In my opinion, New York and New Jersey make next to little sense for James. Both franchises have gutted their rosters in the hope of landing a pair from the free agent class of 2010. The cupboards seem bare for both teams.
I could understand signing with the Miami Heat because ... well its Miami ... and Dwyane Wade is already there. The Clippers have a young core in Eric Gordon and Blake Griffin, but neither team is as close to a title as Miami or Chicago.
If I were a gambling man, I think it comes down to Chicago or staying home in Cleveland.
The chance to play alongside Derek Rose and Joakim Noah, as well as another highly touted free agent like Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudemire would be very attractive. Simply by adding James alone, the Bulls would move to the top of the list of contenders in the Eastern Conference. A second max free agent would make Chicago the favorites to come out of the East in June.
Unless the Cavaliers get extremely creative (and quickly) they'll present a list of names on their roster to James that will fail in comparison to the names on the sheet Bulls GM Gar Forman will put on the table for James and company.
But there's a big X-factor in my opinion. LeBron has never really said ANYTHING about leaving. Never once has he uttered a bad word about Cleveland. He could have left back in 2006, but decided to stay then. Sure he's endured some postseason frustrations since then, but if he liked it enough to stay back in 2006, maybe a whole heck of a lot hasn't changed since then.
Maybe James decides he's happy here. If it weren't professional sports, no one in their right mind would turn down SUBSTANTIALLY more money to leave the place they were born and raised. I have to think that being happy plays a factor in the decision.
Whatever decision he makes, I could never see LeBron James as a villain. If he leaves, its not for money. He said he wanted to win a championship for Northeast Ohio, and it was clear throughout the last seven seasons that he did everything he could.
When he came here, he said he wanted to light Cleveland up like Las Vegas. Anyone that saw Cavalier basketball in the seasons pre-James knows how dreadful it was to sit around and watch the team play for 48 minutes. With #23 donning the wine and gold, home games became like rock concerts. He made it fun.
I hope he continues to make it fun, but if he leaves I hope owner Dan Gilbert decides to blow up the ship and start over rather than throwing money at free agents and trying to rebuild on the fly. Oklahoma City showed that you can quickly build a team through the draft by hitting, and hitting BIG, on early draft picks.
So what were left with is ... nothing. All we know is that LeBron James is going to make a decision in the next couple of weeks and its going to shake up the NBA. He could go, he could stay and everybody thinks they know where he's headed. I'm not sure if James even knows where he is going to end up at this point.
Here's hoping it's here in Cleveland. But if he leaves it will be like all the other Cleveland sports catastrophes in that the sun will come up the next day. LeBron James provided many, many memorable moments in his seven years here, and if we've seen the last of them, it's been a pleasure. Sure, championships would have been nice, but I think any of us would have signed up for this when we put our faith in an 18-year-old kid when he arrived back in 2002.
I'll sign up for a few more years of the same thing in a heartbeat, and hopefully James will, too.
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