Mr. Commissioner,
I know you’re as excited for the NBA offseason as anyone. Typically July and August are dead zones for the NBA as the sports world is focused on baseball, the NFL preseason and whatever US Weekly style floater ESPN can drum up about A-Rod or Tiger Woods. Not this year though. Nope, we’re in for two months of LeBron getting his attention-whore on as he makes every franchise genuflect before him in hopes of wooing him to their franchise. With D-Wade, Bosh, Amare and all the other marquee free agents up for grabs as well, the league’s going year round.
No doubt about it, you’ll enjoy every minute of it Mr Commish. And I bet you’re even secretly hoping that LeBron ends up on the same team as as Mr. Wade. Together, they’ll create an NBA super team in Miami, Chicago or New York to fill the shoes left vacated by the former Laker duo of Shaq and Kobe.
I’m begging you David: Use your powers to keep this from happening. As this Sunday’s games showed, this paring would be too good for the league.
Think of it from the perspective of the other team’s fans. I already had to watch Flash destroy my beloved Celtics, single-handedly leading a team of retreads and rejects by bombing three after three in Ray Allen’s mug. Worse, he provided the latest piece of evidence that Kevin Garnett can’t jump quite like he used to.
How can you embarrass a legend like that?
Meanwhile, LeBron only dropped a triple double that included thirty seven points, ripping the heart of the Bulls in MJ’s house. He added a bullet in the temple to close out the third quarter, just to make sure he finished the job.
I love watching two athletes play basketball. They’re great leaders, defensive stallions, able to create their own shots at will, yet committed to getting great shots for their teammates as well. Put them on the same team? Fans of the other 29 teams won’t have a chance.
And if they go to the Knicks? Or worse…the Lakers?
As fans of the Celtics, Bulls, Magic, whomever, we have enough anxiety worrying about these guys posterizing our favorite players and canning half court buzzer beaters. If they’re on the same team?
There won’t be a point to show up.
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Don’t worry. The only way you’ll see Wade and LeBron wearing the same uniform is if it says “USA” or “All-Star” on the front.
As great as both players are, the two of them together doesn’t mean they will win anything. If they can co exist and sacrifice their games to be successful; as long as whichever teams signs them puts the right complement of role players with them, they could start the next dynasty.
I wouldn’t worry about this too much for 1 very realistic reason; There is still only one basketball. In our minds we can imaging combining two highlight reel players like Wade and Bron to create an ULTIMATE team and buckets would be flying in left and right. Right? Wrong. As much as these two love having the ball and play the same/similar positions, there wouldn’t be enough basketballs to go around for them to put up the points that you are imagining. They would pretty much neutralize each other.
What you should worry about is Lebron or Wade parring up with what they truly need….a great center. Wade or Bron in Orlando, that would really shut things down.
bumping that booby ray as i look at these highlights
And if I could write an open letter to David Stern, it would be to stop solely promoting Lebron and Kobe. You only hurt yourself in doing so. Yes it would be a media orgy fest if these two met in the finals but A.) the likely-hood of that is not as strong as many think. B.) Kobe is on a decline as Lebron is on his way up, so its potency is not likely to be what its made out to be. And C.) If the match up doesn’t happen then, you cut your ratings down significantly because the public doesn’t have a draw to Deron Williams, Carmelo Anthony, Brandon Roy, Paul Peirce, Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh, Chris Paul, Manu Ginobli (spl), Dirk Niwhatever. In the 90′s you had Jordan of course but you had ALL sorts of other teams that you watched because Drexler was playing or Nique was playing ( you get the point).
Fuck Lebron! I had a feeling that the Bulls were going to suffer severe retribution, you could see it in Lebron’s eyes at the start of the game. Wade dunked on Garnett? Psssh, KG wasn’t even defending Wade that tightly so I wouldn’t call that a poster-moment. The dunk that had me going “Ohhh Shit!” was the dunk that Lebron did in the first half that left the rim tremoring.
ps: Even though I feel indifferent about either the Mav or the Spurs, that series is pretty exciting! The Nuggets vs Jazz series is getting pretty fucking predictable; Melo needs to step it up and go easy on the fouls.
James and Wade on the same team is scary. But I’d be mortified if one of them were to join the Howard and the Magic. That’d be pure domination.
Melo needs to step it up and go easy on the fouls.
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Melo’s stat line for the playoffs.
34.5 ppg 7.0 rpg 3.0 apg 2.0 spg .8 bpg 52% fg in 40 minutes.
I know hes fouling, but its the nuggets that need to step up around him. he has only fouled out of one of the four games.
i am an ohio kid, and if lebron leaves, they might as well burn the city to the ground and start over..
^ HAHAHAHA
i am an ohio kid, and if lebron leaves, they might as well burn the city to the ground and start over..
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That’s hilarious, but true. I’m not from the Midwest, but have several friends they. On numerous occasions they’ve told me, “If LeBron leaves, this city will never get over it. He is the best thing to happen to this city and state period in a long, long time.” I know dude has his skeptics and his critics on the court, but as a figure…he truly is a king there.
I agree that the league would be better off without King James and D-Wade on the same side of the fence, but i think it would be even worse for basketball for the commissioner to step in the way of teams going after the players that will put them on top. That’s not his role, and is not anyone’s role. You gotta let the chips fall how they will and adjust, because that’s what has built all of this excitement in the first place right? All these teams freeing salary space, getting ready for the big 2010 summer, and the teams with all the current big names doing anything possible to keep them in town.
Stern intervenes in the league too much…I think he should sit this one out and watch from the edge of his seat like the rest of us.
But I’m bias. So I’ll shut up.
Haha, see, being from South Dakota, i don’t have a hometown team to put my soul behind, so it’s easier to take a wholistic approach to the issue. Honestly though, i just can’t see Cleveland losing Lebron. He already has it so good.
“already had to watch Flash destroy my beloved Celtics”
I feel your pain duke. Had to toss some a-dogs on the wires for that game.
Eff LeBron and Wade, let me get Wade and Bosh and then we can cut down those nets.
lebron , Cleveland=, gretzky, edmonton
excluding championships
Wade will stay, once Bosh signs.
Cleavland wont allow King Jimmy to leave they need that man…….but i do see a Wade/Bosh or Wade/Amare next season
I think Lebron decided a long time ago that he would stay in Cleveland, kinda like when he decided on the first day of first grade that he would be skipping college and going to the NBA. I would give up my first born to see one of them go to Orlando tho. I also think Wade well get a good guy in FA anyway.
While you’re at it can you write an open letter to David Stern and ask him to get the refs to stop calling fouls that don’t exist? Can you possibly ask him to instruct his refs to call only fouls that they actually see? Because I’m tired of hearing a whistle stop the flow of the game every 5-10 seconds. And I’m tired of hearing Reggie Miller say “Where’s the foul?” I would really love to see what Andrew Bynum and Dwight Howard are capable of if they didn’t have to sit 30% of the game due to foul trouble.
It’s definitely fun to see Lebron, Kobe, Wade score 10-12 points on free throws, but it’s more fun to see them make field goals.
Lebron needs to be in NYC along with Amare.. bring back Starks and Ewing would prob un-retire just to win a championship! Unless he misses a finger roll again<—– should of been a dunk.. but dont get me started.
The problem with lebron leaving is that he needs to pack mo williams into his suitcase.. cause hes lebrons robin…
Come on. The NBA is like wrestling. It’s all scripted. It’s entertainment. It is not a sport anymore. It has become ridiculous. The superstars getting special treatment and all the non calls and the whining. Watching LeBron taking 12 steps after picking up the dribble just so he can do a dunk. Big deal. We know they can all score. That’s why they are in the big leagues. How about they call the games properly no matter who has the ball. And they kicked out the ref for fixing games. The only difference is the refs fix the games for the league. College is where it is at. They play with heart. It is not about the money or the show. It’s about the game.
I HATE THE NBA….DAVID STERN IS FULL OF SHIT….I HOPE KOBE WINS THE RING THIS YEAR AND TAKES THE NEXT SEASON OFF…I SWEAR I WON’T WATCH A NBA GAME NEXT SEASON…I HATE HOW THEY CHEAT FOR CLEVELAND TO WIN…IT WAS UNBELIEVABLE WHAT THEY DID TO THE BULLS WITH THE BULLSHIT CALLS AND NOW THEY’RE DOING THE SAME THING TO BOSTON….DO THEY WANT LEBRON TO WIN A RING THAT BAD…KOBE WIN THIS SEASON AND RETIRE SO I CAN RETIRE FROM WATCHING THIS BULLSHIT NIGHT IN AND NIGHT OUT!
DAVID STERN SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF HIMSELF….I SWEAR I SHOULD BE A ESPN COLUMNIST I DON’T MIND SAYING WHAT EVERYBODY ELSE IS SCARED TO SAY…IT’S REDICULOUS!
LOKIZZLE2004@YAHOO.COM
HERSHEYLALA MO WILLIAMS A SHOOT LEBRON OUT OF THE STADIUM…I WOULD SAY LEBRON IS MO’S ROBIN…JUST BECAUSE THEY LET LEBRON CHARGE AND TRAVEL IN THE SAME PLAY THAT CAN EASILY LEAD TO A DUNK WITH THE SIDE OF A AND ONE FOUL WHERE NOBODY REALLY TOUCHED HIM MAKES HIM THE BEST PLAYER IN THE LEAGUE….NOT EVEN THE BEST ON THAT TEAM….LOOK AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN TEAMS MAKE HIM A JUMP SHOOTER…THEY SAY HIS ELBOW IS BOTHERING HIM HAHA!