LeBron James and "The Summer Of Me"

I was just thinking...

Man, it's been a while since I've put up a new blog post. But today's the day! Lot's of things have happened in the last 3-4 weeks (obviously), but only one I have had thoughts enough to make a post on: LeBron James and his free agency.

While the summer of 2010 has been fittingly dubbed "The Summer of Me" by someone on bleacherreport.com, the beginning of this ridiculous amount of hype goes back much further than the end of the NBA Finals, further than when Lebron's Cavaliers were ousted by the Boston Celtics in conference semis, where there was a shot of Mr. James symbolically removing his Cleveland jersey in the tunnel leading to the locker room. Speculation began years ago, when teams like the New York Knicks began cutting payroll, drafting cheaper players, with the intent on signing Lebron or one of the many other big name free agents whose contracts would expire July 1, 2010.

From attending Yankee's games to hanging out with Jay-Z, it was thought for a while that LeBron would come to NY, or maybe even NJ, a team the Jay-Z is a partial owner of. Heck, he even came out with shoes that were blue and orange, the Knicks colors. But, this was seen as a possible coincidence, as many people can enjoy those colors without it predicting what team they will sign with in a year. The Cavs old jerseys used to feature those colors.

So, in years leading up to his impending free agency, there was already massive speculation as to LeBron's whereabouts in Fall 2010.

ESPN, who has some love for following the moves of the biggest names in sports as if we cared about when they took their dog for a walk (see: Brett Favre, Tiger Woods), continued their tradition of over analyzing and covering with this summer's free agency class, especially LeBron. Like Tiger and Favre, LeBron was given his own bar on the ESPN "BottomLine." There were hours upon hours of "analysts" digesting any possible scenario involving James.

But, obviously, it was not just ESPN that is at fault for making 2010 "The Summer Of Me." LeBron fanned his own flames. Prior to the July 1, he had made plans for a "free agent summit" with other big named free agents, including Dwayane Wade, A'mare Stoudamire and Chris Bosh. The meeting was planned so that they could figure out where each other were planning on going, so the others could make their plans based on that information. While I do not agree with such a meeting, it's fine. They can do what they want.

Fast forward to after July 1st. LeBron is officially a free agent. He has a few major teams vying for his services. The teams are the New York Knicks, the New Jersey Nets, the Chicago Bulls, the Miami Heat, and his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers.
I'll run down now why he should've signed with each team, and why he shouldn't have.

New York Knicks:
The Knicks had been preparing to sign LeBron for over two years. He was their Plan A to restart their once-storied franchise. He showed interest, and millions of people originally thought he'd be in New York by July 2. But, NY signed A'mare, who for some reason might not have worked ideally with LeBron. They're both personalities, what do you expect? The Knicks were poised to break the bank for the best player in the game to come to the biggest stage.
The problem with the Knicks was that besides location, they didn't really have anything LeBron wanted. He wanted to win, and if he couldn't do that in Cleveland, with a team built around him, how was he expecting to win in NY, with their best player, David Lee, expected to sign elsewhere. A'mare is a superstar, but just having two good players won't win you a championship.
It would have been nice to see LeBron as a Knick, reignite some rivalries, bring basketball back to New York, but in the end, it's not about that for LeBron. He wanted to win. Not in three years, not in five years, he wanted to win NOW.

New Jersey Nets:
New Jersey was a little different than NY, but not much. They have a good core of up and coming superstars in Devin Harris and Brook Lopez, but not much else. Yea, Jay-Z sorta owns the team, and him and LeBron are buddies, but, still, LeBron wants to win NOW.

Chicago Bulls:
This would've been the most interesting team to sign with. The Bulls have a great core group of guys, and really just needed an All-Star like LeBron to make them perennial conference leaders. They were already pretty much a playoff team, something that none of the other teams (minus the Cavs) could really say.
The issue with Chicago is MJ. LeBron, like anyone in the NBA today, grew up watching and respecting Michael Jordan. MJ will always be seen as a Bull, with all the championships he won with them in the 90's. LeBron supposedly has so much respect for Michael that LeBron has changed his number (which was 23, because of MJ) to 6. He encouraged other 23-wearers to do the same. Regardless how legit his respect is, if LeBron came to Chicago, he'd constantly be compared to Jordan, which is a hard DON'T agree that that should be a reason to not sign with someone, but hey, I'm not LeBron. I just don't understand it: If basically you're only concern is to win championships, why not sign with the team that during the early stages of the free agency period, had the absolute best chance out of all your suitors?

Cleveland Cavaliers:
Let me begin by saying I feel really bad for Cleveland. In general. Pre-LeBron, post-LeBron, whatever. The city's economy sucks, and it doesn't really have much going for it as far as tourism (The Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame doesn't count!) Basically, their economy was based on LeBron James, and player the city had loved and respected for seven years. He had saved Cleveland, somewhat. But, time and time again, the Cavs were unable to win, LeBron's goal. But not without trying. They made it to Finals once, the conference finals in almost all of the last 4 seasons. They won the most games of any team during the 09-10 regular season. They were a great team. While I do not understand why they didn't win, and I do believe, had LeBron returned, they would have a good shot at winning, as they have the last 4 years. But, you can't ignore the facts: They DIDN'T win. LeBron had tried his luck with his hometown team, and it didn't work out.
I feel bad for the city of Cleveland because LeBron was too selfish to stay, but I can't say I really blame him for not wanting to be in Cleveland.
Check out these videos on Cleveland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmLA5TqbIY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM

Miami Heat:
Before I get into the Heat, let me first off state that I AM a Celtics fan. We do have our own Big Three of superstars, so I don't really have a right to say that their Big Three is unfair. Yes, LeBron is better than Paul Pierce, Dwayane Wade is better all-around than Paul Pierce, and Chris Bosh has better knees than KG, but that's beyond the point. The point is that LeBron wanted to win, and joining a team with two other superstar free agents seems like a logical choice in order to do so. If I were in LeBron's situation, would I have done the same thing? Really, my answer is no (I would've gone with Chicago), but I do not disagree with his decision to go to South Beach. It's logical. If you want to win, you join the team with the best players (that is able to sign you).

The Magic's GM Otis Smith, who said that he thought LeBron was "more of a competitor" brings up an interesting point. But a wrong one. Yes, you'd expect someone with as much talent as LeBron to want a challenge, but, it was widely known that he wanted to win. He will be given such a chance with this Miami Heat team. They are by no means a complete team, right now, but they're getting there. They signed Haslem today. They'll have a good team, if not great, by the time the season starts. They'll be in the hunt for a conference championship. There's no question about that. And with LeBron, Wade, and Bosh's young age, they should be good for a very long time.

Does LeBron's decision upset me? It sure as hell does. That's just another team to compete with my Celtics! But it's business! Sports are now, more than ever, more business than anything else. It's sad, but that's the way it is.

I will not get too far into LeBron's television special, "The Decision," but I will say this to LeBron: It's sickening that you would buy an hour of television for yourself to have a press conference; I appreciate that the advertising money will be sent to charity; I think it's poor style that you told people they would know your decision by 9:10, and then proceeded to not say anything until 9:35; How egotistical must you be to call it "The Decision?"

And that is all I have to say about LeBron, until next summer when the C's take 'em down in the second round again.

And hey, check out my friend Max Benjamin's photography!
http://maxbenjamin.smugmug.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/murreasy/4778544942/

Refereeing Failure

I was just thinking...

"Find a rope, find a tree, let's haaang the referee."

This sentiment against refs has always been a common thought to have while playing and spectating sports. For the most part, it is usually not directed at officiating of major league sports, but occasionally it is. Until seemingly somewhat recently.
Really, there have been problems with officiating for as long as there has been sports officiating. But, in recent history it is taken a much more major part of the game. Over the past few years there have been many instances of alarm with the officiating of games, starting with:

The Tim Donaghy gambling scandal
The biggest result of his exposure was not that he had gambled on games he officiated, but that there is favoritism based on sales, by many refs. His tell-all book exposed many other NBA refs as favoring certain teams and players, changing the way the game is played, and even the outcome. Some excerpts from this book, which I highly recommend reading, can be found here: http://deadspin.com/5392067/excerpts-from-the-book-the-nba-doesnt-want-you-to-read
If you have ever watched an NBA game that has a superstar on the team, or a team the NBA wants to see win (i.e. the Lakers) because they will generate viewership, chances are you have seem some shady calls, and become slightly if not overly upset and frustrated with the refs. I know I have. It's despicable that the game is being changed for revenue's sake. That is not the way the game is supposed to be played, and it is unfair for the teams that aren't the ones the NBA wants to win, or don't have the superstar the NBA is selling.

Instant-replay for MLB
The possibility of instant-replay becoming part of baseball has been a major debate point for years, but finally came to some realization a few years ago, when instant-replay was added for questionable home run balls. This addition has been successful, but some fans still think there should be more instant-replay used, for instances like trapped balls, safe and out calls on the bases, etc. While I agree there could be more, I am content with the current usage.

Jim Joyce and the Armando Galarraga Perfect Game
Never have I ever seen anything like this before. A safe call on a clearly out throw, costing Armando Galarraga a perfect game. Jim Joyce is a great ump, and definitely one of, if not the best in the league. But he clearly got the call wrong in that Tigers-Indians game earlier this year. Instant-replay would have been extremely beneficial here. It's the way it is, though, and it's in the past, but I mean, Galarraga lost his chance at being in the history books because of a missed call by an ump.

The Koman Coulibaly Call
This is the event that spurred me to write this entry: In yesterday's (6/18) World Cup game between the US and Slovenia, there was possibly the worst call I have ever seen. (That, and the Jim Joyce "safe" call are definitely in the top 3) The US had been down 2-0, came back to tie it at 2, and with about 5 minutes left in the game, they had a corner kick. The bouncing kick from Landon Donovan ended up going off the well timed kick of Maurice Edu, scoring the winning goal. However, the goal was immediately waved off by ref Koman Coulibaly. The original sign was that it was offside. This turned out not to be the call, and it would've been an incorrect call, had that been the call. Coulibaly refused to give explanation as to what the call was on, but it was assumed to have been a foul call. Upon watching the play over and over again on television, it was determined by everyone in the world that any fould call that was made should have been against SLOVENIA, not the US. Slovenians physically held US players back, but Edu was able to cleanly escape and score. The call was incredibly wrong, and there was nothing done to deserve it. Even the unbiased English announcers said the call was ridiculously incorrect. While it yet remains to be seen the impact of this call on the US's future in the World Cup, it did severely impact the score of the game. The US won the game 3-2, but were only given a tie. If the United States does not make it to the round of 16 because they had two ties, but would've moved on had their Slovenia tie been called a win, (as it should have been) this botched call will go down in history as the worst call of all time. FIFA, the organization that runs the World Cup has spoken about removing Koman Coulibaly from any more World Cup matches, which I agree with, but it does not give the US the win they deserved.

While I appreciate the work that many referees and umpires do, there are too many instances that should not be left with them alone. We have all this technology, which would be beneficial for the games, if used.