| 12 July 2010
When I went to schedule a weekend getaway a few months ago, I figured early July would be the perfect time to do it, right in the lull between the NBA Finals and the start of football talk. Little did I know that by booking my vacation for July 9, I’d be leaving in the midst of one of the five biggest sports stories of my lifetime.But of course that’s exactly what happened, and there I was at an Atlantic City sports bar Friday night, watching LeBron James, a player synonymous with one organization as much as any in sports, staring back at me in an ugly, white Heat jersey. I’m not even a Cavaliers fan, but the whole thing seemed like a bad dream.
Anyway, since I wrote an article LeBron leaving Cleveland for Miami last Friday, a lot has changed. Some good. Some bad. Most insignificant to the general public.
Without getting into too much of what I already wrote or too much of what I can’t possibly project (Like the economic impact of LeBron’s departure from Cleveland), here are some closing thoughts on the whole LeBron fiasco of the last couple days. Now hopefully the next time we discuss James, it’ll be for something he actually does on the court, rather than all of his actions of it.
A. I need to give my buddy Sam credit for pointing this out, but the telling thing about Friday night’s introduction was the way Miami’s “Three Amigos,” were positioned on the makeshift stage in the American Airlines Arena. LeBron to the left. Chris Bosh to the right. Dwyane Wade in the middle. It might have meant nothing, but it was symbolic of everything.
Look, I’m not going to get too deep into the dynamics of what this signing means, because I already did that Friday. Just know this: To a degree we need to give LeBron credit. After all, he did leave money on the table to go to the place that puts him in the best position to win championships. How many athletes would have done that? Five percent? Less? (Then again, the detractors would also say, “Yeah, but how many players make the money off the court LeBron does? He can afford to take less. Good point.)
At the same time though, this will never, ever truly be LeBron’s team with Wade there, which was symbolized with LeBron sitting to his left on Friday night. Had LeBron signed anywhere else, that wouldn’t have been the case. There’s no way he’s sitting to the left of Derrick Rose in an introductory press conference in Chicago or Amare Stoudemire in New York. He'd be front and center. He’d been the undisputed man. Not so much in Miami.
Maybe that’s how LeBron wanted it, I don’t know. Maybe he didn’t want to have to be great every night like he had been for the past seven years in Cleveland. That I don’t know either.
But I do know he’s in a no-win situation in Miami. If he wins titles, he’ll never get the full credit that he’ll probably deserve. And if he loses, well who do you think is going to get blamed? It won’t be Wade. I’ll tell you that much.
In this case, LeBron is going to reap what he sewed.
B. The comparison I’ve most heard in this whole mess is that LeBron will always be the A-Rod to Wade’s Derek Jeter. He might be the best player, but this will always be Wade’s team. And while think it’s a fair analogy, it’s missing a bigger point, because baseball is a much, much different game.
Baseball is almost purely statistically driven. We know what the home run record is. We know what the single season home run record is. We know that if a pitcher gets to 300 wins he’ll almost certainly get into the Hall of Fame. Same with a batter who gets 3,000 hits.
While you need World Series rings to cap a nice career in baseball, they’re not the be all end all. There are too many other factors that determine winning, that are beyond a player- even a great one’s- control. Who are his teammates? Who is his manager? What if no one gets on ahead of him? What if no one can drive in runs behind him? What if his starting rotation is lousy? What about a shaky bullpen?
My point in all this, is that by winning just one World Series, Alex Rodriguez has basically completed his baseball resume (Another good point brought up from my buddy Sam). From now, we’ll judge A-Rod’s greatness by his pursuit of Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Barry Bonds’ stats. Not whether his total World Series rings match up with them.
Statistics in basketball are different. Sure they mean a lot, but don’t provide nearly the same historical context as they do in baseball. Quickly, who are the top-five scorers all-time in the history of the NBA history? How about the top-five rebounders? How many 25,000 point scorers are there? I’m as big of a sports fan as anyone I know, and can’t answer those questions off the top of my head.
In basketball, stats don’t determine greatness as much as winning does. Historians measure your winning on three different levels.
1. If you’ve never won: Sorry Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing and Charles Barkley. The truth hurts.
2. If you have won, how many times: As I mentioned the other day, Jordan got six, Magic and Kareem five. Kobe five at counting. LeBron at last count was at zero.
3. Once you start winning, how did you do it?: I got into this too on Friday, so I’ll try to make this brief.
To me, it seems like LeBron thinks that he can go down as one of the best ever just by piling up titles. But the truth is, it’s just not that easy. Whether he understands it or not, there will always be a taint to his legacy because he chose to go to Miami- to Dwyane Wade’s team- to do it.
And if you don’t think that’s important, just look at Kobe Bryant.
In his first three NBA Championship seasons, he averaged 21.1, 29.4 and 26.6 points per game in the playoffs. Yet, despite those numbers, those Lakers teams were always considered, “Shaq’s team.”
It wasn’t until Kobe won these last two titles without Shaq that NBA historians (And believe me, I’m not one of them, just a fan), put Kobe amongst the all-time greats, right on par with Oscar Robertson, Jerry West and others. To get everyone’s ultimate respect, Kobe had to prove he could do it without Shaq.
So for those of you who think that it doesn’t matter how LeBron gets his titles, just that he does, look at contemporary history.
It’s not as easy as you’d think.
C. Speaking of Kobe Bryant, I can’t believe I forgot to mention this the other day.
Remember how I said that LeBron’s decision was so stunning because none of the uber-competitive superstars of the past would have made the same decision he did? How Jordan would have never elected to go to Boston to play with Bird, over sticking it out in Chicago and trying to win there?
Well how could I forget Kobe? To his credit (or maybe fault), this guy was so disgustingly, overwhelmingly, super competitive that after the 2004 season he ran the best big man of his generation, and the greatest coach of all-time out of town. At a similar point in his career to where LeBron is right now, Kobe said, “I don’t need Shaq or Phil. I’m gonna do this on my own.”
I’m not saying one was right and one was wrong, because to a degree they were probably both right and wrong in their own ways. And I’m definitely saying that Kobe hasn’t had a whole lot of help these last couple years, especially from Pau Gasol.
All I am saying is that Kobe would have never, ever, in a million years made the choice that LeBron made Thursday night. And we need to give him credit for that.
D. With all that, here’s the $64,000 question. If you’re not a Heat or Lakers fan, who the heck are you supposed to root for if they meet in the NBA Finals next year?
The thought alone is making me sick to my stomach… How soon until football season again?
E. I mentioned this Friday, but I’ll say it again: Anyone who doesn’t think the Heat are the favorite going into this season- at least to win the Eastern Conference- is an idiot. I’m sorry, but it’s true.
Forget that LeBron singlehandedly led Cleveland to 60 plus wins each of the last two years. Forget the fact that Dwyane Wade has previously had a supporting cast in Miami that could be described as “mediocre,” at best and “a disgrace to the game of basketball,” at worst, and still got them the No. 5 in the East. Forget the fact that Chris Bosh…well, never mind, he never really did anything in Toronto. But you get the point, forget all that. Because the question is, who exactly is going to beat these guys in the East?
Orlando? Please, please, please don’t give me Orlando. We saw what they were in the playoffs last year, a team which is phenomenal when they’re up by 10, but heartless when someone stands up to them and punches them in the mouth. Against the Celtics the Magic spent more time complaining about the refereeing the first three games than they did worrying about anything basketball related. We saw that Vince Carter and Rashard Lewis are softer than the most expensive mattresses at Sleepy’s and that Dwight Howard’s post game is still far from being anything more than powerful dunks. We saw that if you single cover Howard and take away the 3-point shot, Orlando is beatable.
As for the Celtics, well remember that no one… NO ONE… had them doing any damage in the playoffs this past season. Can we really expect them to strike lightning in a bottle twice? Especially when everyone is going to be a year older, Kendrick Perkins is going to miss half the season with a knee injury and they just lost their best perimeter defender in Tony Allen to free agency. Plus we already saw how worn down Paul Pierce was from guarding LeBron for six games in these last playoffs and how it affected his offense. Now they’ve got to worry about Wade and Bosh too?
As for the rest of the field: Chicago is too young, Atlanta’s too loony, and Cleveland, well I won’t go there.
So if you want to despise the Heat next year, that’s fine, I’ll be right there with you. Just don’t be ignorant. They’ll be the favorites come the fall.
F. The only point of contention I’ll make to the people who think the Heat won't be favored next year, is that looking around the rest of free agency, who is left that can help them?
All the really big names are gone, as are the next set of guys like Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. Beyond them, the second-tier, players who can start or come off the bench as key role players, are all but gone too. Raymond Felton, J.J. Redick, Jordan Farmar, Tony Allen all could have helped, but have signed on with other teams. Even Udonis Haslem, a career-long member of the Heat- who would be a perfect fit with the current Miami roster of three by the way- seems to be headed to Dallas.
So besides Derek Fisher, who’s left that can contribute, and is willing to take a pay cut to come to Miami? Guys like Kyle Lowry and Nate Robinson are good, and would serve a purpose, but they aren’t making LeBron’s money off the court. Are we really thinking they’re going to take less money to make a run at a title? Especially with the new collective bargaining agreement coming up?
I don't think so. Meaning that waiting to see how Miami fills out this roster may be the most intriguing part of the rest of this off-season.
G. I wanted to mention this, because I haven’t heard anyone else say it. As recently as a few weeks ago, everyone seemed to think that LeBron was headed to the Bulls to play with Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, and maybe bring along Bosh or Amare Stoudemire with him. But did anyone else think that LeBron signing with Miami instead of Chicago felt like his way of saying, “You know what, Kobe’s had his time. The Celtics had theirs. So did Tim Duncan. This is our time now.”
Not to say that Derrick Rose won’t be a really good player, but the guy has made one All-Star team and already been banged up quite a bit in his two years in the league. Anyone else think that LeBron was done projecting what a guy might turn into, or how good he might be, just to go with the safest bet?
H. Finally, I’m going to close with my thoughts on Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert, and the comments he made on Thursday night after LeBron’s announcement. Because despite the way the national media has portrayed him, I kind of like what he said and more importantly, what he did.
Now could Gilbert have handled the situation a bit more maturely? Of course. Was some of his language and terminology uncalled for? I’d say so. But if Gilbert had come out with one of these canned, clichéd, “We want to thank LeBron for his time here,” responses, wouldn’t that have made things even worse in Cleveland?
More importantly, LeBron’s announcement Thursday night was a turning point for this franchise and city as a whole. For better or worse things will never be the same. Thursday night, Cleveland needed a voice of reason and strength and got one in Gilbert’s. He restored order in what was quickly becoming the NBA’s version of the wild, wild West.
Now I’m not dumb enough to think that Gilbert can follow through on everything he said in his public statement, mainly that the Cavaliers will win a title before LeBron and the Heat do. Then again, I don’t think that anyone in Cleveland really believes it either.
At the same time though, in an era where too many guys view owning a team as a business investment and a bottom line (See Robert Sarver in Phoenix, Donald Sterling with the Clippers, or basically 75 percent of Major League Baseball ownership), wasn’t it nice to see an owner stepping up and saying, “I don’t care what just happened. I’m going to continue to do whatever it takes to put out a championship caliber team.” Isn’t that all a fan base can ask for? And for all the fans nationwide who ripped Gilbert, don’t you wish your owner would say the same?
Again, Gilbert could have gotten his point across in a more adult, dignified tone.
But at the same time his message was clear: LeBron James might not be in Cleveland anymore, but the Cavaliers still are.
Let’s move on.
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