LeBron James concluded his personal free-agent summit on Saturday by hearing presentations from the Cleveland Cavaliers, whose pitch focused on his familiarity with their franchise and tickled his sense of humor, and the Chicago Bulls, the last team and the one believed to have the best chance of stealing him from Ohio.
Article Source: NBC Sports
from:NBC SportsCavaliers selling LeBron on staying home
Seeded on Sat Jul 3, 2010 4:01 PM EDT (NBC Sports)
— Filed under: sports, music, nba, basketball, lebron-james, mens-basketball, jay-z, michael-bloomberg, chris-paul, avery-johnson, byron-scott, mikhail-prokhorov, donnie-walsh, allan-houston
Leave a Comment:
Saving...
If you read the tea leaves, Cavs fans, you'd egg the guy's house and move on to another savior. Frankly, I think his ego is getting in the way when he runs around the Cleveland area to get the fans to publicly kiss his bottom when they've been kissing it since 2003. He knows how they feel about him and he knows that they've supported him and yet, he seems to have more ego than God to want to get them to show it.
Second, if he was signing with the Cavs, he should have told them before free agency started and then went out and started recruiting free agents to go to Cleveland to bolster their chances of winning a title. I think that he may be headed for Chicago, which would give him the best chance at a title outside of the Cavs and it will be all about the money if he goes to New York or New Jersey because they're more than two max players away from winning the championship, no matter what people think.
Third, I agree with Cleveland if they choose to let him go and not work out a sign-and-trade. Look, you can say that they're only hurting themselves but all they're going to get are a bunch of expiring contracts and no real value while he walks away with a max contract. They mortgaged their future over the past 3 years to get him the players that were supposed help the team get over the top and unless his suitors are willing to give up REAL value in players and draft choices, they're better off letting him go and not doing him the favor of giving him the best contract possible.
Finally, for all the comparisons with Jordan over the years, Michael NEVER had a team that led the NBA in wins that didn't win the NBA title while James has had it happen twice. You can make fun of James' cast but face it, they are better than people give them credit for and after every one of the transactions that brought these guys in, Cavs fans were in agreement that the trades or signings were getting them closer to the championship that they felt LeBron was touched by God to bring to them. Didn't happen and while his cast mates will get the blame, James will come out unscathed. He is the Wilt Chamberlain of his era and don't be surprised if his fans throw his teammates under the bus if he retires without a championship, as Wilt's fans were prepared to do until the 76ers put together that magical season.
agree....he should be signed by now, so both lebron and cleveland can see what supporting cast is available to bring on board...otherwise,free agency and signing period will be near end with slim pickings from the left overs.....at this point you would not want to sign with cleveland not knowing if lebron is staying....
Should Lebron be even considered in the discussion as the greatest? I'm a chicago native but I'm not even sure if I want him in my city. You can't deny an 82 game stretch, but he might be what we call a choke artist. I'm just not sold on the "King" part yet
An avid sports fan...makes for a good diversion in this screwed-up country/world. BUT, I'm having a hard time patronizing these athletes who make more money in their obscene contracts than some third world countries' GNP. You've got jocks who can barely speak proper English playing a kid's game, getting paid 1,000 times more a year than the freakin President, while the huddled masses have no jobs or have seen their pay cut dramatically. For the life of me, I don't see how or why people flock to games paying insane ticket prices to support these guys' lavish lifestyle. Just for bouncing a ball, playing catch on green grass, throwing a block on a power sweep, slap shot from the blue line, chipping in from 20ft off the green. Not envious or jealous, I very much respect the talent and years of hard work to get where they are now...but, am I the only one who thinks salaries and contracts are WAY out of proportion from the regular guy who works 50-60+ hrs a week? Case in point; used to go to a lot of Braves games (back when I had a job),..years ago read where Chipper Jones signed a contract and his yearly salary worked out to $67,500 PER AT BAT! That equaled what I made in a year working 50+ hours a week! Then, I"m expected to take a family of four to a game $$$$$, crappy hot dogs, warm beer, to see a bunch of men play a kids' game. 3hr work days, half the time sitting on the bench eating pistachios. Just didn't feel right.
Don't blame the players or their agents negotiating for every dime they can get, I blame the fans for continuing to feed the coffers. I mean come on, you have doctors who spent 8-10-12 years to perform a hypocratic oath...patients' lives on the line, and they don't make anywhere need this kind of dough. You've got men/women in uniform putting their life on the line and their yearly income might equal one day's pay of some of these mega-stars. Something is way out of whack. Yes, it is the owners who perpetuate this. Stienbrenner comes to mind with the Yankee's insane payroll. I guess we should stop calling it a sport and call it for what it is...a business/marketing.
I can't help but laugh at how you believe that ticket prices have anything to do with what these guys make. When it comes to the NBA and the NFL, TELEVISION pays the bills and what YOU are paying in excess for is the OWNER'S lavish lifestyle. The average NFL team suckled from a $230 mil revenue teat last year and they pad out $140 million in players salaries and benefits. Television paid for 90% of that and owners got extra revenue from the palaces that they got others to build for them. Dallas, for example, brings in over $200 MILLION in ticket sales for their games in their new stadium and the players' salaries didn't go up last year BUT ticket prices nearly doubled from $86 to $159. Besides that, Jerry Jones also hosted several college football games (including bowl game), an NBA All-Star game, a high profile boxing match and several other events. All he paid was $2.5 million in rent and because of the deal with the city, he pays NO TAXES and just gives them the use of a luxury box. You can blame a guy like Tony Romo for the high priced tickets but it's really Jerry Jones who's the greedy bastage..
LeBron James makes a lot of money BUT he's actually makes almost as much in endorsements and he's done very well with his outside businesses. The funny thing is that for all the noise you make about how much these guys make, it pales in comparison to how much some TV and movie stars make WITHOUT their endorsements. Hell, Oprah would go into a big depression if she made as little in actual salary as James made last year.Some idiot talked about how Bridget Moynahan was a gold digger and she was after Tom Brady's money and yet, both she and his current squeeze, Gisele, both make far more than he does in a year.
BTW, Sterno keeps saying that the NBA lost $400 million last year and YET, here are the teams throwing money around to guys that aren't even stars like Darko and the numbers for James, Wade and Bosh are going to be staggering. Well, Davo, which is it - massive losses or your continued lies in order to justify locking the players out again?
LeBron is a punk. Always will be.
ESPN get your act together.
Punk. Punk Punk. Can't emphazie it more.
Ohio is the least of rest of the world.
The Beev echoes the sentiment I've had for years. Money has ruined sports for everyone except two groups: 1) the athletes themselves, and 2) the idiots still willing to support it with their hard-earned money. That's why college sports, in my opinion, is so far superior in every aspect. Kids playing kid games for the joy of it. Sure, they're trying to get to the play-for-pay ranks, but even they acknowledge only a chosen few will. Like the commercial says, "most of (them) will be going pro in something other than sports".
I'd love to see fans boycott professional sports until you can take your family to a game/event for less than a mortgage payment. Unfortunately, it'll never happen...
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Surely there is more important news than following a egotistical manchild who plays a child's game in his quest for 10s of millions of dollars! If he wants a championship, his best bet may be to stay in Cleveland. Of course, if he's plotting with other top free agents to join a team together and win a title, that is another story! We'll see.
Short and simple. Please stay, we love you.
Dave; I hear ya man. My 2nd son is going to UGA this fall. Even college has gotten absurd. SEC football is a cottage industry that sometimes super-cedes education...it is a cash cow, the whole school revolves around Sanford Stadium. Case in point; an alumni pays astronomical $$$$$$ to retain season tickets..first you pay thousands up front and STILL pay ticket prices to a game. Start up in the nose bleed sections and work you way down if you've got the big bucks. I guess you've got to go all the way back to Little league and Pee Wee football to experience sports just for the love of it cuz even high school sports (ask any Texan...they go nuts over high school football)... has become a business unto itself. For me, I'm stuck watching the games at home due to finances, but you know what?...It's the best, own bathroom, ice cold beers in fridge, replays, and IN-YOUR-FACE action on the big screen.
Which proves the point that it's the greedy bastage owner (in this case, a college) and NOT the player, who is driving up the prices. Every time I hear someone talk about how greedy players are killing ticket prices, I can't help but think of the situation that you're talking about as an example of why that isn't true. We all know that the players SHOULDN'T be getting money from the school, except for scholarship money so there's no way that they're getting any of that money.
It's time for LaBron to get familiar with a new team and a new town. He may never win a championship ring in Cleveland because they simply do not have the supporting cast of players and may never. But if he joins Rose and Noah in Chicago he may win several rings over the next several years. He's got the best chance to win in Chicago.
Chicago fans will make him feel at home and they appreciate a winner!