Franchises moving are the biggest betrayals period. I lived through the Oilers leaving Houston, and that killed the NFL for me. Now that I'm Seattle, I watched the Sonics leave and how it has killed professional basketball up here. Still, the Browns leaving Cleveland is probably the worst of those. They had such a rabid fanbase, and the ultimate kicker is that they finally broke through and won the Super Bowl in their second (?) year in Baltimore. It would have been almost as bad if the Titans had won their Super Bowl. At least Houston had a pair of NBA championships to console them. Cleveland is the most desolate, cursed sports town, and that's got to gall them that their beloved Browns won a title in a different city. As for players, it's more of a betrayal when a player goes to his arch-rival. Jonny Damon going to the Yankees, and Favre playing for the Vikings are the two glaring examples from recent years. LeBron screwed his team and his city over, but I think it would have hurt more if he had gone to Chicago, which tortured the Cavs for years.
For me, personally, it's the Oilers. The reality is the biggest betrayal has to be the Colts. Somehow, you left both off your list ("other" doesn't count).
Steve Francis blowing off Vancouver cause he didn't want to play there after being drafted by them. That at least deserves a mention.
For me personally- Oilers leaving Houston. I wasn't living in Houston anymore at the time, but I've never really gotten back into the NFL since. GOAT- Colts leaving Baltimore. I was just a little kid when that went down, but I can still remember the news footage of those 18 wheelers rolling out of town. As far as Lebron goes- It is the WAY he has left that is the betrayal. He didn't have to turn this into such a god forsaken circus. He didn't have to keep Cleveland fans dangling for so long. He grew up in the area and knows the bleak reality of Cleveland's real world present and sports history. And given all this, he turned the whole thing into a spectacle just to feed his own ego and "brand."
The Colts thing is before my time, I guess I'll have to read up on that. But I was born in Cleveland, home of some of the most fervent fans in US sports. Baltimore winning a championship soon afterward was just storybook Cleveland kismet.
Another big betrayal was the moving the North Stars from Minnesota to Dallas in 1993. Norman Green the owner of the North Stars had the usual problems of low attendence for a mediocre franchise and problems with trying to get a new stadium but what really propelled the move was that he was involved in a sexual harrassment case of a secretary who also was a daughter of a city councilman. The resulting bad publicity prompted his wife to threaten to move the team or she would leave him.
Hey, good one! And thanks for bringing this up as it relates to all the Cleveland hoopla. You know who was merged into the North Stars following the '77 - '78 NHL season? That's right! The old Cleveland Barons! What a depressing sports town. And speaking of the NHL letting Canadian teams flee to the states, how 'bout the Quebec Nordiques? Sixteen years in Quebec City and they move to Denver and win the Cup the VERY NEXT SEASON! Well, at least they won the AVCO Trophy in the old WHA.
Cleveland losing the Browns was big, but we truly do not comprehend the true impact of the 2 Canadian Hockey teams leaving their country. Then Nordiques win a Stanley Cup not long after leaving. It is about the same as the Ravens winning a Super Bowl after leaving Cleveland, until you remember that there is nothing to do in Canada sportswise other than hockey.
When Viet Nguyen decided he would pick Krissy Voung's little brother instead of me for 3 on 3 basketball intramurals...
Dictator Sperm betrayed the players by making them dress correctly. Yao Ming's glass legs also betrayed him.
How can LBJ leaving after giving SEVEN years to Cleveland be a bigger betrayal than the Browns leaving Cleveland?
On Rockets part, sure. Rockets wanted to *reward* Cato. Hakeem already got two championships to a city that never had a trophy in any major sports. He didn't owe Houston anything.
I don't know how many of you guys follow soccer but years ago, Luis Figo trasnferred from Barcelona to Real Madrid was probably one of the biggest betrayals I've seen in my life. The first time Figo played Barca, people threw stuff at him and even someone threw a pig's head at him! I thought that was pretty bad.
