You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today!
The banners on the left side and below do not show for registered users!
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact contact us.
Vancouver Off-Topic / Current EventsThe off-topic forum for Vancouver, funnies, non-auto centered discussions, WORK SAFE. While the rules are more relaxed here, there are still rules. Please refer to sticky thread in this forum.
The thinking going into this was not how can we raise money for the Boys and Girls Club, the thinking was I'm Lebron, better than everyone else, I deserve a 1hr special dedicated to my signing.
I thought the same way...hell, even the Panel was making fun of it... "The Decision" LOL.. It's like a f'ng presidential campaign
I think Stein has the best picks... It's nice to see the Thunders and Bulls be on the "mix"
I am curious as to what the Cavs and the owner will do next... I guess he didn't want to lose a lot of season ticket holders that's why he said they will win one before the heat...haha
Arnovitz is the only one that thinks Miami will win . Even the experts don't think that this guarantees that Miami will win.
Even lebron knows that going to Miami isn't a guarantee championship, but going to miami will give him the best chance to win now.
Kobe is 31 yrs old and has 5 rings, jordan at age of 36 won 6 rings. Lebron is 25 and has 0 rings, he knows, he understand that if he doesn't have 4+ rings, he won't ever be considered as good as MJ or Kobe. He wants to have a legacy of being one of the top players ever, not a legacy like barkley of no rings and one final appearance.
lets assume lebron retires at age of 36, that gives lebron 11 seasons to win 4+ rings. This is why i think he chose miami, this gives him the chance to obtain multiple rings before he retires.
Replying to Ken411 or whatever, if you think cleveland was one player away from a championship caliber team, then i want what you are smoking. Cleveland has 60+win every season, so what? they play in a weak eastern conference, you could be below .500 and still make playoffs. If you base things on regular season, phoenix should have a legitimate shot at winning every year right, well truth is, they won't win a ring anytime soon regardless if they win 70 games in the regular season.
The fact is, the cavs went to the finals once and got swept, they lost to the magic, the lost to the celtics, they were much more than one player away from winning it all.
I realize this, what I'm saying is that the objective of this 1hr special was not to raise money for the Boys and Girls Club, it was for Lebron's ego. If all he wanted to was get the Boys and Girls Club money, he could've just made a donation himself or held a charity golf tourney or donated proceeds from his
upcoming film to them.
The thinking going into this was not how can we raise money for the Boys and Girls Club, the thinking was I'm Lebron, better than everyone else, I deserve a 1hr special dedicated to my signing.
He raised 2.5 mill in one hour buy doing almost nothing. How much time and effort would it take to set up a golf tourney. He can still do a golf tourney and raise even more money.
__________________ Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.
He raised 2.5 mill in one hour buy doing almost nothing. How much time and effort would it take to set up a golf tourney. He can still do a golf tourney and raise even more money.
Do you seriously think the reason for the 1hr special was to raise money for charity, no, the reason was simple, his ego. That was why is was such a disaster, because the whole thing was all about Lebron going look at me, I'm more important than any other athlete and I deserve a 1 hour special.
Tune into any sports radio show today, ESPN and even CNN, the overwhelming consensus was that it was a disaster and the only message that was delivered was not that he was signing in Miami, but that Lebron is an arrogant egotastical self righteous douchebag that thinks he's above any other athlete.
It was nice that Boys and Girls Club got 2.5mil, but again, that was not the objective of the 1hr special.
Any other athlete in the history of sports ever get a 1 hour or whatever how long to announce where they will be signing ? I'm curious and can't search it up right now...
Replying to Ken411 or whatever, if you think cleveland was one player away from a championship caliber team, then i want what you are smoking. Cleveland has 60+win every season, so what? they play in a weak eastern conference, you could be below .500 and still make playoffs. If you base things on regular season, phoenix should have a legitimate shot at winning every year right, well truth is, they won't win a ring anytime soon regardless if they win 70 games in the regular season.
The fact is, the cavs went to the finals once and got swept, they lost to the magic, the lost to the celtics, they were much more than one player away from winning it all.
I'm not going to go through this again.. lol..but to quickly summarize...Yes, they win 60 games a season = they are ALWAYS in the playoffs.... but just cant get over the Celtics/Magic bump.. if they were able to add pieces to the team i.e. Boozer or even trade for Lee then they will have the shot as that's wht they were lacking.. PF/C... the backcourt and sf are taken care of.
Any other athlete in the history of sports ever get a 1 hour or whatever how long to announce where they will be signing ? I'm curious and can't search it up right now...
Or will LeBron be the first ever to do so
To play Devil's advocate, with the NBA having low viewership and low attendance numbers league wide, how does not having Lebron (let’s face it, he’s the face of the NBA) have a one hour special make sense? The NBA needs someone to step onto the global marketing brand of Michael Jordan. Kobe could have been that guy, but his rape allegations said no. Were things such as Twitter and Facebook around back in Jordan's era so he could stroke his own ego? No. Was there celebrity crazed paparazzi following your every move? Maybe on a smaller scale, but nothing like TMZ.
Here’s one NBA analysts (ESPN’s Bill Simmons) take on Lebron’s time with Cleveland and many others share his sentiments:
“He's never had a good coach. He's never had a great teammate, or even a very good one. These past two years, he's been asked to vacillate between Magic Mode and MJ Mode depending on the situation. Because his front office screwed up so many times, his supporting cast ended up being a peculiar blend of hand-me-downs, discount guys and bargain pickups from teams that wanted to cut salary.”
For those that think Lebron’s one hour special was to stroke his own ego and increase his brand. Of course it was, why wouldn’t it be? Jordan was no different. One example I’ve read was Jordan’s explanation to Tiger Woods about why he refused to give public support to Democratic political candidates, whom he privately supported. "Republicans buy tennis shoes, too," Jordan said. This wasn’t to stroke his own ego, but definitely neutralize his stance on political matters.
__________________
"A chicken crossing the street is poultry in motion"
For those that think Lebron’s one hour special was to stroke his own ego and increase his brand. Of course it was, why wouldn’t it be? Jordan was no different. One example I’ve read was Jordan’s explanation to Tiger Woods about why he refused to give public support to Democratic political candidates, whom he privately supported. "Republicans buy tennis shoes, too," Jordan said. This wasn’t to stroke his own ego, but definitely neutralize his stance on political matters.
Oh I have no problems with stars building their brand, I even work with people in the entertainment industry so I know all about stuff they do and the thinking behind how to build their own brand. However, Lebron executed that yesterday in the worst possible way ever, he tarnished his own image more than he helped it yesterday, not by leaving Cleveland but how he executed it.
I've talked to 5 different publicist today, and they all agree, Lebron fucked his brand up last night. It was a major train wreck.
No one blames Lebron for leaving Cleveland, who would want to stay in the Edmonton of the USA.
Quote:
They ended up with that split-screen of the King’s jersey burned live on his infomercial, as this sad, lost robot sat in a leafy suburban gymnasium with children as props and the world watching, those empty eyes masking a lost, dazed LeBron James(notes). This was the champagne shower for the Championship of Me, an exercise in self-aggrandizement and self-loathing that will have far-reaching implications for the NBA and James. What a spectacle, what a train wreck.
Cleveland fans were left feeling jilted after LeBron James abandoned them via national TV.
As the worst idea in the history of marketing unfolded, James looked trapped somewhere between despondence and defiance. His bumbling buddy Maverick Carter had walked him into the public execution of his legacy, his image, and there was a part of James that clearly wished he could turn back through the doors and hide. Only, it was too late. No going back now. James goes to the Miami Heat, Cleveland goes into a basketball Hades and LeBron’s legacy becomes that of a callous carpetbagger.
“His brand is [bleep] now,” one high-level NBA official said late Thursday. “He’s destroyed everything.”
The Championship of Me became the Championship of Flee, because LeBron James doesn’t believe he can be the centerpiece of a title team. He needed Dwyane Wade, a closer, far more than Wade needed him.
Yes, he’s ruined everything. What a wonderful idea: Divorce your childhood sweetheart on national television and tell her, hey, I’ll let you keep the “We are all Witnesses” billboards lording over downtown Cleveland.
“I’m taking my talents to South Beach,” James said, and it was like time stopped because – even for him – this was a moment so devoid of reality and free of concern of consequences. South Beach? He wasn’t picking a basketball team as much as a party. He’s 25 years old, and yet somehow this felt like a cloistered teenager picking a party school for college.
Yes, James will take his talent to South Beach and leave his soul in Cleveland. His hometown won’t hate him as much for leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers as for the way he left them. Leaving never would’ve been easy, but he went out of his way to humiliate them. LeBron James can never go home now. He’s the Browns leaving town, The Fumble, The Shot, all rolled into one colossal disappointment.
Now, Clevelanders truly see it for themselves: He was a fan of the Cowboys, the Yankees – never the Browns and Indians. He was a frontrunner, and he just made the most frontrunner move in the history of the NBA. Off to Miami with Riles, D-Wade and Chris Bosh(notes).
New York would’ve been hard, and maybe Cleveland would’ve been the hardest. With those state tax laws in Florida, he isn’t taking less money with the Heat. He’s just taking less risk and less burden in his championship chase.
“This whole idea that he makes his own decisions, that [bleep] went out the window with this,” one NBA executive said. “Someday, he’s going to look back at this and not believe that he let those kids at LRMR talk him into doing this. This idea that he’s his own man … Come on, he’s a follower. And he’s following all the way to Miami now.”
This was the train rolling down the tracks from miles and miles away, and James never saw it coming. He should lose his obsession to become the richest athlete ever, because the people surrounding LeBron James are much more likely to leave him broke than a billionaire. Someday, he will fire his business manager Maverick Carter for turning the two-time MVP’s free-agent moment into Geraldo and Al Capone’s vault. Carter used the cover of charity for a historically horrible event and completely destroyed the credibility of his client.
So now people are cheering Dan Gilbert’s manifesto tearing apart James, but no one contributed more to what the world witnessed on Thursday night than the owner’s enabling of James and his inner circle for seven years. Gilbert is the biggest con going, a man who makes his fortune peddling mortgages, and he’ll make his next on casinos in downtown Cleveland. He sells illusions for a living, and now he’s selling the biggest of all: that he’s a victim here, that James betrayed everyone. That’s a lie, and no one ought to dare buy it.
Everyone searching for a scapegoat here – Mike Brown, Danny Ferry, Delonte West(notes) – well, just understand that it was the man screaming loudest with LeBron out the door, the man most determined to deflect blame onto him now.
Cavs owner Dan Gilbert called LeBron James' decision to leave a "cowardly betrayal."
(AP Photo)
Now, Gilbert is the tough guy with James leaving the Cavs behind? Listen, Ferry and Brown always warned Gilbert that giving James everything he wanted – giving it when and where and how – wouldn’t be the way they would keep him. LeBron didn’t respect them because they never demanded it.
Gilbert always believed he should do everything James wanted – hire his buddies into jobs, throw them on summer-league rosters, allow him to do those stupid pregame choreographed dances – that James would love him, that he would never leave. Only, James is a taker, and he took and took until he had bled Gilbert and that franchise to the bone.
So now, Gilbert unleashes the most revisionist and self-serving screed that a scorned owner’s ever done. Gilbert is a bully and a baby. As much as James, Gilbert revealed himself, too. He asked for this humiliation and deserves it. Only those fans in Cleveland don’t deserve this. They were loyal, true, and ultimately they must know Gilbert lashed out to make James the villain for a most self-serving reason: to avoid the blame himself. Damn right James quit on the Cavaliers in that playoff series, but that was because Gilbert was always there to make it easy for him. All those times Ferry and Brown warned the owner they had to make stands with James, that they had to force him to have some level of respect within that organization or there would be an ultimate price to pay.
And here it came on Thursday night, in this bizarre, sad set-up that turned LeBron James into a caricature. His puppet seems more human than him. Listen, James’ people tried to leak this story to soften the blow on Cleveland, but here was the problem: He’s so insincere, and they’re so over their heads, that most of us were uneasy with believing what they were selling in the hours leading up to Jim Gray holding everyone hostage. There had to be an agenda, a bait-and-switch, and yet source after source within LeBron’s world insisted: He’s leaving. He wants out. They had been doing this for weeks, even months. So, armed with that knowledge, why would they ever stage this event to rub it in the face of James’ hometown? Lots of stars have moved on, but never one that had such a unique history with a town, a city, a franchise.
We kept writing it with qualifiers because deep down a lot of us doubted his courage to leave that cocoon. He would make Cleveland feel like it had lost him, and then swoop back into town and be celebrated all over again. Only, LeBron’s people were telling the truth. He was gone. He was always gone. He never considered staying, and that’s the most frightening part of all.
For the hand-wringing out of Gilbert and James’ apologists who protected him – and who would still be protecting him had he simply said, “Cleveland,” on Thursday night – they need to stop with this nonsense that somehow LeBron James has transformed into someone else. This is him, and it’s always been him. He’s a creation of our times, of an industry and system that wants to manufacture the next M.J. at the expense of a young man having a sense of himself.
So there was LeBron James, the MVP, the man of the hour, sitting in the middle of his own “Truman Show” on Thursday night. His personal network ran his commercials and celebrated his greatness and let him hijack a platform to build his brand and break hearts. He can never go home again now, and he can never completely rebuild what he let his cast of buddies talk him into losing that night. He’s taking his talents to South Beach, and the kid going away for the first time will have some party down there. After all these years, it was clear he had been coddled and protected and ultimately prepared to do one thing: Take the easy way out. Wherever he was going, he looked conflicted, lost and completely confused.
if you were with an employer for 7 years and you were the all-star employee, but weren't getting to the top with that company, would you not switch to a company where you can? It's a fair decision.
if you were a multi-billion dollar brand name and were making a big move that people care about, would you not announce it, hype it up and publicize it as much as you could to continue to increase your brand value? It's smart business sense.
If after you put in 7 hard-working years, thanked the organization and then left for another organization, your boss:
-went apeshit on you, putting up hateful letters for the world to see (fucking hypocrite btw)
-put scandalous pics on organization's website of people who banged your mother
and your fans:
-burned your jersey after 7 years of dedication
-started hating on you overnight for one decision which everyone saw coming
Then do you want to be in this environment in the first place? Clearly you need to go somewhere where people aren't retarded.
...All you people hating on lebron are either haters or bitter. Get over it, it's a smart business and smart career decision for Lebron and great potential for the NBA as a whole. Fuck the cavs.
As Spike Lee said... "This shit is rigged, these 3 knew all along they will play together in Miami..." He then went on and said "James/Wade probably told bosh to say he wants to play with LBJ but not in Cavs so he needs to leave or something like that"
IMO, if LeBron/Wade/Bosh wanted to play together from the very beginning since after they signed that 4 year extension in 06 (And I believe some analyst suspected the same thing.) before then they should have just said right after the season... rather than James giving hope to the city of cleveland that he might stay, etc... then this wouldn't be such a gong show.... having a 1 hour "The Decision 2010" show LOL...
Arnovitz is the only one that thinks Miami will win . Even the experts don't think that this guarantees that Miami will win.
theres definitely no "guarantee" of anything.
if they make finals this year or win a championship within 3 years, it'll be a huge success.
also as an expert, you have to be pretty brave to say that the heat will win within one season of getting lebron and bosh. the lakers are a team that already works, the heat isnt... yet.
You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today!
The banners on the left side and below do not show for registered users!
. Even the experts don't think that this guarantees that Miami will win.
my bad
