NBA Thread

The LeBron Tonight Show tomorrow 3pm at ESPN :LOL:

Well, somehow I think we'll have a surprise tomorrow night. Don't believe Miami option, Cavs is the safest one but I'm betting in a surprise. Maybe Knicks...

We will see.
 
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If he doesn't stay with the Cavs, what he is about to do tonight will be like breaking up with a girlfriend on national tv. Very ugly.

If he goes to Miami it will be like saying he can't win on his own and needs a dream team to do it...
 
I think its a smokescreen.

The Nets or the Knicks.
 
Miami only have 3/4 guys on their roster, even if they get LeBron they'll have to fill out of the rest of the roster with guys on minimum contracts.

Signing a vet on a minimum deal is one thing but having 7/8 vets in addition to a big three doesn't equal a championship.

Wade is awesome but Bosh isn't as good as people are suggesting, he's no Pau Gasol, he won't make THAT much of a difference.
 
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I'm hoping he goes to the Knicks, as I go to New York next February and me and a few mates hoping to visit the Garden for a game. It's an outside shot.

Least I get to see Ama're either way...

:COAT:
 
Depending on how long you go for and when you go, you may not even be able to see the knicks play. They might go on a long road trip out west and also note that the all star game is usually mid feb!
Best to check the schedule when they release it
 
Good article on the whole LeBron situation: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/100708

This was my favourite bit, about the possibility of joining Miami:

13. I think it's a cop-out. Any super-competitive person would rather beat Dwyane Wade than play with him. Don't you want to find the Ali to your Frazier and have that rival pull the greatness out of you? That's why I'm holding out hope that LeBron signs with New York or Chicago (or stays in Cleveland), because he'd be saying, "Fine. Kobe, Dwight and Melo all have their teams. Wade and Bosh have their team. The Celtics are still there. Durant's team is coming. I'm gonna go out and build MY team, and I'm kicking all their asses." That's what Jordan would have done. Hell, that's what Kobe would have done.

In May, after the Cavs were ousted in the conference semifinals, I wrote that LeBron was facing one of the greatest sports decisions ever: "winning (Chicago), loyalty (Cleveland) or a chance at immortality (New York)."

I never thought he would pick "HELP!"
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"Winning, loyalty, immortality"

He can take all of them in one place: his home. Plus, transform the worst franchise in NBA into a champion will be the biggest achievement in US sports history. He can rule the world from Akron, my friend.
 
It's official now Lebron joins Miami with Wade and Bosh... It still makes me wonder if this trio can win a championship this year
 
The Cavs owner let rip on LeBron via an open letter...
 
Dear Cleveland, All Of Northeast Ohio and Cleveland Cavaliers Supporters Wherever You May Be Tonight;

As you now know, our former hero, who grew up in the very region that he deserted this evening, is no longer a Cleveland Cavalier.

This was announced with a several day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his "decision" unlike anything ever "witnessed" in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment.

Clearly, this is bitterly disappointing to all of us.

The good news is that the ownership team and the rest of the hard-working, loyal, and driven staff over here at your hometown Cavaliers have not betrayed you nor NEVER will betray you.

There is so much more to tell you about the events of the recent past and our more than exciting future. Over the next several days and weeks, we will be communicating much of that to you.

You simply don't deserve this kind of cowardly betrayal.

You have given so much and deserve so much more.

In the meantime, I want to make one statement to you tonight:

"I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE"

You can take it to the bank.

If you thought we were motivated before tonight to bring the hardware to Cleveland, I can tell you that this shameful display of selfishness and betrayal by one of our very own has shifted our "motivation" to previously unknown and previously never experienced levels.

Some people think they should go to heaven but NOT have to die to get there.

Sorry, but that's simply not how it works.

This shocking act of disloyalty from our home grown "chosen one" sends the exact opposite lesson of what we would want our children to learn. And "who" we would want them to grow-up to become.

But the good news is that this heartless and callous action can only serve as the antidote to the so-called "curse" on Cleveland, Ohio.

The self-declared former "King" will be taking the "curse" with him down south. And until he does "right" by Cleveland and Ohio, James (and the town where he plays) will unfortunately own this dreaded spell and bad karma.

Just watch.

Sleep well, Cleveland.

Tomorrow is a new and much brighter day....

I PROMISE you that our energy, focus, capital, knowledge and experience will be directed at one thing and one thing only:

DELIVERING YOU the championship you have long deserved and is long overdue....

dan_signature.gif


Dan Gilbert
Majority Owner
Cleveland Cavaliers
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Weird choice of font.
 
"I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE"
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Hope so.

A "King" should lead his crew through the victory. That "self-called King" needed to join 2 other "kings" to win. Incompetent.

Go Cavs!
 
If I didn't like the "King" much before, now I really don't. What a pussy. Every title he wins now with will be stained by the fact that he had to join two other stars to do it.

Every great player I grew up watching won their titles on "their" team: Magic, Larry Bird, Isiah, MJ, Hakeem, Shaq, Tim Duncan, even Kobe now.

And it's not like the big 3 in Boston that came together at near the end of their careers, these guys are still at their peak.

And in the old days stars were "enemies", they'd rather beat each other for the bragging rights than to join forces. Almost every other team had a star player and there was a lot of competition, now the NBA is looking like most football leagues, with only 2, 3 or 4 serious title candidates.

The worst thing is, this was planned a long time ago:

1. A few weeks after the 2008 Summer Olympics, Someone Who Knows Things told me the following rumor: LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Chris Paul became such good friends during the 2007 Olympic trials, and then during their 2008 Olympics excursion in Beijing, that they actually made a pact in China to play together. You know, like one of those pacts in a chick flick where two friends agree to get married if both of them are single when they turn 40.

As the rumor went, the 2010 free agents (LeBron, Wade and Bosh) would sign with the same team (at that point the Knicks if they created enough cap room), then Paul would join them in 2012 (or sooner). I thought this was the craziest thing I had ever heard -- so crazy, I only mentioned it once (in a November '08 column). It reminded me of being in my mid-20s in Las Vegas, gambling in the wee hours with my single high school buddies, then all of us drunkenly saying, "We should all pick one city and live there, we'd just go out and kill it every night!" Then you wake up the next morning and forget it was ever discussed. So even if the China rumor was true, that didn't mean it was actually going to happen. Or so I thought.
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I don't usually root against teams, but I'll be so happy if this team fails... :)


Also:
CLEVELAND (AP) - Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert says LeBron James "quit" during the playoffs and should be accountable for his actions.

Gilbert, who posted a letter to Cavs fans on the team's website shortly after James announced he plans to sign with Miami, tells The Associated Press late Thursday night that he feels "personally betrayed" by James and that it's "accountability time."

In a phone interview with the AP, Gilbert says "people have covered up for (James) for way too long. Tonight we saw who he really is."

Gilbert says James quit on the Cavs during their second-round series against the Boston Celtics, who rallied from a 2-1 deficit to eliminate Cleveland.
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Might just be sour grapes, but it sure looked like it at the time...
 
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I'm interested to see how it all pans out. I even stayed up to watch a live stream of "The Decision" and was shocked even though the signs pointed to Miami.

Ok he doesn't owe the Cavs anything, but you gotta feel bad for them. I really thought he was going back the Cavs but truth be told, they didn't surround him with players to get the job done. An aging Shaq, Jamison is OK but vanished in the playoffs, mo williams isn't even top 20 PG in the league.

Even if he stayed he wasn't gonna win with that team. They would've had to bring in someone big and then the argument of "he did it with his own team" fails because in the end 1 man can never do it on his own. Jordan had pippen, shaq had wade and kobe, kobe had pau, duncan had robinson etc etc.

I don't see why Americans make these things so dramatic. When Ronaldo or beckham left for Madrid you didn't see people burning their shirts on the road.
 
Excellent article: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/michael_rosenberg/07/08/lebron.event/

Best part:
GREENWICH, Conn., July 8, 1990 -- Michael Jordan announced on national television he's leaving Chicago to join the Detroit Pistons. Jordan said it was tough to bolt Chicago, where he was the most popular athlete in many years, because he thinks he has a better chance to win a championship if he plays with Pistons star Isiah Thomas. Jordan said by playing together, he and Thomas "won't have the pressure of going out and scoring 30 every night."

That would have sounded absurd, right? Well, it is no more absurd than what LeBron James is doing. Jordan was 27 years old in 1990, slightly older than James is now. He had never been to the NBA Finals. He had been beaten up by the Celtics and Pistons for years. He doubted his supporting cast was good enough.

But he never doubted himself.

And it became very clear Thursday night that LeBron James does doubt himself. James will be a champion in Miami -- if not next year, then sometime after that. If you put James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh together and give Pat Riley five years to find the complementary pieces, that team will win a championship.

But James does not have the heart of a champion. He does not have the competitive fire of Jordan, the bull-headed determination of Kobe Bryant, the quiet self-confidence of Tim Duncan, the willful defiance of Isiah or the winning-is-everything hunger of Magic Johnson.

He is an extremely gifted player who wants the easy way out.
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Exactly what I was thinking, Jordan went through HELL and finally conquered the world. That's why he's a legend and that's why LeBron will never be.
 
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I think it was Game 2 vs the Celtics, certainly looked like he quit that night.
 
I really don`t get this free agent stuff do players actually honor their contract? The NFL won`t be using salary caps it`s gone like slavery. This might be the end for Sports here...bye-bye real-estate , hello Sport franchise ;)
 
Lol a 1 hour special on "The Decision"! :LOL:

Our western societies have the wrong 'values' in so many ways this type of thing is popping out more and more often. This type of hting was unthinkinable awhile back.

Orlando coach Stan van Gundy ripped into LeBron even before this whole thing saying it takes 15 seconds to say: "Yes, I'm staying with Cavs or no I'm leaving" :D LOL:
 
Lebron called him self "King" yet has no rings chairman is right with his words
 
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Heat meet with Derek Fisher. I wonder how they can get all of this players. In my opinion, this kind of moves are bad for us basketball lovers. I want a wide open league not a team's dynasty.
 
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