Tonight at midnight is the moment we have been hearing about since the Boston Celtics eliminated the Cavaliers about six weeks ago. LeBron James will become an unrestricted free agent, and can negotiate with any NBA team.
What will James do? No one knows at this point, but his reputation will be tarnished if he doesn’t resign with Cleveland.
LeBron James is the “man” in the Cavaliers organization. Dan Gilbert may own the team, but all basketball and marketing operations revolve around James. And why not? The only team in the past thirty or so years that has won an NBA championship without a superstar is the Detroit Pistons in 2004.
Look at the teams who have won. They have been led by Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas, Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Tim Duncan, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, and the trinity of stars with the Celtics in 2008.
By the way, all of those guys, except for O’Neal played their entire career with one team.
Critics say seven teams have won without James since he entered the league, which is true, but history shows you have a better chance to win if you have great players. That is undisputable.
Since James is that player for the Cavs, isn’t he responsible for the wine and gold winning a title? There is no doubt it’s not easy to accomplish, but it’s his job as the best player to elevate the performance of his teammates.
If he leaves, he is the same as guys like Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady, who wanted to go to teams that were winning. Those two, and others like them, never realized it was their responsibility to make the squad they were playing for better. They were supposed to be the leaders.
Also, it’s not as though management hasn’t tried to win while #23 was with the team. Gilbert and former GM Danny Ferry put players in place to give the wine and gold a shot at winning a title most seasons. The only time the team won less than 50 games in Ferry and Mike Brown’s tenure was the 2007-08 season, and that could partly be attributed to Anderson Varajao’s holdout.
Can you imagine if the Cavaliers’ management had done to James what the Miami Heat did to Dewayne Wade? The Heat basically stripped down the roster the past two years so that they were no threat for a championship. Yet, Wade is hinting that he wants to stay in south Florida despite this.
The reason Cleveland has little flexibility in regards to the salary cap was their effort to keep improving the team to win a title, with James as the best player. Now, the superstar is going to use that against the organization?
If James departs, not only did he not deliver a title, he also put the team in a terrible position to rebuild because they are so far over the salary cap. That doesn’t look good when people look back at this era in the franchise.
LeBron James doesn’t owe anybody anything. He’s also entitled to be a free agent; it’s his right as an NBA player. However, if he is really interested in his legacy and place in basketball history, he needs to stay in the wine and gold.
Otherwise, he’ll be looked upon as a guy who didn’t get it done. The other players on the modern NBA’s Mt. Rushmore (Bird, Magic, Jordan, Bryant) played for one team. Yes, they had other great players on their teams, but #23 needs to give Dan Gilbert an opportunity to do the same without the constant threat of leaving.
JK
Cleveland Sports Perspective 