The New York Knickerbockers

I've said from the beginning that, if he leaves, it'll be for NY. The allure of using the media circus up there to become the biggest athlete in the history of planet earth might be just too appealing to pass up. He'll surpass Tiger, Beckham, Federer, everyone.

2 people clearly on lebron's inner circle.

everyone should listen to world wide simplebay....lebron is def going to NYC. you can't stay in Cleveland, and playing with Wade and Bosh is too many stars.

amare knew it was gonna happen. d'antoni is a perfect fit for lebron. it's happenin.

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The allure of using the media circus up there to become the biggest athlete in the history of planet earth might be just too appealing to pass up.

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There have always been two sides to Lebron... on the one hand, he's the hometown hero. But he's also said since age 18 or 19 that he wants to be the first billionaire athlete. Not gonna pull that off in Cleveland.

Seems Lebron has a little more Jay-Z in him than I thought. He's not a businessman, he's a business, man.

Can't say I blame him.

[This message has been edited by friend of cheese (edited 7/7/2010 2:15p).]

If LeBron signs with the Knicks I might stop watching the NBA.

It would just seem too scripted.

Old Rivalries:
Lakers get Gasol Gifted.
Boston gets KG/Ray Allen Gifted.
Lebron & Amare to NY

The only one that doesn't fit the mold is Wade/Bosh in Miami, but still....At some point the league would need to stop helping the big-market teams get good again.

1 billion dollars + world domination + new york city baby > jewelry

What did "the league" have to do with any of those trades or hypothetical acquisitions?

Just the conspiracy theorist in me that thinks someone behind the scenes might be the one pulling the strings on some of these transactions.

The NBA went through a pretty big dry spell after Jordan retired, and it seems mighty convenient that the teams with a storied history and big market are all of a sudden turning up roses.

I thought Tiger Woods was already a billionaire athlete.

who knows, maybe he'll sign with the knicks. i just think this is a really dumb way to do it.

it's one thing to leave the "hometown" team. it's another thing entirely to not only leave them, but to rub their nose in it during an hour-long espn special.

cleveland fans would be devastated in either case, but they're devastated and pissed off in the second scenario. and i think after a move like that, he'd probably piss off a good number of nba fans outside of cleveland.

i think he's too smart a businessman to do something like that.

i think he comes back to cleveland, but reserves an opt-out after 2-3 seasons and let it be known publicly that he expects cleveland to get him some help. that way, after 2-3 seasons, if he hasn't won a ring, he can opt out and place the blame on the front office. cleveland fans will still be devastated, but at least then he can say that he gave them a fair shake and the front office failed him.

I think this is a Dr. Cub reverse jinx or something

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i think he's too smart a businessman to do something like that.

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I think this is the most overrated description of LeBron James. An article yesterday basically nailed it. He's a 25-year-old kid with no college education pretending to be a business man. When you hire on your friends as your business partners and advisors, that should be enough to clue people in on his "business savvy."

The article pretty much implied that team execs quickly realized that it wasn't a billionaire CEO they were dealing with, but just another young athlete putting on his big boy suspenders trying to fool everyone including himself into thinking he knows what he's doing.

I have a friend that graduated law school this past May in Manhattan and has been working as an assistant council for Bad Boy Records. She says the spend their entire day/week fixing the problems Diddy creates with his business ideas. She basically confirmed that sitting in on one conference call with him and his legal team pretty much revealed Diddy to be a certified moron.

As it pertains to LeBron, he ultimately has his own say with where he'll play. He's only 25, but he's an adult. He's a once-in-a-lifetime athlete who would be an idiot not to make a fortune off of his talents. I just don't think his fortune will be due to his business sense.

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I thought Tiger Woods was already a billionaire athlete.

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You make a compelling point.

The "first billionaire athlete" stuff was 2-3 years after he entered the league, IIRC. From what I can tell, Tiger was rumored by Forbes to have crossed into billionaire territory last year. Anyway, the point is Lebron is on record as wanting to make ****-tons of money—much, much more than the sum of his basketball and shoe contracts.

[This message has been edited by friend of cheese (edited 7/7/2010 2:58p).]

Not anymore. The tang cost him $750mm

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If LeBron signs with the Knicks I might stop watching the NBA.

It would just seem too scripted.

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or, maybe it's just that if Lebron wants to become a billion dollar athlete then NY gives him the best chance to do it.

no better place to be in the spoltlight and get the most publicity thus the most lucrative endorsements

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it's one thing to leave the "hometown" team. it's another thing entirely to not only leave them, but to rub their nose in it during an hour-long espn special.

cleveland fans would be devastated in either case, but they're devastated and pissed off in the second scenario. and i think after a move like that, he'd probably piss off a good number of nba fans outside of cleveland.

i think he's too smart a businessman to do something like that.

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I see it exactly the opposite. This way he can explain to the whole world, but especially the fans in Cleveland, why he HAS to leave his hometown. It's damage control. He'll talk about how his heart will always be there and all that crap but that he must go elsewhere to achieve his dreams. That's why they are making such a big deal about the advertising money going to the Boys & Girls Clubs. How can you hate him if he's raising all that money for the poor kids?

"I have a friend that graduated law school this past May in Manhattan and has been working as an assistant council for Bad Boy Records. She says the spend their entire day/week fixing the problems Diddy creates with his business ideas. She basically confirmed that sitting in on one conference call with him and his legal team pretty much revealed Diddy to be a certified moron.

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your friend is an idiot..diddy basically created an empire without a real college education. your friend is a bigger moron if he/she willingly chose to work for a "moron"

way off subject, but I have absolutely no trouble believing that Diddy's ideas create a ton of problems for his company. But, it only takes a few good ideas to be able to pay legal council fix them and it not be anything more than a dent on his 5th bentley.

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I have a friend that graduated law school this past May in Manhattan and has been working as an assistant council for Bad Boy Records. She says the spend their entire day/week fixing the problems Diddy creates with his business ideas. She basically confirmed that sitting in on one conference call with him and his legal team pretty much revealed Diddy to be a certified moron.

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Funny that one of the guy's worker bees of all people would think he just plays businessman.

Sorry, but if you can turn freaking rapping skills into a $400 million empire, you've got some business savvy.

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your friend is an idiot..diddy basically created an empire without a real college education. your friend is a bigger moron if he/she willingly chose to work for a "moron"

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Stumbling across or lucking into an extremely talented individual and profiting off of that person does not constitute business savvy. Word to Mathew Knowles.

There are a lot of people that contribute to building a company. There is a difference between a legit CEO and a figurehead.

[This message has been edited by Head Ninja In Charge (edited 7/7/2010 3:55p).]

I don't think we can call anybody an idiot or judge them until we see a picture of this women working for Diddy.

D'Antoni >>> Byron Scott >>> first time HC Tom Thibodeau

Lebron to NYC. ballin under the lights of MSG

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Stumbling across or lucking into an extremely talented individual and profiting off of that person does not constitute business savvy.

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You're right... but stumbling across MULTPLE talented individuals, starting a top selling clothing line and funding many profit-making entertainment ventures does.

Sure, in business, you fall on your face sometimes and make moronic decisions, but I'll say it again, he took freaking rap skills (a BORDERLINE musical talent) and transformed that into a $350M net worth. There's some business savvy in there and lots of it... saying otherwise is just moronic. In other words, I think the results speak for themselves moreso than some chick 2 months out of law school who in reality probably knows and is doing little more than what a paralegal would be doing at this point.





[This message has been edited by ATM9000 (edited 7/7/2010 5:53p).]

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your friend is an idiot..diddy basically created an empire without a real college education

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P Diddy went to howard university

Diddy has some great ideas, but he has business people that turn his ideas into success.

yep. The most successful people for the most part always surround themselves with even smarter people

did you guys see the report that carmelo is supposedly recruiting lebron to new york, presumably promising to join him there after the season?

how is that acceptable?

Had the Nuggets not lost their coach to cancer, I really think they would have been a Western Conference Finals team. Him leaving the Nuggets makes no sense and it is sounding like he's very close to a 3 year extension with them.

In other words, it's not acceptable, but likely mostly bull****.

[This message has been edited by ATM9000 (edited 7/7/2010 6:08p).]

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and it seems mighty convenient that the teams with a storied history and big market are all of a sudden turning up roses.

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Or it makes complete sense that the biggest markets have the most money to pursue who they need to return to proven glory. All of a sudden? It had been since the 80's that these teams had some glory, so not really "all of a sudden"

here's the excerpt:

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Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh are lobbying James to join them in Miami, and Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony -- scheduled to be a free agent next summer -- are selling James on the possibilities in New York, according to a source close to the situation.

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here's the link: http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/nba/columns/story?id=5361165

With the dawn of the sports forums, blogs, and Twitter, ESPN has reduced itself to not much more credible than your average Texags poster. Some reporters scoop one thing, others the exact opposite. Basically, they throw as much crap to the wall as possible and hope something sticks now. See the conference realignment stuff as an example as well as their coverage of major college football coaching openings now.

I have no doubt that all of those guys are making calls as well as Carlos Boozer, but Carmelo Anthony calling to recruit to NYC? Just seems a little sensational and not too logical seeing as how this is the biggest sports story of the summer and he's under contract with a competitor (Nuggets).

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here have always been two sides to Lebron... on the one hand, he's the hometown hero. But he's also said since age 18 or 19 that he wants to be the first billionaire athlete. Not gonna pull that off in Cleveland.

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Surely tiger is already a billionare. I mean not anymore, but he must have been one a few months ago.

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if he hasn't won a ring, he can opt out and place the blame on the front office. cleveland fans will still be devastated, but at least then he can say that he gave them a fair shake and the front office failed him.

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Back on subject here... I guess the 7 seasons he's played there haven't been enough time for the Cavs to go out and get a legit #2 option behind him and decent coach. The Cavs have had a fair shake... and I do think they've put in some effort, but at the pit of it, they've been subtlely cheap about it. That's why he's ended up with Antawn Jamison over Amare Stoudemire amongst other things. The Cavs had already had their fair shake and just haven't done much in the way of capitalizing on opportunities.

My opinion is that if he wants to win, he needs to go somewhere that's going to attract free agents and big players on its own. Of the choices laid he's placed out there, the only one that definitely doesn't fit that is Cleveland. If he wants to pave his own way in a championship, you can definitely rule out Miami. And the Clippers would have potential, if their management weren't so atrocious... he's already seen that in Cleveland.

That leaves Chicago, New York, or New Jersey. If I were Lebron, I think I'd like the Nets the best. Their management doesn't blow, they are currently just far enough away where they don't demand close to the media scrutiny as the Knicks do (this will change when they move to Brooklyn), he's not following in somebody else's footsteps, and their owner is willing to spend his nuts off to win.

It puts Lebron close enough to the mass media, places him with an owner committed to making him an international name and presence... all the while doing it while separating himself from a lot of pressures on free agents who play in the actual city of NY.

Lebron is not better off with NY or CLE from a "winning championships" perspective. It is pretty much a wash between those two teams. Now that the East playoff teams have gotten significantly better or held steady (Atlanta keeps Johnson, Miami gets Bosh, Chicago gets Boozer, Orlando and Boston hold steady), New York or Cleveland + Lebron is just another face in a vastly improved crowd.

The East is better than it has been at any point in the last 15 years. If he wanted to win a championship, it would be simple: Find a way to end up with Chicago or Miami, or even Boston in some ridiculous way.

But from the beginning, all this championship BS has been just that...BS. Lebron is going to go to the place that makes him the most cash. The only question is, does he sign with the Cavs for more up front (and possibly less in the future), or take a chance with the Knicks for less up front (and possibly much more in the future). The more I think about it, I think he could very well jump to NY.

I have serious doubts that Lebron truly cares about winning (a championship at least).