So if you've been an NBA fan, Thursday July 8th finally marked an end of sorts. As soon as the 2010 season had started, there was endless and breathless reporting regarding where the major free agents would potentially go. The culmination of all of this gave us an ESPN special named "The Decision". The Heat get these guys:
But hey, what do you really think about the whole thing? I think we've been witness to one of the most illogical series of events that we've ever seen during free agency in any sport. Let's throw some disclaimers out for those of you that aren't long time readers. I'm first and foremost a Bulls fan. I'm a basketball fan who cut his teeth watching 80s basketball. As much as I had favorite players, I always loved watching talented teams first and foremost. As people in real life already know, I never really liked Chris Bosh. A 5-time All-Star, only named once to the All-NBA 2nd Team. His Raptors have have only had one winning season in the 7 years he's been there, and both times they've been to the playoffs they've been ousted in the first round. Dwayne Wade? I gotta admit, I did enjoy watching him play on Marquette and even more so as he took his style of play to Miami. Heck, I even went to attend a taping when they were filming for ESPN's Homecoming show, just in case it would help convince him to come to the Bulls. 
That brings us to the "king", LeBron James. I've never found his game to be interesting or exciting to watch. He is a talented passer, with superb court vision, but we haven't really seen a team that has been able to take advantage of those abilities. I've probably spent my fair share of the last 2-3 years ripping on James on various basketball related matters, such going for flashier basketball plays such as going for the block from behind, rather than playing sound defense by staying with his man since he clearly has the physical ability to when he wants to. <placeholder>As time goes on, we'll likely get most of the details of what truly went down the last couple of months during this free agency process, and how much of it may have been orchestrated. I could recall a time where the free agency period would start, and we would get a nugget or two of information. A player would meet with a team, we'd hear positive or negative feedback. Maybe a player would head off to visit the next team, or even cancel his trip, and a day or a week later we would get the breaking news that he would be signing. Instead, this free agency period played out like a giant Twitter stream, or a Facebook status with comments gone crazy. It felt like some reporters would mention every possible permutation just so they would be covered once the dust finally settled. Multiple Sources truly fed our desire to be the first to get the news we thought we wanted: The high point, or low point of all of this frenzy was the announcement, that there would be a special show to announce James' announcement. It was at that moment where I felt that it no longer felt like a basketball decision anymore. Making a decision on where is the best place for you to play basketball so that you can win the one or many championships you have been dreaming about. That's a decision. A big decision for sure, but a decision nonetheless. But, when it's not about basketball anymore, when it's really about money, or location, or celebrity or a million other or 16 to 20 million other reasons (including no state income tax) then it's not a decision anymore it's "The Decision". Got that? The Decision. Drop everything you're doing. Tune in, 15-20 minutes after 9 pm ET, 8 pm CT for The Decision. See, you can wait to see it on ESPN.com or on your local news for a decision. But for The Decision drop what your doing, and watch it live, since it's The Decision. Wait, I heard this is more effective: The Decision.* More on Comic Sans later!So, the die is cast. Miami is chosen over Cleveland, Chicago, New York and New Jersey. Some day, I hope someone can tell me how the Los Angeles Clippers were seriously part of the discussion. Bill Simmons wrote an excellent summary of his choices in a column, here's my addition to it. Cleveland: Staying here would have meant becoming a local legend, being perceived as loyal nationally, but perhaps would do nothing to change the potential ceiling of his global brand. The team and organization had already twisted itself many times over to accommodate his every desire, and it appeared that their window to win a title was rapidly evaporating. If you're one that doesn't thrive on pressure, it's not going to be an ideal situation. Chicago: The Bulls on paper have the best looking roster on paper. An All-Star point guard in Rose, an emerging young center in Noah, a former all-star power forward in Boozer, and a solid player in Luol Deng. Add the architect of the Celtics defense in Thibbodeau as your head coach, and it shouldn't be too hard to imagine that adding one of the NBA's MVP candidates would make this an unstoppable and well-balanced lineup. People have muttered that having a rookie head coach would be a factor, conveniently forgetting that both Phil Jackson and Greg Popovich both brought their respective teams to the conference semifinals in their first years, followed by winning the NBA finals the very next year. All the pieces are in place that if you are willing to put in the work, you'll have a better chance than most to win a championship. New York: If winning in your hometown would be legendary, winning in New York City, a metropolis dripping with basketball history and culture would be the legend of legends. Quite equivalent to having someone find, and slay a dragon one on one. Coming to New York would be about being able to embrace that challenge and dealing with the pressure of that challenge and being under a constant microscope as your each and every move would be dissected, analyzed and regurgitated. James eats a bagel! James seen at the Yankees game! James eats a bagel...with cream cheese! You get the idea. If you are a nail biter, perhaps not the ideal situation. New Jersey: Only intriguing because of the Russian billionaire owner, and Jay-Z being a minority owner. I also heard that they had the best presentation of all the teams and would have been able to market James globally. So why do I think James, or rather James' team chose Miami?
State Income TaxIt's been frequently mentioned that money wasn't a motivating factor in Bosh, Wade or James decision. But I can't imagine this same situation happening if were anywhere else other than Miami or Texas. It's easy to pretend that money isn't a factor when you know that you will still be getting the same money effectively.
CelebrityBeing a local celebrity must have been fun and all, but I'm sure that it caused it's own share of hassles and even expected availability. Since he was a hometown hero, I'm sure that there was a certain level of accessibility that folks felt entitled to. Being a big fish in a small pond, versus being a medium sized fish in a much larger pond, where he could better dictate the terms of engagement and where doing celebrity things is likely a better fit for where he wants to do with his brand and image in the next 5 to 10 years.
Expectation to Win
As soon as things became official, there were two immediate views: Superfriends, Miami Thrice is going to be #1 in the East or they are going to underwhelm (my view). Many think that having 3 of the top 25 players in the league should guarantee you 50 to 60 wins in an 82 game season, no matter who is manning the spots 4 through 12. In fact, James mentioned that Rondo, Perkins and Davis were relative unknowns not given a chance until the Big 3 made them better. Please ignore the fact that anyone that's drafted by an NBA team is likely talented, since you are choosing from a pool of at least 347 NCAA plus international players. The basic premise is, these 3 elite players will create such wonderful opportunities for any one that joins the roster, that it will be highly unlikely for them to do badly. Know what that sounds like? It sounds like the ideal situation for someone that doesn't want to be blamed for future failings.If they fail to make the playoffs, or make it to the finals?
Oh, the organization didn't bring in the right players to help these 3 great players. They can only do so much.
If they underwhelm expectations, even with slightly better players?Those non-elite players? They didn't step up. The 3 great players are doing everything they can, and they aren't stepping up. Either that, or it's the coaching staff. They're not using the players to the best of their ability. Many have also mentioned the "sacrifice" that these 3 are making by coming together to form a team. They're "sacrificing" scoring, statistics, prestige, fame, you name it. What's not mentioned is that they are relieving each other of being the potential blame if things don't go according to plan. The cognitive dissonance of having that much top-heavy talent is that they and we are led to believe that they're going to be too good to fail. Thus once they get into the grind of the NBA season, where each and every team is licking their chops to play against this team, every game playing out like a playoff game. As young as they are, they will potentially be playing heavy minutes which will be a factor. Both Wade and James play relatively physically which will increase their chances for injury. One medium length injury, and that will severely affect their playoff chances. They'll be the talk of the town, and the NBA season, but I see them underwhelming expectations next year.I never particularly hated any NBA player outside of Bill Laimbeer before, but now I think I have 3 new players to add to my new NBA players hate list. I can't wait for the season to start. I'm looking forward to circling Miami on my Bulls schedule this year.-- Go Bulls!
That brings us to the "king", LeBron James. I've never found his game to be interesting or exciting to watch. He is a talented passer, with superb court vision, but we haven't really seen a team that has been able to take advantage of those abilities. I've probably spent my fair share of the last 2-3 years ripping on James on various basketball related matters, such going for flashier basketball plays such as going for the block from behind, rather than playing sound defense by staying with his man since he clearly has the physical ability to when he wants to. <placeholder>As time goes on, we'll likely get most of the details of what truly went down the last couple of months during this free agency process, and how much of it may have been orchestrated. I could recall a time where the free agency period would start, and we would get a nugget or two of information. A player would meet with a team, we'd hear positive or negative feedback. Maybe a player would head off to visit the next team, or even cancel his trip, and a day or a week later we would get the breaking news that he would be signing. Instead, this free agency period played out like a giant Twitter stream, or a Facebook status with comments gone crazy. It felt like some reporters would mention every possible permutation just so they would be covered once the dust finally settled. Multiple Sources truly fed our desire to be the first to get the news we thought we wanted: The high point, or low point of all of this frenzy was the announcement, that there would be a special show to announce James' announcement. It was at that moment where I felt that it no longer felt like a basketball decision anymore. Making a decision on where is the best place for you to play basketball so that you can win the one or many championships you have been dreaming about. That's a decision. A big decision for sure, but a decision nonetheless. But, when it's not about basketball anymore, when it's really about money, or location, or celebrity or a million other or 16 to 20 million other reasons (including no state income tax) then it's not a decision anymore it's "The Decision". Got that? The Decision. Drop everything you're doing. Tune in, 15-20 minutes after 9 pm ET, 8 pm CT for The Decision. See, you can wait to see it on ESPN.com or on your local news for a decision. But for The Decision drop what your doing, and watch it live, since it's The Decision. Wait, I heard this is more effective: The Decision.* More on Comic Sans later!So, the die is cast. Miami is chosen over Cleveland, Chicago, New York and New Jersey. Some day, I hope someone can tell me how the Los Angeles Clippers were seriously part of the discussion. Bill Simmons wrote an excellent summary of his choices in a column, here's my addition to it. Cleveland: Staying here would have meant becoming a local legend, being perceived as loyal nationally, but perhaps would do nothing to change the potential ceiling of his global brand. The team and organization had already twisted itself many times over to accommodate his every desire, and it appeared that their window to win a title was rapidly evaporating. If you're one that doesn't thrive on pressure, it's not going to be an ideal situation. Chicago: The Bulls on paper have the best looking roster on paper. An All-Star point guard in Rose, an emerging young center in Noah, a former all-star power forward in Boozer, and a solid player in Luol Deng. Add the architect of the Celtics defense in Thibbodeau as your head coach, and it shouldn't be too hard to imagine that adding one of the NBA's MVP candidates would make this an unstoppable and well-balanced lineup. People have muttered that having a rookie head coach would be a factor, conveniently forgetting that both Phil Jackson and Greg Popovich both brought their respective teams to the conference semifinals in their first years, followed by winning the NBA finals the very next year. All the pieces are in place that if you are willing to put in the work, you'll have a better chance than most to win a championship. New York: If winning in your hometown would be legendary, winning in New York City, a metropolis dripping with basketball history and culture would be the legend of legends. Quite equivalent to having someone find, and slay a dragon one on one. Coming to New York would be about being able to embrace that challenge and dealing with the pressure of that challenge and being under a constant microscope as your each and every move would be dissected, analyzed and regurgitated. James eats a bagel! James seen at the Yankees game! James eats a bagel...with cream cheese! You get the idea. If you are a nail biter, perhaps not the ideal situation. New Jersey: Only intriguing because of the Russian billionaire owner, and Jay-Z being a minority owner. I also heard that they had the best presentation of all the teams and would have been able to market James globally. So why do I think James, or rather James' team chose Miami?State Income TaxIt's been frequently mentioned that money wasn't a motivating factor in Bosh, Wade or James decision. But I can't imagine this same situation happening if were anywhere else other than Miami or Texas. It's easy to pretend that money isn't a factor when you know that you will still be getting the same money effectively.
CelebrityBeing a local celebrity must have been fun and all, but I'm sure that it caused it's own share of hassles and even expected availability. Since he was a hometown hero, I'm sure that there was a certain level of accessibility that folks felt entitled to. Being a big fish in a small pond, versus being a medium sized fish in a much larger pond, where he could better dictate the terms of engagement and where doing celebrity things is likely a better fit for where he wants to do with his brand and image in the next 5 to 10 years.
Expectation to Win
As soon as things became official, there were two immediate views: Superfriends, Miami Thrice is going to be #1 in the East or they are going to underwhelm (my view). Many think that having 3 of the top 25 players in the league should guarantee you 50 to 60 wins in an 82 game season, no matter who is manning the spots 4 through 12. In fact, James mentioned that Rondo, Perkins and Davis were relative unknowns not given a chance until the Big 3 made them better. Please ignore the fact that anyone that's drafted by an NBA team is likely talented, since you are choosing from a pool of at least 347 NCAA plus international players. The basic premise is, these 3 elite players will create such wonderful opportunities for any one that joins the roster, that it will be highly unlikely for them to do badly. Know what that sounds like? It sounds like the ideal situation for someone that doesn't want to be blamed for future failings.If they fail to make the playoffs, or make it to the finals?
Oh, the organization didn't bring in the right players to help these 3 great players. They can only do so much.
If they underwhelm expectations, even with slightly better players?Those non-elite players? They didn't step up. The 3 great players are doing everything they can, and they aren't stepping up. Either that, or it's the coaching staff. They're not using the players to the best of their ability. Many have also mentioned the "sacrifice" that these 3 are making by coming together to form a team. They're "sacrificing" scoring, statistics, prestige, fame, you name it. What's not mentioned is that they are relieving each other of being the potential blame if things don't go according to plan. The cognitive dissonance of having that much top-heavy talent is that they and we are led to believe that they're going to be too good to fail. Thus once they get into the grind of the NBA season, where each and every team is licking their chops to play against this team, every game playing out like a playoff game. As young as they are, they will potentially be playing heavy minutes which will be a factor. Both Wade and James play relatively physically which will increase their chances for injury. One medium length injury, and that will severely affect their playoff chances. They'll be the talk of the town, and the NBA season, but I see them underwhelming expectations next year.I never particularly hated any NBA player outside of Bill Laimbeer before, but now I think I have 3 new players to add to my new NBA players hate list. I can't wait for the season to start. I'm looking forward to circling Miami on my Bulls schedule this year.-- Go Bulls!