Recent NBA News

According to The New York Daily News, The Knicks are still extremely interested in acquiring All-NBA small forward Lebron James. To no one’s’ surprise the Knicks freed up a ton of salary cap space to house the superstar and his behemoth contract which will sure follow him. However the Knicks may have found a way around paying Lebron massive “salary cap-eating” contract. The Knicks look to offer Lebron his own television channel. Yeah I was thinking the same thing you probably are right now… how can a single player own his own station, let alone a show? Although Lebron James is the most dominant player in the game today can’t possibly deserve his own channel. He has won zero championships, and in his only NBA Finals appearance was a disaster to say the least, as his Cavaliers were destroyed by a faster more complete San Antonio Spurs team. Lebron does have very impressive career numbers and a couple of records under his belt as well, but he isn’t Michael Jordan. Let me provide some back-story to the phenom that is Lebron James. Lebron grew up in Ohio and was 3 time Mr. Basketball in high school. He went directly to the NBA bypassing college. He was drafted first overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers. In his rookie season he was awarded the rookie of the year. In the following 4 years he was 1st-team All-NBA and 2nd-team All-NBA, each twice. Since 2005, he was named to NBA All-star teams. In 2009 he won the Most Valuable Player award. Lebron over his career has averaged 27.5 points per game, 6.7 assists, and 7 rebounds. These numbers obviously indicate he, like his idol Jason Kidd, is a threat for a triple-double at any time. Although these credentials seem ridiculously amazing, I don’t see them being worthy of a television station. Lebron’s television network only seems like a stupid ploy to get him to come to New York. No single person has a TV channel about themselves and having the first as Lebron seems to insult the fact that political leaders don’t have their own networks. Shouldn’t the President get his own channel before a sport athlete does? It seems to make little sense having the priority of a nation’s focus on an athlete rather than a political leader. However, there are a series of benefits that the Knicks could get if Lebron accepts the contract and channel offer. The Knicks gain a huge fan base by having the best and most famous player in the world on their team. This will increase home game attendance and television ratings. The Knicks will also profit huge from jersey sales and the launch of Lebron’s television channel (hopefully named LBTV). The rumor of Lebron’s TV channel is one that will take a couple of months to confirm, but it will surely be something that will be addressed by the Knicks organization in the future.
Dwyane Wade has openly stated that he is not going to resign a deal with the Miami Heat, until the end of the 2009-10 season. This is particularly terrible news for the Heat as Wade is by far their best player and he accounts for most of their points, assists, and blocks. Last year Wade accounted for 30.2 points per game, a number which will be extremely hard for the Heat to replace. Wade is a gold-medalist for the United States Olympic Basketball Team. It will be for difficult for the Miami Heat to find another player with similar talent, youth, and size. Wade similar to Lebron James is a phenomenal talent at a young age. If the Heat fail to sign Dwyane Wade they will need to either trade up for a high draft pick and pray that they get a young super-talent in the draft or try and make a blockbuster move in free agency. Their decision should lie on the number in the win column at the end of the year. If the win column is high then the Heat should pay big bucks for Dwyane’s next contract. If the number of wins is low then the heat should try and add talent through the NBA draft. I would recommend the Heat look at Willie Warren, sharp shooting, combo guard, out of Oklahoma. His upside is big and he can provide some of the scoring that Wade provided. The Heat should also scout out Xavier Henry. He is a freshman entering Kansas university, who is very long and athletic for his position, and possibly has the best potential out of his freshman class. They also can look into free agency to find already established talent. At the top of their list should be Ray Allen, one of the greatest three point shooters in NBA history. They should also take a look at Paul Pierce, another player who can extend a defense beyond the arc and also attack the rim. Anyway you look at it, Dwyane Wade refusing to resign until after the 2009-10 season is terrible news for fans of the Miami Heat.
In other recent news, Brendan Haywood stated Michael Jordan could beat half or the league today. This wouldn’t surprise people who think of the Michael Jordan being talked about in his mid 20’s and early 30’s… not as a 46 year old. Michael Jordan can still shoot a basketball, no doubt, but does he still have the physical strength to compete as a professional athlete? I doubt, even after significant training, that Michael Jordan could make another comeback. Michael has been out of sports for too long and it just seems illogical and basically impossible for him to return to the game of basketball.


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