Lol, I hate LeBron. Fuck him. How dare he walk away when he loses. I forgot this was softball. Fucking LBJ cocksucker.
Hopefully when he gets knocked out of the playoffs next year, he walks straight to Chicago. Not a fan of the guy, but I certainly could become one.
It's not Cleveland! I think if he leaves Cleveland, he probably goes down to Miami to play with D-Wade and B-Easy. I think Chicago would be his second choice. Just based on factors such as location, amount of talent on the team, and Lebron himself (who is in love with Michael Jordan), Miami/Chicago are probably the two top contenders for Lebron. I can't see the guy going to New York. If he leaves it will probably be to Miami though.
Will Miami have the money? Where are you getting Miami from? The only rumors have linked him to NY and NJ (Brooklyn).
New York and New Jersey are just the two names being rattled out by the mainstream media, and they don't seem to critically think about the situation. Miami will have enough money to give Wade a max extension and give Lebron a max extension. Then they can do a few other things. They could sign a second free agent for less money (I'm not going to look up the exact figure, but I believe it's something like 5 years $60+ million that they can offer). So they could bring in a guy like Tyson Chandler at center after that, maybe Dirk would be looking for that type of money at that point in his career (although I think he will be a one franchise guy). Or they could use that little extra money to keep some of their current players (Udonis Haslem is the best example of a guy they may want to keep). Or they could even do something such as try to get a guy like Ben Gordon to sign a 1 year MLE deal, promising him more money when they have capspace open up in 2010. (Cleveland could also use such a ploy to try to get Lebron his Robin, although I think Gordon will sign wherever he can get a good longterm deal this summer, and I think that will be in Chicago). What Miami seemed to be doing, imo, was preparing themselves to sign Ben Gordon this summer. They would have had enoguh to offer him a sizeable contract offer (more than the Bulls offered last summer) if the cap grew to around $61 million like expected. But once it became clear that the cap was going to shrink, rather than grow, and that they'd no longer have money for Gordon this summer, they made the Jermaine O'neal trade, as while they'd have capspace this summer by letting Marion expire, it would have been less capspace than the MLE...so it didn't matter. But Miami is in a great position, and that's because Wade's the only player on their roster with significant money that will be attached to him. Presumably Michael Beasley (rookie scale) and Mario Chalmers (rookie scale) will be their only other players with cap attached. Everyone keeps talking about the Knicks, but Pat Riley has just done an outstanding job to put the Heat in a position to rebuild. If the cap didn't shrink, and grew like expected, we probably would have saw part 1 of that rebuild happen with the Heat signing probably Ben Gordon (who they agreed to a sign this past offseason, but the Bulls turned down a sign and trade offer), and then going for a max guy in 2010 (Lebron #1 target obliviously, but Amare, and Bosh, Dirk could be targets too). Bam, you have a rebuild job. I think that plays into the Bulls being the favorite for Amare Stoudemire this summer. This guy is going out on the radio and trying to force Phoenix to trade him. Miami can obviously offer the best package by including Beasley, but I don't see that happening, leading to the Bulls having the best package. And this cap situation is why they wouldn't offer Beasley. Why trade for Amare this summer, and give up Beasley, when you can just keep Beasley, and sign Bosh (or maybe even Amare if the Suns don't trade him, if they don't find the Bulls offer suitable) next summer. Miami should come out really good in 2010.
I can understand the emotion that motivated Lebron to do what he did, but in the end, it was still a douchey move. The only thing that annoyed me is that Lebron doesn't seem to get why people are getting on him. You should be able to shake hands with your opponent after a hard-fought series, even if you lost. It doesn't make you any less of a competitor. His statement reminds me of people who think you shouldn't help up an opponent after the whistle or stupid superficial shit like that. Compete during game-time. Outside of that, you should be capable of functioning like a normal human being.
Normally he plays "the nicest guy in the NBA" but look what comes up when things get serious. No class
HOW ABOUT THE NEW YORK FUCKING KNICKS. THEY DO HAVE THE MOST CAP SPACE IN THE NBA FOR 2010, BY A WIDE MARGIN, YOU KNOW. If he leaves Cleveland, it would be for the money. The Knicks have the most money. It wouldn't be to play with D-Wade (who might not even remain in Miami), shack up with Jay-Z in New Jersey, or to fulfill your make-a-wish entry to have him on the Bulls.
The max contract is the same in Chicago as it is in New York, and is the same in Miami as it is in Chicago. Well actually the max contract has more take home money in Miami than it does in Chicago, and it has more take home money in Chicago than New York because of state income tax rates. Just because New York has the most capspace, doesn't mean they can offer Lebron more than Chicago or Miami. They actually offer less take home money than Chicago and Miami will be able to, while offering a much lesser team.
Chicago doesn't have NY's cap space. Miami doesn't have NY's cap space. The only team that could offer as much as the Knicks is the Cavs, due to CBA rules. By the time summer 2010 rolls around, LeBron will have already made up his mind about whether he's staying or going. Does the term 'endorsements' mean anything to you? New York will make LeBron a far richer man than Chicago or Miami would.
You don't understand the CBA then. The CBA states that the most a team can give Lebron is 35% of the cap, which will probably be around $20.3 million, as the cap could be around $58 million. Miami will have Wade, Beasley, and Chalmers under salary. When you factor in penalties, they will have $30.8 million in capspace. The most they can offer Lebron is $20.3 million.....same as New York... Right now, the Bulls have five salary commitments for 2010, Derrick Rose, Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng, Joakim Noah, and John Salmons. (the plan seems to be to swap out Hinrich's salary commitment, and turn it into a similar salary committment to Gordon). They under a $58 million cap, would have ~$20.6 million in capspace. The most they can offer Lebron is $20.3 million.....same as New York. This works out to $117.7 million over 5 years being the max they can give Lebron. Miami has a state income tax of 0%. Chicago of 3%. New York of 6.85%. This only applies for road games. Using a 6.5% state income tax for roadgames, you get this amount of take home money. Miami - $72.7 million Chicago - $70.9 million New York - $68.6 million So, no, the Knicks do not have more money to offer Lebron than Miami or Chicago. Not sure what additional endorsements he would get from playing in New York over Chicago, besides some local stuff...but there will be plenty of local stuff to endorse in Chicago too. Ben Gordon endorses some pizzas here.
So that's $6.9 million Miami would have to spend on the other 8 players they'll need to produce a full roster. Real smooth. Jesus fuck, do you actually believe what you post? By your assessment, that would give Chicago a full cap for 6 players. New York can give the entire purse to LeBron and still fill out a roster around him. Empty, meaningless babble to try and make yourself seem smart. Yes Isaac Newton, but the Knicks have enough money to fill out a roster around him, which your ridiculous Miami and Chicago scenarios do not present, as they present situations where the team would front half a roster and have a blown cap. Fail. Congratulations, that it the stupidest statement I have ever read on this site. You have unseated... yourself. Props.
Total douche move on LeBron's part. Talk about poor sportsmanship. I don't care if you were the favorite to win and you're mad that you didn't, show some fucking class and shake the winners hand. Not that fucking hard. What's worse is that he left his teammates and coaches out to dry by not going to the press room afterward to talk to the media. As the leader of that team, that's something he should have done, but he didn't. Fucking asshat continues to prove why I'm not a fan of him.
