The Return of the (Trout) King

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers--"Change Of Heart" (mp3)

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers--"Between Two Worlds" (mp3)

There have been two great departures consuming my mind this summer. One happened, one didn't.

OK, not quite true. The whole LeBron situation really didn't catch my attention, except that I ended up in a sports bar and a restaurant for consecutive nights and it was on TV, so I got to see all of the interviews and Q + A with the sound turned off. No complaints here about that. From what I could tell, but I am both cynical and not the greatest lip reader, it looked like he was saying "I. I. Me. I. Me. Me. Me. I. Me. I. I. I." Plus some of the lyrics to the Will Smith song about Miami. Or something like that.

The other is the TroutKing. One of our colleagues here at Missionary Prep, he either found or was approached with a lucrative opportunity way out in Colorado, where good 'ol Lookout Mountain would not be considered a mountain. It might not even qualify as a hill. So he drove out to the Rocky Mountain State, with his dad, did the interview, was offered the job, and was given about a week to think about it. And eventually turned it down.

Back here in Tennessee and throughout this great land via texting, there was a lot of "What's the word on Trout?" and "Is he staying or going?" and "I heard he took the job" and "Is he Hamlet?" and "Cool, maybe now we can get some fresh blood in the Fantasy Football league." You know, stuff like that.

I don't expect to be able to ascertain the true motives behind either decision. Leaving vs. staying is one of those situations where people want to reduce the decision to something simple that they are comfortable with and leave it at that. It's like everybody wants to scroll down the list of motivations and choose the one that fits best, then be done with it, and move on. He was greedy. He was afraid. He was selfish. He was averse to change. He wanted a fresh start.

But the funny thing about when somebody leaves, or thinks about leaving, is that it puts a lot of pressure on those who aren't. Somehow, your leaving cheapens my staying. That's the mindset. And when we've got that mindset, we've got do some major rationalization do help ourselves to feel good again.

I mean, look at the president of the Cleveland Cavaliers. When he was lucky enough to get LeBron 7 years ago, he had a nothing franchise that almost immediately turned into one of the powerhouses of the NBA, competing in the playoffs almost every year. Beyond that, the value of his franchise increased 2 1/2 times, from $200 million to $500 million.

And yet, when LeBron announced his decision to go to Miami, Cavs owner Dan Gilbert ripped him, calling James' decision "a shameless display of selfishness and betrayal" from a "narcissistic" player only interested in his own self-promotion. Both he and the city have got to find ways to staunch the wound of James' departure, an injury compounded by the fact that Cleveland offered James far more money than any other team, and he still rebuffed them. Man, that's got to hurt.

So what should we say about the Trout King? Shall we call his return to this ridge a "humble display of selflessness and loyalty" from a "generous" employee only interested in the good of the school? After all, he could have made (and paid) more out in Colorado.

Oh, I don't know about that, but I do know that one of the very weird things about this place where we work is the incredible camaraderie that has existed here for a long, long time. And that, without a doubt, exerts its own kind of pull.

So whether LeBron did it to win a championship or simply because Florida is a state that has no income tax, I don't really care. I'll leave the dissection of those motives to 53 hours of upcoming discussion on ESPN by those who think they have the inside scoop.

With the Troutking, I'll prefer to think that it was simply friendship.

Tom Petty's Long After Dark is probably his hardest-rocking album, and one of my favorites.  Available at Itunes.