It’s here. LeBron’s decision is in a matter of hours. I’m not going to speculate as to which team he’s choosing, I think that all these “sources” who claim to know where he is going know as much as you or I do. At this point, we’ve heard just about everything except for the final decision, which should be all that matters. But if we learned anything over this week, its that that is not all that matters. What matters more to LeBron than his next team is LeBron. That’s what this week and his hour long special are about: LeBron doing LeBron.
Regardless of the backlash of his TV special, this will no doubt be a huge television moment. The first ten minutes could have more ratings than the Finals did. Is the whole thing selfish and a giant ego stroke? Yes. But for me and fans like me, it makes for great TV and is more entertainment than most NBA games will be this season.
My purpose in this blog is talk about the other sides of LeBron and his choice. Because there is clearly more to it than people are talking about, not that it is being hidden, but because it doesn’t make LeBron look good.
1) LeBron has failed in the playoffs. There is no doubting that. No one can convince me otherwise. Anyone who watched game 6 this year about
2) Has LeBron ever gone completely in eff-you mode? Does he have it in him? How often down the stretch in crucial moments have we seen him defer the ball? He does it all the time. Even during the 08 Olympics he didn’t step up and needed
3) Is going to
4) Basketball is a team sport. There is a misconception that you only need 2 or 3 guys to win a championship. That is not the truth. Role players are called that because that is how big they are – there roles are that important. It’s like any movie (with the exception of Cast Away), there needs to be supporting actors to make the stars look great and to make the overall picture a success. I don’t think LeBron understands this. Whichever team LeBron chooses, LeBron is going to think that it is all about him. After all, what other free agent in any sport could pull off their own hour long TV special to announce the team he chooses? As much as the pomp and flair of basketball is about the one superstar, there needs to be a team surrounding him to win a championship. Would the Lakers have won without Derek Fisher or Shannon Brown or Ron Artest? Would the 08 Celtics – a team with Garnett, Pierce and Allen all playing at the top of their games have beaten the Lakers without Eddie House or James Posey? No. These role players are important to any championship team. If LeBron really does think it is all about him, than any team he goes to doesn’t stand a chance.
To me, there are three teams that make sense with actual reasons for signing – 1)
The future is going to go one of two ways for LeBron after tonight – either he is going to go to a team and completely turn them around and win multiple titles, or he is going to be named the best player to never win a championship. After how many years would we begin to ask “Can LeBron win the big one”? Two? Three? There is expected to be an immediate turnaround – hard for anyone to do on any team. But after three more seasons he’ll have been in the league for 10 years without a ring with the window growing smaller everyday.
Hey Joe! Great blog so far. I'm really liking it. I'd honestly rather follow this than like Simmons just because I know you so it's cooler.
ReplyDeleteBut there's a couple things I disagree with, especially in bullet point 4):
Yes, basketball is a team sport, but that only depends on how you define a team. If you define a team as more than 2 or 3 players, then yes. But whereas in football, hockey, and baseball you need 20+ to win a championship, in basketball you just need 10. That's half the players. And sometimes you really only need just one. LeBron James had NOBODY. He was the only player on the Cavs worth anything and they made it to the conference finals. That's top 4 teams in the whole NBA. Not in any other sport can the best player single-handedly do that. Put Crosby on the Blue Jackets, they probably finish 12th-30th. Put Peyton Manning on the Browns, they probably finish 9th-32nd. Put Pujols on the Pirates they probably finish 25th-30th. Put LeBron on the Cavs or the Clippers, they finish 1st-5th. That's the difference. One player changes everything because even though it is a team sport, it is very individualistic.
And the point about the role players I disagree with too. Yes, I agree that Boston doesn't win the championship without their role players like House and Posey, but it's not like they needed only House and Posey to be those role players. You take any 2 of 200 guys in the NBA to be role players to Garnett, Pierce, and Allen and they still win that championship. It was because of those 3 that they won. The role players helped and were a big part, but you can take any fish in the pool of the NBA and develop a winning team around those 3 stars.
In any sport you're gonna have these "role" players come up big at times in a tie game or in Overtime or whenever. But the reason that these "role" players are in position to even come up big is because of the superstars. And that is in any sport. But in basketball it's a lot more individualistic than the others.