The LeBron James Thread

[Bornindamecca]

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

All great points but we both know the Bulls aren't telling Wade no if he was to agree.

Oh no question. And by that same token, I think Wade should leap to join Rose and become the best backcourt in the league. I'm speaking more from the perspective of if they give up Noah. If you give up Noah, then Chicago is flat out not a better option than New Jersey, for all the reasons I mentioned. Derrick Rose is not currently that far ahead of Harris to make up for the difference of a missing Noah, and to my earlier points, if Rose was going to get good enough to make up that difference, it wouldn't be by handing the ball to Wade. So say if I was Joe Johnson, then it'd still make sense to go to Chitown because part of the reason you're going is to ride shotgun while Rose blooms(yeowch...sorry) into an alpha dog. If you're Wade, then you are personally responsible from slowing that progress, so why go to join that kid, take the ball out of his hands and not even have the championship roleplaying big man to go along with it? In that sense, I think Noah is like the third leg on the table. Take him out and everything falls over.

In fact, I'd say Noah is more important to keep than Bosh is to acquire. Get the cheaper David Lee and roll with Rose/Wade/Deng/Lee/Noah. Use the couple extra bucks for Morrow and a perimeter defender off of the bench.

[Altimus]

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

Oh no question. And by that same token, I think Wade should leap to join Rose and become the best backcourt in the league. I'm speaking more from the perspective of if they give up Noah. If you give up Noah, then Chicago is flat out not a better option than New Jersey, for all the reasons I mentioned. Derrick Rose is not currently that far ahead of Harris to make up for the difference of a missing Noah, and to my earlier points, if Rose was going to get good enough to make up that difference, it wouldn't be by handing the ball to Wade.

That's a fantasy backcourt; The Flash and The Flash Version 2.0.

Why would they have to give up Noah for Wade though? I don't want to say Noah is untouchable but I'd only see him getting moved if it was to lock Bosh and Wade or Bosh and LBJ coming to Chicago. Seems odd putting Noah in that sentence of players but I don't think they're going to move Noah and pay Bosh the max if no else was to join him.

Edit:

Looks like we're on the same page. Just read your edited post.

[RA30]

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

Yea, this is a really good point that James has to think about, if he wants to win a championship.

If he doesnt sign together with Wade, Wade would probably end up with another team that has really good players. This will make LeBron's team even worse.

If LeBron signs with Cleveland, it is a sure scenario that Cleveland would be way behind the other Eastern conference teams. This is because Cleveland is aging and has no other decent player.

That could play a huge role - if a super team in the east is created that doesn't involve LBJ. If Bosh & Wade end up in Chicago, that puts the Cavs way behind Chicago and still behind Orlando and Boston.

At best that's a Cavs team that's a 4-5 see with little to no room for improvement - unless they can some how, some way swing a deal for CP3. I don't know what they have to offer that's of interest though. No expiring deals, Hickson isn't enough on his own, their picks will be mid to late 1st round. It'll be interesting.

[Altimus]

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

Looks like one person knows where LBJ is going:

the homie just gave me the info on where he is going, to bad I can't say but this city is gonna be very happy #6 *wink*

http://twitter.com/OGOchoCinco/status/17618642005

[SaltyBlackWorm]

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

Looks like one person knows where LBJ is going:



http://twitter.com/OGOchoCinco/status/17618642005

Great that narrows it down lol

[ehh]

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

Looks like one person knows where LBJ is going:



http://twitter.com/OGOchoCinco/status/17618642005

LOL @ the biggest attention whore in football getting in with the biggest attention whore-fest in NBA (and hell, American sport) history.

And of course Ocho Cinco is full of **** anyway, just getting his name some time in the spotlight like all these d-bag journalists.

[55]

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

Looks like one person knows where LBJ is going:



http://twitter.com/OGOchoCinco/status/17618642005

Yeah... and two tweets later he tells Mike Tyson he wants to spar with him without headgear.

[ehh]

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

Little more info on the Knicks' meeting......

Before they talked about love and basketball with LeBron James, the Knicks opened their video presentation Thursday with a scene from a LeBron favorite. Suddenly James Gandolfini and Edie Falco were Tony and Carmela Soprano, maybe for the last time, and the look on LeBron's face said he was hoping this show would last an hour or three.

Tony hadn't been killed off by David Chase after all. He was wearing a beard and living with his wife under the cover of the witness protection program, and Tony was telling Carmela he had an important friend coming to town. A friend who needed a place to stay. A friend named LeBron James.

Carmela scanned her computer for the ideal midtown spot, and when she told Tony she'd found the right place for a man of James' stature, the final shot wasn't half as suspenseful as The Sopranos' final scene in the diner.

Madison Square Garden was the iconic image on the screen, the arena James has called his favorite place to play. From there LeBron would hear taped testimonials to the power of big-city winning from Willis Reed, Mark Messier, Reggie Jackson and Earl Monroe. Spike Lee and Rudy Giuliani had their parts on the video, and Chris Rock told some jokes.

But the Knicks weren't kidding around. They did their homework. Yeah, they knew LeBron loved The Sopranos. They also knew LeBron loved talking about the transition game more.

So Mike D'Antoni spent more than half this meeting on the eighth floor of a Cleveland building talking basketball with a basketball player. Suddenly a high-stakes summit with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line was reduced to a two-man huddle you'd find in shoebox gyms all across America.

A coach was drawing up Xs and Os for a ballplayer, the two of them engaged in a Rockwellian scene that no max-out talks could taint.

The Knicks had their two hours and change in LeBron's presence, with Allan Houston staying behind for a few minutes to get the final word, athlete to athlete, man to man. James proved to be as gifted a poker player as he is a small forward. He didn't reveal much to either the Knicks or the Nets that day, and he also planned to cover his cards for the Heat, Clippers, Cavaliers and Bulls.

The Nets all but did an end zone dance when their sitdown was done, while the Knicks simply handed the ball to the ref. So as the Knicks got hot after Amare Stoudemire, the coach and the team president and the owner, Jim Dolan, were floored when word hit that their LeBron presentation went LeBust, that James was now more likely to sign with the Maple Leafs than with the Knicks.

You can accuse the Knicks and the Garden of fouling up a lot of perfectly good game nights in recent years, but few in the business of sports are better at putting on a show. The Garden knows how to entertain, and it's hard to believe its people spent months piecing together a sales pitch that just cost them any chance of signing James.

The Knicks believe they've been victimized by the kind of negative recruiting that defines major college sports, and hey, it happens, on both sides of the aisle. Former Knicks president Dave Checketts said he and ex-running mate Ernie Grunfeld routinely tried to sabotage any acquisition being made by the Chicago Bulls.

That was then, this is now. Right now, today, it seems the only people in the NBA who want the Knicks to land LeBron are drawing a paycheck from them.

Everyone has an agenda here -- teams, players, agents, people inside LeBron's camp, people who want to get inside LeBron's camp. The Knicks have an agenda, too. They want to sign James a whole lot more than they want to sign Stoudemire.

The Nets feel the same. They declared a border war on the Knicks when they posted the skyscraper-sized image of Mikhail Prokhorov, their billionaire owner, and Jay-Z, his one-percent partner, right in Dolan's face. This fight isn't going to get any prettier over the next 48 hours.

Of course, the Knicks' best response to all this is to, you know, sign LeBron James. Toward that end, they did their research. They found out LeBron loves kids, and so they showed him a video on their Garden of Dreams charity for children in need.

Walsh spoke of his ability to work the salary cap and keep a LeBron-led Knicks team in contention for the long haul. Dolan told James about his Steinbrennerian willingness to spend, spend and spend some more on luxury taxes. James heard about the $850 million being poured into a new and improved Garden, and the building's president, Scott O'Neil, showed LeBron the commissioned study explaining how he could become a billionaire in New York.

Mostly the Knicks gave the ball to D'Antoni and let him discuss basketball with his blue-chip recruit. The former Olympic assistant and former Olympic star talked about offense and defense and about finding a way back to the gold-medal game.

No, James didn't give the Knicks a ton of feedback, if only because he wasn't giving anyone a ton of feedback. The Knicks went to bed Friday night believing they were very much alive in the James derby, no matter what was being whispered between Miami and Moscow.

James might decide to go with Cleveland, Chicago, New Jersey or Miami. He might pick up his cell and end the Knicks' quest in a New York minute.

If that happens, if LeBron James rejects Tony Soprano's offer he could refuse, the Knicks wouldn't have lost the game because of their presentation.

They would have lost it because of their roster.

[PVarck31]

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

I know this may sound silly, but I think the entire future of Cleveland sports rests on Lebron James. Cleveland needs something big to happen. If Lebron re-signs this could break the "Cleveland curse".

Someone of his caliber deciding to stay in Cleveland over any other city of his choice. I mean if that doesn't kill the "curse" than nothing will.

Disclaimer: I do not necessarily think there is a "Cleveland curse". But if nothing else it would have to be some pretty awesome karma for the city.

[Nike Fattz]

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

I know this may sound silly, but I think the entire future of Cleveland sports rests on Lebron James. Cleveland needs something big to happen. If Lebron re-signs this could break the "Cleveland curse".

Someone of his caliber deciding to stay in Cleveland over any other city of his choice. I mean if that doesn't kill the "curse" than nothing will.

Disclaimer: I do not necessarily think there is a "Cleveland curse". But if nothing else it would have to be some pretty awesome karma for the city.

If LeBron James resigns with Cleveland, he may never win a title. Not only will he have to get past Orlando and an aging Boston, but the super team that's bound to be created in Chicago if Bosh and Wade sign to the Bulls. Not to mention teams like New Jersey, New York, and Atlanta who are primed to get better.

[Nines]

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

Sounds like the Knicks poured a lot of resources into their presentation to LBJ. Getting James Gandolfini to reprise his Tony Soprano role?

[55]

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

If LeBron James resigns with Cleveland, he may never win a title. Not only will he have to get past Orlando and an aging Boston, but the super team that's bound to be created in Chicago if Bosh and Wade sign to the Bulls. Not to mention teams like New Jersey, New York, and Atlanta who are primed to get better.

A+ post. Would read again.

[bigeastbumrush]

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

Little more info on the Knicks' meeting......

Yeah. I have a really hard time believing the Knicks "blew" the presentation after they've had this planned for 2 years. Only change being that they probably expected him to physically be in NY when they were doing it.

Alot of posturing and fear going around the league.

The Nets are the weak little brother trying their best to come up but they're slinging dirt when the Knicks aren't even paying their still across the "west side" river (not east) counterparts any mind.

The billboard isn't going to convert any Knicks fans to Nets fans. Only winning will. And that being said...the Nets are still the worst team in the league until October.

[bigfnjoe96]

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

Yeah. I have a really hard time believing the Knicks "blew" the presentation after they've had this planned for 2 years. Only change being that they probably expected him to physically be in NY when they were doing it.

Alot of posturing and fear going around the league.

Sounds like a RAT...

[nuckles2k2]

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

Sounds like a RAT...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV-bPcyJ9h4

I had to...

Edit: I tried to embed it but it won't show up for some reason.