anyway.” (Even donating proceeds to charity doesn’t take away the heartbreak this announcement caused.)

Cleveland will never forgive him. Lebron might know this. He may or may not care. He did what he thought was best for him, and any of us would have done the same. But, for the first time, he hurt people to get what he wanted (and may find there are repercussions to his legacy/brand that he couldn’t have imagined). For that reason, I am siding with Cav fans for now (unreasonable bunch that they can be-hey, a lot like Irish fans). I feel their heartache. It’s what the Notre Dame faithful feel every fall for as long as I can remember.

So, in a twisted shout out to the actions of King James, I bring you 5 Notre Dame moments that have caused the most heartache over the last 20 years.

5.) The 2007 season. 3-9. The un-watchable Irish. The season that made not feel anything at all. Man, how I was able to develop such grand defensive mechanisms of pushing away the joy that football season usually brings. The only way I could have been fixed was if I were a genius janitor going around solving un-solvable math problems at Harvard until Robin Williams decided to intercede and save me from myself.

4.) 1996 and 1998 USC games. In 1996, a victory would have placed the Irish in a BCS-equivalent game (as the system wasn’t in place), and in 1998, a victory would have put the Irish into the first BCS. The 1998 edition wasn’t a heart-breaker of a game, Jarious Jackson had been injured in a previous game, and the Irish couldn’t move the ball in any fashion. 1996, however, featured a missed extra point by Jim Sanson in the waning minutes of regulation-sending the game into overtime. The Trojans took it in overtime, keeping the Irish out of a Bowl Alliance game, and to make matters worse, handing Lou Holtz his only loss to USC in his final game as coach.

3.) Bush-push. After 3 straight 31 point beatdowns, Brady Quinn and the Irish had the Trojans (and their 27-game win streak) on the ropes. Matt Leinart completes a ridiculous 4th and 9 to Dwayne Jarret for 60+ yards. USC gets down to the goal line, gets time put back on the clock after a stop, and then Reggie shows how much he likes to cheat by aiding Leinart’s forward progress for the game-winning touchdown.

2.) Phantom-clip. 1990 Orange Bowl. Colorado leads 10-9, with just over a minute left. The Buffs punt to the Rocket, who in amazing fashion, breaks 2 tackles, and takes it to the house. The refs saw a clip, and called the touchdown back. This was a Babe Ruth Called Shot-moment, taken away.

1.) B.C. 41-ND 39, 1993. Game-winning field goal for the Eagles after a big Irish 4th- quarter rally. Much like Forrest Gump, “That’s all I have to say about that.”

College football is a lot like Lost. You have to “Play by the rules“. The NCAA (or anyone else, for that matter ) doesn’t appreciate an unfair competitive advantage. (”Hey kid, come here and we’ll get you a BMW.”) When a program forgets this, and gets caught, the punishment is probation. Probation hurts college football programs. All of them. Even USC. (With it’s “star” factor, sunny weather, and elite recruits that grow in California back yards in numbers that would put the state’s grape-growing market to shame.) The Trojans and Lane Kiffin are beginning to pay the price for years of Pete Carroll fostering an open, unrestricted environment perfect for football players to reap benefits not likely gained at other institutions-giving USC an unfair advantage. (Bush and agents, Matt Leinart’s dad paying for housing for his son and Dwayne Jarrett, etc.) No matter what Pete Carroll thinks, this environment did give USC an unfair advantage. (Think back to when you were a kid. Did your friends have sleep-overs at the house with the strict parents, or did you tend to gravitate toward the house with the parents that let you watch the R-rated movie?)

Due to the NCAA dropping the hammer on the Trojans, their football empire will indeed weaken (how much is the question). Already, it has been forced to watch the possible start of a “domino effect” (small events leading to large ones) that could humble the proud program. First, the Trojans lost DE Malik Jackson. That hurt a little. Then, a bigger domino fell. Much bigger. A 6′8″, 350lb domino. The Trojan’s most prized recruit, Cretin-Derham’s Seantrel Henderson. The behemoth who almost certainly would have assured that Matt Barkley’s jersey would have stayed the type of clean that would make Martha Stewart jealous for years to come.

Seantrel didn’t want to be part of a program on probation (harder to win, no bowls, less exposure, bad reputation), and when Kiffin’s reassurances (Don’t worry, everything will be fine.) rang hollow, Seantrel was ready to be gone.

As of now, it looks like Henderson will try to reach stardom as a Miami Hurricane. As far as the Trojans go (and as a completely unbiased observer), I can only hope that this probation period treats the Trojans like gravity treats white basketball players.

There is one story in sports that is consuming us all.

Where will Lebron James go?

The NBA’s biggest free agent ever, part of the NBA’s best free agent class ever, with repercussions that that could push the NBA toward a new stratosphere in the sporting world (behind only the behemoth that is the NFL). The NBA with stars in L.A, Boston, Miami, Dallas, and possibly New York/Chicago? Hello drawing power, fan interest, and a boatload of revenue.

With every sporting outlet reporting on this event for the month of June, it is near-impossible not to get sucked up into the story (hey, we all need some type of sports-fix in the boring summer months). I’ve been keeping up, and therefore saw an article penned by S.I.’s Ian Thomsen about the play New York is going to make for Lebron.

From Thomsen:

“By dividing its cap space equally among three elite recruits — another idea floated on behalf of Miami — the Knicks would pay starting base salaries of $11.5 million each to James, Johnson and the power forward. That amounts to a salary cut of $5.3 million per year compared to the max salary each player could receive from another market.

The Knicks will enhance the offer by pointing out the numerous off-court opportunities available to star athletes in the world’s largest media market, enabling the players to ultimately make more money in New York than each could on a max contract in other NBA cities.”

After reading this, I couldn’t help but compare it to a Notre Dame recruiting pitch.

The pitch is basically this:

Both of these teams offer something that none of their competitors can.

Fame and opportunities by playing in the world’s “largest media market.” For the Knicks, that is literal, New York is the largest media market in the world. For Notre Dame, it is more figurative, their broad national appeal makes them the most media-friendly team in college football. As Bobby Bowden commented on the appeal of the Irish to high schoolers (even as he has his own football power at Florida State), “If you can halfway play football, you can win the Heisman (at Notre Dame). I mean, all you gotta do is wear that shirt.”

It is a pitch that is oh, so appealing.

However, there are also drawbacks for these influential teams.

In the Knicks case, Lebron would not get the max salary he deserves, and the team’s overall depth would still be a question mark (most feel that winning a championship is high on Lebron’s priorities), and New York winters.

In Notre Dame’s case, you have the academic standards, weather, and that fact that kids from talent-rich states are staying closer to home, all swaying recruits to look elsewhere (and this is from a guy who used to think that Notre Dame had less negatives that any other school).

So, in summation, each team can offer an opportunity that nobody else could. Not the Lakers in the NBA, not USC, Florida, or Alabama in college football.

They also have negatives that the aforementioned opportunity might not be enough to overcome.

We’ll know real soon how the pitch plays out for the Knicks.

For Notre Dame? We’ll have to wait to see what the Brian Kelly era brings.