Are the LeBron James to Miami rumors real or hype?
Will LeBron James and Dwyane Wade embrace as teammates in Miami? We'll know later today.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- More scribbles in my notebook while waiting for LeBron James to pick a team ...
1. LeBron James to Miami? As my readers like to remind me, I'm very good at being wrong. So maybe I'm wrong again. But so much about this entire story stinks. James is having his "The Decision" show on ESPN tonight. Then ESPN reports that he is leaning to Miami. This is after several days of ESPN and others reporting he was likely to sign again with the Cavs. And then there's fact that free agents Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were visiting teams as a camera crew followed them around.
2. Does all this add up to a new show, something like Three Amigos Go To Miami, complete with an entire film report? Are the Miami rumors being floated to hype the show, because James remaining in Cleveland is a boring national story? Can we trust what ESPN is reporting, because they have a piece of this action?
3. I will say that ESPN's Chris Broussard has been the point reporter on much of this, and Broussard is a friend, a man of integrity who previously wrote for The Plain Dealer and covered the Cavs for the Akron Beacon Journal. He is well connected to the James camp. He also is close to the agent for Bosh and Wade. Yes, those two new Miami players have the same agent. But can these different camps be feeding ESPN information to create drama for the show?
4. I don't have an answer to any of this. It just makes me wonder. I also find it odd that James would fall into the AAU summer team All-Star approach taken by Miami, trying to put James, Wade and Bosh together. Their only other players are Michael Beasley and Mario Chalmers. Everyone else is gone, cleared for cap space. ESPN's John Hollinger wrote: "Team Trinity would be left to pick up the scraps -- replacement-level talents available for the veteran's minimum, second-round draft picks and D-Leaguers. The only respite might come from a veteran waived or bought out at midseason -- a la P.J. Brown in 2008 or Joe Smith in 2009 -- but even so, we're talking about eighth-man types."
5. Amazing, Hollinger then predicted that team would win 61 games, despite no depth, no center and two superstars with many of the same skills. No doubt, they'd win big in the regular season if they stayed healthy. But is it a team ready to win in the playoffs, where size is such a key? Yes, the Lakers had Kobe Bryant, but Pau Gasol and even Andrew Bynum dragging around a bad leg are keys to their success.
6. Maybe James is buying into the hype. Maybe Pat Riley has promised (or at least hinted) that he'll come down from the front office and coach once more at the age of 65. Maybe this is all one big reality show, and maybe that's what James wants.
7. But in terms of a pure basketball situation, Chicago is far more intriguing than Miami after adding Carlos Boozer (yes, injury-prone, but effective), along with Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah and Luol Deng (also gets hurt). I kind of like some of the Nets young talent. I'll insist the Cavs are a solid team. But none of these teams are a Made For TV deal, which is what Miami will become.
8. If James goes to Miami, I imagine a lot of Clevelanders will become Orlando fans when those two Florida rivals meet. That's especially true after Stan Van Gundy's comments about how James should stay in Cleveland and how he is appalled by the entire ESPN approach to James' decision.
9. Is it good that James is using the ESPN show partly to raise money for Boys and Girls clubs? Of course. Is that really what this is about? You know the answer to that. James could easily have said he'd give 5-or-10 percent of his new contract (or endorsements) to the clubs, and made it his favor cause over the next few years. But tying the Boys and Girls clubs into this self-serving ESPN show doesn't fool anyone of his intent.
10. Will this spectacle be forgiven by Cavs fans if he announces that he's staying in Cleveland? Probably. But no matter what James think, this free agency period has not been his best moment.