Papabear wrote:Lebron is a great player and he also have some haters. He is one of the greatest. But something is missing. New York is the meca but we seem to never get close to a ring. What kind of hero would Lebron be? How would you feel about that.
LeBron James is a once in a generation athlete.
He is also a blithering non charismatic idiot with the press. He's also possibly the dumbest defacto GM in any sport. ( I mean even Michael Jordan isn't this horrible)
Would he win a ring in NY? Depends on what Nike would do for him. The NBA generates a massive amount of revenue from sponsors and advertising and commercials, but those mega deals with the networks is the big coin. Who supports those networks? Corporations like Nike, who have spent countless millions on paying LBJ to be their face of basketball marketing and spent even more to clean up his messes in public.
Nike wants a return on it's investment. When Guiliani went after the mob, did anyone fully believe he was going to fail? The government spent MILLIONS and these were high profile cases. Some goombah was going to jail, no matter what. When you make a massive investment, you want a return on it.
Nike pressures the league, the league directs its refs, the refs basically let LBJ operate on his own level of discretion.
You can win any game 8 on 5. You can't win 5 on 8.
Watching Sacramento get hosed by the Heat, because David Stern said so, was one of the most shameful things ever in the history of modern sports. Dwayne Wade could have carried a shotgun out there, gunned down a couple of Kings players, and those Kings players would have been called for fouls and Wade would be shooting free throws as those dead bodies would be dragged off the court.
LBJ has never won a championship because of LBJ. He's won because Nike says so.
David Stern saved the NBA by marketing it to the individual player, but he ruined the integrity of the game itself when players worried more about shoe deals than team basketball.
LBJ is a test case, IMHO, of how far a player can self inflict on himself while simply be bailed out by a mega corporation invested in seeing this player get a ring.
Does anyone think LBJ was going to stay unmarried with children out of wedlock? You think Nike wanted that?
Something should tell you what's wrong with sports when Tiger Woods holds a press conference to apologize to his sponsors for cheating on his wife.
Yes, if LBJ came to NY, the Knicks would have a championship. David Stern has created a legacy that the "narrative" matters more than the game itself. LBJ winning a ring in NY is a good marketing storyline, that's all that matters.
Oprah Winfrey was rumored to buy the Clippers before Steve Balmer carried it away. Do you think the Clippers would win a championship with Oprah Winfrey ( who could literally drive 10 million women into being instant NBA fans)? Have you ever seen a player shoot 80 free throw attempts in a game. You would if Oprah owned the franchise.
Sadly, the game cares less about team basketball and more about what is marketable. Melo's relentless desire to be "brand" worthy over winning is a byproduct of this toxic culture of entitlement.
LBJ got dunked on in a basketball camp. He had Nike pull the tape. He had Nike try to conceal it even happened. That's the real LBJ. Having a ring doesn't make you a winner or a champion.
2/1/2017 12:07 AM