first of all, he would have gotten more limelight if he stayed in cleveland and get that team its championship or go to NY (the mecca of basketball) and revive that city. if you think the limelight he's getting in miami is a lot now, it would be 10x more had he gone to NY. so no, the move lebron made this summer is all about winning. he wants to have the best supporting cast and he chose it. this is easily the most talented he has been on since he entered the L. NY will make the playoffs WITHOUT anthony. if they added carmelo, they would challenge for the east finals at least. what makes you say he has less chance of winning than NY? the only better option is orlando. but amare has proven to be a superstar, and as a player, you always want to team with another superstar to give you a better chance of winning. easy? have you seen the criticism launched at the heat with their early struggles? that's an easy and glamorous road? there were talks of dissent within the locker rooms, lebron dissing his coach, and all these articles attacking his character... you're calling that the "easy and glamorous" road? he's the villain in the NBA right now. lebron chose the path that he wanted to go, not what people wanted him to do.
There are 30 teams. In the 80s there was 23 teams. So would would have to get rid of 7 teams possibly. That would be really tough to get rid of 7. Charlotte New Orleans LA Clippers Memphis Cleveland Golden State Minnasota ? I dunno if that would work. I see maybe 2 of those teams but thats a huge shaft to those cities.
I don't think Lebron understands that with the "concentration" of talent you would simply have a devaluation of talent overall. "Superstars" and "allstars" are defined relative to their ability over their peers; if there were fewer players there would also by definition be fewer superstars, and it would be harder in general to become labeled one. A guy like Chris Bosh might not even be "all-star" worthy if all of a sudden there were 30% fewer players for him to look good playing against. Night after night where the weakest competition you get could be Al Jefferson or Carlos Boozer or Kevin Love, that would make you look a lot worse. Of course Lebron hasn't thought about this, he just feels guilty for bailing for the chance to concentrate his group of stars and now he wants the public to feel better about it by being able to say "look at those other teams, they did the same thing!".
I think there's a fairly strong argument that Chicago, not Miami, had (still has) the best supporting cast that also would have compliment Lebron optimally.
As much as I used to dislike Kobe as a person (all round arrogance, dirty fouls on Battier, etc.) it is reading things like this that really make me respect him so much more as a basketball player. Before all the LeBron nuthuggers jump in and say that Kobe is older, and in a different phase of his career, one thing I think that even Kobe's biggest detractors will agree is that with Kobe it is and has always been about the game and winning. Just don't get that sense from any of the new way of superstars (Durant may be an exception, but too early to say conclusively). You can tell that Kobe plays to win, while LeBron despite having more raw talent than almost anyone in the history of the game clearly doesn't play for the love of the game or winning. He is driven by the money, trappings of fame and in general trying to be a celebrity. Obviously not everyone is going to have the single minded focus of a Kobe or Jordan, but as a fan of the game you really wish that one of the most naturally talented players in the history of the game would not necessarily just view the game as a means to an end. Nothing wrong with either guy's approach, merely my .02 cents.
Here's Wojo's latest gem: LeBron undermines union LMAO, this is some of the most sensationalistic writing I've ever seen.
People think that WoJo is the best sports writer in America because he is a gifted linguist burning with a much-applauded hatred of LeBron, but he has gone off the deep end. He can not honestly believe what he is writing; it's as if he's doing glossy sportswriting parody and seeing how far he can go before someone notices. To suggest that LeBron's offhand comment has any impact on the negotiation, let alone the future of the sport, should be insulting to people's intelligence, but everyone has such a high intensity of LeBron bloodlust that they let him carry on with this charade. The players and owners will meet in the middle after a few months, everyone will get their cash, and life will move on. No bomb shelters stocked with MREs necessary.
contraction sounds great until it's time to pony up the dough. you want to contract 4 teams? Great, have the rest of the owners come up with 1.2 billion dollars to buy those 4 teams out. And what do you get for your money? nothing, no increase in revenue, no decrease in costs, just a slightly higher increase in "basketball quality".
Probable even, maybe, but the NBA will still exist and LeBron's comment will have nothing to do with any of it. It's just really irritating to see that basketball's current most prominent writer is treating his coverage of the sport so irresponsibly for the sake of $$$ and attention, the very things he eviscerates players over.
Which is still down 50% from 15 years ago. Look, if you can't understand what an overall trend is I can't help you.
The only teams I think the league could eliminate are the Clippers and Nets - removing any other would be a huge middle finger to their cities (the nets moving to new york already gave that middle finger to the state)
I dont think Lebron cares to much about his image to be honest. I mean i know they put the nike commercial out and all, but thats Nike trying to repair his image so they can keep selling his shoes.
I think Adrian Woj is the best in the business because he's usually the one breaking stories/rumors and has been dead-on with them. If Woj says the Rockets are looking at x guy, I 100% believe him. If Bill Ingram says it, I 100% do not believe him. That said, Woj has gone into the deep end with his LeBron hate. I don't think I've ever seen another writer attack a player for everything and nothing at the same time. LeBron's contraction comments were dumb, but not as dumb as his follow-up statement declaring he didn't even know what contraction mean. Anything LBJ says will be put under the microscope, so he'll catch hell for every little gaffe he makes.
