LeBron James Leaves links: Multiple rings and a 'welcome' from the Dolphins

Seventy wins a year, and an annual title seem like givens for LeBron James and his "Big Three" Miami Heat teammates.

Updated at 2:40 p.m.

Bill Simonson, who writes "The Huge Blog" for Mlive.com, was pretty blunt about the hourlong informercial LeBron James conducted on Thursday: It never should have happened. But Simonson was equally blunt about his prediction for the revamped Miami Heat: 70 wins a year and championships for the next five years.

The highest level of basketball is not a team game. It is about stars taking over when needed and matchup problems. Wade, James and Bosh will create so many lopsided mismatches that teams will not be able to handle them.

And while some critics have said the Heat still have a holes in their roster – notably the lack of a good guard, a la Rayjon Rondo – Simonson said it won't matter one whit.

Talk of Miami needing more talent to win is absurd. Michael Jordan made millionaires out of a bunch of mid-level NBA players around him. He won six rings because no one could stop him even when they knew he was getting the ball.

Throw Wade, Bosh and James on the same court, and all you can do is pray they are off their game. That is the only way to beat them. The rest of the league and the fans know it. This is why the Miami Heat have become the New York Yankees of basketball without the Big Three having played a game together.Five titles in a row will be easy if they stay healthy.

"If they stay healthy." Fortunately for them, Cavs fans are above ensuring that's not the case.

On the other hand, don't discount the new Cavs. Fifty cents says that coach Byron Scott could've gotten James the title he so desperately craves, and gotten it right here in Cleveland.

Welcome
The Miami Dolphins took out full-page ads in some Florida newspapers to welcome LeBron James to the Sunshine State. The Browns play the Fish in Sun Life Stadium on Dec. 5.

Just in case there are any Cavs fans on the Browns.

Uh-oh
Nicolaus Mills, who grew up in Cleveland and now writes for Britain's Guardian newspaper, points to what he thinks is the real reason for Cavs' owner Dan Gilbert's rant against LeBron James.

All this rage is coming from a man who regularly buys and sells players. On the surface, it seems little more than the hypocrisy of a businessman who had a deal fall through. But behind Gilbert's rage is more than hypocrisy. What infuriated Gilbert was that his money wasn't enough to retain the services of LeBron James. James and two other friends from the American Olympic basketball team, Chris Bosh and Dwayne, decided that they wanted to become the nucleus of the best team in professional basketball.

. . . In basketball, as in most professional sports, it is owners working with general managers who are traditionally responsible for assembling a team. James, Bosh and Wade, in remaking the Miami Heat, were, in effect, saying that idea is old hat. Owners are not the only ones who can put together a great team. Talented players can do the same job just as well.

In one of the few businesses in America in which workers have greater name recognition than the executives who pay them, the result has been a sports revolution. Owners such as Dan Gilbert have now been warned: the old formula for making a profit based on fielding mediocre teams and charging high ticket prices is in jeopardy. Players who want to see their sport played at the highest level can create their own teams. The example set by James, Bosh and Wade can be duplicated by others.

OK, Starting Blocks will give basketball to Mills. But it could never happen in baseball or football, with their larger rosters.

We hope.

A Stern talking to?
Pat McManamon is a senior NBA writer for bleacherreport.com. Naturally, he had to take on the whole LeBron thing, and what he said makes sense, especially in light of the possibility of a probe into what could amount to collusion by James, Bosh and Wade.

NBA commissioner David Stern fined Steve Kerr (then of Phoenix) for making a joke about James prior to the start of free agency. Yet three players appear to have manipulated an entire league. Turning a blind eye to what the players did would be an insult to every fan in Cleveland who paid for a ticket the last seven years. Is it difficult to prove wrongdoing? Of course. Worth investigating? Absolutely, whether a team complains or not. If the league doesn't look into what happened, its anyone's guess the next team and city to be buried because of some prearranged deal between players.

Too, Stern has acted in the past. Years ago Juwan Howard signed a free agent contract with the Heat when they had a young Alonzo Mourning. Howard and Miami (including Pat Riley) celebrated. Stern investigated, found tampering, and sent Howard back to Washington.

This does not make the letter written by Cavs owner Dan Gilbert perfect. It was over the top in some ways. But ... it also was honest, and knowing a fraction of what happened does explain Gilbert's anger and raw emotions. Too, Gilbert voiced the feelings and frustrations of almost every Cavaliers fan. That he's admired by those fans doesn't make the vitriol OK, but it also doesn't make it a "slave" relationship, as Jesse Jackson described.

Slaves don't make the millions James did, in Cleveland, for a good team. James is a high-paid athlete who, as Jackson properly said, lived up to his contract, then left. He's not a slave, and never was.

End of story? Maybe. But that's up to Stern. David, not Howard, although the radio Stern may wish his show were this bizarre.