LeBron the GM

No team, even the one that ultimately wins this year's championship, would turn down the chance to get reigning two-time MVP LeBron James, The Player. Aside from being the most dominant physical talent in the NBA, he is a box-office and advertising draw capable of doubling the value of a franchise.

But if getting James, The Player, means having to take on James, The GM, that's a trickier proposition.

Unless, of course, your team would happily take what James and the Cavaliers have done for the past seven years: five playoff appearances, including one unsuccessful run to the NBA Finals. Some teams (see: the New York Knicks) no doubt would, in light of where they've been for the past decade. Just know that the Cavs are where they are -- capped out with a modicum of trading chips -- because the team power structure supposedly has looked like this: owner Dan Gilbert, GM Danny Ferry and head coach Mike Brown.

With James standing just below Gilbert and just above Ferry.

"Do you acquiesce to a superstar?" says one assistant GM. "If you're going to let him choose his coach and decide who the No. 2 player is, that's acquiescing in a way that hurts his franchise."

Multiple league sources say that the Cleveland Cavaliers, in their attempt to keep James since drafting him with the No. 1 pick seven years ago, have done just that. Two opposing GMs, without citing specific examples, said they know James has vetoed deals Ferry would have made over the past few years.

Meanwhile, the acquisitions of Larry Hughes, Mo Williams, Shaquille O'Neal and Antawn Jamison all have been made at James' behest, sources say. And whether it's by James' hand or the Cavaliers', the team has been constructed on the presumption that he is Michael Jordan, a scorer and finisher, rather than Magic Johnson, a playmaker who needed a go-to closer alongside him to win titles. "They tried to make him Michael," says one league executive. "He's not."

That is the greatest advantage a team such as the Chicago Bulls or the Miami Heat has in not just landing LeBron but winning titles with him, since Derrick Rose and Dwyane Wade have both demonstrated they're willing and able to take over games down the stretch any and every time it's necessary. Conversely, it makes little sense to pair James with Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudemire, because they have not shown a propensity for taking and making shots with the game on the line.

Granted, most, if not all, teams consult with their stars on personnel moves. "I doubt if we've done anything in the last 10 years where we didn't get input from our guys," said one of the anonymous GMs.

But it's a matter of degrees. "Input" and "veto power" are different. Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash was unhappy that the Suns traded his good friend, Raja Bell, along with Boris Diaw, to Charlotte for Jason Richardson. The San Antonio Spurs were fully aware Tim Duncan didn't like seeing Antonio Daniels, Malik Rose and Stephen Jackson go. That's input.

That's why, while sources say it's true that mortgage-broker/friend-to-the-stars William Wesley is shopping James to teams in a package with Kentucky coach John Calipari, for a franchise to actually buy that two-fer would be a blatant attempt to acquire James' value-improving quotient without considering the consequences. One report had Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling willing to give James that authority, which fits with Sterling's modus operandi.

It also explains why the Clippers have been a financial bonanza for Sterling but an abject disappointment as a team.

The consensus among front-office executives is that to transform James not merely into a money-making machine but a championship-producing one as well, the Cavs or any other franchise needs to hire a coach who can convince James to lose the pregame skits and develop the kind of footwork Kobe Bryant and Paul Pierce have, for starters. The problem is that the coaches with the obvious pedigrees are currently employed elsewhere: Heat president Pat Riley, Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson and Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. (Charlotte Bobcats coach Larry Brown has the pedigree, but his relationship with James was forever damaged during their stint together with Team USA.)

Anyone believing the Chicago Bulls would promise James he could hire his head coach doesn't know owner Jerry Reinsdorf or the franchise's history during Jordan's era. Jordan, after all, didn't want Jackson to replace Doug Collins as head coach, despised the deal that sent his good friend Charles Oakley to the Knicks for Bill Cartwright and had legendary contempt for GM Jerry Krause.

Six rings later …

"Jerry will never, ever turn the franchise over to a player," said one former Bull. "Ever."

That leaves the Cavs, or anyone else, searching for an unproven coach with the potential to command James' respect by the sheer force of his personality and basketball IQ -- in essence, a young Phil Jackson. And there's nothing wrong with asking James who that might be. He very well might have someone in mind who makes sense. That's why there haven't been any coaching hires by New Jersey or Chicago and why Riley floated the idea that he'd be willing to step in for current coach Erik Spoelstra.

But there's letting someone offer directions and then there's handing him the wheel. As crazy as it sounds, if getting James means doing the latter, it would be worth a lot of money -- but maybe not much else.

Source: ESPN