I'm probably the 1,000th person to tell you today is 10th anniversary of @KingJames taking his talents to South Beach. But I wanna talk briefly about something else about that day. How it linked LeBron and Oscar Grant together forever. July, 8, 2010, was a day of two Decisions.

A year and a half earlier, Oscar Grant was killed by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle. It was one of the first murders of that kind that really made the rounds during the internet era. The footage YouTube. It was grainy, but you don't forget seeing something like that.

It's also why I've only seen Fruitvale Station once and I promised myself I'd never watch it again. I went to see it in theaters and I had this sick feeling in my stomach from the moment I sat down. I knew how the movie ended, but even still it gutted me.

Anywho, the trial had been underway and by July 8, the jury was ready to render its verdict. At the same time, the biggest story in sports was what team 'Bron was going to sign with. Let me tell you, that summer 2010 free agency was insane.

There were so many big free agents that year. Amar'e to the Knicks. Joe Johnson in ATL. But if I'm not mistaken, Stephen A. Smith was the first one to say Miami was trying to get a Big Three with Chris Bosh, D-Wade and 'Bron. That summer 2010 FA period changed the NBA forever.

It's been dubbed "the player empowerment era" and it's fitting. But at the same time, player empowerment also came with the reckoning of players making their voices be heard on issues far beyond just contracts and playoff pushes.

LeBron was the biggest chess piece. Whatever decision he made would shift the look, feel + dynamic of the NBA moving forward. We'd never experienced a moment like this — or at least I hadn't. So when word came out that on July 8 LeBron would announce his decision, it was go time.

On July 8, 2010, shortly after 7 PM ET, Johannes Mehserle was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. It was a conviction — a rarity in so many other cases we've seen. But it wasn't justice. The jury took less than 6 hours to come to a verdict.

"The system has let us down but God will never ever let us down," said Wanda Johnson, Oscar's mother. | This was Grant, an unarmed Black man handcuffed on the ground and shot in the back, having a decision made about his life far beyond his control or his family's control.

Less than three hours later, there was LeBron James on national TV. The whole country was watching. I remember getting a burger from Five Guys beforehand and clearing out my entire schedule that night. We all knew this was a moment.

This was LeBron, a young Black man, beaming with the type of talent that only makes sense if there is a heaven taking the risk of placing his career, his life, his happiness in his own hand — just hours after another young Black man had the polar opposite experience.

People have had their thoughts about The Decision for years and they'll continue to do so. For me, that's how I largely saw it. I knew it came just hours after the decision made on Grant's life. And it wasn't lost on me that myself, Grant and LeBron are all around the same age.

As the 2010s went on, we saw LeBron become a bigger and more vocal agent of change he wanted to see in the world. The #BlackLivesMatter movement really popped off after Trayvon. But it was cases like Grant's that really help set that foundation. LeBron's legacy is part of that.

I'm not even sure if 'Bron and his camp were aware of that that day. Hell, a lot of people either forgot or never knew it to begin with. But it's just a really powerful and foreshadowing example of modern day intersections between sports, culture and the world we live in.

Anyway, I'm done. I gotta get back to some work. Appreciate y'all letting me wax poetic on the timeline.