By Quibian Salazar-Moreno on Jun 2nd 2010 12:33PM
Filed under: Basketball
All across the NBA, pundits and fans alike are placing bets and making predictions on where Cleveland Cavalier superstar
LeBron James, a free agent next month, will end up.
New York fans think the Knicks have an offer he can't refuse (What? Going to a team that hasn't even sniffed the playoffs in six years?). The
Miami Heat believes LeBron and
Dwyane Wade would make the perfect tandem, and the
L.A. Clippers thisay a
Kobe-LeBron rivalry in the city of Los Angeles is the best way to go. There's also a group, which includes President
Barack Obama, that thinks the
Chicago Bulls would be the best fit. And
Mark Cuban, owner of the
Dallas Mavericks, got a huge fine for saying he was interested in King James.
But in an interview with Larry King, which will air on CNN on Friday, James admitted that the biggest possibility is that he'll be staying right where he is. In a clip released to the public, King asked James if Cleveland "had the edge" going into the free agent brouhaha this summer.
"Absolutely," James told King. "Because, you know, this city, these fans, I mean, have given me a lot in these seven years. And you know, for me, it's comfortable. So I've got a lot of memories here. And -- and so it does have an edge."
At the same time, James didn't say he was staying either. Not like James needs the money, but Cleveland can give him $30 million more than any other team in the league. One theory is that he'll want to go to a place where he can spread his wings and pursue other interests such as movies and music. But he's hardly expressed interest in those areas except for a documentary or two and appearing in a Drake, Kanye, Lil Wayne and Eminem video.
The thing that is probably motivating James at the moment, though, is which team offers the best chance to win a championship trophy. Unless the Lakers or the Celtics are willing to break up their solid squads, it looks like the best chance LeBron has to get that trophy is to stay in Cleveland, bring in another star and see what they do with the coaching situation. Otherwise, Bron will be heading to a rebuilding situation, where he'll be waiting another seven years to see if he can be a champion.
http://xml.channel.aol.com/xmlpublisher/fetch.v2.xml?option=expand_relative_urls&dataUrlNodes=uiConfig,feedConfig,localizationConfig,entry&id=868400&pid=868399&uts=1275442191
http://www.aolcdn.com/ke/media_gallery/v1/ke_media_gallery_wrapper.swf
Your Hottest News Stories
28-May-2010 - Child actor
Gary Coleman - best known for his role as
Arnold Drummond on the sitcom 'Diff'rent Strokes - has died at the age of 42.
Click Here for the Complete Story
Larry Busacca, Tribeca Film festival / Getty Images
Getty Images North America
Your Hottest News Stories
28-May-2010 - Child actor Gary Coleman - best known for his role as Arnold Drummond on the sitcom 'Diff'rent Strokes - has died at the age of 42.
Click Here for the Complete Story
Your Hottest News Stories
27-May-2010 - CNN was a little embarrassed after accidentally playing a rap song with the N-word in it. The gaffe was part of a segment about a 103-year-old woman, Gladys Flamer, who still drives herself around and lives alone in Coatsville, Pa.
Click Here for the Complete Story
Your Hottest News Stories
25-May-2010 - Mattel has launched a new line of Barbie dolls called "Back to Basics (pictured below)," which features several dolls, white and black, in (what I can only term) "after-5" wear: There are off-the-shoulder dresses, strapless minis and plunging necklines. The whole thing is absolutely freaky. It's like some odd soft porno featuring call-girl dolls.
Click Here for the Complete Story
Your Hottest News Stories
24-May-2010 - The 21-year-old R&B sensation recently went on a Tweeting tirade against Atlanta-based celeb gossip blogger Sandra Rose. Reportedly, Brown resorted to attacking the blogger's complexion by using juvenile "you're so black" jokes.
Click Here for the Complete Story
Your Hottest News Stories
23-May-2010 - If I'm blessed enough to live past my 10th decade on this planet, then 103-year-old Gladys Flamer is going to be my blueprint for how to behave after I pass the century mark.
Click Here for the Complete Story
Your Hottest News Stories
21-May-10 - Its tough for a tiger to change its stripes. And in the case of the 70-year-old Julianna Farrait, wife of Frank Lucas, one of the most notorious drug kingpins in American history, prison stripes might again be a part of her wardrobe.
Click Here for the Complete Story
Your Hottest News Stories
20-May-10 - A Memphis, Tenn., man was babysitting his girlfriend's toddler when she defecated on the floor. The man reacted to the accident by beating the 2-year-old toddler to death with a basketball shoe.
Click Here for the Complete Story
Your Hottest News Stories
17-May-10 - Geoffrey Fieger, the attorney representing the family of Aiyana Jones, a 7-year old who was shot dead during a police raid, says police are trying to cover up the truth about what exactly happened.
Click Here for the Complete Story
Your Hottest News Stories
18-May-10 - Vicki Valentine has had to live through the foreclosure nightmare that is affecting all of America. She recently watched a crew of men break the lock on her door and take possession of the home she owned for 30 years. Her father paid off the mortgage in 1984, only to see his daughter lose the home 26 years later over a $362 water bill.
Click Here for the Complete Story
Your Hottest News Stories
18-May-10 - President Barack Obama's very colorful, very opinionated ex-pastor, Jeremiah Wright, is making headlines yet again, but this time it is in the form of the written word. The Associated Press came across an explosive, missive written by Wright that talks about the president in a very unflattering light.
Click Here for the Complete Story
Your Hottest News Stories
Need A Date? How About 30 In One Night?
Marian Wright Edelman: Still Hungry in America
Comments: (2)
Add a comment
By: oooozzzzz on 6/02/2010 2:03PM
Quote from article: "The thing that is probably motivating James at the moment, though, is where can he get to a championship trophy the fastest? Unless The Lakers or Celtics are willing to break up their solid squads, it looks like the best chance LeBron has to get that trophy is to stay in Cleveland, bring in another star and see what they do with the coaching situation. Other than that, Bron will be heading to a rebuilding situation, where he'll be waiting another seven years to see if he can be a champion".
---------------------------------------------------
If he's smart, he will stay in Cleveland. If he goes somewhere else and teams with another superstar, then he will put himself further behind in the championship race.
But he does have some chances that may work if he leaves Clevelend:
(1) The Lakers ans Celtics are LeBron's "Michael Jordan"; the very obstacles that LeBron has to beat in order to win a championship, the same way that MJ had to beat the Pistons.
As long as the Big 3 (Garnett, Pierec, Allen) in Boston and Kobe in LA stay healthy, LeBron is going to have to wait but to LeBron's advantage, the Big 3 are getting old and Kobe is too.
(2) The continious flow of inexperienced "one and done" freshman college players who turn pro after 1 year of college will be advantage LeBron since these young players who have raw talent but don't have the immediate professional skills to run & lead a team (they will take years to develop the pro game and many will flame out of the league) and win a championship. When players like Kobe, Shaq, Tim Duncan, and Kevin Garnett, who are now champions on the downside of their careers, then LeBron becomes one of (if not the best, barring serious injury) the seasoned superstar veterans in the league and will then be competing against those young, inexperienced players who wll have the same problems with playoff experience that Lebron has beating seasoned veterans like Kobe and Boston's Big 3 in the playoffs. In this situation playing younger, inexperienced players, Lebron wins multiple championships.
(3) If LeBron leaves and has to start over (and I agree with the author, he will need several years to rebuild), then he will probably end up just like those aging superstars (like Clyde Drexler with the Houston Rockets & Gary Peyton with the Miami Heat) who had to go to a teams who already have (or good enough to win) championships to tag along for the ride and get a ring since they could not get it done (as the superstar player) with their original teams.
Lebron, stay in Cleveland. The money is not the issue, the chemistry needed to win championship is there in Cleveland for your advantage.
Reply to this Comment | Report This
By: meanvee on 6/03/2010 4:39PM
I don't think its about the money, cleveland can pay him 30 mil more than anybody else, but he can make 10x more than that in endorsements and other opportunities in the nyc, his best chance to win a title is where he is at right now, maybe he can convince chris bosh to sign with cleveland, that will be lebron's scottie pippen and they will win it all.
http://www.GamingConsoleStore.com
Reply to this Comment | Report This