DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum "KNICKS FORWARD LEBRON JAMES...

...and his current Cavaliers teammates..."

I CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT I JUST HEARD ON SPORTSCENTER.

I can't believe the unprofessionalism ESPN is showing...just hand LeBron to New York why don't ya.

I swear if he leaves I will burn every piece of LeBron merch I own...

But this is beyond that. This is all about irresponsible journalism. I nearly spit my Chex Mix all over my TV when I heard that Sportscenter hack say that. Just crap on my city more why don't ya, Bristol? What else can you do to ensure that my city dies beyond killing its national image?

ESPN hates Cleveland!!

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I can't believe the unprofessionalism ESPN is showing

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What did they do?

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This is all about irresponsible journalism.

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Uh, what was?

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I nearly spit my Chex Mix all over my TV when I heard that Sportscenter hack say that.

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Uh. Say What?

I know this is a difficult time for you, but please try to actually include the comments that you find insulting so other folks understand what you are talking about, and can give a rational response.

Just for future posts.

Thank you.

My e-mail to ESPN...

How dare one of your anchors call LeBron James "Knicks Forward LeBron James, and his Cavalier teammates." That is a TOTAL SLAP IN THE FACE to Clevelanders everywhere. Look, I know your network couldn't care less about my city. You slapped us in the face when we beat the Yankees in 07, choosing to focus on midges rather than Fausto Carmona pitching a gem. You constantly slam Ohio State and the Browns, but this is the last straw. You showed ZERO OBEJECTIVITY AND CLASS by that comment.

It's in the title and the first line of my post. The Sportscenter anchor said "Knicks Forward LeBron James...and his current Cavaliers teammates."

You mean along the lines of:

KNICKS FORWARD LEBRON JAMES (the thread title)

...and his current Cavaliers teammates (first line of the post)

So yes, he did say what ESPN said in his post. It was just a bit divided.

If he does leave...I hope this city makes him Public Enemy #2 behind Art Modell. I'm on record saying I will burn my 5 pairs of LeBrons, my LeBron headband and LeBron jersey.

Joe Jurevicius understands us. You don't leave us when we need you. You just...don't do it. I wish this city had more JJ's.

I'll say this, if he delivers a championship in the next 2 seasons, I won't lose any sleep if he leaves. he would've done his job in my opinion by bringing a championship to c-town. I think he has a great opportunity to win multiple championships in c-town. ferry is building a quality team around James. he won't get that in new york or brooklyn right away. plus we could get one of those prize free agents like amare, bosh, whomever in 2010. I believe Z and Big Ben's contracts will be off the books by then. I just couldn't imagine, Lebron and Bosh, or Lebron and Amare. We could have a lakers- Cavs finals multiple times similar to the lakers-celtics of the 80's, the way these teams are being built.If James is about winning championships the cavs are the place for James to be.

just think how funny it'd be if he stayed in cleveland after 2010...

espn, yahoo sports, the new york times, they'd all look like complete morons.

the knicks may have cleared some space, but they still haven't proven they are winners.

and i love hearing about how mike dantoni would be lebron's coach of choice.

really? how many championships has he won? strike that. how many times has he been to the finals?

sorry. you don't win championships when you openly tell your players that they don't have to work hard on defense. not when there are teams like san antonio, boston, detroit, and yes, cleveland.

it's a new team every week. lebron to new jersey, lebron to greece, lebron to detroit, lebron to the new york bricks.

oooooh, they cleared cap space. yeah?

so did the cavs.

I'm a Knicks fan. We certainly could use him.

The night the Knicks made that big trade, whoever was anchoring SportsCenter said "Cavs and Raptors fans, enjoy Lebron and Chris Bosh while you can, because in 2010 they'll both be playing for the Knicks." I just LOLed.

it's painfully obvious that espn and the national media need lebron in new york more than lebron needs himself there.

i've never seen this with any other player.

lebron has played the whole thing masterfully too, giving bs political responses, and subtly spoon feeding them what they wanna hear.

but again, anyone who actually reads into what lebron says has no clue how it works.

and if lebron is doing this to keep pressure on the cavs, then we should all be thanking him.

If the Knicks were any good right now, I wonder would there still be this discussion. Because, they didn't do this with any other superstar. But the Knicks were good, when Jordan was in Chicago, which was NOT a basketball superpower before he arrived, and hasn't been since.

It's quite sad actually. I have no idea how this thing will play out, but I'll hold out hope that I can see Jalen Rose eat his words on national TV.

Here's an article from...ESPN...discussing how the Knicks may be going after more than LeBron.

1. How LeBron Could Kick Off Knicks' Shopping Spree
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com

Just LeBron James?

Why do the New York Knickerbockers have to stop there?

The Knicks made two payroll-slashing trades Friday that suggest they have far more grandiose ideas about the delicious free-agent summer of 2010. When I ran this past a few people who would know how they think in the executive suite at Madison Square Garden, I wasn't exactly dissuaded from the following claim: Donnie Walsh and Mike D'Antoni are brazen enough to think they'll have enough flexibility to try to sign LeBron, Chris Bosh and Steve Nash for Nash's last hurrah when the bidding opens, oh, about 586 days from now.

And here's the thing: That might just be mathematically possible now.

It is often said that those of us in the media tend to get a bit hysterical when we start talking about the NBA signing frenzy that looms in July of Twenty-Ten. To which I can only say: Us?

We're really only taking our cue from the teams we cover.

Seriously. Thanksgiving 2008 is still days away, and we've already seen Detroit and New York combine to push through three league-shaking trades, each of them with a run at LeBron that can't start for more than 19 months accounting for most, if not all, of the trigger-pulling motivation.

No one seems terribly interested in that famed cautionary tale which reminds us that Shaquille O'Neal is the only max-contract free agent in league history to switch teams and win a championship, racking up three rings with the Lakers (and one after being traded to the Heat) after leaving the Magic.

As noted in our LeBron opus earlier this month, no fewer than 15 teams -- including the Cavaliers -- awoke Friday morning with less than $40 million in committed salaries on their books for 2010-11, hoarding salary-cap space for a free-agent class so tantalizing that we scarcely talk about folks such as Amare Stoudemire, Dirk Nowitzki and Joe Johnson.

Yet that list has a new A-Team after the Knicks managed to shed their long-term salary obligations to Zach Randolph and Jamal Crawford in a matter of hours in separate deals with the Clippers and Warriors. Doing what Walsh has vowed to do since he arrived -- but doing it faster than even he could have dreamed -- leaves only four current players on the payroll beyond 2009-10: Eddy Curry (scheduled to earn $11.3 million in 2010-11), Jared Jeffries (unlikely to opt out of the $6.8 million he's due), Danilo Gallinari ($3.3 million) and Wilson Chandler ($2.1 million).

So …

Although it'll take ongoing personnel diligence to keep that many spots open for the summer of truth, starting with the decisions that certainly have to be made soon on extensions for David Lee and Nate Robinson, it's suddenly presumed all over the league that the team in the most irresistible market to James will look even more attractive than expected with room to sign two elite players ... just as it is instantly presumed that the Knicks will have too much money, too much big-city appeal and too much fun potential with D'Antoni coaching not to come away with top talent no matter what happens with James.

"Imagine how sick Danny Ferry must be feeling right now," one top executive said, referring to the Cavaliers' GM.

Imagine, too, what happens if the Knicks find a way to move Curry in the next 19 months and create more flexibility.

Remember that warning we ran last week from our Team USA insider about the likes of James and Bosh or Bosh and Dwyane Wade wanting to play together full-time? "All of these players," he said, "want to play with each other in the NBA."

It shouldn't be too difficult, if Curry goes, to envision D'Antoni urging Nash to finish his career on a short-term deal as a Stockton-esque setup sage for the young guns who plays less than 30 minutes a night in a city where the 34-year-old spends his offseasons playing soccer. Especially if the Suns don't start to rediscover the fun that clearly has drained out of some Phoenix faces since D'Antoni left.

I haven't budged from the belief that it's still way too soon for anyone to state with certainty that James is leaving Cleveland, or that Cleveland has lost its status as the favorite to keep him, even with teams such as San Antonio, Miami, Detroit, Portland and Dallas also expected to making pitches to the likes of LeBron, Bosh and Wade. I will likewise continue to say that the Cavs have much greater hope for re-signing their would-be Global Icon than Orlando ever had of keeping O'Neal, given LeBron's lifelong connections to Ohio, their owner's willingness to spend to keep James in perpetual championship contention and Shaq's thirst at the time to go Hollywood.

You're going to hear it ad nauseam until LeBron actually signs that next contract -- King James to the Knicks is a done deal! -- and we're going to keep countering with this: Why would LeBron decide anything so soon?

Remember, things change fast in this league. Take Friday, for example. Years of wasteful spending in Gotham, which gradually sucked the life and hope out of the greatest basketball arena in the world, were seemingly undone by one afternoon of heavy New York trading.

Isiah Thomas, incidentally, does get an assist here. The Knicks plummeted so far on Zeke's watch that Walsh could interrupt an unexpectedly positive 6-5 start by dumping D'Antoni's top two scorers on the fourth Friday of the season and still immediately convince his fan base that waiting 586 days to see whom the Knicks finally land with all that spending money is the right play.

LeBron?

And Bosh?

And Nash?

OK, OK. It's going to be a long time before we get any of those answers, so we'll try to show some restraint from here.

At least we'll try until Tuesday night. That's when LeBron's Cavs visit MSG … and when the media pests swarm James with those uncomfortable questions that teams such as the Knicks won't allow us to save for a later date.

Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here.



2. Eastern Conference
Half of the 30-day window that teams have to convince Antonio McDyess not to return to Detroit has expired.

The overwhelming consensus in NBA front-office circles remains that McDyess will be back with the Pistons on Dec. 7, which is the first day they're eligible to re-sign the 34-year-old after his buyout from the Denver Nuggets. But sources say two teams are being told by the Dice camp that they still have a shot to sway McDyess away from his beloved Motown.

They would be Cleveland and Charlotte.

The Cavs, depending on how much luxury tax they're willing to pay, have enough of their midlevel exception available to offer a multiyear deal starting at $5.1 million. That would help McDyess recoup some of the $9 million he gave back to the Nuggets in his buyout for the right to pick his next employer, although it's debatable how much McDyess would boost Cleveland's title chances beyond weakening the Cavs' foremost Central Division rival.

The Bobcats, meanwhile, typically don't get a sniff when it comes to coveted free agents, but Charlotte has the full $5.6 million available to throw at McDyess after its exception went untouched in the offseason … as well as the lure of Larry Brown. There was no sarcasm intended in that last bit; McDyess' deep fondness for Brown from their time together in Detroit has resulted in a very rare sliver of hope for the Bobs.

Yet it must be noted that more than one team exec has wondered aloud whether McDyess' apparent consideration of his non-Pistons options is merely intended to convince the league office that his return to Detroit wasn't a done deal even before the Denver trade was completed.

We haven't heard a word from McDyess throughout this process, which should come as little surprise after Dallas' Jerry Stackhouse publicly acknowledged his intent to re-sign with the Mavericks before the Mavs' initial deal with New Jersey for Jason Kidd in February was completed. The Mavs and Nets were ordered to remove Stackhouse from the trade before it could go through.

Detroit is the only team in the league that had to wait 30 days to sign McDyess once he became an unrestricted free agent after packaging McDyess with Chauncey Billups and Cheikh Samb in a Nov. 3 deal for Allen Iverson. But you have to be skeptical about any team besides Detroit landing Dice if it hasn't already happened in the first 15 days of that window. Don't you?

As Pistons coach Michael Curry has repeatedly acknowledged, "The longer it goes, the better chance we have."

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The East continues to hold the advantage in cross-conference play this season -- after posting a losing record in games against Western Conference opposition in every season of this millennium -- with a record of 34-22 after Friday's play.

The East is also coping better than the West with this season's ankle plague.

Nine All-Stars (or guys close enough to that level) are currently unavailable because of ankle injuries, with six of them coming from the West: Golden State's Monta Ellis, Utah's Deron Williams, Sacramento's Kevin Martin, Dallas' Josh Howard and San Antonio's Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.

The East's list stops at Milwaukee's Michael Redd and the Atlanta duo of Josh Smith and Al Horford.

The numbers would be even worse if Miami's Dwyane Wade and Houston's Ron Artest hadn't played through ankle injuries of their own in the past week.

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The Clippers insist that they are not trading Chris Kaman or Marcus Camby after acquiring Zach Randolph.

Let's see if the Bobcats, who still covet Kaman, are dissuaded by that message. Or let's see if they revisit their recent unsuccessful attempts to bring him out of Clipperland, figuring that L.A.'s desperation for a competent swingman is only going to grow from here … and recognizing that the addition of Randolph isn't exactly going to speed the Clips up as much as Baron Davis would undoubtedly prefer.

Gerald Wallace is the swingman Charlotte has been shopping, but the Bobcats also have Baron's good friend Jason Richardson with a contract in Kaman's range.

The Clips have also maintained long-standing interest in New Jersey's Vince Carter, but even if they wound up talking to the Nets, trying to convince them to take back Kaman's long contract would appear to run counter to the Nets' own hopes of being a free-agent player in the summer of 2010. Especially since Kaman's contract contains a 15 percent trade kicker, which, as of Friday, would have resulted in an extra $6.3 million in salary.

ESPN


Now looking at it from an unbiased view, If LeBron is looking for a more "global" image and the New York Knicks have the space to add Bosh and/or Nash aalong with him, that may be a hard deal to pass up.

Also interesting to read about McDyess. I'm not sure what to think about that just yet.

mcdeyss is going back to detroit according to espn. the knicks will get one of those prized free agents, maybe even two, but as I've said before the cavs will be able to sign amare or bosh as well. I prefer amare. I think is offensive game is superior to bosh. his defense nneds work, but I would take him over bosh. pheonix will be in full rebuiding mode by then. shaq will be retired, and nash will have a good year or two left.

Looks like we're still on the hook for Eric Snows $7 million this year. That space will free up next season.

We won't be in a bad spot in 2010 for salary,

http://hoopshype.com/salaries/cleveland.htm

but the Knicks will have basically the ballboy left on the payroll. They are only commited to $18M for '10-'11 season. They currently shell out $98M.

Just looked at Detroits 2010....if the Knicks have the ballboy on the payroll, then all that is left for Detroit as far as payroll is a part time vallet.

http://hoopshype.com/salaries/detroit.htm

And they might look great with Lebron and Bosh.....but who else will they have? I suppose you can say the same to Cleveland....but Cleveland has the bigger responsibility to stay winning to prove to Lebron he can win here. NY will be a junk team until he signs and then they build over time. Same with Detroit.

As long as we prove we can win a title (by winning one or getting SUPER close) he'd stay here.....especially since we can offer more money than anyone else.

And why would he go to Detroit? They're essentially the same as Cleveland in terms of markets. If you're trying for a global market, you would hit NY or LA (maybe Chicago). Detroit would be in the teens of markets. Heck, Miami, Dallas or Boston would be better than Detroit (based on size).

i love how the media portrays this whole thing.

as if the cavs have nobody on their team...

that the cavs are so "worried" about lebron leaving in 2010...

maybe gilbert is, but danny ferry? what's he supposed to do. there won't be terms to work out with lebron, there won't be a bidding war.

lebron's contract for 2010 is already laid out. it will be 30-35 million more than any other team.

it's up to danny ferry, as well as dan gilbert to keep this team going in the right direction. since gilbert and ferry took over, they have always gone in the right direction. the financial structure of this team could not be in better shape.

and as far as cap space goes, the only guys on the books after 2010 are mo and boobie.

so it's funny how the media forgets that one.

Shoot, that's right. I keep thinking Big Ben is on the book but it actually expires after next year right?

Outside The Lines has an entire segment right now to LBJ to Knicks...what a crock

Can we let LeBron James play?
By Kelly Dwyer

There's no point in trying to tell you that it doesn't make sense for us to be wondering aloud as to where LeBron James might potentially head as a free agent in 2010. July of 2010. 20 months from now. Who can't help but talking about stuff that's 20 months away? I know I was breathlessly waiting for this particular month way back in March of 2007, and I know I wasn't alone.

Snark aside, there are very viable reasons for LeBron leaving Cleveland that summer, and none of them have anything to do with some NYC-obsessed batch of NBA pundits disliking and underestimating Cleveland so much that we all somehow banded together in order to spread the word that James isn't long for Ohio.

Those people don't exist. Even the prominent guys who use their middle initial on a byline and host a radio show in New York City when they're not shouting on SportsCenter know what they're talking about. Stop with the martyrdom, already.

We speak about LeBron leaving Cleveland mainly because he's made a point to leave his options open, and most of us applaud him for doing so. Not because we want this guy in New York or Miami or Detroit or Chicago or down the street from where David Wain films his little whimsical flicks.

No, we like the fact that James has left his options open because it puts the onus on whatever team he plays for to somehow approximate the job that LeBron does on the court with the job they're doing in the front office. After spending years watching guys like Kevin Garnett, Allen Iverson, Paul Pierce, and others waste their primes on teams that didn't suit their talents, we're not really keen to see it happen again. And after the close call with Kobe Bryant (thinking, about this time last year even, that he'd be another superstar stuck on an average team), we'd kind of like to see LeBron go to the best situation available.

(And, yes, Pierce and KG won a ring last year. But each player was more than a few years removed from their best season. You know that.)

While we're at it, we kind of more than like the idea of Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh making the same move, keeping the pressure on the executives, and keeping their own options open. Stay active, Miami and Toronto.

So, as a fan and a follower, it's worth cheering.

What isn't worth cheering? Anyone who tells you that they have a good idea as to just what, exactly, LeBron is going to do. Whether that means jetting to New York the second he's allowed to, for whatever reason, or staying in Cleveland for the duration of his next contract, for whatever reason.

Because it's an incredibly fluid situation. There is so much that can happen from now until the summer of 2010, and that's just on a basketball level. I don't want to even get into the Worldwide Wes-in-Detroit idea, or the Jay-Z-in-Brooklyn partnership, or the everything-in-NYC situation. That concrete is even wetter. There's nothing to steady ourselves on now, there's certainly nothing LeBron can do with that, and there won't be anything he can take from those benefits for years.

And here's what keeps getting bandied about in Cleveland, but never seems to make it to the set of PTI or Around the Horn: the Cleveland Cavaliers have about $19.3 million in salary set aside for 2010-11.

They're probably looking at over $45 million in cap space. Should they pass on guaranteeing Delonte West's very reasonable $4.5 million salary for that season, they'll have even more room under the cap. LeBron and Dwyane Wade or Chris Bosh have about as much a chance to play in Cleveland for max deals as they do playing in New York or Brooklyn. Assuming the Nets will even be in Brooklyn by then.

And here's the nasty reality that never seems to sit well with Cavs fans who can't stop yelling "we have space, too! And he's from Akron!" ... LeBron is in this position because he hasn't exactly been given a supporting cast that's worth a damn.

The Cavs are much, much better this season. Delonte and Mo Williams' shooting, the semi-resurgence of Ben Wallace, and the continued sound play of Zydrunas Ilgauskas have the Cavaliers working under the "championship contender" umbrella.

And, yes, they made the Finals in 2007. But they were also about the most outclassed Finals opponent in history that year, and "Delonte and Mo" doesn't really remind of "Scottie and Horace." And most of this is just on LeBron. Getting these teammates up to "average" is enough to put the Cavs in this strata.

Sure, every team looks worse when you take away a superstar, but not to this extent. The Lakers, with Pau and Bynum and the rangy ones, are still a playoff team without Kobe. The Heat have Beasley and tons of cap space next summer. KG has Pierce. Pierce has KG.

The Cavs? They have LeBron. And though they have options (Wally Szczerbiak's expiring deal), they have to be careful making any deal from here on out. Lest you screw up that cap space for 2010-11.

So Cavs fans need to know why we're here. And Knicks and Nets and Pistons and Heat and Raptor fans need to show some patience. And that goes for the rest of us, talking heads and scribes alike.

This thing is so far away from even getting to the point of developing a part of a picture that we can observe and then ably guess at that it is borderline ridiculous to offer anything more than a shrug of the shoulders and a "could happen" between now and the latter part of the 2009-10 season.

I mean, one bit of legal haggling from the Clippers should Donnie Walsh push too far, and the Knicks are back up to owing $41 million in salary during 2010-11. And Miami offers sunshine and tax relief. And Bryan Colangelo has been an Executive of the Year. And there's no guarantee that Joe Dumars won't use his cap space all up in 2009, or even just re-sign Rasheed Wallace and Allen Iverson.

And Cleveland can offer him the most money, while still throwing any number of solid-to-superstar free agents a bone. And countering that? It's going to take James and Dwyane Wade in Cleveland before I ever learn to trust Danny Ferry as a GM.

So chill. Please, everyone, just cool out. COOL OUT!

Not sure if you've noticed, but James has been the best player in the NBA for a little while. And he has a good team, one that is eschewing the dribble-heavy play that made them such a tough watch for years, and the team's offense is responding. The Cavs are playing out of their minds, while the defense has sustained.

So whether LeBron is gone in 2010 or is a Cav until 2021, how bad are we if we're spending 80 percent of the words written and spoken about this guy to guess at where he'll go next as a could-be free agent?

Remember Grant Hill's free agent turn in 2000? Sure you do.

Remember his 1999-00 season? You probably don't, and that's a pity, because he was brilliant. Almost 25 points per game, six and a half boards, five assists, some steals, and that was it for him. He injured himself late in the season, and he was never the same. Never even close.

I'm not going to guilt you into watching LeBron because he could tweak an ankle. But I will tell you that, as amazing as this guy will probably be in 2010-11 for whatever team, he's just as jaw-dropping this year. And he was about the same, last year.

That's worth talking about.
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First off, the fact that Knick fans are rooting for our player is annoying. We caught a stroke of luck and have ended up with the best player in the league while they are bottom feeders because of poor management. Instead of drafting well and building their franchise with patience, they feel that they are entitled to our best player. It is also annoying that the media is the driving force behind all of this. Like that article noted, we still have all of this season, and all of next season until Lebron becomes a free agent. Yet, instead of talking about how great the Cavs are, and what a great situation Lebron is in now, all they want to talk about is what is going to happen in 2010.

Regarding 2010: Obviously, due to NBA salary cap rules, we will be able to offer him more money than any other team. As we all know, the issue here is what will he be able to make in endorsement money in a big city that he can't make in Cleveland. -This too is annoying. Why is Nike able to meddle with and influence where NBA players play? Many people have told me that if Lebron plays in a bigger town that Nike will pay him more. - Can anybody comment on that for me. Thanks

LeBron can also exercise his player option and stay with us for the 2010-2011 season. He would then become an UFA in the summer of 2011. I know you know this LBJ, but just posting it for those that don't....

Regarding the fact that all of this cap space is going to be cleared for 2011- Does this mean that Gilbert is gonna have enough to give Lebron the maximum? --Or-- Does this mean that Gilbert will have enough to offer Lebron the maximum plus lots of money left over to sign another marquee player?

It will be clear for 2010,... we have more than enough for lebron and another marquee player, personally Im crossing my fingers for bosh and yao

Wow, that would be sweet.

I'm not even a Cav's fan and I'm getting sick of ESPN's BS with this crap. You can't even see a Cav's score or highlight without them mentioning it. I hope like hell Lebron doesn't go to the knicks.

just read this on ESPN.com waiting for an old friend to show up so we can participate in thanksfiving eve in the old down town willoughby...ought to be a reunion of sorts

anyhow just read this from JA adande and there were 12 comments so far...all saying thank you

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The two biggest NBA myths around are that LeBron James needs to be in New York and that the league needs the Knicks to be good.

Anyone who still believes you can make it only in Manhattan probably still calls remote controls "clickers." This isn't the Walter Cronkite era, when we got our news from men sitting at desks in New York. These aren't the old Don Draper days, when everything we thought we knew and needed was generated by the ad shops on Madison Avenue.

LeBron, playing in little old Cleveland, stands to make more in endorsement money this year than New York Yankees superstars Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter will combined. And they play for the Yankees. LeBron could win eight championships with the Knicks and they still wouldn't rule that city the way the Yankees do. Oh, and you could add Peyton Manning's $13 million to Jeter and A-Rod's $14 million and it still won't match LeBron's $28 million in off-court money this year.

(If we didn't have bigger racial breakthroughs this year, we might ruminate on sociological implications of an African-American basketball player making more than twice as much endorsement money as a white NFL quarterback. Let's just say LeBron should be thankful for Julius Erving, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and even O.J. Simpson for making it possible for him to be the highest-paid team athlete in American sports this year.)

The only two people ahead of LeBron on Sports Illustrated's 2008 "Fortunate 50" list are golfers Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. They can live anywhere they want, but they don't feel the need to be in New York. They'll pass on the outrageous price-per-square-footage costs for dwellings that don't have a single blade of grass. They'd rather be in Florida and Arizona, where they can be warm and (in Tiger's case) avoid paying state income taxes.

Now if James wants New York's vibrancy and thin-crust pizza, that's one thing. Maybe he just wants to play 41 games a year in Madison Square Garden. From the savvy fans to the booming sound system, it's still the NBA's best arena when it's at full blast.

But let's dispense with the notion that he has to go there, that it's the next step in his career and any other location between there and Los Angeles is a waste of his time. Patrick Ewing got to New York a year after MJ went to the Midwest … and you don't see people wearing Ewing's silhouette on their shoes.

LeBron made the cover of Sports Illustrated and played games on ESPN when he was a high schooler in Akron. In Cleveland, he's been on the cover of Fortune, Time and Vogue (maybe he should have rethought that last one). He has hosted "Saturday Night Live."

You don't need to go to the media anymore. The media come to you, even if it means parking a satellite truck at your curb. Just ask Joe the Plumber. In the world of YouTube, Flickr and Facebook, anyone with a digital camera and a high-speed Internet connection is the media. In fact, LeBron's best work can be found on the Web, in that sublime scene where Smooth LeBron romances Nicole Scherzinger with a pair of high-tops.

If LeBron goes to New York, he won't get any famouser. I'm forced to use a made-up word because the Knicks are a made-up mythology, somehow considered to be among the elite franchises even though the Rockets have won just as many championships in 21 fewer years of existence. The Warriors, Trail Blazers and Heat have won more recently than the Knicks. The Bullets and Sonics have won more recently, too, only they're not the Bullets and Sonics anymore.

When it comes to the league's health, the Knicks are like tonsils. It's nice to have them, but you can live without them. At the NBA's zenith in the 1980s, the stars of the program were in L.A. and Boston. The Knicks were the sideshow, giving us the occasional Bernard King scoring outbursts or the Ewing lottery. The best they could be in the early 1990s was an interesting villain to be vanquished, Sgt. Slaughter to Jordan's Hulk Hogan.

What happened the first two times Jordan retired and allowed the Knicks to get their time in the spotlight? Viewers left in droves. The biggest NBA Finals ratings drop-offs were from a 17.9 for Jordan in 1993 to a 12.4 for the Knicks and Rockets in 1994 and an 18.7 for Jordan in 1998 to an 11.3 for the Knicks and Spurs in 1999.

It doesn't matter that the Knicks reside in the nation's largest television market. New York only matters to New Yorkers. The rest of the country doesn't care.

Maybe LeBron buys into the New York hype because it seems as if he has spent his whole life surrounded by hype. The difference is, LeBron lives up to it.

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Nice....can someone forward that article to Lebron please?

Bill Simmons actually had a funny theory in one of his articles. It was basically saying that Lebron was giving out a false sense of intrest to all teams in the NBA, so that they would unload their rosters to make room for 2010. Meanwhile the Cavs would be able to cakewalk thier way to two titles.

I hope against hope that Lebron re-signs with us in 2010, just so we can put up a building sized advertisement in downtown Cleveland with Lebron's middle finger and a "Witness this ESPN" tagline.