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Heat Is on LeBron, No Matter What Choice He Makes
Jay Mariotti (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 7/7/2010 6:35:00 PM
Filed under: NBA So now we look to LeBron James, currently in makeup before his narcissistic one-hour reality show, for the finishing blow on NBA Star Wars. Are we watching the basketball equivalent of a revolution, the melding of a triple-studded Miami superteam rarely seen in sports? Does the fact his self-styled ESPN show is coming from a Boys & Girls Club in Greenwich, Conn., 30 miles from Madison Square Garden, mean he's playing in New York? Or is this entire exercise less climactic than a game of Whack-a-Mole, with James destined to stay in Cleveland a day after Dwyane Wade chose to stay in Miami, joined in the one compelling transaction by glory-starved Chris Bosh?
"I'll be watching," Wade said. "We've scheduled it. I'll make sure I'm in front of the TV at 9
to watch like everyone else." Not to embarrass anyone who thought we were witnessing a talent tidal wave, but if James and Wade re-up with their current teams and don't combine respective camps in a power play, all it means is that the biggest offseason transaction happened in Montana. That is where Phil Jackson went fishing, saw the stars, heard the gods and decided to rejoin the the Los Angeles Lakers for
another season. Without Bosh or another robust reinforcement, James can't win an NBA title with the Cavaliers. Without an able, experienced third cog, Wade and Bosh won't necessarily win an immediate title with the Heat. But the Lakers, with Jackson and Kobe Bryant and the cachet of successive championships, remain positioned for more. If I were James, I'd be signing anywhere BUT Cleveland now, knowing my legacy is based on winning and that Wade, Bosh and Riley are poised to spoil my championship dreams for years. I'd either be joining that historic posse or, in a more diluted scenario, heading to the New York Knicks, where at least Amare Stoudemire can provide 26 points and 12 rebounds a game, if not the defense that James now treasures more than his pre-game powder shower on the sideline.
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other. Bosh can play off each of them. He doesn't need to be the main guy. You can alternate down the court -- one time LeBron takes it, Dwyane takes it the next time. I don't think it's even an issue," Boeheim said. "We had all of those guys and Kobe [Bryant] on the court at the same time and we did all right. Anybody who says [they can't play together] doesn't know what they're talking about."
Miami came into free agency with what turned out to be roughly $46 million of cap space, not including $16.5 million or so earmarked for Wade, thanks to years of avoiding just about any deal in which money would have been committed for the 2010-11 season.
"We want to build a dynasty," Miami Heat president Pat Riley had told fans entering free
agency.
By scheduling his special show and essentially putting a deadline on himself to make an announcement, it would appear that James has made up his mind. If he does, however, change his decision, the Cavaliers, the New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls all would be possibilities, according to the sources.
Chris Broussard is an NBA writer for ESPN The Magazine.
ESPN.com's Marc Stein and Andy Katz contributed to this report. Information from The Associated Press was also used. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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