James, whose massive ego brushed aside his near-hometown team, disses teams like the TimberWolves and Nets.
Maybe someday, still without a championship ring, LeBron James will need to play with the TimberWolves, Nets or Cavaliers to help his title chances.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It's become a cliche, but it's true:
Fans might have been disappointed, but most of them understood that LeBron James had earned the right to become a free agent and leave the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat.
It is, though, well chronicled how James came across as a selfish egomaniac in how he chose to orchestrate his departure from Cleveland -- 30 miles north of his native Akron -- to Miami.
We don't need to get into how James ignored the Cavaliers as they sought to communicate with them; how he didn't inform them that he was "taking my talents to South Beach," but used one of his entourage to tell the Cavs of the decision almost as "The Decision" began to air on ESPN; how, the next day, James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh basked in their own imagined glories during the narcissistic spectacle in Miami.
Etcetera, etcetera.
All in the wake of James' surrender during the Cavaliers' playoff series loss to the Boston Celtics.
Maybe it's not enough for James to inflict severe damage on one franchise.
Maybe he wants to exterminate others.
Miami played at Phoenix against the Suns on Wednesday night, and James shared some of his wisdom before the game. Brian Windhorst writes for ESPN.com that James feels contraction -- folding some of the NBA's 30 teams -- might be good for the league.
James must not care how the loss of a team might affect its fans, or its city. Hey, it doesn't even bother him that fewer players would have an NBA job.
James sees almost all things from the lofty perspective of the pedestal he has himself on, built on the belief that he has already established himself as an historical figure.
Windhorst writes, quoting the king-of-no-ring:
"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."
James, who gets decent compensation for playing, said on Wednesday that he doesn't enjoy playing on Christmas, as the Heat will in Los Angeles against the Lakers.
James thinks a game on Christmas wouldn't be so big if there were more games on other days between two good teams, as he thinks there were in the 1980's. He figures with fewer teams and fewer players, more of the players would be good players, worhty of sharing the basketball court with him.
Windhorst quotes James:
"You had more [star] players on a team, which made almost every game anticipated, not just a Christmas Day game," James said. "I don't ever think it is bad for the league when guys decide they want to do some greatness for what we call a team sport."
That last sentence James said.....Let it speak for itself.