2010 NBA offseason draft, FA, etc etc...

If LeBron leaves Cleveland, I think you can trace the beginning of the end back to blowing a huge chunk of their salary cap on Larry Hughes and his 5 yr/70 mil deal.

 

This strikes me as the type of story that unnamed sources, even ones with the best intentions, are going to feed a reporter bogus information a decent percentage of the time. Not putting too much stock in the story on ESPN.com right now.

 

Nah. Wasn't a good move. But they had plenty of time and made plenty of moves to recover from that. Plus, if nothing else, it was evidence that management was willing to spend to put pieces around James. Doubt he's throught about Hughes once in this process.

 

The salary cap is 58 million. The Heat only have Mario Chalmers and Michael Beasly under contract. That takes up between 4 and 5 million dollars. IIRC, these three guys will start off around 16 million dollars. 53 mil in cap room. 3 x 16 = 48.

 

I don't think the Cavs have done anything since he's been there to convince him that he can win a title there, since even guys like Jordan need a strong supporting cast to win a title and Cleveland isn't exactly a top landing spot for free agents.

I don't blame him for leaving. I do blame him for how he's going about it, whether that was intentional or not.

 

One of my favorite SI articles, by Curry Kirkpatrick, aptly titled:

All For One Sure Beats One For All

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1092515/index.htm

With this memorable lede:

"At the end last Sunday, as bare-chested Bill Walton stood there, one moment higher than the highest mountain, the next submerged by Blazermaniacs deeper than the deep blue sea, Julius Erving would have been forgiven had he raised the roster of the Philadelphia 76ers over his head and jam-dunked it into the nearest garbage can."

 

If LeBron leaves Cleveland, this is no different than getting a divorce.

No problem with getting a divorce -- he and Cleveland "have grown apart".

I DO have a problem with him announcing he is getting a divorce while at a party to announce he is leaving her for January Jones (or enter your favorite hottie here). It's just not classy.

Because of the nature of the event, the charity angle feels, to me, that he is saying, "yeah, I'm leaving her because she isn't pretty enough anymore but, here, I'm buying her a new Corvette!"

 

No different than a divorce?

He's a professional athlete who signed a limited contract to play for the team that drafted him.

 

Really, ex-hack, this is simply the business of sports. It is nothing at all like a divorce.
This is: contract is up, I'm signing somewhere else.
Just business, not personal -- except to those in Cleveland who invested a little too much emotionally into yet another me-first athlete.

 

That's what makes this farce marginally interesting to me. It IS business, and on James' part, very poor business. By making his decision a show (a long-running show, too), he has needlessly alienated many, many of his customers (fans). He really thinks everybody loves him as much as Stuart Scott says he does. It will come as a shock when he's villian number one in every other town in the NBA except the one he plays for. That bothered the hell out of Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, two much stronger characters than James has shown himself to be.

 

I still think he's going to stay in Cleveland, despite the reports re: Miami.

I mean, surely, he couldn't use an hourlong ESPN program to shove a knife into Cleveland's ribs, could he?

 

According to Gray, this TV announcement has been in the works since Game 2 of the NBA Finals.