On Thursday, when someone asked me if I would be watching the Lebron show, I replied that I didn't plan on it since I knew he wasn't coming to Orlando, and I didn't care if he chose anyone else. Basically, I assumed that as a Magic fan with no real ties to Lebron, his choice of team has no real bearing on me. Now that the Piston rivalry is dead, and the Celtics had no way to get him, I didn't see Lebron as a threat to the Magic. He's never verbally bashed my team, so why are so many Magic fans calling my derogatory names?
To anyone who is angry that he chose to play with his friends and try to win a few titles, please tell me one person who wouldn't do the same. I mean had he chosen the extra money to stay in Cleveland or the extra fame of playing in New York or Chicago, we would all be saying that he didn't care about winning. But joining up with two other top 5 talents (in my opinion) in Miami, how is this a bad decision? I'm actually excited to see this team play next season. Maybe they do something revolutionary like use a James-Wade back court with Miller and Bosh at forwards and just speed the game up so much (Bosh, Wade, and James are arguably the fastest guys at their respective positions) that it doesn't matter who plays center. The mere possibility of that team playing great basketball together means a lot to me as a basketball fan.
The other argument I hear is that player X never had to change teams to win a title. Who cares? Kobe was drafted onto a team that had Shaq, and two other all-stars already place. Magic was drafted to a team that already had Kareem, Norm Nixon (18 pts, 8 assists even with Magic taking away his point guard duties) and Jamal Wilkes (19 pts 6 reb). Bird was drafted to a team that had Tiny Archibald, Pete Maravich, and Dave Cowens already in place. Lebron has never played with a real all-star (apologies to Mo, but you aren't that good) and neither has Bosh. To anyone saying that this is Wade's team and Lebron is just riding his coat tails, the Celtics were Pierce's team and Garnett came in, gave them a personality transplant and almost won the MVP in year 1. Lebron is a much player now than Garnett was 3 years ago, so it's safe to assume that no one will be putting baby in the corner.
My whole point is that you cannot be mad at these guys for rolling the dice and choosing friendship (and South Beach) over promises on individual stardom. Why aren't people more mad at Amar'e for his "I know that they have 0 talent and no chance to win, but they are offering me the most money and I won't be asked to play defense for the next 5 years" approach? Lot's of stars like to talk about winning as a motivator but these three are actually going for it. The only way for me to feel any better about it was if they all said they would play together and chose to play for the minimum so they could afford a better supporting cast. Stop trying to compare this to other star laden teams like the '97 Rockets or '04 Lakers. None of these stars are past their prime and no one is joining a core that has won a title already. We've never seen this experiment before. I look forward to seeing how this ends, but in the meantime I'm all about the Magic. Orlando in 2011.
