Will LeBron leave the NBA for Europe if he's offered 50 mil

[TheOUTLAW]

Well someone on the general board is now blaming LeBron for the rise in ticket prices. Now, I've never known any player that had a say in what is charged for tickets, but evidently the fact that the Owner is willing to pay a player more means that the player is driving up ticket prices. That's like blaming a fruit picker for how much the fruit costs.

[CoolD]

I have no doubt that he will atleast consider it if it is infact a real offer made it 2010 but personally I would be very suprised if he actually made the move overseas. I really feel like the only thing that gains by going overseas is money. Now that may be a very big only but I feel that the NBA is still the best league in world and leaving only for the money no matter the amount he would be cheating himself and his leagcy.

He could kiss most of the records that he now has a chance of breaking goodbye with a 3 year period gone and even if those 3 are the only years he is gone that diminishes the chance of him winning an NBA titile to a certain degree. With all of that said, again I would be very surprised if he made a move to Greece.

Good arguement for him not leaving the NBA.

Hopefully he gets those records as a Heat player along Wade.

[rjgraca]

Still looking like Kobe Bryant is a better bet on beating Lebron to playing in Europe professionally.

In lieu of a report that Cleveland star LeBron James would strongly consider playing in Europe for $50 million for one season when he becomes a free agent in two years, when asked by The Boston Globe about the report Bryant said he would take a similar deal by a pro team in Italy if offered when he becomes a free agent next summer. Such would be a devestating loss for the NBA since the Los Angeles Lakers star is the NBA’s Most Valuable Player last season and considered its most popular player. The Associated Press originally reported that Bryant could have interest in playing professionally in Europe. “I’d go. I’d probably go,” said Bryant, during a USA Basketball press conference on Friday morning. “Like Milan or something like that, where I grew up or something like that… Peace out.”

Bryant continued: “Do you know any reasonable person that would turn down 50 (million dollars)?” Bryant spent a large part of his childhood growing up in Italy while his father, Joe, played professional basketball there and speaks fluent Italian. In 1999, the 10-time NBA All-Star also acquired a 50 percent ownership of the Olimpia Milano of the Italian Professional Basketball League. “Because I grew up in Italy it has more significance to me because I’m more familiar with it, I’ve been there and I still have friends there,” said Bryant, a three-time NBA champion. “I’m thinking about buying a house out there. It would be nothing to me to be able to do that.” Boston Globe

Looks like there is a line forming for the Big money going over seas -- Dwyane Wade is directly quoted as stating that he would be there too for that kind of money.

Dan Bickley of The Arizona Republic: "The globalization of basketball is David Stern's dream, and now that dream is coming true. Except it's starting to look like a nightmare. We're not talking about heightened competition for the U.S. Olympic team. That's been the case for some time. This is about the newest, hottest trend in hoops. It's the reverse commute that's caught the NBA and its commissioner by surprise. It's the sudden wave of players bolting the league to play basketball overseas. 'They throw 30, 40, 50 million a year at me? I can't turn that down,' said Heat star Dwyane Wade, a free agent in 2010."

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-3 ... riday.html

[TheOUTLAW]

Gilbert speaketh the truth

Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cavaliers, was critical of the media for the way they have portrayed the possibility of LeBron James leaving the Cavaliers via free agency.

"The reason this thing is where it's at," Gilbert said, "is that we've got a bunch of bored, East Coast sports writers who have nothing to do because the offseason is a few months away and the Olympics [hadn't] started yet.

"The undertone to the whole thing that I wonder is, why him?" Gilbert said. "Why not Dwyane Wade? Why not Chris Bosh? Why not whoever else is coming due?

"The only thing you can come up with is there are certain writers, or people who live on the East or West Coast, who think that Cleveland, Ohio, is not a good enough place for a superstar of LeBron's caliber to spend his career.

"Despite the quality of the franchise, the quality of life in the Midwest, the fans — it's a complete slap in the face from people who do not live in Cleveland, Ohio, to Cleveland, Ohio.

"That's probably my biggest problem with the whole thing.

"If he were playing for the Lakers or the Knicks or the Nets or Miami, what they consider glamour teams, I don't think there would be any of this talk. And the proof of it is there. Because there's not talk of any of these other stars."

[YiYaoYue]

It is also true that only those that bend the truth ever get recognition, so society can also be blamed for making fame "dirty."