Decision 2010 Turned into Blunder 2010
Jul
20
Written by:
7/20/2010 11:08 PM
DECISION 2010 has come and passed now and some of the dust has settled. LeBron James and his Entourage are teaming up the Wade, Bosh, and a lot of minimal salary players to try and make a run at the Lakers. This, “decision” was handled in such a poor manner, many have blasted James for the way this thing played out, and I intend to do the same. Allegedly, Jim Gray approached James’ team about announcing his decision this way and he went with it. The first question is why the hell they did this in Greenwich Connecticut? That community is one of the wealthiest in America, so holding the decision at a Boys & Girls Club in Connecticut didn’t have the same cache that say holding this in New York City or even Cleveland would have had. After seeing how this was handled, I now know why they did not announce this in Cleveland!
Part of me takes issue with not alerting Cleveland of his decision before hand if he had been leading them on. There is a lot of he said, he said, going on here, so without knowing what is fact and fiction, this will be all on that.
Thirdly, Jim Gray lost ALL credibility with me in the questions posed to James after announcing Miami. At one point, I was wondering if Gray was reading questions off to James that they had previously discussed. Why not ask James what one or two moves Cleveland could have made to keep him as a Cavalier. How about if you could not have gone to Miami, where was option #2? James may not have necessarily answered the questions, but they did need to be asked.
Finally, while I am happy for LeBron to be going to the team he ultimately wanted to play for, some of the comments he has made since the announcement have been concerning. Bosh, James and Wade are all saying the things we thought they would, but I am pretty sure that if I were the owner of the Miami Heat and paying these guys over $ 315 million, I want someone to step up as the leader and want the ball. These guys keep saying it will be the coaches’ decision on who will take the last shot in a close game. We all know LeBron has been criticized for passing the ball in this situation before, but doesn’t one of these guys need to step up and say,” I WANT THE BALL!!”
Wanting the ball is important in that situation is important to show leadership, but you don’t need someone to create havoc or disrupt the team’s chemistry. Chemistry is the other thing I will be watching closely next year in Miami, especially after a couple of tough losses. How will these friends respond?
Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson have both came out and said that they could not have ever envisioned playing together or with Larry Bird during their time in the NBA. They were each more concerned with beating each other versus trying to play with friends. While they both agreed that this opportunity is not necessarily a bad thing, it was just unthinkable for them.
OTHER RANDOM THOUGHTS FROM THE WEEKEND
It has now been a few days since the Open ended at St. Andrews and I am wondering if anyone remembers who won? Louis Oosthuizen is the correct answer. The lack of a,”Name,” in contention led to some miserable ratings for ESPN. Sunday’s final round coverage drew a 2.1 rating, down 45% from last year’s 3.8. This year’s ranking was the lowest since a 3.1 in 1996.
Trying to decide which gets less coverage when an American is not in contention; tennis, soccer or cycling? Maybe after looking at the ratings from last week, golf should be included here.
I am going to wait and talk about the situation in Chapel Hill surrounding the football program. I am hearing it is much ado about nothing, but will hold my comments until things are finalized by the NCAA.