[Stojakovicfor3Participant]

LeBron’s a spoiled man. You didn’t see Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer, Amare Stoudemire, or anyone else have an hour long special on where they want to go. And LeBron says he wants to play for a team that has the best chance of winning a championship and it seems like he’s not taking any blame for the losses against Orlando and Boston the past 2 years. He’s making it seem like he’s the whole team and the rest of the players suck. He had 2 bad performances in games 5 and 6 against Boston last year and never ever said that he could have played better and he has to take some of the blame. David Lee played for a bad team his whole career and he just got traded to a worse team and he’s not complaining. Steve Nash has more playoff experience than any player who has not made it to the finals and he lost Amare, Shaq, Joe Johnson, Boris Diaw, Shawn Marion, and Raja Bell who were all great players that Steve has seen leave in the past couple of years and he’s not complaining or asking for a trade, he will adjust to his new team and move on.

[Malik-UniversalParticipant]

yeah man i couldnt agree more, HE DITCHED A WHOLE STATE TO PLAY WITH HIS FRIENDS, WHO DOES THAT??? LEBRON THIS ISNT HIGHSCHOOL!!!

[adamsc14Participant]

Lebron does not care about his legacy more then he cares about winning i guess. If he wants a better chance to win he picked the right choice.

[LawDeeZeeParticipant]

best chance to win would have been in chicago i still think …

rose
lebron
deng
boozer
noah

… that’s a lineup that wins championships … we’ll see what they put around those guys in miami, but I don’t think it’s a guarantee, at least certainly not next year .. probably at least one over the course of their contracts though

[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

But, honestly, that is what ESPN does, they are the sports MTV and they try to fake drama and create reality television. I am sure the Home & Garden channel might have done a LeBron James hour long special as well, but for some reason ESPN decided to run with it. But you know what? How was what LeBron did different from a press conference, other than the fact that he wanted it to come from his lips. All of these guys had choices, everyone who stayed made their team happy, everyone who left disappointed their teams, it is the cycle. The best thing to do? Leave with your head up, wish who ever left the best, and work hard to beat them. You know what is as egotistical and narcissistic as what LeBron might have done? Writing a letter giving a personal guarantee of a championship before LeBron ever wins one. Writing that he owes the city of Cleveland, who were lucky enough to have him fall into their laps in the first place. Sports is a lot about luck, Kobe was lucky to find Shaq and than get Pau Gasol for peanuts, Michael Jordan was lucky to be in a situation where he had a wonderful complimentary sidekick and a grinding and tough supporting cast, with guys such as John Paxson, Steve Kerr and even Bill Wennington (who scored the game winner in MJ’s famous double knickel game vs. the Knicks) to hit big shots along the way. Hell, Michael was even lucky enough that people were so in awe of him that they let his famous last shot as a Bull become an iconic image rather than an offensive foul (Don’t get me wrong, I love that shot, but it is the perfect symbol of Michael Jordan being the psychotic competitor who would go to any lengths to win).

I read Bill Simmons ridiculous column on LeBron and his whole thing about his insecurity and his copping out. I too struggled with this decision, I thought it would be great if he took it on himself and competed against some of the other super teams being built by this free agency. But, my huge problem with Bill, and all of his slanted views on NBA history, is that the league has been dominated by super teams for a long time. The NBA play-offs used to be 4 teams! The Celtics had a number of the best players in the league and their sixth man from a number of his 8 championship teams is still the Celtics All-Time leading scorer! Yes, the Celtcis have tradition, yes, New York has history (the highlights include Ozzie Schechtman scoring the first NBA basket, Willis walking onto the court in Game 7, another ring in 1973, drafting the anti-championship Bill Russell, Larry Johnson’s 4 point play, Michael Jordan thoroughly owning them and the funny things written on Anthony Mason’s head) and yes, the Bulls had a team that was fairly unstoppable in an era where their were really no super teams. I am sorry, the aging Lakers, the aging Blazers, the thrown together Suns were not super teams. Also, the big 3 of Stockton, Malone and….Hornacek? Even Seattle, with Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton, were either of those guys even in the same league as Scottie Pippen at the time? All odds point to, no (maybe Gary, but the underlying thing was no one was ever even close to Michael). Chicago would be a nice team for LeBron, and obviously has history, but at the same time, what loyalty did Chicago show its players and coaches? As rad as Joakim Noah may be as a prospective defensive and rebounding Center, would you rather have him or Chris Bosh? Also, remember how loyal Carlos Boozer was to Cleveland? Oh, right, well, it would be great to play with him again! What is loyalty in sports? Bottom line, loyalty is all well and good, under one condition. You are winning, and I do not just mean games, but RINGS. Why wouldn’t Kobe be loyal to the Lakers who had the best Center in the league and than eventually traded him for pieces that put together another championship team? Why would Michael leave the Bulls after they still played well without him and they were winning rings? But, why did KG want to leave Minnesota? If the Celtics had a team without two other HOF talents, my guess is that trade would not have gone down on the Big Tickets watch. The finally loyalty, Tim Duncan to the Spurs, well, they are the Spurs, they churn out GM’s and have created a culture of winning since Duncan was drafted and paired with David Robinson.

So, if loyalty is created through winning, than why can this tradition not be created, as it was in San Antonio and Chicago? Neither had won rings before its marquee players got there. Why can’t Miami create it as well? Michael Jordan became cemented as the greatest individual player to ever play the game due to his dominance and the style in which he won championships. But, I am sure Bill Simmons must know, who is the single greatest winner in professional basketball history? Well, that would be Bill Russell. Now, as a competitor, maybe you want to go down for the individual accomplishment, maybe you love being that guy who has to carry a team on his back to win championships, but in this league, it just does not happen anymore. The Lakers and other contenders have too many pieces, weaknesses are exposed and the blame always falls on the individual, even if all of his teammates underachieve (sound familiar?). Now, a lot of people were pissed at LeBron changing his jersey number and trying to get 23 retired amongst the league. People thought it was some Illuminati symbol, they said it was ridiculous that LeBron be calling for the jersey retirement whatsoever and they were perplexed at 6. Well, LeBron may not have been around as long as Bill Simmons, but I think he has read up on NBA history Bill. The first thing I thought of when LeBron changed his number to 6 was of the thing everyone should have thought of, Bill Russell. Granted, LeBron has no chance of equalling Russell as the consummate winner in pro sports history, even if he wins 12 rings, he still would not have won championships 84.6% of his career. But, will he give himself a chance to win numerous championships? When you are as talented as LeBron, people, including myself, maybe wanted him to take a run at unmatched individual greatness, which would include maybe the All-Time leader in PPG, Kareem’s scoring record, a number of MVP’s and to top it off, some huge play-off performances that garnered him a number of rings that were “his.” However, by looking for 23 it is a symbol of LeBron’s respect for Michael Jordan in another aspect, to win at all costs. Competitive basketball players who say to themselves that they would not take a chance to play on a team that Miami assembled are kidding. If Miami does not win, they have a point, but if they do what is looking quite possible, this team will be a juggernaut. Every team will be gunning for them every night, teams will build themselves to take them down, just like the Lakers and the Celtics the past few years. Why would we not want to set a high bar for competition? When Michael won 6 rings, did we say, “well, the Bulls are going to win, who needs to watch?” No, our eyes were glued to every moment and we either wanted to see Michael do something incredible and having the Bulls win or cheering for his comeuppance. That era is going to be upon us again, but with more players in the puzzle and with something we have never seen before. Dwyane Wade and LeBron James may never be Michael Jordan, but they could go down as the greatest duo to ever play together in the NBA. LeBron may not be Bill Russell, but he and the other two players show a huge desire to establish a dominant winning franchise by doing this, which barring injuries could lead them to a fist full of rings. I challenge people to say they would not want that. Some people call it a cop out that LeBron does this to take his best shot at winning, I say he is doing something that myself and a number of others have wanted to see and never thought would happen. He is being the anti-MJ and the anti-Kobe, he is giving us a new plot to the NBA that has been the Never Ending Story for about 15 years with Michael’s utter dominance. LeBron James will more than likely retire without having been seen as the greatest to ever play the game, a title that is I believe almost impossible to claim, but he has a chance to leave as one hell of a winner. Guys like Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Russell, all top 10 players of All-Time on anyones list, all of those guys would do anything it tookto win. My guess is if Mike and Kobe were saddled with the Cavs, they might not think this is such a bad deal. Hate it or love it, you can at least say it is different and that LeBron James is writing his own story. He is not Michael Jordan, he is not Bill Russell, but hell if he is not going to be a great player on a great team for a number of years. Call is Showtime, call it Bull$hit, but the Heat are going to be damn fun to watch, just as much fun to play on and they will be in the thick of things for as long as these guys are signed there.

[Toronto16Participant]

Like adsmsc said, he doesn’t carea about his legacy. He just knows more titles mean more money, endorsements, etc. And thats all he cares about. Marketing himself.

[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

If LeBron cares about titles as a form of marketing, than he knows something about marketing. But do titles not create legacy? Would Larry and Magic be themselves without titles? Larry played on a team where Cedric Maxwell won Finals MVP and had a number of teammates in the 50 greatest players (but since they were traded for and not signed in Free Agency, that makes it acceptable?) and Magic won 3 Finals MVP’s, but Jabbar and Worthy each won one also. Those guys legacies turned out just fine. LeBron has accomplished a lot in 7 years, and I do not think his legacy is going to diminish after this decision, only strengthen in contingency with winning.

[D_LegendParticipant]

LeBron realized what a lot of fans and even nba players fail to…….. You can not win a ring alone. One player can only carry a team but so far. Why should he stay in Cleveland when in his heart he knew that he wouldn’t get the players he needed to win there? I commend him for the courage it took to leave and for being smart enough to realize that these three guys put their ego’s aside and get together in their primes it might be one of the greatest teams ever assembled

[Author]

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