LeTravel, LaQween, LaDouche - La Going to LA

[verbal8]

I don't have a problem with Lebron leaving. I have a problem with Lebron begging ownership to acquire a "stretch four" at the Trade Deadline and convincing ownership to pony up $40M for Antawn Jamison's 3-year contract, and then walking away in the offseason.

If Lebron had any inclination he was going to leave, he should have told Gilbert not to invest MASSIVE amounts of money in over-the-hill vets.

Yeah the Cavs supposedly had 3 options at that point: Jamison, Troy Murphy and Amare. I am not sure if Amare was truly available. If they acquired was they might have a chance of getting Carmelo Anthony in place of LeBron, or some other immediate reload move.

I am sure Troy Murphy was available. His production would likely have been similar to Jamison. However they could have dealt him for an asset rebuild around(like Collison) unlike Jamison's deal which would be tough to move.

[Severn Hoos]

Dan Gilbert did everything Lebron asked him to do, but Lebron still screwed him. Now, in hindsight, one can see that Gilbert probably shouldn't have catered to Lebron. Rather than please Lebron every moment, he should have ignored Lebron and built the best team possible in the hopes that Lebron would stay simply because they were winning.

Dan Gilbert can be accused of being stupid, sure. But his heart was in the right place. Lebron still betrayed him.

Betrayed him??? How many times have we seen the shoe on the other foot. He had every right to leave and go to another team. He didn't owe Gilbert anything. I don't like Lebron and probably screwed his legacy but the "its a business" line works both ways. It not like he said one thing and did another. He always said there was a chance for him to go to another team from the beginning.

Technically true, in that he said many things about staying in Cleveland and did the opposite:

In 2006, he told ESPN the Magazine, "I don't want to go ring-chasing. I want to stay with the Cavs and build a champion." In April, before the 2010 playoffs, he said, "I got a goal, and it's a huge goal, and that's to bring an NBA championship here to Cleveland, and I won't stop until I get it."

I mostly agree with nate here. I heard Mike & Mike this morning saying that the Cavs had 7 years to put a championship caliber team around him and failed, so LeBron had every right to leave.

Again, technically true - but leaves out the context that every move of the past 7 years was designed to appease LeBron, and were all presumably approved by the Lyin' King. (I do like that one...) From firing Paul Silas to signing Larry Hughes to re-signing Verajao to trading for Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison, it was all at LeBron's behest. You can't just put all that on Danny Ferry as if LeBron was an aggrieved bystander.

Now, I wouldn't go so far as to say LeBron betrayed Cleveland. He had no obligation to stay (beyond his own comments, which fall into the category of Athletes, Owners, and Politicians). Still, the way he went about it was deplorable. He humiliated the team, the fans, and the city, but I wouldn't call it a betrayal.

[DallasShalDune]

Severn, I actually blame LeBron for why the Cavs did not succeed last year. He truly did give up in the Boston series. Therefore, it was his fault the team never lived up to their championship aspirations, not the organizations necessarily.

[Rafael122]

Cleveland could have had Amare if they had traded JJ Hickson.

[Ruzious]

FWIW, my sympathy is with Dan Gilbert, the owner. I don't have much sympathy for the Cleveland fans either. But just because I don't care for the Cleveland fans, doesn't make what Lebron did any better. I still hate Lebron more than any other figure in sports.

I dunno nate. Gilbert's behavior since The Decision has made it pretty clear that he's at least a little bit of a moron -- if not worse. I wouldn't want him owning a team I loved. His spite and delusion are delaying a rebuild that should have started the moment Lebron left. I'm sure he bears some of the responsibility for the team's failures while Lebron was there.

I don't feel sorry for Dan Gilbert.

times 10.

I'm sure he did a lot of favors for LeBron, but he got 7 years from the kid and if he was any kind of businessman, he made a helluvalot of money for his troubles. The idea that LeBron somehow owed it to him to stay is absurd. His self-serving ridiculous comments after LeBron left helped fuel the pathetic reaction of Cleve fans and was all the evidence needed to see that James made the right choice in deciding to leave Cleveland.

[REDardWIZskin]

+1 Ruz

Sev, that quote you have is from 2006 before the two failed attempts with a team that was pretty much about at its peak minus Hickson breaking out and Mo Williams had folded for the second straight year in the playoffs. That was before people were really even talking about FA2010. way out of context of the recent series of events.

To make that assertion look even more silly and show how irrelevant it is to the current NBA structure

1.) that was one of the years that our Wizards played the Cavs in the playoffs
2.) the Pistons were #1 in the eastern Conference and were coached by our Flip Saunders

how far are we away from those day, I mean really...

I'm not making excuses for Lebron but i don't buy the excuses for Gilbert either. eff em both for all i care

[Severn Hoos]

Well, the first quote was from 2006, but the second one was from April 2010. During the playoffs. 2 months later, he did the exact opposite.

In April, before the 2010 playoffs, he said, "I got a goal, and it's a huge goal, and that's to bring an NBA championship here to Cleveland, and I won't stop until I get it."

Now, I said that we should treat these type of statements, whether from a player, coach, or owner, the same way we would campaign promises from a politician. There's a reason why the dreaded "vote of confidence" is such a joke - because it almost always means the guy is toast. But you can't say that LeBron never indicated he would stay.

And his interview with Larry King, on national TV - in June, just one month before leaving:

KING: So it has to be a good team?

JAMES: Absolutely.

KING: All right. Do you lean at all toward the place you know the best? I mean do they have an edge going in...

JAMES: Oh, absolutely.

KING: -- your home team?

JAMES: Absolutely. 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. But it's a -- it's a very -- it's going to be a very interesting summer and I'm looking forward to it.

...

KING: OK. So I'm not going to put words in your mouth. All things being equal, is Cleveland sort of sentimentally the favorite?

JAMES: Oh, absolutely. And it's a -- it's a Cleveland-Akron team, because I grew up in Akron. I mean Akron is less than 30 miles south of Cleveland. So, absolutely. My whole family is here. You know, when I played high school basketball, where I grew up, in the projects, a lot of -- a lot of things mean home for me here. And -- and it's not just about the basketball court.

So yeah, he can say that Cleveland was the favorite, but then he changed his mind. Or you can say that he told a white lie on Larry King, saying it was his favorite but he didn't really mean it. But he certainly made plenty of public statements indicating that Cleveland was where we would/wanted to be. In any event, it just doesn't cast him a good light no matter how you cut it.

[Zonkerbl]

What do you guys think of the michael jordan commercial mocking lebron on youtube?

I think it would be funny except that it's so untrue. Michael didn't lift weights until he had three championships already. Did he work on his game as much as he claims? How would we know?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EalorZaTlI8

[AceDegenerate]

It's well known Jordan started lifting weights to deal with the pounding the Pistons were putting on him, so that was well before the 3 championships.

And then, if you question Jordan's work ethic then who do you believe actually works on their game?

As for the commercial, it's well edited and interesting that it's gained enough popularity that even MJ himself had to comment on it not being official.

[Hoopalotta]

I'd expect that Miami will pass Atlanta and Chicago in the standings by the end of the year and it also looks like New York and Indiana are battling it out for the 6th seed. How awesome would a first round series between New York and Miami be with how piddled off those York fans are with Le Bon Bon?

Failing that, a first round series with Atlanta or Chicago could be very dangerous for Miami if they fail to secure the 3rd seed.

No matter what, it looks like Miami is going to have to go through both Boston and Orlando to get to the finals as there's almost no chance that they're going to be able to get that top seed with their current depth chart.

[Ruzious]

What do you guys think of the michael jordan commercial mocking lebron on youtube?

I think it would be funny except that it's so untrue. Michael didn't lift weights until he had three championships already. Did he work on his game as much as he claims? How would we know?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EalorZaTlI8

What I think is we found an ego bigger than LeBron's. MJ trying to act holier than thou makes him look like a cranky old has-been trying to yank back the spot-light.

[hands11]

This just gets funnier all the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1QlSzSD ... ature=fvwp

God was that TV announcement and the following commercial " What should I do " complete PR blunders. I'm really not sure he can recover from this. He has dug such a deep hole and I see no sign of him stopping because he is totally clueless.

We as Wiz fans were way ahead of the game on the LaDouche hate. Now I hear announcers talking about him on the radio as the most hated man in sports. As someone so ego driven who wanted to be crowned the King and loved by all, he has blown it completely. It's not a choice LaDouche. You are the villain. It's not a role you get to choice to play or not play. "Chosen one" should stay tated on your back because you were chosen to be King Douche. It is your stamp.

What should you do. I'll say it again. Shut up. Stop the pre-game crap. Stop the whining about fouls and just prove yourself on the court. And stop any reference to yourself as being a great player. You can strive for it. But never publicly talk about it.

You may never win it all. Lots of players don't. But at least with great stats you can be talked about favorably ala Carl Malone, D Wilkins, Nash, etc. As it is, people will be talking about your stats and what a douche you were. The self proclaimed boy King who never was one.

[hands11]

What do you guys think of the michael jordan commercial mocking lebron on youtube?

I think it would be funny except that it's so untrue. Michael didn't lift weights until he had three championships already. Did he work on his game as much as he claims? How would we know?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EalorZaTlI8

What I think is we found an ego bigger than LeBron's. MJ trying to act holier than thou makes him look like a cranky old has-been trying to yank back the spot-light.

MJ made Nike and revolutionized the sports shoe industry with his play, his name, his style, the championships and his promotional commercials. LeDouche and others are just walking in his wake.

MJ wrote of book on pro basketball promotional money. LeDouche should be giving MJ 50% of his Nike money because the only reason he is getting paid is because of the hopes that he would be another MJ.

MJ got some bruises with the gambling and then with the way things went here in Washington, but I predicted he would shine again. MJ was smart. He laid low for a while. He let the dust settle. But MJ is a camera darling. He has personality and smarts about how to work the media that LeBron will never have. MJ would have never done a commercial like the Nike one LaDouche did and he never needed to.

MJ is the King but he would never has referred to himself with some label like that. He was arguably the Great Basketball Player of all time. And if not that, certainly the greatest of the modern era. He didn't need labels like..The King or The Chosen One. All you had to say was.

MJ - that said it all. And the nick name he did have included his name. Air Jordon and they made a shoe line with that name of it.

By contrast, players got named after him.. ala.. Baby Jordan.

So at what point does Nike dump LeBron ? The Excuse. The Overrated One. The Fake one.
Not such a good advertising angle. Even a retied MJ would promote the brand better.

[Ruzious]

Hands, we get it. But who cares? They're both very flawed people who are basketball celebs. One's accomplished a lot more than they other. To me, they're a basketball player and a former basketball player. Please shoot me if I ever become a fanboy.

[pancakes3]

well, first off the video isn't even real. it's a cleverly spliced retooling of an old Nike ad and a new Nike ad.

second off, i feel like it's a disingenuous to call MJ JUST a basketball player. it's borderline sacrilege to call him a cranky old has-been. MJ's opinion on things concerning basketball DOES matter. It certainly holds more weight than anyone on realgm.

and lastly... you don't think the fake video makes a good point? the nike PR department is probably pooping themselves at the fact this video has been viewed 2 million + times.

[Ruzious]

well, first off the video isn't even real. it's a cleverly spliced retooling of an old Nike ad and a new Nike ad.

Oops. I should have figured that out - since there's no way Nike would have made that commercial - my b.

second off, i feel like it's a disingenuous to call MJ JUST a basketball player. it's borderline sacrilege to call him a cranky old has-been. MJ's opinion on things concerning basketball DOES matter. It certainly holds more weight than anyone on realgm.

Sacrilege? Yawn.

and lastly... you don't think the fake video makes a good point? the nike PR department is probably pooping themselves at the fact this video has been viewed 2 million + times.

Maybe, but... why do you care?

[closg00]

LeBron doing his chalk-toss before the Cavs games, wadda dick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTKXIuRm ... r_embedded

[hands11]

Hands, we get it. But who cares? They're both very flawed people who are basketball celebs. One's accomplished a lot more than they other. To me, they're a basketball player and a former basketball player. Please shoot me if I ever become a fanboy.

I'm sorry. Maybe you should go post on the cooking board or tune into some Martha Stewart show.

This is the board for basketball because people care about players, teams, the refs, owners, GMs fans, jerseys, THE SPORT

As for flawed people. That would be everyone who ever walked this Earth. So what.

[fugop]

Nike will dump Lebron when he stops selling shoes.

[LyricalRico]

"Hopefully the league can figure out one way where it can go back to the '80s where you had three or four All-Stars, three or four superstars, three or four Hall of Famers on the same team," James said. "The league was great. It wasn't as watered down as it is [now]."

In fact, James seemed to have a couple of ideas of which teams could go and some players that would make other teams better right now.

"[Contraction] is not my job; I'm a player but that is why it the league was so great," James said.

"Imagine if you could take Kevin Love off Minnesota and add him to another team and you shrink the [league]. Looking at some of the teams that aren't that great, you take Brook Lopez or you take Devin Harris off these teams that aren't that good right now and you add him to a team that could be really good. Not saying let's take New Jersey and let's take Minnesota out of the league. But hey, you guys are not stupid, I'm not stupid, it would be great for the league."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/truehoop/ ... id=5952952



A current player suggesting that other guys jobs should be eliminated and actually naming specific teams as examples? Wow.