Adding my 2 cents to this issue... "The Decision" drew a rating of 7.3 making it the highest rated show on television Thursday night. Somebody was watching. The NBA is a multi billion dollar global industry. Its fun to say "its the NBA, no one cares!", but its just not true. If James stays in Cleveland so he is "the man" and the highest paid player in the league, then he's selfish and wants all the attention. If he takes less money and goes to another team with other star players, he's a follower who's scared to be "the man". So which is it? The guy can't win. Success breeds hate. So many times people laugh when a player says "its not about the money", when we all know it really is. This time it was really about winning. That wasn't going to happen in Cleveland. Other teams were making moves. It was either join them or get left behind. He doesn't "owe" Cleveland anything. The city should be happy he gave them 7 years. He could have left 2 years ago, and probably should have. Its sad how quickly they turned on him. Which leads me to my next point... Dan Gilbert is really embarrassing himself. He's acting like a teenager that just got dumped...only the teenager has an excuse, he's a teenager. Gilbert needs to be a little more mature here. He calls James a traitor because he left for another team, but whats really interesting, he had no problem trying to snatch Tom Izzo from MSU. Why would he want a traitor for a coach? Maybe that was a little more than 2 cents. I have a bigger issue with all the people crying and hating than I do with how James handled all of this. ITS JUST SPORTS! Life goes on...sigh.
For all of this leaving to win.... That he couldn't do it in Cleveland... The Cavs are coming off of back to back 60+ win seasons and the best record in the NBA and a finals appearance three years ago. He / they could have won a title (or more), they didn't execute. Did you guys watch the Boston seires this past year? He has himself to blame for the early exit from the playoffs...
I have not read much of this thread but I could never understand people who live vicariously through sports athletes or who become entranced by certain sports teams to the point that they actually get raging mad that a certain player leaves their franchise. Goodness folks, Lebron can go and do whatever the hell he wants, when he wants. He does not have to ask 30, 40, and 50 year old men/women with beer bellies what he can/cannot do.....that just cracks me up about all the nutbags that are so crazy about this meaningless situation.
I watched the Boston series, and yes, he had some bad games. That just exploited the biggest reason he left Cleveland...he had no help. Even if they did win 60+ games for two seasons, two, maybe three other teams in the east got better in the off season, and Cleveland didn't. The east got tougher. The conference that Cleveland didn't win the past two playoff seasons despite winning 60+ regular season games. As James said, he wasn't just switching teams, he was switching organizations. Maybe he saw the lack of class Gilbert sports well before he released his childish opinion regarding James. His little tantrum is also hurting his chancees of drawing players in the future. It was already tough enough to get good players to come to Cleveland, now it will be almost impossible. I don't think its unrealistic to say this has set the Cavs back 10+ years. Saying Cleveland will win a championship before Miami is quite laughable. I think the new Miami squad makes the NBA more interesting to watch. This is kind of uncharted waters. The Boston "big 3" were all past their primes. The Miami squad has three star players in the prime. While I think it will be fun to watch, I am a little disappointed Wade and James are on the same team. My reason is purly selfish. We won't see these players play to their full potential. We won't see them go head-to-head. I still think it will be interesting though. For those who think James as a player is full of himself, he is giving up some serious accolades to play in Miami. He is most likely giving up being the NBA's all time leading scorer and the most all time MVP awards. Those are pretty serious things to give up as far as stats are concerned. Not to mention the money he is "losing". All for the sake of winning. I dig that.
While I'm not as educated a fan as buckeye is on the Cavs and won't dare argue any of his points in this thread, I like what you have to say about the issue Matt... Good thoughts, and I agree: it IS nice to see someone not be in it for just the money. It's a game, and I remember back in grade school either picking teams or wanting to be picked to be on the team that had the best players in any recess event we played... He got his chance to do that here, and he took it. I think that makes him anything BUT a follower, as the Cavs' owner's classless diatribe mistakenly alleged. I do think he should have done so without all the prime-time fanfare though...
He makes like 30 million dollars a year in endorsments... The couple million he is "losing" per season is chump change. Add to the fact that FL does not have a state income tax, it really isn't that big of a hit to his bottom dollar. The only one actually taking a "hit" is Bosh... LBJ and Wade make a ton off the court.
I have to agree with Jeff. You're either a winner or ......... you're not. Lebron has been in the league for 7 years and has ZERO titles. He/you can blame everyone and everything under the sun for that. But, at the end of the day it is what it is. He still is not an NBA champion. Which makes me wonder why this was the biggest spectacle in the history of sports. They acted like it was Jordan in his prime making "the decision". He's far from anything close to a Jordan. He's currently a sportscenter highlight reel. That's it. Until he starts winning championships he's no more value to a team than a role player.
Thats a pretty funny statement. Championship or not, he is easily one of the top 5 best players in the NBA. No player can win a championship by himself, and plenty of guys that never see the court have championship rings. Hell, Adam Morrisson has two! Some guys are lucky enough to "play" for the right teams. I guess I should add that I'm not some huge James fan that defends everything he does. I simply think with my head, and not with my heart.
If it were really about the money, he would have gone to New York, New Jersey, or Chicago. He could have made a lot more money playing for a big market team. Even if you make 100 million a year, I still don't think you can another 20 million a year "chump change".
Just something to chew on since the money aspect has been brought in... I saw on ESPN yesterday that one of their guys did the math, and due to Miami's income tax situation... LeBron will actually be making a million dollars more than if he were to accept a max contract in Cleveland.
LOL.... I bet you anything they all knew that going in as well. I bet that is in FL sports teams pitches to free agent everytime.
A lot to do about a nothing.... He is certainly a talented basketball player who is obviously starting to go over the edge. When they have everything they change, get bored and want what they can't have. That's what gets them into trouble. He was a hero to many especially the people who live near where he grew up and played. He enjoyed that status and now he is hated by many of those same people. He went from a sports hero to another money and fame grabbing athlete.
Interesting article LeBron James's exit strategy leaves much to ponder [SIZE=-1]By Michael Wilbon[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]Saturday, July 10, 2010; D01 [/SIZE] Now we are left to consider the 360 degrees of fallout, from LeBron's image to owner Dan Gilbert's incivility, to the role of television, to the potency of the Miami Heat, to the unrequited love of Cleveland, to the issue of whether the world's best players should be joining each other or beating each other. There's nothing like a spectacle to bring out the crazy in all of us and there's been no spectacle quite like LeBron's decision because damned if it didn't touch just about everything in the culture. The initial flashpoints, as anybody surfing the Internet can attest, were ESPN and LeBron's image, and both took a hit. LeBron, for the first time in his career, is being cast -- whether he wants to be or not -- as the villain, and most folks are holding him wholly responsible because he felt the need to do in about 75 minutes what could have been done in two. His co-conspirator, if you don't particularly like Thursday's drama, is ESPN, which is being roasted for forsaking its role as news organization and going into the reality TV business with LeBron. If being a willing participant indicts me, fine. I will say that making viewers wait for more than 20 minutes before actually hearing LeBron's decision was, at best, cheesy. And LeBron, for the first time that I can remember, seemed shaken, which I more or less expected since he knew he was breaking up with his extended family (Northeast Ohio) on national TV, with the partner having an inkling but hearing the news officially for the very first time. For all the criticism about the platform and whether LeBron is a narcissist, and how come he couldn't do it quietly and without fanfare like Kevin Durant, fact is more people watched LeBron's decision on ESPN Thursday night than watched him play in any one game of the NBA Finals three years ago against the Spurs. And since when did we as a culture start running away from television, what with everybody and his mamma on some kind of reality TV? Any and every network under the sun would have said "yes" to LeBron and his announcement if asked, and anybody who says otherwise is a liar. As Moses Malone used to say, "That's what bees." There's no question LeBron's image is taking a hit, but mostly it's because he left Cleveland before winning a championship, prompting a need for police in front of his house in Akron, prompting idiots to burn his jersey, prompting the owner of the franchise, Dan Gilbert, to act like a bridegroom left standing embarrassed at the altar. Gilbert, with his rant, came off like a creep, like a guy whose franchise is worth about $100 million less because LeBron didn't do what he wanted. Clearly, leaving this idiot was the right move. Whatever sympathy I felt for Cleveland in the immediate aftermath of the announcement isn't extended to Gilbert, whose image ought to be taking a lot worse beating than LeBron's. In a perfect world, LeBron would have met with Gilbert face-to-face in the afternoon, damn the TV surprise, and told him, "Thanks for everything the past seven years. Sorry we didn't win, but I'm leaving because I want to try this thing in Miami. We had more fun than this franchise has ever had and maybe our paths will cross again one day, but I'm going to follow my heart." Instead, we've got this mess, with an owner acting like a fool instead of a businessman and this great love affair between LeBron James and his home town, which was always such an appealing part of this story, having become the War of the Roses. To me, since I don't live in Northeast Ohio and do care about basketball, there's a much bigger issue that needs to be moved from the back to front burner: Should you hook up with your rivals or try to beat their brains out? I'm both old and old school. And I'm entirely influenced by players now mostly retired and in their 40s and 50s who are mortified that LeBron would rather play with Dwyane Wade than try to beat him. One player asked me Thursday night if I could imagine how much worse off the NBA would be if Magic and Larry Bird had tried to join forces instead of remaining apart and going after each other for more than a decade. Suppose Michael Jordan, because his Bulls lost three straight years in the playoffs to the Pistons, had gone to Detroit as a free agent instead of remaining in Chicago and demonstrating championship resolve? Something my friend Charles Barkley said on NBA TV the other day resonates with every single old-school player I've talked to. "In fairness, if I was 25 I'd try to win it by myself," Barkley said. "Not technically 'by myself,' but I would want to be the guy. LeBron is never going to be the guy." What Barkley is saying is that you'll never be "the guy" if you're part of an ensemble where one of the guys, Wade, has already led that franchise to a championship. This isn't a big deal in football or baseball, but it is in the culture of professional basketball. It's how men are ultimately judged. Even a guy who as a player was a nobody, Orlando Magic GM Otis Smith, was quoted as saying he was surprised LeBron went to Miami because he thought the league's two-time MVP was "more of a competitor . . . great ones usually stay in one location." He was talking, of course, about players such as Bill Russell, Magic, Bird, Jordan, Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant, although some great players such as Shaq and Wilt did make more than one move, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar moved once and Barkley twice. But none of the players who did move went to hook up with a player who was seen more or less as an equal. But we might be looking at something completely new now, what with the way the 2008 championship Boston Celtics team was put together almost overnight, with trades for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen bringing them to Boston to join Paul Pierce. Okay, that wasn't orchestrated by the players, which has really annoyed some of the legends, but it was a new way to put together a serious contender. LeBron, Wade and Chris Bosh admit openly they got the idea during their time together playing for Team USA in international competition. The most skeptical folk out there suggest that all this made-for-TV drama was a ruse because the three have forever known they were going to do this, and that the interviews of recent days were a farce. More than likely, we're seeing a cultural shift in the game because of the way kids play basketball now: on multiple travel teams, many of them through AAU competition. They all know each other these days by the time they're 16, 17 years old. Associations, in this new basketball world, are more important and have deeper roots than teams. Either way, these three are together now and the next significant appearance they make on television, presumably, will be in uniform. And while at least one of LeBron's sponsors is apparently confused about how to market him now with this new backlash threatening to redefine how people feel about him, chances are overwhelming that once LeBron's on the court playing with Wade and Bosh and not talking about it, people are going to remember why they loved him in the first place and go back to defining him as a basketball player -- everywhere, that is, except Ohio.
Never said he wasn't one of the best in the NBA. In fact I already said he was one of the top 3. However his "value" to a team is meaningless so far. What did Cleveland get out of it aside from more tickets sold? How many championships? Same that a role player brought to the table .......... zero.
The championship thing is laughable. Dan Marino never won chit, but according to some, Trent Dilfer was the better qb because he won a ring.
If you can't see the impact he brought to Cleveland, then there is no point discussing this. He brought zero to the table...LOL.
When Clev fails to even make the playoffs in 2011 you might realize his "value" to a team. I challenge anyone here to name any NBA championship teams that didn't have at least two star caliber players on their roster. Here are some examples which cover the past three decades... Kobe and Gasol Boston's three Amigos Duncan, Parker, Giniboli D-Wade and Shaq Billups, Hamilton, Walace Kobe and Shaq Ducan and Robinson Jordan and Pippen The Lakers, Celtics, and Pistons of the 80's were LOADED with great players
