Summer of LeeBong 2.0

The news brings word that LeeBong James has opted out his contract with the Miami Heat, a professional flea circus in Florida. This means LeeBong will spend the height of the summer getting wined and dined by rich Jewish guys promising him the world, while the sporting media gushes over his wonderfulness. ESPN will then have a special broadcast to announce where LeeBong will play next year.

James indicated that he welcomed the opportunity to become a free agent and have the same level of flexibility he was afforded in 2010, when he signed with Miami after spending his first seven years in Cleveland.

“Being able to have flexibility as a professional, anyone, that’s what we all would like,” James said last week. “That’s in any sport, for a football player, a baseball player, a basketball player, to have flexibility and be able to control your future or your present. I have a position to be able to do that. … There’s a lot of times that you’re not in control of your future as a professional.”

In his four seasons in Miami, the Heat have gone to the NBA Finals four times, winning two championships. James could join Shaquille O’Neal as the only players in league history to lead the NBA Finals in total points scored and then play for a different team to start the following season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. O’Neal played for the 2003-04 Los Angeles Lakers, who lost to the Detroit Pistons in the NBA Finals, and was traded to the Heat in the offseason.

If James departs, he would be leaving a historic opportunity on the table. Only one team in NBA history has appeared in at least five consecutive NBA Finals, the Boston Celtics, who reached 10 straight from 1957 to 1966.

With James and Carmelo Anthony officially opting out of their contracts, multiple teams — including the Cleveland Cavaliers, Atlanta Hawks and Lakers — have begun the process of exploring roster moves that would create sufficient salary-cap space to sign 2014’s marquee free agents in tandem, sources close to the situation told ESPN.com.

The NBA is the worst run sports league on earth. In every other sport, good owners willing to pay competent managers can build solid, profitable franchises. In the NBA, you either hit the “lottery” and get a great young player or you get picked as the next stop on the traveling caravan of stars. Owning an NBA team is not about winning, but about money laundering and pointless entertainment.

That said, James is a good star for the millennials. Their’s is a transactional existence where the past has no grip on the present. Loyalty to the hometown in the case of Cleveland or loyalty to the men who put together the Miami deal means nothing to LeeBong James. All that matters is what he can get next because all that matters to LeeBong is his happiness. That’s a quality you see with the millennials. They are so self-absorbed they barely notice there are other human beings around them.

If James was just chasing the money, it would be understandable. These guys have a short time to make millions. Most of them are morons who blow their money on flunkies and baby-mommas, so getting as much as they can makes sense. It is harder to blow through $100 million than $80 million. But, that’s not what it’s about for the superstars like James. He’s just a megalomaniac seeking the next pat on the head.

Imagine a generation of these with absolutely no loyalty to anything, rushing about looking for the next pat on the head. Think of that when you hear how the millennials want “self-actualizing careers” rather than just making money. It’s what the Clinton kid meant when she honked out this nonsense the other day. Most people think she is lying and James is really just chasing money, just a different way. Maybe. They certainly seem to believe their bullshit though.

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gobsmacker
gobsmacker
10 years ago

LBJ is trying to catch up with Kobe Bryant (5 NBA championships) and Michael Jordan (6 rings), but he’ll never catch up with Bill Russell (11 championships). LBJ is a terrific physical specimen and a pleasure to watch in an era when the written rules of the game are no longer enforced. It isn’t your classic BB anymore, not after MJ ruined it.

Bones
Bones
10 years ago

Someday I’d like to see a pro basketball player with a name like ‘Oliver Stanfield Winthrop.’

CaptDMO
CaptDMO
10 years ago

Gosh, what if they held a contract bidding
“auction” and nobody came?