This is very dated at this point, but it's something I thought a lot about so I'm going to go ahead and subject you to my thoughts on Chris Bosh and LeBron James signing with the Miami Heat. Chris Bosh, back before it seemed realistic for LeBron to be a serious free agent or a Bulls possibility was my own personal "top target" for the Bulls. I though him combined with Rose and Noah would make for a powerful NBA squad... So when he signed with Dwyane Wade in Miami it was a little disappointing for me, but it was a move that made some sense. Bosh and Wade could easily do a lot of damage together and make for a good fit. Not, maybe, quite as good as Bosh on the Bulls, but like just about everyone else I'd become fixated on the suddenly available LeBron James. LeBron is the most talented player in the NBA and any time you have a shot at a player like that, you take it. So, with Wade and Bosh ostensibly taking down maximum salaries in Miami there just wasn't enough cap space for the Heat to sign LeBron...
I got excited. At that point there was no better place for LeBron than Chicago-- except maybe LeBron's hometown Cleveland Cavaliers. If he decided to stay home, well I figured, that's life. I could never bring myself to criticize a player for deciding to play for hometown pride, even if it went against the "logic of winning." But, if LeBron decided he wanted to go to a team set up to win for a long time, then Chicago made the most logical team by a long shot. Chicago, having missed out on Bosh, moved quickly to snap up LeBron's former teammate and rebounding demon Carlos Boozer. Boozer signed for a bit less than maximum so the Bulls had plenty of space to add LeBron to a lineup that includes a very young all-star PG (Derrick Rose), a center who can take out the trash (Joakim Noah), a tough rebounder and post scoring threat (Carlos Boozer), and a dangerous if overpaid small forward (Luol Deng). Throw LeBron into that lineup and you'd have a hard time projecting anything other than an appearance in the NBA Finals to face the LA Lakers. Nothing could make more sense to me, in terms of basketball, than LeBron taking a max contract in Chicago. Oh, what could have been, I guess.
News started coming out that LeBron would announce "The Decision" on a national primetime broadcast on ESPN. Though I was on vacation with my in-laws I decided to ensure I'd be in the hotel to watch The Decision. That morning sources started to indicate LeBron was leaning towards joining the Miami Heat. "No," my brain said, "He can't get a max contract there. If he does sign there they'll have literally nothing else on the roster. It just doesn't make sense." Then, as the program kicked off on ESPN even Chicago's own Michael Wilbon essentially conceded that everything he knew said Miami. I started to lose hope, despite the fact that him doing so just wouldn't make any sense.
Well, I guess to LeBron it did. He, looking unhappy and uncomfortable, told the nation that he was going to join the Heat because it offered him the best chance to win now and later. It was at that point my respect for LeBron took a nose dive. I don't believe it's because he's not a Bull-- despite my obvious allegiance... It's because it doesn't offer him the best chance to win now. It seems basketball stupid to me, and it seems like LeBron took the easy way out. Dwyane Wade orchestrated all this, and he's The Man, while LeBron, who we used to call The King (I'm thinking he just got demoted to "landed gentry") is just lurking in the back, peering from the shadows over Daddy Dwyane's shoulder. If they win, it'll probably work out. If they don't, I think this will turn ugly fast...
And I'm betting on ugly. I don't see the Heat winning more than 55 games, which will be enough to get them into the playoffs, sure, but I don't think they'll beat a lot of the actual TEAMS they'll face in the playoffs. The Heat have managed a couple of decent free agent signings in SG Mike Miller and post player Udonis Haslem. That's about it, though. Their bench will be awful, and a single injury will render them almost ordinary. I think they'll struggle against complete teams, and I think they're not ready for the fact that everyone will hate them and every player who isn't on the Heat will be gunning just to show they are not what they think they are. I think if they win 55 games this year, they'll win 45 or 50 the next and it's going to turn bad. I could be wrong, and they could prove that out of your 13 required roster spots you only really need 3 players... We'll just have to see. And that's my problem with this thing, as for winning now, there was no better option for LeBron than Chicago so he either doesn't see that, or it's not about winning for him. Either way, he just lessened his stock for greatest ever as almost everyone seems to have dismissed him as having taken the easy way out with erstwhile greats like Jordan, Magic, and Bird all saying they'd have never made such a decision. So, I'll be watching D-Wade, Bosh, and Landed Gentry, but I'll be rooting against them in every game.
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