Posted by Pharzeone:

Posted by TMS:

i gotta believe there's a lot more hot women in NY than there are in CLE... that's a good enough reason right there for Lebron to wanna come here.

He has a girlfriend and if you look at her long enough, you'll tell he doesn't care too much about the hotness ratio.

that's just the girl who will allow him to bang as many girls as he wants & doesn't give him any grief about it.

Lets add some fuel to the fire from Mr. Isola...

http://realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/58685/20090421/lebron_wants_to_leave_cleveland_with_a_title/

Frank Isola reports that most of those in LeBron James' inner circle think he will sign with the Knicks a little over a year from now.

"I've always felt that LeBron would stay but when you talk to people close to him - business people - the majority of them believe he'll be a Knick," writes Isola.

James may think winning a championship in Cleveland would allow him to leave town on good terms.

"The thinking is that LeBron would be more inclined to chase his dream of becoming the world's first billion dollar athlete in New York if he were to leave behind a title with the Cavs," writes Isola. "There are those who believe that LeBron wouldn't want to split from his hometown without having raised a championship banner."

c'mon Phar...are you really trying to equate a Cleveland market with NY? When they say "east coast bias" they really mean, "NY market machine dictating our tastes and fascinations.

Not only is it a numbers game (NY fans vs. Cleveland fans) its the intangibles. There is cache in NY that Cleveland will never be able to tap into. Again, Cleveland has arguably the best basketball player at his age EVER and have the best team, record wise, in the league --- and they are an also ran. They are taking a back seat to bigger markets like L.A, Chicago, Boston in the sports world narrative. Thats unforgivable.

Even in the age of Global media --- the flow of information obviously still works its way from the West. We are the biggest exporter in that regard. And in the west, nobody gives a damn about Cleveland. In NY, Lebron will have a marriage with a media market that can handle his star power and expand his reach. Cleveland is collapsing under his weight.

He has to leave.

Posted by BigSm00th:

dude. ok hows this for an example:

new york city gets around 50 million international tourists a year. cleveland doesn't even get half a million per year. out of that 50 million, what percentage will try to go to a knicks game with the nba's biggest star playing for the home team? 25% i'll guess, which is probably a conservative estimate. that's 12.5 million foreigners who then will go home and maybe watch the sport, buy a lebron jersey, etc. let's say he plays in NY for the next 10 years, that means 120 million people from overseas have seen lebron in person, know who is, consider themselves a fan. to say that he'll have the same amount staying in cleveland is just ridiculous. its not true, demographics just don't back it up.

lebron is a global icon now, that's true. but he can absolutely be better known and make more money. lebron earned around 30 million last year, including endorsements. tiger woods, arguably the best known athlete in the world, made 90 million. beckham and other top soccer guys make in the 50s, and even some F1 guys (at least schumaker used to).

the loyalty card is overhyped. lebron will always be loved in cleveland. his goals are to be the first sports billionaire and be a global icon, it takes pretty simple logic to deduce he will sign with the knicks. show me the money baby.

[Edited by - bigsm00th on 04-20-2009 11:56 AM]

Math 101. MSG sits 19,763 per game multiplied by 41 home games per season = 810,283. Your "demographics" cannot possibly be correct.

Posted by K22:

Posted by BigSm00th:

can he stop kobe my god bring on june.

Odds are against LeBron big time as far as this goes. You know Kobe hasn't forgotten about last year.

if they meet in the finals, thats gonna be the match-up of the century - i can see both going for 40-50 a night.

Posted by EwingsGlass:

Posted by BigSm00th:

dude. ok hows this for an example:

new york city gets around 50 million international tourists a year. cleveland doesn't even get half a million per year. out of that 50 million, what percentage will try to go to a knicks game with the nba's biggest star playing for the home team? 25% i'll guess, which is probably a conservative estimate. that's 12.5 million foreigners who then will go home and maybe watch the sport, buy a lebron jersey, etc. let's say he plays in NY for the next 10 years, that means 120 million people from overseas have seen lebron in person, know who is, consider themselves a fan. to say that he'll have the same amount staying in cleveland is just ridiculous. its not true, demographics just don't back it up.

lebron is a global icon now, that's true. but he can absolutely be better known and make more money. lebron earned around 30 million last year, including endorsements. tiger woods, arguably the best known athlete in the world, made 90 million. beckham and other top soccer guys make in the 50s, and even some F1 guys (at least schumaker used to).

the loyalty card is overhyped. lebron will always be loved in cleveland. his goals are to be the first sports billionaire and be a global icon, it takes pretty simple logic to deduce he will sign with the knicks. show me the money baby.

[Edited by - bigsm00th on 04-20-2009 11:56 AM]

Math 101. MSG sits 19,763 per game multiplied by 41 home games per season = 810,283. Your "demographics" cannot possibly be correct.

good point. are you also going to argue that new york city isn't a bigger market than cleveland and lebron can't possibly benefit from signing here?