Only One Choice

I’ve finally, somewhat, gotten over the initial hysteria of the Cleveland LeBrons looking like the Chicago Sky in their 2nd round series vs the Boston Celtics. I haven’t seen Bulls fans this excited about a possibility since March of ‘95 when Michael Jordan left baseball and started practicing with the Bulls. It was the talk of the city. I was a freshman in high school and it was all anyone would talk about in class, in the hallway, at any sports practice, and all of those boring math classes we all had to take. I would rush home everyday from school that spring to put on The Score for any updates on the MJ watch. I would put on CLTV for the sports updates every half hour hoping to hear that the games greatest player was coming back to basketball. This was before the 24 hour sports news cycles, updates on the internet every hour, and ESPN “Breaking News” updates. It was a crazy two week period leading up to that Saturday…March 18th to be exact. My mom was at the grocery store when they announced throughout the store that MJ was back. I was like a kid at Toys-R-Us, frantically searching for the remote to put on “Sports Channel”. They were all over it, and it changed everything for Chicago sports. The Bulls were back.

Much like March of '95, Bulls fans are dreaming about the best basketball player on the planet joining their team.

I’ve been getting that exact same feeling ever since Rajon Rondo, Kevin Garnett and CO. laid the Cavs to rest in Game 6. Minutes after the game, it came out that if LeBron was to leave, Chicago would be his destination. Needless to say, my phone has been blowing up with people asking…..”Are we really going to get him?” The past few days have brought me back to that two week insanity that was the MJ watch. Much like that spring, I’m getting a feeling that yes, LeBron James is coming to Chicago. Not for a summer vacation, but to take his game to another level that he will never reach with the old, tired, capped out Cavs. There is still over a month before July 1 hits, but the electricity in this city can be cut with a knife, as Gorilla Monsoon would say. People are criticizing LeBron for quitting on his team in Games 5 & 6 vs Boston, but the reality is he’s just on a team that isn’t capable of winning a championship. That’s where the team with the 3rd most championships in NBA history comes in.

People are talking about LeBron as if he’s a guy who will only win a title as someone’s 2nd banana–that he’s more Pippen and Dr. J than Michael, Magic, or Larry–that he cares more about endorsements, movies, hanging with Jay-Z, and global icon status than winning rings. We may find out, down the road, that that is the case, but I don’t think that’s what makes The King tick. He’s going into his 8th year in the association in 2010, and he knows that he will ultimately be judged on how many rings he retires with. Not how much money he has. The great players of today are all chasing Michael’s 6 rings. Kobe has 4 and is closing in on number 5. The clock is ticking on James to break through with number 1, and there’s only one place for him— The Bulls. Here, he would have it all. He would be the Alpha dog of a young, talented team–he would have the best player he’s ever played with in Derrick Rose (only 21 years old), a top 5 center in Joakim Noah, a big market, an organization that has championship pedigree (If you can remember back to ‘98), and a good core of players that would have the Bulls in contention for the next 6 plus years. It just fits. By playing with Rose, he would have the perfect sidekick. There isn’t a team he could go to that has a better 2nd star than Rose. Rose would take pressure off James on nights he didn’t have it (Think Game 5 vs Boston) just like Scottie did for Michael. The notion that LeBron is more Pippen and Dr. J than MJ, Magic, or Larry is a byproduct of playing with teammates that shrivel up like Jay Cutler in big games. LeBron may not have the Jordan “I’m going to kill you if I have to” gene, but he absolutely would carry the Bulls to multiple titles playing alongside Derrick Rose. Nobody wins titles by themselves. Michael didn’t win until Scottie became an All-Star-Olympian, Magic had Kareem and Big Game James Worthy, and Larry had McHale, Parrish, and Dennis Johnson. The reason LeBron wants to get out of dodge, in Cleveland, is he sees the writing on the wall– he knows staying on a team with no cap space after their “All in” season is a lost cause. Will he feel bad for leaving his hometown team? Sure, but plenty of players left their original team to become the stars we know them as…..Do you remember Shaq as a Magic or Laker? That’s what I thought. I’ll probably have a lasting image of him as a floppy boobed gimp Cavalier, but that’s another story.

Besides Chicago being the best city in America (Sorry New York, it’s true), the Bulls offer more than the other teams with cap space this summer. Let’s examine the other teams…..

Cavs: LeBron may feel he owes it to his hometown team to stay put, but for him to become a global icon, he needs to win rings. The Cavs don’t have cap space, possess an old creaky roster, and have players like Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison who morph into playoff chokers every spring. The King will never win a ring if he stays in Cleveland. I don’t know if the nasty rumor of teammate Delonte West having an affair with LeBron’s mother is true, but that doesn’t help Cleveland’s cause. Sure The Cavs can offer LeBron the 6th year on a contract and $30 million more than another team, but LeBron needs a fresh start. It also doesn’t help that many Cavs fans have turned on him already saying he quit in games 5 and 6. Not looking good for you Cavs fans! Bulls fans, who just read this, are high five-ing anyone or anything within a 2 mile radius.

Knicks: In a word…..NO. Does LeBron really want to go to a team with no point guard, no center, no 2-guard, and a bench thinner than the girls from the new 90210? I know the Knicks have two “max” salary slots, but no other star is about to sign on to play the sidekick role to The King in New York–not Bosh, not Amare, not D Wade either. Joe Johnson might, but if you sign both James and Iso-Joe, while losing David Lee, how good are you? Yes, they have Danilo Gallinari (who has the back of ‘92 Larry Bird), and Wilson Chandler (hardly an asset but he’s decent), but that’s it. The Knicks are not in the discussion. Nor should they be. Sorry Knicks fans, but nobody wants to play in your city, or at that dump ass arena, or for those loud mouth fans, or in front of the most obnoxious media in the country. That’s as appealing as a root canal with no novacaine.

Side Note: The balls of New Yorkers to claim New York is the “Mecca” of basketball. Says who?! They were dreadful in the 80’s, they got kicked around like Whitney Houston in the 90’s by Michael Jordan, and were run into the ground by Isiah Thomas in the 2000’s. If that’s the basketball mecca, the NBA is in trouble. All the Knicks can sell to James is the dream of “saving” basketball in New York. LeBron has enough pressure on him to win without that added nonsense. The Knicks have nothing but false hopes. False hopes that won’t get them LeBron.

Nets: An intriguing possibility. They have the new Mark Cuban in owner Mikhail Prokhorov. They also have minority owner Jay-Z, a friend of LeBron , Devin Harris, the number 3 pick (Derrick Favors?), center Brook Lopez, and a new Brooklyn arena coming. There’s the snag. Is LeBron going to waste two years on a non contender that plays in Newark? I doubt it. Nobody knows if this owner will be like Eddie DeBartolo or Daniel Snyder. I can’t imagine LeBron waiting until his 10th year in the league to play for a contender in Brooklyn. All 638 Nets fans in the country just threw their laptop.

Heat: According to former Knick and Bull Charles Oakley, it’s either the Heat or the Bulls. They offer South Beach, great year round weather, no state income tax, thousands of hot women, and Dwyane Wade. I didn’t mention Pat Riley because I’m not buying into the whole Pat Riley builds contenders garbage. He came to L.A. when Magic and Kareem were in place, he thought the bruising Pistons style would be the best way to beat Jordan when he coached the Knicks, and lucked into stealing Shaq from L.A. after the ‘04 Finals debacle. What he has done is tear down this Heat team to the point where they have one asset (Wade) and he may leave town if he realizes winning titles is what matters to a great player’s legacy. Michael Beasley is what I knew he would be (a headcase tweener), who has as much trade value as anyone on the Cubs roster not named Castro. Does LeBron want to go to a team and share Alpha dog status with Wade? I don’t think so either. Let’s move on….

Clippers: They would offer the 2nd best cast of players behind the Bulls with Blake Griffin, Eric Gordon, and DeAndre Jordan. They have solid veterans Baron Davis, and Chris Kaman, and they fired the inept Mike Dunleavy. All positives. Now the negatives…..Is LeBron willing to to play 2nd fiddle to Kobe’s Lakers in Hollywood? No. Is he willing to put his future in the hands of the worst owner in sports (Now that Bill Wirtz has passed & we think Al Davis has)? I can’t see it.

That is why the Bulls are the front runners. It makes more sense than Shaq’s move to the Lakers in the summer of ‘96. Shaq was put off by Magic fans who said in a poll that summer they’d rather retain coach Brian Hill than Shaq. Good call, Magic fans. Then again, who said old, white, rich men knew anything about hoops anyway. The Lakers had just traded for a 17 year old Kobe Bryant, so it wasn’t a title ready situation. The Bulls, with LeBron, would be instant title contenders. That’s why it’s the best basketball move for him. They could sign LeBron, hire a coach, do nothing else, and be, at worst, the 2nd best team in the east. If they were to sign James, the Bulls could use their tradeable assets in Luol Deng, Kirk Hinrich, and Taj Gibson, and sign and trade for another free agent also. If that happens? We have a dynasty on our hands, kids.

One last thing. I wish some of the meatball Chicago fans would get their heads out of their asses on this whole thing. This is a move that could change the course of the NBA for the next decade, yet some (dumb Bears fans) say they don’t want LeBron here. Wake up and smell the Polish sausage people. You have a chance to sign the greatest athlete in the game in his prime (25 years old), team him with the best point guard in the game, and win more titles than the Bears, Cubs, and Sox will win combined for the next 10 years. I hate the mindset of many Chicago sports fans. They love the try hard average white guy. Why? I have no idea why they love guys like Andres Nocioni, Reed Johnson, Aaron Rowand, and Brock Forsey. It drives me nuts. Think big, Chicago….for once. And while we are at it– stop comparing LeBron to MJ. Nobody is Michael and nobody ever will be. Happy now? (He obviously doesn’t care about the Jordan comparisons, so neither should you. Kobe wanted to play here and LeBron has the stones to want to try and win rings here. I’ll take that guy, thank you). Embrace the fact that the best in the world wants to play for your team. He wants to play for the Bulls because he knows there’s only one choice for him to achieve “Icon” status. That choice is your Chicago Bulls. Sorry again, New York…… Haha Not really.