Mattie T’s Thoughts on “The Decision”
Written by The Go-To-Man Mattie T. on July 9, 2010
Okay, so unless you were sleeping under a rock last night or just don’t like basketball, the much-publicized free agency of LeBron James came to an end on Thursday evening, as he chose to join Dwyane Wade & Chris Bosh to become a member of the Miami Heat.
Certainly, it will make Miami a better team for the near immediate future, but there are still question marks that need to be filled.
They will surely have a dynamic big three in the form of James, Wade & Bosh BUT how will the rest of the roster be created? The only other current Heat player that is under contract is 3rd-year guard Mario Chalmers following Friday’s trade of forward Michael Beasley to Minnesota.
This is why i am against this type of move. Don’t get me wrong, Miami now has three great players who can take over a game at any time. However, they all cannot be on the floor for 48 minutes and there will be questions on who’s the first option in a game-winning situation.
You also have the background of Pat Riley. Yes, he has five championships as a coach, but you also have to remember that can indeed run both coaches and players out of town as well.
Riley forced Stan Van Gundy to resign in the middle of their 2005-06 season, which the Heat went on to win their first ever NBA Championship.
6 months after that championship win, he stepped down due to “hip and knee problems”. Also notice how he only resigned from being head coach after Miami went through a terrible 67-loss season, which landed them the #2 pick in the 2008 NBA Draft (which wound up being Beasley).
Now as for LeBron, i thought that this was poorly executed on his part. First off, did he really need an entire hour to announce that he was going to Miami, and on national television? I understand that proceeds went to the Boys & Girls Club, but it took over a half-hour for him to finally spill out the words “I’m taking my talent to South Beach for next season.”
Secondly, why didn’t he even bother to return any phone calls left by Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert? If LeBron knew he was going to leave in the first place, he could have let Gilbert know ASAP so Daniel can start preparing next season’s roster without their superstar.
Hell, Cleveland was notified just “minutes” before James announced his decision on-air, which i completely disagree with and extremely disrespectful. He also never took time out to thank all of the fans who supported him up to this point in his career as a lifelong Ohio native.
LeBron lost a lot of credibility, respect and fans last night with his selfish display of behavior. No matter what happens from here on out, he will always be rememebered as the guy who couldn’t win a championship on his own.
