that’s where san antonio got lucky with robinson and duncan.
the 20 - 30 milly they make a year was enough for them. they didn’t need to be in the spotlight or be flashy at the all star game. matter of fact they kind of liked being someplace that was backwater.
i just reamin unconvinced that is what lebron desires.
Sorta of have to disagree there, only sorta. Despite the 2 straight MVPs and having the best team in the regular season, for some reason Kobe’s jersey’s still the best selling one, not only here but even in China. Kobe’s more popular there than Yao Ming I’ve heard, though I don’t know how true that is.
I’m like you though, I don’t think that the big endorsements like Nike or Sprite will increase if he leaves for a bigger market. It’s a global world now, everybody has internet, he’ll be big whether he’s in Cleveland or Podunk, Michigan (disclaimer: probably not a real city 
). But something about him being in Cleveland is making him be seen differently than a guy like Kobe, who’s in a huge market. Hell, even Garnett’s jersey sales are like #3. And the scoring champ Durant doesn’t even sell more jerseys than Derrick Rose in Chicago.
Now I don’t know how much jersey’s we’re talking about or how much the players are getting from the sales, but something like that must weigh on a guy who sees himself as a global brand. But first he’s got to win a championship, I think everything falls into line after that. However, is he really doing that in Cleveland with that supporting cast?
The sports talk seems to be that his best bet is Chicago. They have huge cap room and a star in Rose already. Just with Rose on his team, I think it makes that team better than the Cavs already. I don’t think he’ll want to share the limelight with Wade in Miami who already has a championship though, which is why I think Chicago would be the best destination for him if he truly wants to be a bigger star than he actually is. It offers him the best chance at winning, a ton of money, and he gets to be #1 on the team. Plus, with the way he talks so well of Jordan, playing in the same city seems like it would be a dream for him.
Still, as a Laker fan, I think he should forgo the money and just sign here with LA! 
Kobe and Lebron can then go on winning the next 3 championships together!
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and that’s why i think he should sign with sa. ginobli, parker, duncan, james. crud we’d win at least 3 more. maybe 5 if hill and blair step if up. it’d be kind of cool if duncan, who really is a class act, could get one for the thumb before he hangs it up.
maybe we could bring back gervin for just a cameo and get him one as well.
I’ve never been really sold on them, not this year, last year, the year before, so I don’t know if they are the best team, but it’s ridicuous to say they’re getting further away from a championship. They had the best record in the league this year and they should be able to compete for years if they have LeBron. I don’t know what’s wrong with them and they may lose this series, which is hard to explain. But I don’t think they’re going in the wrong direction; I just think the pieces don’t quite fit.
It doesn’t change. He can only be paid so much under NBA rules. He might be able to make some more money from endorsements, but if he’s already making $27 million a year, he’s only got so much room to go up.
That’s true (at least the part about Kobe leading the league). Kobe has been around longer, has won four championships, and his reputation as a ruthless scorer probably helps. I don’t think it’s just because Kobe is in L.A., but I admit there’s no way to break it down for sure.
That’s the big question. I’ve never been sold on his supporting cast. Not when it was Eric and the Snowbodies, not when it was Big Z and Boobie, or Mo Williams last year, or Shaq this year. It just doesn’t fit together for whatever reason. He still doesn’t have enough help.
Makes sense to me, and I’d be thrilled. I do think Chicago has a better shot at Wade.
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yeh, you are probably right. finals loss, conference finals loss, and now what looks to be conference semi-finals loss. i guess if next year they lose in the first round and follow up with a lottery pick the following season they will be definitely be making progress.
Players will and have taken slightly less basketball money to move to a bigger market and make more endorsement money. I believe it is written into Lebron’s contract with Nike that he gets a bonus if he plays for NY or LA. This is why Shaq bailed on Orlando 15 years ago.
Ignorance fought, thanks. He would still make more money in a big market city though.
There would probably be some additional local endorsements, yes. But again, Nike and McDonald’s and Sprite and whoever else don’t care what city he’s in, and if he can make $15 million or $20 million a year from basketball and $25 million from endorsements in Cleveland… I don’t think it’s a great time for athlete product endorsements anyway, given the economy and Tiger Woods, but that’s another matter.
By the way, despite the jersey sales thing, LeBron has been the number one basketball player in terms of endorsements by a long shot for the last three years at least. His endorsement totals the last three years were $25 million, $28 million and $28 million. His salary + endorsements are more than anyone else in the sport even though Kobe and Shaq both have much larger playing contracts.
I seem to remember Tim Duncan doing that a few years ago so they can sign Parker and Ginobili to long-term contracts. Worked out for him, he got another ring out of it and will be known as the greatest PF ever to play, and lots of people are saying the 2000’s are the Spurs’ and Duncan’s decade. That might take a hit since losing to Phoenix, but you’ll get no argument from me that the Spurs and Lakers pretty much owned this decade.
I can’t wait to see what Tiger makes in 2010
Companies that sell sex toys in the image of Buddha are apparently interested…
you make my point. at some point a couple of million don’t mean crap to getting a ring. duncan figured it out and played into another. plus, not to be mean he get’s to live in the town that knows no winter (ok it gets down in the 40’s every now and then) and is about as laid back as they come. plus he can go out and no one messes with him because in this town that’s just not cool.
or he could live in the mistake by the lake where there is this white stuff that comes down and it gets cold as a momma bear in the winter.
yeh, folks gussied up like a dogsled riders eating brats or sitting by the pool and having a grita with some hot chick with about a square meter of clothing on her entire bod.
a couple of milly. sign me up.
Some terrible officiating so far.
Well, it IS the NBA.
Meanwhile Cleveland is in a ton of trouble right now.
Some players get to that point at the end of their careers - not all of them - and few get there at 25. If you put him on the roster of the teams he could realistically go to, how many of them would be better than the Cavs? Most of them would not be championship teams if you just add LeBron. If you add him and a few other pieces, maybe, but that’s never a sure thing.
Anyone think Lebron was ‘testing’ his teammates tonight?
Pretty much all of them but the Knicks - definitely Miami and Chicago, for starters. Wade and Rose respectively are better than anyone else on the Cavs roster, and those were both playoff teams already this year even without LeBron. I don’t think there’s any way the Cavs make the playoffs next year without LeBron.
Anyways, even I kinda feel bad for Cleveland at this point, and I’m a Celtics fan. Can’t wait for the rematch with the Magic with both Garnett and Nelson healthy this year. Should be fun!
Testing how they cope with a second-round playoff exit?
Wade will almost certainly also opt out of his deal this offseason, and nobody can sign both him and LeBron (unless one or both take deals that are significantly below their market value).
I read a lot of garbage this week about Lebron “testing” his teammates to see how much they wanted to win when he wasn’t playing well. Still, the Cavs did look like quitters in most of game 5 and the last part of gave 6. Looks like Brett Favre is going to have some competition this summer for most attention.