LeBron James' New Contract Leaves No Question About Who Rules NBA Landscape
LeBron James sat there with a smile on Thursday, stole thunder from the Rio Olympics he chose to skip and undercut his own league's major schedule unveiling.
That's how it is when you rule the way James does.
James announced his re-signing with the defending NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers on his UNINTERRUPTED platform, and it was a reminder of how unparalleled James' platform is right now.
James agreed to a three-year, $100 million deal—he can opt out before the third year—and will be the highest-paid player in the game for the first time at $31 million in 2016-17, according to NBA sources.
Yes, James rules.
His closest rival in overall skill and greatness, Kevin Durant, has been branded the new villain for jumping to the Golden State Warriors. His closest rival ex-teammate, Dwyane Wade, was disrespected and disappointed upon James' exit from Miami and wound up making a poor-man's-LeBron move home to Chicago.
His legacy rivals, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan, have retired from the game in relatively underwhelming fashion. Bryant didn't play a single playoff game in his final four years, and Duncan didn't reach the conference finals in his farewell season.
His lifetime rival, Carmelo Anthony, is putting his body through the Olympic wringer in hopes of getting that token, almost guaranteed victory that James doesn't need because he's gotten it time and time and time again in the NBA.
His only real current rival, Stephen Curry, is off the grid, licking his wounds from a terribly disappointing playoff fade.
Seven months ago, things were quite different.
It was then that Curry's Warriors rolled into Cleveland and left with a 132-98 win. A worried James was forced to admit, "Tonight was an example of how far we've got to go to get to a championship level."
Because of how ho-hum it had become for James to be great and for his teams to appear in the NBA Finals—and especially with how the eminently watchable Curry fire had gone from widespread to worldwide to downright historic—we wrote back then in January that the always-famous James was as "irrelevant as we've ever known him." We wrote that he needed major help to change that status, and Cavs general manager David Griffin came through.
Griffin's then-unforeseen move to oust coach David Blatt and promote James' beloved Tyronn Lue was bold and, as it turned out, brilliant. Throw in the fact that Lue, according to NBA sources, was at the time beginning to ponder leaving Cleveland for a head coaching job elsewhere, and it wound up being a win-win-win deal for Griffin and James.
The other guy who delivered was Kyrie Irving, and when it comes to discussing James' rivals, he merits a mention as well.
Of course they're teammates...and Irving is almost eight years younger than James, who was the unanimous 2016 NBA Finals MVP despite Irving's memorable last shot in Game 7.
But it's worth at least bringing up that Irving's powerful self-belief, which pushed both that memorable last shot and all the preening alpha-male feathers he is showing in Rio de Janeiro this summer minus James, could spark a rivalry within future Cleveland teams.
Championship teams tend to suffer from the swelling of individual egos, San Antonio being the exception, and Irving's ambition is obvious.
But this is distinctly different from Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal in that James has proved to be a willing teammate throughout his career—and O'Neal was in his prime when Bryant wanted to fan and display his tail feathers with the Los Angeles Lakers.
James, who turns 32 next season, wants to cruise through the regular season, so there will be tons of moments that Irving can own. A weary James wanted the same thing last year, except Irving wasn't healthy for much of the season, so James hoped against hope that Kevin Love could be good enough to carry the Cavs.
If healthy, Irving can be that driving force for the team on an everyday basis, even as James continues to be the unquestioned driving force for the franchise on a forever basis.
That's what James was seeking when he left the aging Heat for the unproven Cavaliers in 2014. So to assume that James and Irving can't coexist in the future is too great a leap.
They will, though, have to recalibrate themselves to find a new sweet spot as co-stars. No championship run stays exactly the same, and there will have to be more Irving and less James even in a thin-looking Eastern Conference playoff picture.
Perhaps with an eye toward taking it easier on that long road, James mentioned in his UNINTERRUPTED video that Griffin and the Cavs need to re-sign J.R. Smith, a LeBron friend and fellow Klutch Sports client. In fact, the UNINTERRUPTED video before James' contract announcement was of Smith walking through the airport upon landing in the Netherlands to begin his honeymoon.
"Let's get J.R. done," James said. "It's that time."
James was laughing as he spoke, almost drunk on the power he knows has no bounds anymore in Cleveland.
Smith's growth was a factor in the title run, but he has a personality type that is awfully risky to trust. That might be Griffin's thinking as he tries to continue helping James without completely spending the Cavs into luxury-tax oblivion.
But James has earned the right to gloat, demand, celebrate and cash in after what he aptly described as "a magical, inspiring, all the words you could come up with, it was an unbelievable season."
It was a most brilliant conquest.
And he's clearly still quite happy.
He should be.
Kevin Ding is an NBA senior writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @KevinDing.
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