NBA fans

[cured]

I know there's the World Cup going on but the best player in basketball just jumped ship from the Cleveland Cavaliers to form a super team in Miami. Lebron James plus Dwayne Wade plus Chris Bosh, three guys who started for team USA on one team. It's eventually going to be the new dynasty.

[chuck]

Bollocks.

LeBron is punk.

ESPN and Wilbon are his bitches.

Dwayne Wade is glass - and dynasty's are built - not bought.

That is all.

[Troy McClure]

The Cavs' majority owner Dan Gilbert's open letter posted on the team website:

http://tinyurl.com/24f3uw6

Mr. Gilbert claims that James quit on the team the past two playoff runs:

http://tinyurl.com/2dtjmat

I think this happening to Cleveland's, given sports history of rotten luck, of all places gets to me more riled up than say if Dwyane Wade left Miami. I've seen Lebron James play nearly each time they've played at the Phoenix Suns, and yes he is a great talent, but this is just a low-class thing.

Give me people like Steve Nash, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, Derrick Rose, Rajon Rondo, and Kobe Bryant (even though he's on LA, but he delivers time after time after time).

BTW, I'm a Suns fan and Amar'e Stoudemire leaving for the Knicks is a big punk move, too.

Jason

[chuck]

via Deadspin - with naughty words.

http://deadspin.com/5581889/lebron-james-is-a-cocksucker

Tomorrow is the day LeBron James becomes the most unlikable person in the NBA, and perhaps all of American sports. I used to think he was okay a year ago. No more. He's the villain now.

It doesn't matter where he opts to go. If he goes to Chicago, he's a cocksucker. If he goes to Miami, he's a cocksucker. Even if he goes back to Cleveland, he's a goddamn cocksucker. He's a self-aggrandizing sack of shit, and ESPN is a bunch of pussy-whipped enablers for giving him a free hour of airtime tomorrow night and inevitably using 55 minutes of it to let Stu Scott give him a rimjob.

Look at what Kevin Durant did today. He signed an extension well before he could have filed for free agency, announced the signing, and then went back about his business. He didn't need all this dog-and-pony show bullshit. James does, and that means he's a dipshit. People have been kissing this man's ass SINCE FUCKING MIDDLE SCHOOL, and he still needs this hourlong AFI tribute special? Bullshit. BULLSHIT.

And I don't care that he asked ESPN to use the commercial airtime tomorrow night to go to charity. That's the most transparent use of charity for the sake of self-glorification I've seen since I saw some actor do it yesterday. "Hey ESPN, why don't you spend an hour kissing my ass? Oh, don't worry. We'll give the money to AIDS babies. That totally makes me selfless." No, it doesn't.

And FUCK YOU to ESPN for going along with this "Bonds on Bonds" redux. If an ESPN reporter found concrete proof tomorrow morning that James was going to Cleveland or somewhere else, do you think ESPN would let him run with it? FUCK AND NO. They'd stick him in a fucking Lucite box and throw him in the cellar until 10PM. They're the whoringest whores that have ever whored. I heard they offered LeBron's crew free blowjobs if he wins a title next year. Wilbon asked to blow him JUST A LITTLE BIT. Not much. Just a little bit.

LeBron is now the guy you openly root against. If he leaves Cleveland tomorrow night, he'll have needlessly strung along an entire fanbase and given them the middle finger by making their breakup spectacularly public. If he stays, he'll have spent two years cockteasing the rest of the world about going somewhere else when he probably never wanted to leave Ohio to begin with. There's no end result tomorrow that makes LeBron a sympathetic figure. He's already gone past the point of no return. He's a cocksucker. Fitting that his most memorable career moment will come when he doesn't even take a fucking shot. He's a guy that cares more about the end result of playing basketball – massive, unending adulation – than he does actual basketball.

I don't begrudge him that attitude. I'd be the same way if I were a basketball player. All I'd give a shit about would be what I make and where I'm drinking tonight. And I don't begrudge him the right to play somewhere other than Cleveland. It's Cleveland. It blows. There's nothing to do in that town except masturbate and cry. But there's a normal way of doing things, and there's the dick way of doing things, and making your own free agency a two-year drama capped off with an infomercial directed by Senor Spielbergo falls squarely in the purview of FLAMING FUCKING DICK MOVES. James is trying to bullshit the world into believing this whole process is some great entertainment he's lavishing upon you. It's not. It's a con. Right now, a lot of people aren't buying the shit this man is selling. And really, that's all LeBron James is these days: a fucking salesman.

[Eikman]

i don't get it. is this an American thing? sports stars change teams. for whatever reasons. so what.

[34958hq439-qjw9v5jq298v5j]

I live in Wisconsin, but most of my family is in Ohio, including my grandma (nearly 80!) who lived about two blocks away from where Lebron grew up in Akron. I mean let's not forget the amount of sports heartbreak Cleveland has been through in the last 50 years. The only thing that comes close is the Bills losing 4 straight Super Bowls. This is just too much to take...look, they had thought that he would probably leave, but the way it was done with the one-hour TV special was so incredibly bush league that the people of Ohio probably will never forgive him. This is almost like what we went through with Favre (obviously very different situations, but the same sense of betrayal). The Cavs (and Cavs fans) gave him everything they possibly could. The team wasn't just Lebron + a bunch of no-talent losers the way the KG-era T'wolves were. And I honestly do feel like Lebron straight up quit on the team during the 2010 playoffs. No fire at all. He looked as though he expected to lose and couldn't wait to be out of the building.

I do find Miami puzzling; first of all, I don't think they'll necessarily be a favorite to beat the Lakers next year, because James/Wade/Bosh are going to log so many minutes it'll be crazy - they need a Derek Fisher type guy and they don't have one. Secondly, it begs the question, would MJ ever do something like this? Essentially you got the best player in the NBA following Bosh, who the media is making out to be some kind of supermegastar player, when he's really only a third-tier star; not even really on the level of Nash/Rose/Nowitzski. That's just unheard of. Chicago would have made a lot more sense. So would staying in Cleveland.

Personally I hoped the man would come to Milwaukee...I honestly feel like the Bucks + LeBron would trump the Heat right now!!

[34958hq439-qjw9v5jq298v5j]

i don't get it. is this an American thing? sports stars change teams. for whatever reasons. so what.

Ummm, I can't really think of one sports star changing teams that was even remotely like this...

Reigning 2-time MVPs in their prime do not just change teams. This is basically unheard of. The last MVP to leave their team was Moses Malone nearly 30 years ago. And he certainly didn't request a one-hour special to do it. He had to know all along that Cleveland fans were the ones who cared most about him and would be the most disappointed if they weren't picked by a HUGE margin. Don't want to make the Favre comparison but at least he didn't request a fucking prime-time special.

[BrotherLovesDub]

or you could say, 'at least he didn't put it on twitter'

new times, innit? why do you care so much? i guess i've seen lots of people the last 24hrs who only casually follow basketball getting their panties in a bunch of this and it just seems like artificial anger. remember when arenas and stadiums were named after the city or team? don't like lebron? don't watch games where he's playing or root against him. he donated every penny of the proceeds to the boys and girls club. he's got managers/agents etc. i doubt he personally came up with the idea of the tv show to announce but even if he did, big fucking deal.

[34958hq439-qjw9v5jq298v5j]

Whats wrong with twittering it? I'm not upset really but the people of Ohio are and have every right to be. In the end it's just James making a spectacle of himself, a blantant ego move that none of the players he's often compared to would even consider. You know the way ESPN is going to be about this, the Heat is going to get the Laker treatment now for the next 5-10 years, barf.

But discounting that, the more I think about his decision to join the Heat, the less sense it makes. It's okay to have two superstars on your team like Kobe and Shaq, but one has to be a center!! What do the Heat have...two forwards and a shooting guard, with no money leftover to sign a decent center? Has this model ever worked? Yes they can have the Jordan/Pippen thing going but LEBRON WOULD HAVE TO BE PIPPEN!

[34958hq439-qjw9v5jq298v5j]

Okay: more accurately, the reason why this is so despicable is because he essentially destroyed the Cavs and the fans of Cleveland - he made up his mind and did not even let his former team know until his one hour special, and by many accounts it looks like he had his mind made up weeks ago, even as he was saying things like "Cleveland is the frontrunner" on national TV. By waiting until July 8 he basically hung Cleveland out to dry since they had no idea whether they should persue one of the other big free agents. You know, the city he said he will always love. Now all the good free agents are locked up and the Cavs didn't even get a chance. Sure he has the right to do it but it's pretty damn classless and you know damn well that Jordan would never pull anything remotely like this.

[34958hq439-qjw9v5jq298v5j]

btw I don't see how you can see the boys and girls club thing as anything more than a PR move...

[Dunwho]

Let him do what he wants.... i think there will be too many egos at the Heat now that he is there... may not work.. though that is a long shot.

As far as the Cleaveland coach is concerned, shame on him for reacting like that - he is the worst loser I have ever seen and no better than the fans who need to get on with it and stop relying on one player to be successful - shit happens

[BrotherLovesDub]

Bill Simmons had a great article on this yesterday. Please refer to that.

PR move or not, he donated the money to a good spot.

[cured]

i don't get it. is this an American thing? sports stars change teams. for whatever reasons. so what.

You're right; sports stars do change teams. But basketball is a different animal than football. Basketball teams invest highly in their star player by building teams around them. Teams have to be careful and tend to stay away from ego-driven sidekicks because it can cause a lot of tension in the greedy me-first world of NBA basketball. Having two of the top 5 players choose to sign with the same team at the same time is unheard of in the NBA, even worse adding in another quality player who was also a free agent. Many view this as selling out. I kind of like the fact there will be a real "villain" team in the NBA to take some of the thunder away from the Los Angeles Lakers.

Cleveland was a sports wasteland, a city used to losing. Lebron is a hometown kid who brought a ton of promise to the team and the city. They won a lot of games in the regular season, sold out their arena every night, and James often talked about how loyal he is as a person.

Here's where it gets tricky, though. For all the moves Cleveland made trying to get players to compete for the title, none of them ever panned out. They all wilted under the pressure of the playoff spotlight. Lebron was sick of watching superior teams squeeze the life out of his Cavs and move on to titles. He was sick of watching Kobe Bryant hoist trophies while he ran a one-man show in Cleveland. The Cavaliers have $49M in salaries tied up this year, not counting Lebron and Shaquille O'Neal (whom Lebron did not like much, anyway). If Lebron stayed, they would have been the same team that would have been run out in the playoffs by Boston or Orlando the next year, and the year after, etc.

Another wrinkle is the fact Lebron, Bosh, and Wade played for team USA starting back in 2006. With the Americans starting to lose tournaments in global competitions, Team USA realized they had to really recruit the best of the best to take back the crown. That led to recruiting younger players entering their prime, who then (wouldn't you know) got really close as friends after spending entire summers together. The wheels for this move were set in motion several years ago.

Lebron, though, has shown he is a pretty big wet-flapping douchebag by having this 1 hour show dedicated to his worship. He never did get to have the recruiting experience in high school because everyone knew he was just going to end up with whatever team won the NBA lottery after his senior year. I don't know if it was him or if this was more his management team but drawing this whole process out on television instead of behind the scenes only served to twist the knife into whatever teams he spurned.

The Knicks spent two years dumping players to try and get him. Chicago has been dumping salary (along with a couple of good players). New Jersey jettisoned players who were making money and endured a 12 win season for a shot at Lebron. What makes this worse is that this really seems pre-meditated from several years back. Dan Gilbert, Cleveland's owner, never had a shot.

So now Lebron is in Miami, a team with exactly 4 players on the roster. 3 of them are going to make about $20M per year, the 4th guy is going to make $900,000. Beyond that, they are essentially going to have to pay every other player they sign to minimum contracts.

It's going to be a very strange year in the NBA. It's great for Miami and those nights around the league when Miami is the visiting team but parity in the league was just shown the door. It's not a whole lot of fun when there are only 5 or 6 teams who are going to be any good.

[34958hq439-qjw9v5jq298v5j]

Let him do what he wants.... i think there will be too many egos at the Heat now that he is there... may not work.. though that is a long shot.

As far as the Cleaveland coach is concerned, shame on him for reacting like that - he is the worst loser I have ever seen and no better than the fans who need to get on with it and stop relying on one player to be successful - shit happens

I assume you're talking about the owner...yeah the way he reacted is classless, but let me just say that Gilbert did pretty much everything he could to help out Lebron and literally saw his franchise value drop hundreds of millions overnight. You'd be upset too. "Stop relying on one player to be successful"...welcome to the NBA. That is how it works.

[cured]

One last thing: if that bit between Delonte West and Gloria James (Lebron's mom) is, in fact, true...I wouldn't blame Lebron one bit for leaving :)

http://cache1.bigcartel.com/product_images/25531322/300.jpg

[34958hq439-qjw9v5jq298v5j]

Wouldn't be so quick though cured; I can't think of a single championship team that was built this way. I wouldn't concede them the title over the Lakers just yet. The truth is that Wade cannot fulfill his full potential when he has to share balls with Lebron and vice versa. I still wonder what kind of center they are going to pick up. Obviously everyone's going to want to play there but if you can only offer a minimum contract you're not exactly going to get Shaquille O'Neal.

BLD - I thought the Simmons article was really good too. I pretty much agree with him on everything.

[cured]

I'm not conceding the title to the Lakers. It could be Boston, Orlando, Chicago. It's just LA is the current champion and they are bringing just about everyone back.

Guys I would not be surprised to see in a Miami uniform this year: Shaquille O'Neal, Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady. All of them are desperate for a ring, on the far back end of their careers, and want to win. It would be absolutely toxic to have all of them on the same team but there will be guys out there who sign at the minimum for one year and hope Miami extends them (since they can go over the cap on with their own players).

Lebron talked yesterday about not having to play as many minutes with so much talent around but he's in for a rude awakening. They aren't going to go out and annihilate teams with a roster of also-rans. They are going to be logging a lot of 4th quarter minutes.

[34958hq439-qjw9v5jq298v5j]

http://www.basketball-reference.com/blog/?p=6859

Basketball reference seems to think these three alone should be able to win a ridiculous amount of games even if their supporting cast sucks; I don't know if the stats they pulled for these three guys are really accurate since they were all accrued as the alpha guys on their respective teams, but the math currently does predict them as breaking the Bulls '96 record...

I guess for Lebron's sake this better be true - his public image is at an all-time low now, but regardless of what he pulls winning titles speaks above everything else.

[cured]

The 1996 record will not be broken by Miami, write that in stone.

they did pick up Mike Miller for 5 years/$30M so someone must have taken a pay cut for this to work.

Bill Simmons has the fallout here:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/100709

[chuck]

That Bill Simmons article and the comments after answer Eikman's question - about "why the bother" very well.

I kinda figured Wilbon and Gray were going to be pussies - but god, that was the most weak-assed interviewing I have seen in a long time. To the extent that Wilbon in particular needs to hand in his man-card, his balls and any semblance of sports integrity - and go work on the Living Channel.

Deadspin says it well.... again. (http://deadspin.com/5583298/lebron-watch-day-50-what-espn-should-have-asked-lebron-james)

LeBron Watch, Day 50: What ESPN Should Have Asked LeBron James (http://deadspin.com/5583298/lebron-watch-day-50-what-espn-should-have-asked-lebron-james)


On a night when LeBron James became the most hated man in basketball, only one network had a chance to ask him tough questions about a decision that will shape the future the NBA. And, of course, they didn't do that.

That was rich stuff on ESPN last night, classic sports journalism. Nobody asked LeBron why he quit on the court against the Celtics during the playoffs. Nobody asked about his phantom elbow injury. When he admitted to Michael Wilbon that he never bothered to let Cavs owner Dan Gilbert know that he was leaving, Wilbon let it go without a blink.

When LBJ claimed, "I feel awful that I'm leaving. I feel even worse I wasn't able to bring an NBA championship to that city, because I know they've been wanting it a long time," nobody asked why he felt that a team with more wins than any other the past two years — the team plenty of pundits picked to go all the way when the NBA playoffs began — no longer offered him the chance to win it all.

Above all, though, was the one question no one working for ESPN would even be capable of framing: Why in God's name do you need an hour of prime-time television to make this announcement?

This is what passes now for honor among thieves: One bland and gutless fraud is not going to ask anything that might make another bland and gutless fraud uncomfortable. Boo-ya! Truth is, ESPN and Nike and the major leagues are one seamless corporation, and it's hard to speak truth to power when your bunghole's stuffed with corporate cash.

For me, "The Decision" flew by; I wish LeBron had asked for two hours. I wanted to hear LeBron James refer to himself as Lebron James and a "25-year-old man" a few more times. I wanted more time to savor his bullshit about having a dream and talking to his mama in the morning. I wanted him to go another hour without a single mention of the woman he lives with, the mother of his two sons. In short, I wanted him to make as plain as possible what a grotesque and bloated punk he has become.

I also wanted more coverage of Cleveland, especially of the two squad cars parked by Nike's titanic "We Are All Witnesses" banner downtown, awaiting the pillaging horde. The horde, of course, failed to materialize. In Cleveland, it always does. The horde left Cleveland long ago for the warmer embrace of its suburbs — and along with it took all the jobs, all the good schools, and every vestige of hope.

Sports fans suffer everywhere — that is the essential nature of being a sports fan; even most fucking Yankees fans will insist on how they paid their dues back when the Bombers sucked — but in no place is the pain like Cleveland's: all-encompassing, multi-generational, redundant and unique at once.

LeBron James was the native son who understood that pain and promised to redeem it. That he tried and failed may be sad, but it's no tragedy. And that he left the way he left makes it easier to say it: Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Which brings us to Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, whose response to LeDecision — a bellicose "open letter" to Cavs fans (http://deadspin.com/5582917/cavs-owner-channels-crazy-person-some-people-think-they-should-go-to-heaven-but-not-have-to-die-to-get-there?skyline=true&s=i), and a bracing set of quotes (http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/38160678/ns/sports-nba/)about how LeBron quit in the playoffs — brought tears of gratitude to my eyes. A bum is a bum is a bum. LeBron's a bum — and Dan Gilbert says so. And promises that the Cavs will win a title before the Heat do.

He'll be subject to derision aplenty for it — and no doubt a talking-to from NBA Commissar David Stern — but Gilbert's yowl is exactly what Cleveland fans want and need to hear today. A calling-out. A yowl of rage. A blood oath. It's great stuff, and I'm grateful to him for it.

* * *

Scott Raab, author of Real Hollywood Stories (http://www.amazon.com/Real-Hollywood-Stories-Celebrities-list/dp/0977614255?tag=gmgamzn-20), is a Cleveland State University graduate and has been an Esquire Writer at Large since 1997

[Eikman]

http://9gag.com/photo/28790_540.jpg

[cured]

Das Kraken Orakle has spoken again!!!

[chuck]

Bill Simmons prediction: Lebron James - 2014 - New Jersey Nets.

Video here. (http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=5374659)