LeBron James Supports Idea Of "Contraction", Why Not Contract Miami Heat?

LeBron James has had the strange ability ever since his decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers in favor of the Miami Heat to put his foot in his mouth quite a bit, with a bit of help from some leading reporters.

His most recent discretion is coming out in support of an idea that he described as taking some of the struggling teams in the league (like Minnesota or New Jersey, which were his examples), take their players (like Kevin Love, Devin Harris and Brook Lopez) and put them on other teams, shrinking the number of teams in the league.

He then said, "Not saying let's take New Jersey and let's take Minnesota out of the league. But hey, you guys are not stupid, I'm not stupid, it would be great for the league."

Sound like contraction to you? Yea, me too.

Well, a few days later he came out and denied that he had any support for the idea of contraction, saying, "That word [contraction] never even came out of my mouth. I was just saying how the league was back in the 80s and how it could be good again. I never said, Lets take some of the teams out."

He may have never said the word "contraction" but he definitely described it. If it sounds like contraction, smells like contraction and looks like contraction, chances are he's talking about contraction.

James then went on to say, "I didn’t say, ‘Let’s abandon the Nets, and not let them move to Brooklyn,’ or, ‘Let’s tear down the Target Center in Minnesota.’ I never said that.”

LeBron may not have said that word for word, but his words definitely hinted toward that idea.

Despite his foot-in-mouth discretion of the month, the recent idea of league contraction got me to thinking: Who said it has to be the bad teams that are contracted?

Let's look at the idea of contraction with one team who is eliminated being the Miami Heat.

First, their fan base.

Miami does have a dedicated core of followers, just like any other team in the league, but Miami isn't a basketball city as shown by their fluctuating attendance, even during the Dwyane Wade years.

Wade was drafted in 2003, and emerged as one of the more exciting players in the league. He quickly became one of those guys that is more exciting to see live than on a 72-inch HD television.

In his first season, the Heat finished 42-40 and made the playoffs, their attendance ranked 24th in the league.

The next season, they acquired a butts-in-the-seats guy in Shaquille O'Neal, went 59-23 and were fourth in attendance. Bravo.

They then had their championship season, going 52-30 and were fourth again in attendance.

From there, their record went downhill and fans deserted, going 44-38, 15-67, 43-39 and 47-35 over the next four seasons.

Their attendance in those seasons was fifth, eighth, 15th and 15th in attendance respectively.

Quite a decline for a team who still had one of the league's most exciting players.

Then there is that atrocious "Fan Up" campaign that the team launched in November.

It was an ad that was encouraging the people of Miami to show the nation that they deserved the team that was put before them.

Fan Up told people to get to games early (for free stuff), cheering and not leaving early.

Give either James or Wade to any team and their fans will not need a whole ad campaign to get them to show up, let alone both of them and Chris Bosh thrown in.

So, what would happen if we were to contract the Miami Heat from the NBA and for argument's sake, let's throw in New Orleans (NBA owns the team so no huge buyout would have to be paid, fan base shaky) to balance things out in the west and ease dispersal.

You would have LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chirs Paul, David West, Chris Bosh, Trevor Ariza and Emeka Okafor as the notable players to be dispersed among the NBA.

Using the worst records in the league right now, they would probably be dispersed as follows.

Sacramento (LeBron James), Washington (Dwyane Wade), Cleveland (Chris Paul), Minnesota (Chris Bosh-possibly traded), New Jersey (David West), Los Angeles Clippers (Trevor Ariza) and Detroit (Emeka Okafor).

That would make at least three teams instantly watchable on national television and better draws at both their home arenas and all over the country, give another team one of the best trade chips in the league and give three more teams new starters.

That would do exponentially more good than dispersing the few viable players on Minnesota and New Jersey about the league, which would amount in maybe four teams getting starters in the dispersal.

It would also turn around the future of seven different franchises and spread competitiveness throughout the NBA.

And then there's the merchandise that could be sold. Oh, the merchandise.

There would be a slew of Sacramentones (Sacromentians? Sacromentarooskies?) grabbing up James jerseys, Washintonians buying up Wade gear, Clevelanders flocking to buy anything with the name Paul on the back and whatever city Bosh lands in will have their share of Bosh swag sold.

I can see the headlines now: "NBA Saves US Economy." Tell me David Stern wouldn't want to see that flash across every paper in the nation.

It wouldn't be the eighties LeBron, I think it would be better.