The LeBron James Thread

[Dice]

Re: The Official "Where is LeBron going?" Thread

Have people really not figured out yet that Broussard is the biggest Chicago dickrider in the media and that every thing he's said in the last month is pro-Chicago? Obviously that was a bogus rumor.

Ric Bucher believes that LeBron is going back to Cleveland. Does that mean he's dickriding the Cavs? He also believes that Ray Allen will sign with Cleveland. Does that also constitute as dickriding?

All these guys are just stating their opinions, just like we are. I think LeBron is either going to Chicago or Cleveland. Does that mean I'm dickriding both teams? Or am I just hating on all the other teams?

[ehh]

Re: The Official "Where is LeBron going?" Thread

Ric Bucher believes that LeBron is going back to Cleveland. Does that mean he's dickriding the Cavs? He also believes that Ray Allen will sign with Cleveland. Does that also constitute as dickriding?

C'mon man, those aren't even close to valid comparisons. Just LOOK at Broussard's columns the last two months (especially his anti-NY charade) and then get back to me.

[King_B_Mack]

Re: The Official "Where is LeBron going?" Thread

Have people really not figured out yet that Broussard is the biggest Chicago dickrider in the media and that every thing he's said in the last month is pro-Chicago? Obviously that was a bogus rumor.

*In my best Marc Jackson* Come on now ehh, you're better than that.

He's dickriding Chicago because he believes it's where LeBron is going to end up based on the information he's been given? Would he be dickriding if he'd been reporting things pro-New York all this time? I'm going to guess no.

[Dice]

Re: The Official "Where is LeBron going?" Thread

C'mon man, those aren't even close to valid comparisons. Just LOOK at Broussard's columns the last two months (especially his anti-NY charade) and then get back to me.

Can you give me some anit-NY quotes by Broussard? Honestly, i think they are just 2 guys, like everybody else, who's just stating their opinions on what's going to happen in the LeBron James saga.

It seems like you got a problem with anyone who doesn't think Lebron doesn't stand a chance going to the Knicks.

[NYJets]

Re: The Official "Where is LeBron going?" Thread

LOL, no surprise the Bulls fans come out in defense of him. Bucher is not trying to make a name for himself by becoming the "lebron is staying in cleveland guy" like Broussard is for the Bulls. He has spent the last month telling every media outlet that will listen that Lebron is going to the Bulls. Steven A. Smith is just as bad, so this isn't Bulls vs. Knicks.

Neither of these guys have real information. They picked a team and are going to stick with that team until the end, and if they are right, they look like geniuses.

[ehh]

Re: The Official "Where is LeBron going?" Thread

Can you give me some anit-NY quotes by Broussard?

LeBron doesn't need you, New York

By Chris Broussard
ESPN The Magazine
Archive

The notion that every player -- or at least every star player -- in the NBA wants to play in New York tickles me.

In the early 2000s, while a Knicks beat writer for the New York Times, I remember being baffled because many of my colleagues and readers thought every skilled free agent was headed to New York -- even though all the Knicks could offer such max-salary talent was the mid-level exception. They thought Grant Hill would leave Detroit for the Knicks (for less coin) and Chris Webber would spurn Sacramento for the Big Apple (and chump change).

Now, New York assumes it's getting LeBron James. At least the Knicks actually have the salary cap space to pull this off. But while New York has a decent shot at LeBron, the idea that LeBron -- or any other great player -- needs New York or harbors this intense desire to play there is a joke.

LeBron, an endorsement king, is already the face of the NBA despite being ringless in tiny Cleveland. The Internet and globalization have largely made where a player plays irrelevant in regards to marketing and popularity. So to suggest LeBron needs New York is nuts. The only thing that can make him bigger is a title, not a town.

New York is not the center, err, mecca of the basketball universe, as advertised. Sure, every player who traipses through the Garden while helping his team wax the Knicks praises the city, telling the local media he'd love to play in New York. But many free agents, not wanting to burn any bridges, do that in every palatable NBA city. Yet in New York it becomes a back page and hysteria ensues.

And where did this idea that the NBA needs the Knicks to be good come from? (Of course, having a contender in the nation's biggest market would be nice, but the league seemed to do pretty well in the 1980s and 2000s when the Knicks were doormats.)

LeBron James at a Knicks news conference: Don't assume it'll happen this summer.

That idea led the conspiratorially minded to think David Stern would fix the lottery to make sure Yao Ming and then James ended up in New York. How'd that theory work out?

Don't get me wrong: I love New York. It's a fabulous city. But that doesn't hold much sway when the best basketball players are deciding where they want to play, especially when someone else can pay more.

Look at last summer. Steve Nash, who lives in New York in the offseason and owes his hallowed status in the game to Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni, toyed with the Knicks but re-signed with Phoenix. Ditto for Hill, who took less money to return to the Suns, and Jason Kidd, who seemed to use the Knicks to get a richer deal from Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

I did not grow up in New York. Neither did most NBA players. And for people who don't grow up in New York, the Knicks are not on their radar. Growing up as a basketball fan, the Knicks were about the 13th team I thought of when it came to the NBA. If I had been an NBA-caliber player, playing for the Knicks would have been the furthest thing from my mind.

I was digging the Lakers, the Sixers, the Bulls, the Pistons, the Spurs -- you know, teams that won. The Celtics, Rockets and Blazers were higher on my list of good franchises than the Knicks.

Why should anyone outside of New York have been a Knicks fan? They were horrible in the '80s, Michael Jordan's punching bag in the '90s and an embarrassment in the 2000s.

When the modern Knicks did reach the Finals in '94, it became a slugfest, Exhibit A for non-artistic, unwatchable basketball.

Even New York's rep for producing great players is overblown. First of all, there only a few recognizable players in the league who are from New York City -- Lamar Odom, Ron Artest, Sebastian Telfair, not to mention Stephon Marbury (just to name a few). And many of them are viewed as underachieving or troubled.

So why in the world would today's young stars grow up dreaming of playing in New York?

Sure, guys love New York, but it has more to do with its hip-hop roots than its hoop roots -- and even its place in hip-hop has waned over the years.

And before you get hyped about LeBron or any other player wearing a Yankees cap, realize that boys and men all over the country are wearing them. Though LeBron is a fan, it's a fashion statement -- like Jay-Z said, he "made the Yankees cap more famous than the Yankees did" -- that often has nothing to do with New York.

I was talking with a couple of NBA guys last year, one a current star and the other a high-profile former Knick. We were talking about where LeBron might go as a free agent. Both insisted he'd stay in Cleveland.

This surprised me because I expected the former Knick to push for New York. But he made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that the only reason to go to the Knicks was if they were paying more money.

"What about playing in the Garden, and the fans, and the prestige of being a Knick?" I asked.

He laughed, then mumbled a curse, then said LeBron should stay in Cleveland.

So much for that Knicks mystique.

You also must realize that Madison Square Garden, the World's Most Famous Arena, is not exactly helping the Knicks' cause. I've heard players, executives and coaches trash the Garden as a dump.

And compared to the new, state-of-the-art arenas that most every other team has, it is pretty unimpressive. Quite frankly, it seems dark and dingy. (This is not lost on Knicks ownership: To its credit, it's spending roughly $800 million on renovations that will be completed in 2014).

The crowd can definitely get hyped, but the only real draw there is that famous actors, actresses and rappers are often in the front row. Otherwise, to most 20- and 30-somethings, it's the place where MJ dropped a double-nickle and where Reggie Miller burned the Knicks in eight seconds.

This may sound like an anti-Knicks column, but I choose to think of it as a reality check. New Yorkers need to realize that nobody's checking for the Knicks; not like the Lakers, the Bulls, the Celtics and others.

The arrogant claims that the life's dream of a kid born in Akron, Ohio -- or Dallas (Chris Bosh), or Chicago (Dwyane Wade) -- is to play for the Knicks just makes you look foolish and out of touch.

Like one of your native sons, Mark Jackson, would say, "You're better than that."

If LeBron comes, more power to you. Enjoy him and support him. And if he brings New York the title, or titles, it's been waiting 37 years for, then maybe, just maybe, the Knicks will become a team youngsters throughout America grow up dreaming of playing for.

[King_B_Mack]

Re: The Official "Where is LeBron going?" Thread

Really ehh? How's that anything other than the truth about the New York? The only thing I don't agree with is the Mecca comment. People in New York take their ball serious, but he is right about the best players in the league not being spawned from there.

Seriously you guys are a trip with this one. You're acting like those Lakers "fans" (the bandwagon, not real Laker fans) who act like everyone hates the Lakers if they aren't on their knees with their mouthes open whenever the Lakers are the topic of discussion on this one.

[ehh]

Re: The Official "Where is LeBron going?" Thread

A lot of it is true and the article starts out alright until he starts putting his own bitter personal twist on to everything.

1. The league "did well" in the 2000's when the Knicks were doormats? Really? Ratings were absolutely dreadful and the league sucked from 2000-2007, though the Knicks had nothing to do with that. It woulda sucked even if the Knicks won every title in that stretch. It did well in the 80's because it was the best rivalry and decade in basketball history.

2. Him talking about 'his readers' thinking top flight FA's were coming to NY in the early 2000's...yeah, there are dumb fans in every city....and?

3. When visiting other cities, players tell the local media that they'd love to play in that city? Really, I've never heard anyone say "I'd love to play in Toronto!" Or Memphis, Indiana, San Antonio, etc, etc.

4. Nash, Hill and Kidd would have been dumb to sign LAST year when the Knicks were still going to god awful in 09-10.

5. I did not grow up in New York. Neither did most NBA players. And for people who don't grow up in New York, the Knicks are not on their radar. Growing up as a basketball fan, the Knicks were about the 13th team I thought of when it came to the NBA. If I had been an NBA-caliber player, playing for the Knicks would have been the furthest thing from my mind.

I was digging the Lakers, the Sixers, the Bulls, the Pistons, the Spurs -- you know, teams that won. The Celtics, Rockets and Blazers were higher on my list of good franchises than the Knicks.

That whole section is hilarious, what does that have to do with anything? You didn't care about the Knicks as a kid....cool story.

6. How does Broussard know that LBJ wearing a Yankee hat is "a fashion statement"? Especially when he's a Yankee fan and publicly said that NY is his favorite city. It's not 1997 with Puff & Mase running around with different colored Yankee hats. This, again, is irrelevant trash.

7. He goes and talks to Charles Oakley, a bitter ex-Knick because they didn't give him the big man coaching position, and he rips the franchise. What a shocker.

8. The Knicks are in the middle of an $800m renovation to MSG. And I never heard baseball players complaining about playing at Fenway, Wrigley and the old Yankee Stadium (outside of the visiting locker room at Fenway lol).

9. The arrogant claims that the life's dream of a kid born in Akron, Ohio -- or Dallas (Chris Bosh), or Chicago (Dwyane Wade) -- is to play for the Knicks just makes you look foolish and out of touch.

Who ever said that was LBJ's life dream? Or Bosh's or Wade's? This is just another example of people outside of NYC taking sensationalist headlines from the Post (which, maybe one day non-NYers will finally realize is a slight step up from a tabloid) and other garbage NYC newspapers (who's goal is to come up with the most ridiculous back page headlines so people will see it on the street and buy it) and stop acting like it's how the entire media or fan base feels. SMH...

[NYJets]

Re: The Official "Where is LeBron going?" Thread

Seriously you guys are a trip with this one. You're acting like those Lakers "fans" (the bandwagon, not real Laker fans) who act like everyone hates the Lakers if they aren't on their knees with their mouthes open whenever the Lakers are the topic of discussion on this one.

Whatever you say. A ton of the media have given their opinions about where Lebron is going to go, and a very small percentage of them think that's going to be the Knicks. Broussard is pretty much the only one I have a problem with.

[Jeffx]

Re: The Official "Where is LeBron going?" Thread

Who ever said that was LBJ's life dream? Or Bosh's or Wade's? This is just another example of people outside of NYC taking sensationalist headlines from the Post (which, maybe one day non-NYers will finally realize is a slight step up from a tabloid) and other garbage NYC newspapers (who's goal is to come up with the most ridiculous back page headlines so people will see it on the street and buy it) and stop acting like it's how the entire media or fan base feels. SMH...

Thank you!

[Dice]

Re: The Official "Where is LeBron going?" Thread

LeBron doesn't need you, New York

By Chris Broussard
ESPN The Magazine
Archive

The notion that every player -- or at least every star player -- in the NBA wants to play in New York tickles me.

In the early 2000s, while a Knicks beat writer for the New York Times, I remember being baffled because many of my colleagues and readers thought every skilled free agent was headed to New York -- even though all the Knicks could offer such max-salary talent was the mid-level exception. They thought Grant Hill would leave Detroit for the Knicks (for less coin) and Chris Webber would spurn Sacramento for the Big Apple (and chump change).

Now, New York assumes it's getting LeBron James. At least the Knicks actually have the salary cap space to pull this off. But while New York has a decent shot at LeBron, the idea that LeBron -- or any other great player -- needs New York or harbors this intense desire to play there is a joke.

LeBron, an endorsement king, is already the face of the NBA despite being ringless in tiny Cleveland. The Internet and globalization have largely made where a player plays irrelevant in regards to marketing and popularity. So to suggest LeBron needs New York is nuts. The only thing that can make him bigger is a title, not a town.

New York is not the center, err, mecca of the basketball universe, as advertised. Sure, every player who traipses through the Garden while helping his team wax the Knicks praises the city, telling the local media he'd love to play in New York. But many free agents, not wanting to burn any bridges, do that in every palatable NBA city. Yet in New York it becomes a back page and hysteria ensues.

And where did this idea that the NBA needs the Knicks to be good come from? (Of course, having a contender in the nation's biggest market would be nice, but the league seemed to do pretty well in the 1980s and 2000s when the Knicks were doormats.)

LeBron James at a Knicks news conference: Don't assume it'll happen this summer.

That idea led the conspiratorially minded to think David Stern would fix the lottery to make sure Yao Ming and then James ended up in New York. How'd that theory work out?

Don't get me wrong: I love New York. It's a fabulous city. But that doesn't hold much sway when the best basketball players are deciding where they want to play, especially when someone else can pay more.

Look at last summer. Steve Nash, who lives in New York in the offseason and owes his hallowed status in the game to Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni, toyed with the Knicks but re-signed with Phoenix. Ditto for Hill, who took less money to return to the Suns, and Jason Kidd, who seemed to use the Knicks to get a richer deal from Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

I did not grow up in New York. Neither did most NBA players. And for people who don't grow up in New York, the Knicks are not on their radar. Growing up as a basketball fan, the Knicks were about the 13th team I thought of when it came to the NBA. If I had been an NBA-caliber player, playing for the Knicks would have been the furthest thing from my mind.

I was digging the Lakers, the Sixers, the Bulls, the Pistons, the Spurs -- you know, teams that won. The Celtics, Rockets and Blazers were higher on my list of good franchises than the Knicks.

Why should anyone outside of New York have been a Knicks fan? They were horrible in the '80s, Michael Jordan's punching bag in the '90s and an embarrassment in the 2000s.

When the modern Knicks did reach the Finals in '94, it became a slugfest, Exhibit A for non-artistic, unwatchable basketball.

Even New York's rep for producing great players is overblown. First of all, there only a few recognizable players in the league who are from New York City -- Lamar Odom, Ron Artest, Sebastian Telfair, not to mention Stephon Marbury (just to name a few). And many of them are viewed as underachieving or troubled.

So why in the world would today's young stars grow up dreaming of playing in New York?

Sure, guys love New York, but it has more to do with its hip-hop roots than its hoop roots -- and even its place in hip-hop has waned over the years.

And before you get hyped about LeBron or any other player wearing a Yankees cap, realize that boys and men all over the country are wearing them. Though LeBron is a fan, it's a fashion statement -- like Jay-Z said, he "made the Yankees cap more famous than the Yankees did" -- that often has nothing to do with New York.

I was talking with a couple of NBA guys last year, one a current star and the other a high-profile former Knick. We were talking about where LeBron might go as a free agent. Both insisted he'd stay in Cleveland.

This surprised me because I expected the former Knick to push for New York. But he made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that the only reason to go to the Knicks was if they were paying more money.

"What about playing in the Garden, and the fans, and the prestige of being a Knick?" I asked.

He laughed, then mumbled a curse, then said LeBron should stay in Cleveland.

So much for that Knicks mystique.

You also must realize that Madison Square Garden, the World's Most Famous Arena, is not exactly helping the Knicks' cause. I've heard players, executives and coaches trash the Garden as a dump.

And compared to the new, state-of-the-art arenas that most every other team has, it is pretty unimpressive. Quite frankly, it seems dark and dingy. (This is not lost on Knicks ownership: To its credit, it's spending roughly $800 million on renovations that will be completed in 2014).

The crowd can definitely get hyped, but the only real draw there is that famous actors, actresses and rappers are often in the front row. Otherwise, to most 20- and 30-somethings, it's the place where MJ dropped a double-nickle and where Reggie Miller burned the Knicks in eight seconds.

This may sound like an anti-Knicks column, but I choose to think of it as a reality check. New Yorkers need to realize that nobody's checking for the Knicks; not like the Lakers, the Bulls, the Celtics and others.

The arrogant claims that the life's dream of a kid born in Akron, Ohio -- or Dallas (Chris Bosh), or Chicago (Dwyane Wade) -- is to play for the Knicks just makes you look foolish and out of touch.

Like one of your native sons, Mark Jackson, would say, "You're better than that."

If LeBron comes, more power to you. Enjoy him and support him. And if he brings New York the title, or titles, it's been waiting 37 years for, then maybe, just maybe, the Knicks will become a team youngsters throughout America grow up dreaming of playing for.

OK. So he doesn't like the Knicks. So what. I'm pretty sure me and a couple of other people don't like them either. BUT this doesn't explain how he's a Bulls dickrider. Jalen Rose, Paul Silas, Michael Jordan and Jim Rome thinks LeBron is going to Chicago. Are they dickriding also?

[BlueNGold]

Re: The Official "Where is LeBron going?" Thread

OK. So he doesn't like the Knicks. So what. I'm pretty sure me and a couple of other people don't like them either. BUT this doesn't explain how he's a Bulls dickrider. Jalen Rose, Paul Silas, Michael Jordan and Jim Rome thinks LeBron is going to Chicago. Are they dickriding also?

When did MJ say that?

[ehh]

Re: The Official "Where is LeBron going?" Thread

Jalen Rose, Paul Silas, Michael Jordan and Jim Rome thinks LeBron is going to Chicago. Are they dickriding also?

Absolutely not, because they aren't saying/writing stupid stuff like Broussard.

[ehh]

Re: The Official "Where is LeBron going?" Thread

When did MJ say that?

He said it a few weeks back. Well he said that he "should" go to Chicago, not that he thinks he will go to Chicago.

[Dice]

Re: The Official "Where is LeBron going?" Thread

LOL, no surprise the Bulls fans come out in defense of him. Bucher is not trying to make a name for himself by becoming the "lebron is staying in cleveland guy" like Broussard is for the Bulls. He has spent the last month telling every media outlet that will listen that Lebron is going to the Bulls. Steven A. Smith is just as bad, so this isn't Bulls vs. Knicks.

Neither of these guys have real information. They picked a team and are going to stick with that team until the end, and if they are right, they look like geniuses.

I just don't understand the hate for the guy, especially from you NY fans, on why Broussard is being biased in his opinion? The guy grew up in Cleveland and started his media career in Cleveland. This guy has no ties to Chicago so where is his Chicago bias coming from?