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Which team will Lebron choose?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by slappy4428, Jul 8, 2010.

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Which team will Lebron James anoint as worthy of his talent?

Poll closed Jul 9, 2010.
  1. Da Bulls

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  2. Staying home in Cleveland

    20 vote(s)
    26.7%
  3. Going back to Miami

    20 vote(s)
    26.7%
  4. The Knickerbockers

    2 vote(s)
    2.7%
  5. Who gives a shit, it's the NBA

    10 vote(s)
    13.3%
  6. Who gives a shit? He lost me with this dog-and-pony show.

    21 vote(s)
    28.0%
  7. Other

    2 vote(s)
    2.7%
  1. Hackwilson191

    Hackwilson191 Member

    Perhaps collusion is not the word I was looking for last night. Tampering is. Pat Riley knew they were coming. Still they all took the visits and enticed other teams into believing they could get them. In the process these teams (Bulls, Knicks) missed out on other players. Thus, the Heat tampered.
     
  2. Oz

    Oz Well-Known Member

    Good luck with that tampering charge, especially with the NBA's one-week delay from the start of free agency to being able to sign contracts. Had all three been signed, sealed and delivered say within an hour of the start of free agency, you would have a much stronger case.

    Also, saying the Bulls and Knicks missed out on other players won't work, not when the Bulls (Boozer) and Knicks (Stoudamire) signed their own big-name, big-money free agents.
     
  3. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    Griffey Jr. to the Reds is a big-time example. Even with the hometown discount, the Reds didn't get their money's worth.
     
  4. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    Bill Simmons said this is the worst thing a player has ever done to a professional franchise.

    I don't know if that's true or not, but it would have to be close. I wonder what the other options would be.
     
  5. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    For Bill, sports history begins in 1980. I think throwing the 1919 World Series ranks pretty high above leaving your team as a free agent.
     
  6. Stoney

    Stoney Well-Known Member

    In terms of a player changing teams, and before and after impact on franchise value and fan base morale, I think that's absolutely true. I can't think of any other example that damaged the departed franchise this much.
     
  7. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    That wasn't one person. It was eight. Big difference.
     
  8. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I think with the combination of it being a hometown kid doing it to a team in a city with such great fans makes me agree.
     
  9. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    I disagree. It's not like LeBron was a scrub who the Cavs nurtured for years, resisting calls to cut him because he was a local kid. He was a stud when they got him - what exactly did Cleveland provide LeBron that a player of his caliber wouldn't have gotten in any other city in the NBA?
    I would have loved to have seen him bring Cleveland a championship - it would have been a great story - but I don't know where Cleveland's loyalty to LeBron is in evidence.
     
  10. Brian

    Brian Well-Known Member

    I think the Cavs, in their own twisted way, felt they were being loyal to him by giving in to his every whim.

    They asked the guy his opinion (stupidly) on every personnel move they made. They basically gave him full run of the franchise for seven years, expecting that giving him run of the castle would keep him there.

    That's loyal. It's also stupid. No other franchise (well, maybe the Knicks were desperate enough the last few years) would have allowed LeBron as much run as he did. Dan Gilbert believed that by putting up with LeBron's posse, and giving him veto power and firing coaches and GM's LeBron didn't like, he was giving so much ownership to James that there was no possible way he'd leave.

    If Gilbert could have made LeBron a partial owner of the franchise, he would have. If LeBron wanted his name in a script font on the front of the jerseys, they would have done it. If he wanted a golf cart to drive to the locker room at halftime, they would have had Bentley build one.

    And therein lies the problem. You can't win when one of your players has more power than the owner. Pat Riley is the kind of father figure who can stomp his foot down, which is why Miami will work out well for LeBron.

    Being a little more forceful with LeBron by getting a coach or GM or President who had the attention of the players and not giving LeBron veto power on trades might have brought a championship to Cleveland, even if it would have assured that LeBron was skipping town.
     
  11. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    But that would have entailed LeBron not being a choking dog in the playoffs. No sure thing, as we saw
     
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