Where’s LeBron going?
The Decision, Part III
THE NBA locals are a year, at least, away from having some real fun in the league’s annual free-agency sweepstakes. The Knicks are committed to their rebuilding and are biding their time until Kristaps Porzingis’ knee heals; the Nets are committed to another year in purgatory, fixated on the summer of 2019, when they reportedly will have around $5 zillion to spend on players, give or take a few trillion.
So this NBA free-agency season, which begins in earnest on Sunday, will focus on LeBron James, because whenever James is feeling professionally frisky (or, more to the point, when he is contractually allowed to explore all his options) that is the next-best thing for hoops fans to an honest-to-god basketball game.
His choices are varied and they run the gamut from East Coast to West Coast to, of course, staying where he is right in the middle. Wherever he decides to play next year, it is inevitable there will be a tsunami of reaction, because that is what LeBron specializes in whenever he makes these seminal career choices.
There will be no “Decision,” capital “D,” this year the way there was in 2010, when he told the world (via ESPN and Jim Gray) that he was migrating to Miami, and there likely will be no emotional internet message the way there was four years later when he told the world (via Sports Illustrated and Lee Jenkins) that he was returning to Cleveland.
But there will be reaction, you can count on that. James has, after all, spent the past four years in an unending public embrace with many basketball fans who admire that he helped his hometown win its first NBA title ever, its first in any professional sport in a half-century. If he isn’t universally popular, it’s only because basketball fans in Boston and Toronto and Indianapolis, among others, have seen him personally serve as a roadblock to their own championship ambitions.
Hard as it maybe to remember all these years later, though, when James made his first foray into free agency, things weren’t quite so warm and fuzzy. You could argue, in fact, a player of his level of popularity has never spent so much time as public enemy No. 1 . This passage, from Ian Thomsen’s superb book “The Soul of Basketball,” is a reminder of just what a forest of flame he jumped into then: “LeBron, responsible as he was for his new team’s vilification, wanted no part of playing the villain. His popularity among consumers was in free fall: only 14 percent of Americans viewed him in a positive light.
“‘Instead of his change to the Heat being seen as the best way he can win a championship,’ said Henry Schafer, executive vice president of the Q Scores Company, ‘many have looked at it and how he chose to announce it as a selfish move.’ ”
So there will be a reaction. How good? How bad ? That depends on his answer, and his decision (lowercase “d”). Here is what you can expect from the public response, ranked from most popular to least (or least offensive to most, if you prefer) of the f ive destinations he is likely to choose: when he came back in 2014. Surely Cleveland wants him to stay, but the fact is he’s 33, and as indestructible as he is, he won’t be at this level forever. Time, eventually, would have its say. But it would be cool if he retired a Cav.
with Dr. J. When icons play in Philly, they play iconically.
League reaction: Oh, good. Now the road to Golden State goes through Philadelphia, instead. At least there’s cheesesteak.
Overall take: There seems to be a consensus building (or already built) that LeBron and reigning Rookie of the Year Ben Simmons would have a hard time fitting together, that if LeBron’s on your team, he dominates the ball, and if someone else is dominating the ball, then having Simmons is useless. But, man, this would be a fun experiment to watch develop.
think of an NBA team winning 75 games? Local reaction: Who? League reaction: Oh, good. It has only been 15 minutes since the Celtics won their 17th banner, we were wondering what took so long.
Overall take: Obviously the most interesting impediment is the presence of Kyrie Irving, the one LeBron teammate who ever dared to publicly cross (and then run away from) him. There is also a genuine parochial sense in New England of: we can do this without his help — which is probably a good perspective to have since this seems an improbable destination. And the locals may well be right, if all the pieces stay healthy next year. between playoff appearances but we’ re a major market, too, and we can fall off the face of the earth for decades — for decades! — And the next savior always finds a way or a reason to go some - where else? Why? Why? Why?” League reaction: Oh, good. Another generation of Beautiful People and Botox People crowding courtside and mugging for the cameras.
Overall take: Taking his talents to Southern Cal won’t be as infuriating to the masses as taking them to South Beach was… but it’ s aw fully damn close. Unless you’re a Lakers fan, the notion of another Laker Rising is more than a little nauseating. Sugges
tion: stock up on Maalox.