The Next Stop for the King

I can empathize with Spike Lee's conflict in rooting for the Boston Celtics last week, but yes, when it comes to the dreams of Knicks fans who desperately want to see LeBron James in a Knicks uniform next season, all anti-Boston sports sentiment (which was later satisfied when the Bruins choked away a 3-0 series and Game 7 three-goal lead to lose their playoff series to the Flyers) had to go out the window, and I was admittedly thrilled when the Celtics bounced the Cavaliers out of the playoffs, leading many to wonder where LeBron James, who will be entering free agency on July 1st, will end up.

I'll fully concede that I'm biased as a Knicks fan, but I think the Knicks provide as good as a situation as any of the teams considered serious contenders to get LeBron - it's certainly much better than Chris Broussard thinks (who's missing a major point which I'll get to in a second). ESPN columnist Bill Simmons probably has the most accurate breakdown of the three-team race (Cleveland Cavaliers, Chicago Bulls, and New York Knicks), with the New Jersey Nets as a dark horse, and my thoughts are similar.

I'll sum up the other contenders quickly. Cleveland can pay him the most from an NBA salary perspective, but that goes out the window because that money will be but a fraction of his total sponsorship compensation. The bigger push for Cleveland will be his love for his nearby hometown Akron, and a sense of loyalty and desire to bring a championship to a team and city which has seen so much sports heartache (insert video clip of "The Fumble", "The Drive", or "The Shot" here). Miami has cap room, Dwyane Wade as a sidekick, beautiful weather and a hip lifestyle commemorated in a Will Smith song. Chicago has some great pieces in place with Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, and as the third largest media market in the United States, LeBron will get some expanded exposure. The New Jersey Nets is now owned by a Russian billionaire who will probably make Mark Cuban look poor and frugal in comparison, and has a minority owner in Jay-Z who is a personal friend of LeBron. They'll be moving to a new arena in Brooklyn and will have some nice young players to build around, including Brook Lopez, Devin Harris and (possibly) John Wall.

The Knicks can offer a max-salaried sidekick (Chris Bosh? Amare Stoudemire?) and most importantly, New York. Broussard pooh-poohs this in his article, but he's wrong. The reality is that winning in New York magnifies the accomplishment of any sports icon, right or wrong. Assuming (and this is a key assumption) that LeBron can bring a championship to any of these teams, winning in New York provides the greatest glory. Mark Messier's Stanley Cup championship with the Rangers is far more remembered than his five with the Oilers, and to those who whine that Derek Jeter and his five championship rings is over-hyped and overrated because of he plays in the New York and has the benefit of playing with star mercenaries paid by the Steinbrenner's bottomless pockets, well, you can't have it both ways. The fact that these New York champions are hyped to demigod status is because they do it on the biggest stage with teams which have bucketloads of cash to throw at the best free agents. Give credit to the "hype-machine" and New York excess where it's due.

LeBron will never be able to achieve that level of glory in any other city. Heck, in Chicago, he'll never get out of Michael Jordan's shadow. If he goes to Chicago, he won't be even be able deified as the Bulls' greatest player ever - let alone the greatest player in NBA history. And to all of those Chicago fans talking about Jordan "passing the torch" to LeBron, I don't buy that one second. Jordan's legendary competitiveness would never allow concede any mantle to anyone. If he goes to Miami, he goes to "Dwyane Wade's team" and risks being perceived as winning a title as a sidekick. With the Nets, he'll have to play two years in Newark purgatory (but hey, I wouldn't mind having him a short commuter-train ride away at the Prudential Center for two years), which he's not going to go through. As for Cleveland, he faces the "been there, did that, didn't work" phenomena and the limited upside of not being in a major media market. He'll be big if he wins championships, but winning in Cleveland won't measure up to winning in New York.

In New York, he'll get a chance to resurrect a long-suffering franchise (thank you Ed Tapscott, Scott Layden and Isaiah Thomas) with a global base of fans. He can electrify a city and easily claim the mantle of greatest Knick ever (with all respect, a ring-less Patrick Ewing, Willis Reed, Walt Frazier and Dave DeBusschere aren't the same roadblock as Michael Jordan). Yes, he needs to win, but I think that can be done with another max-player, Eddy Curry's contract coming off the books next year, and some good complimentary pieces that Donne Walsh can find, and a weaker Eastern Conference.

It makes sense to me, but hey, I'm a Knicks fan.