King’s court not at the Garden
LeBron James hit the open market on Tuesday, and the Knicks have even less of a chance to get him than they did in 2010.
James terminated his contract with Miami − no surprise there − but Phil Jackson doesn’t have the cap space to steal away the best player on the planet from Pat Riley.
Even if the Knicks had the millions Jackson intends to open up next summer after he lops Tyson Chandler, Amar’e Stoudemire and Andrea Bargnani off the books, they’d have practically no chance to get LeBron.
This is always what happens to the Knicks. They either don’t have the space to bring the best player on the planet to the Garden, something that was painfully apparent in 2006 when Isiah Thomas ran to California and tried to sweet talk Kobe Bryant into taking the B.S. mid-level exception. Or, they have it and the game’s premier player has no interest in coming to New York to end the World’s Most Famous Championship Drought.
That’s what happened with James in 2010 when Miami won the greatest freeagent sweepstakes since the Lakers came away with Shaquille O’Neal 14 years earlier.
This time, there will be rumors and other crazy noise out in Twitter-land about James talking to the Lakers. Maybe even joining forces with Carmelo Anthony, if you can really wrap your arms around that one. But he’s bound to stay in Miami with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, even if it’s just for one season so he can keep his options open for 2015.
James is all about winning titles and he knows that Miami still gives him the best shot of doing that, even if the Heat was run off the floor in the last three games by the Spurs.
Start with this: The Heat has one of the best owners in sports in Micky Arison. The NBA is full of Jim Dolan types, owners who have no business meddling but do it anyway because they think they’re smarter than their own basketball people. James had one of those guys when he was in Cleveland, with Dan Gilbert.
When I asked James before the AC fiasco in San Antonio in Game 1 how much he factored Arison into his original decision to join the Heat in 2010, he dropped a major hint about his future.
“It wasn’t a big factor then − it is now,” he said. “I mean, out of the four years I’ve been here, I’ve had an opportunity to grow and to be around Micky and see him.”
Not just see him, but watch him operate. He’s grown to appreciate how Arison gives Riley the freedom to execute all of the basketball moves.
“He allows ‘Riles’ to be the brains behind the team,” James said. “Riles does a great job of figuring out personnel, what fits in our locker room. And it starts with Micky, because he allows Riles to do that.”
Now you tell me he’s leaving that. Why? To come to the Garden to see Dolan mess with Jackson and eventually drive him back to Playa del Rey? To go to the Lakers, where owner Jim Buss has proven 10 times over that he’s a klutz compared to his dad? To go back to Cleveland, where Gilbert scolds and lectures everyone and still hasn’t figured out a way to get back to the playoffs even after winning all of those NBA draft lotteries since James left? To the Clippers, where who knows where this Donald Sterling thing is going, and what kind of owner Steve (Tiger) Ballmer is going to be, if he ever actually ever owns the team?
Coming off a waste of a season when he didn’t get his third ring, James can’t afford to take a flier on another owner-basketball executive tandem. Sure, he’s going to want changes in Miami and he’s going to have input because he’s now earned that right by taking the Heat franchise to four straight Finals appearances and two titles in the last three seasons.
James knows he needs help because the Finals ended in San Antonio much the same way they ended for James against the Spurs in 2007 when he was with Cleveland. He couldn’t beat ’em oneon-five this time, either. But this time, the help will come to him, as it should, because he no longer has to feel like he has to move his basketball career to find the right players.
Last week, Riley challenged James “if you’ve got the guts” to remain a part of the Big Three and not to go looking for the first door and run out of it.
He just opted out. He’s not running anywhere.