Yeah, I think this is incredibly lame.
Miami
Miami it is
Watching this, I think LeBron realizes, and feels powerless against, the fact that he will overnight become the most disliked and rooted-against player in the entire sport. He will be booed in Cleveland like maybe no player has been booed in any sport in my memory. New York will obliterate him. The media will continue to eviscerate him on a daily basis. No one outside of Miami will root for him to win a championship.
He has also, I think, sacrificed any chance of ever being considered the greatest player of all time (if he ever had such a chance, which I genuinely think he did).
What a strange, cowardly decision.
LeBron Modell gives Cleveland the finger…
This special was more tastelessly awful than Vitamin Water.
Fuck you, LeBron James.
Here’s to Chris Bosh getting a turn on your mother, you front-running cliche.
Good call on Allen.
Pull the trade, Pax. Bring in Manu Ginobili and run with #3 in the East. With luck, the three collusion artists in Miami don’t get any help from the SCRUBS that team is gonna have on that bench… phew!
Will Cleveland forgive you?
God loves me, so I don’t care…
Exactly what was accomplished here that couldn’t have been done if Lebron had just given a regular-type press conference?
Commercials were sold.
He became more hated (or at least more universally disliked) than if he had just left Cleveland via press conference. I mean, I don’t live in Cleveland and barely follow basketball, and now I think that LeBron is a douche. That wouldn’t have happened without the hour long special.
His position as the most important athlete in the world was cemented. Who else could command a 1 hr program on his signing a sports contract?
Sidney Crosby probably could, at least up here in Canada; especially if a Canadian team were mentioned as a front-runner.
QFT.
Just now? The writing was on the wall for awhile! He’s a prima-donna!
His status was diminished. You are once again gonzomax crazy. What a fucking self-serving, narcissistic moron.
Just want to point out that I nailed it, and that in hindsight, it’s a lot clearer.
- The Beijing Olympic Games where LeBron, Wade, Bosh, and Chris Paul all became good friends.
- The whispers of collusion.
- The beachfront cabanas.
- The Opal and the hello and the what have you.
I think the most obvious clue was that Wade and Bosh announced where they were going but made no references to money or contracts. The only logical reason for that in retrospect was to leave flexibility for an additional major contract. The writing was on the wall.
Can we also get a moratorium on this ridiculous talk about how “unselfish” these guys are for not stayin home and taking the max deal? Yes they left a little money on the table but reporters keep saying that they walked away from $30M+ by not taking the home town max. That’s only true if you’re speculating the these FAs aren’t going to getting another contract in 6 years.
In LeBron, Wade and Bosh’s cases they are all going to get signed to a contract somewhere in that 6th year for more than $16M which will make the total value at least even. If salaries continue to inflate thy could actually make more money in the long run by signing their next contract in 5 years as opposed to 6.
I’m not sure what the exact numbers ar but I think these guys will each take maybe $1.6M less each year, which will total up to far far less than the $30M that keeps getting tossed out there.
You have to go back before that. In 2006 these guys all signed contracts that made them free agents at the same time. Not that they were all agreeing to join the same team back then, but they put that option on the table deliberately. They wanted to corner the market and have a chance to get together in some form, and they did it.
I’m a little surprised at myself because I think of the Cavs as a past and present rival to the Bulls, but I feel sorry for Cleveland as a sports town. I really do. LeBron just gutted them on TV and fell back on the “it’s just business” defense. Which he’s free to do if he likes. But I’m not sure he realizes what he’s done to his image here. He was nervous during the interview - when he started talking I turned to my girlfriend and said that was proof he was leaving, because if he was staying in Cleveland he wouldn’t have looked and sounded so tense - so he had some idea that Cleveland was going to feel betrayed. Between ditching them and the whole conceit of the TV special, though, he looks like a monster asshole. Some people were speculating that he wouldn’t announce his plans on TV if he were leaving because it was just too cold, and the fact that it did not play out that way, I think, shows that he doesn’t realize how this looks to the public. And he doesn’t have to care about that, but I do think he’s misread this situation. I can’t be only one wondering what it’s going to look like when the Heat go to Cleveland this season.
There have been a lot of posts about whether these guys wanted to win, and I think you have to acknowledge that in joining forces and giving up the idea of needing to be The Man - and maybe expanding the old truism that you need two stars to win in the NBA - they are committed to winning. Which doesn’t mean they are going to do it. We’ll see how hamstrung the Heat are by these salaries; it could turn into a three-headed Alex Rodriguez* situation. They’ll have a chance to win championships for sure, but we’ll see if they are right in believing that what you need first and foremost is star power.
*A-Rod has a painting of himself with three heads in his guest bedroom.
He had a one hour prime time special on what team he would sign with. That is an indication of how big and important he is. Until the decision was made he was universally craved. As of 9:35 ,he has become a douche in New York, Cleveland and Chicago. Until that second ,they all loved him. However I think a few more people in Florida have become fans.