Wednesday, July 7, 2010

ESPN And The NBA: How Embarrassing

ESPN did it again.  They built something up only to have it fail.  The NBA free agency is looking more and more likely that everyone will stay with their teams.  Dirk, Joe Johnson, Paul Pierce and D-Wade have all resigned.  Bosh signed to the Heat, and as everyone expected he latched on to a superstar.  Amar'e Stoudemire signed with a team that paid him more than he was worth and doesn't care if he plays defense or rebounds or does anything but run and dunk.  Besides LeBron, only Ray Allen (who could go), Carlos Boozer (who will go) and David Lee (who will go) remain, unless you count Shaq.

Don't get me wrong, I love speculation.  The NFL Draft is one of my favorite sporting events, because of all the talk and arguments about the moves that can be made.  But this is overkill.  I have heard about this for about 2 years now, and I had a very good idea where everyone was going. 

Even with Wade and Bosh signing together, they most likely won't get LeBron.  They just won't have the players.  Beasley isn't what he should be, but I like Chalmers at the point. The depth isn't there, and with LeBron they couldn't sign anyone else.  So LeBron's options would be:

A) Sign with Knicks for no reason other than endorsement money.  They won't win, and they won't win for a long time.

B) Sign with the Clippers because he can still get his Nike Money, and the team has some actual talent.  Plus LeBron vs Kobe would be pretty fun.

C) Sign with Chicago because the team is talented, more talented than the Clippers, and the deal would be very lucrative.  Plus the Bulls could sign another player, maybe Ray Allen.

D) Resign with Cleveland for the most cash, probably make a good amount of endorsement deals.  The team has talent. 

There for zero dollars, zero Chris Broussard, and about 3 minutes of your time, I told you everything ESPN could.  The only difference is they spent millions, asked every analyst (Alexi Lalas and Scott Van Pelt don't know where LeBron is going) and made every Sportscenter in the last year tough to stomach. 

The cherry on top is LeBron's TV special tomorrow at 9 pm.  A press conference would be fine.  Thirty minutes to say, I am going to play for ________ next season, then take some questions from your hand picked reporters/friends (a la Tiger Woods).  Its not for the kids or charity or whatever.  Its for LeBron.  Think if CC Sabathia, Alex Rodriguez, Drew Brees or Brett Favre did this.  A stupid hour long TV special negotiated by LeBron's cabinet of advisers.  What a joke.  Please do what I am doing and not watch this.  Watch the replay the next day.  It isn't worth your time to sit around and watch a guy talk about how important he is and where he is going to display his talent.

2 comments:

  1. Chicago signed Boozer, in an attempt to lure LeBron. 5 years, 80 million dollars.

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  2. Update: Ray Allen resigns with the Celtics for 2 years. LeBron went to Miami, or maybe didn't, or maybe he did. Looks like the Heat are the front runners, making a team of 3 great players, 1 good player, 1 draft bust and 7 or 8 D-Leaguers.

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