NBA

Cleveland Barber Uses LeBron Fathead As Shop Doormat. Yes, Cleveland Is Still Mad.

As training camp for the upcoming NBA season kicks off, the New York Times decided to check in on the now LeBron James-less state of Ohio. Not surprisingly, they’re still kind of mad.

Jonathan Abrams checked on the pulse of a still-reeling Cleveland in the Times piece, and found one barbershop owner who replaced his doormat with a LeBron fathead.

Yes, to enter Tony Houston’s barbershop, you walk over a life-size decal of LeBron James, although just a few months ago the same image hung proudly on the barbershop’s wall.

According to Houston, it’s the practicality of the fathead’s new location that really sticks out to him:

“So you can wipe your feet off,” Houston explained when asked why James’s sticker was now on the floor. “You can wipe them off on the way out, too.”

It’s been almost three months since LeBron deeply wounded the Cleveland Cavaliers franchise on national television (reparably or irreparably, that remains to be seen), so I wouldn’t expect them to be over it just yet. Especially now that we creep closer to the start of one of the most anticipated seasons in NBA history.

James’ hometown of Akron however, seems to be coping a little bit better. LeBron obviously has more supporters there because he’s their baby boy.

“Akron is standing up to those criticizing a young man who has done nothing wrong,” said Robert Deck, an assistant coach when James played youth football in the city. “That’s his job and it’s part of his business, going from one place to the next place.”

It’s known that people from Akron don’t always see eye to eye with those from Cleveland. James proved that was true by taking out an ad in the paper to say thank you to Akron and not mention Cleveland.

Others in both Cleveland and Akron agreed that there is a difference in the two cites in the way James is now perceived. That point was driven home in a newspaper advertisement James took out after he picked the Heat: he thanked Akron but not Cleveland.

Photo via Getty

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