Columnist claims James' power-broker friend William Wesley tells people James is "going to Chicago."
LeBron James holds an "Akron's Hometown Hero" award presented to him last Saturday near the end of "LeBron James Appreciation Day" in Akron's InfoCision Stadium.The NBA's free agency period begins Thursday. Adrian Wojnarowski writes for Yahoo! Sports that the date is all but irrelevant: that the free-agent frenzy has already fostered a mad, rules-bending scramble among star-chasing teams, and that the driving force behind it is LeBron James and his inner circle as they have the NBA "on its knees, bowing down to the King."
James, the Cleveland Cavaliers forward and the winner of the NBA's MVP award each of the last two seasons, can become an unrestricted free agent Thursday.
Others in the free agent mix include pals of James' such as Miami's Dwyane Wade and Toronto's Chris Bosh.
Wojnarowski writes, referring to NBA power-broker and James' confidante William "World Wide Wes" Wesley:
In this twisted, bizarre and broken culture of Stern’s NBA, the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat overshadowed the draft with what passes as accomplishment now: Gutting good players off rosters, clearing cap space and praying World Wide Wes is lying to everyone else, not you.
.....To listen to World Wide Wes, LeBron will never look back on Cleveland. “He’s up out of there,” is the way he tells it to people, but LeBron’s Akron crew has to tsk-tsk such public talk because they all live in Northeast Ohio, and maybe always will. “We’re going to Chicago,” William Wesley tells people, “and Chris Bosh is coming, too.”
Many of Thursday's draft decisions and some trades have been driven with the purpose of creating salary cap space for teams in pursuit of James and other free agents. Meanwhile, writes Wojnarowski, "there isn’t a day that passes that the biggest stars, agents and teams aren’t negotiating in violation of the NBA’s make-believe rules."
Wojnarowski writes that the New Jersey Nets' new ownership gives the team that went 11-71 last season some hope of signing James. Also, Wojnarowski's feeling is that the Cavaliers, try hard as they may, have "little more than sentimentality to sell LeBron James to stay home."
Wojnarowski is quite clear in his opinion on it all:
All hell is breaking loose, broken rules and broken promises ruling the day. Somewhere, James was smiling on Thursday night. All these kids getting a dream fulfilled, all these picks walking to the podium, and it was still all about LeBron James on draft night. On your knees, people. Bow down to the King. Bow to the chaos.