LeBron James: How The "LEBRON CON" Hustled The Sports Media & The NBA!
THE VECCHIO FACTOR SAYS...
As with most plots, sinister or otherwise, sooner or later, the facts and the truth come out.
Upon numerous journalistic investigations of the "Decision," looking at the time line, and the facts, many of which are not coincidental, there is a strong view that LeBron James plotted, master-minded, and executed a "caper" wherein he, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh, come "hell or high water," were going to join hands and play together...in Miami.
Conspiracy? Collusion? Calculated? Concocted?
Your call, but if you look closely, there is just too much evidence that the "Big Three" were NOT going to be separated from their desire to play together on one team.
The result was NBA organizations, including their fans, cities, etc., were "led down a garden path," in street terms, "hustled" into thinking they had a legitimate chance to sign James, Wade, or Bosh individually for their respective team, when, in fact, the "LeBron Con" was On, the "Pact" was Intact, and these organizations had ZERO chance to sign him unless they could clear enough cap room to sign all three players!
In the end, only a few teams of interest to LeBron could have had enough cap space, and the sign-and-trade ability to do this: New York, Chicago, and Miami.
To be clear, there is no doubt that LBJ had the unequivocal right to sign with whomever he chose. That is NOT the issue.
The issue is how he went about his much-anticipated free agency status that still has left people with a bad taste in their mouths.
Knowing that his goal was to team up with Wade and Bosh, and only a few teams would be able to accommodate being able to sign all three, why then did he put six teams, and the NBA basketball world, through what many believe to have been a phony, fraudulent exercise culminating in a "Decision" that many knew was preordained?.
The fact is the "Chosen One" put six of his chosen teams through a bogus endeavor that cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars, not to mention millions of heartaches for fans in cities like Cleveland.
Initially, my sources, as well as those of others, said Wade was never leaving Miami, so the Heat became the logical, ultimate destination choice for LeBron, with Bosh on board if Miami could get under the cap as well.
This was corroborated publicly when a number of media people, such as John Ireland of 710 ESPN Los Angeles and writer/commentator Stephen A. Smith came out and said their sources predicted ALL three would sign with Miami.
Spike Lee said, in an interview on ESPN the day after the "Decision," that the whole process was, quote, "rigged!"
Let's look at the facts. In 2006, LeBron, Wade and Bosh took three-year extensions, rather than the 5 year extensions they could haven taken, making all three free agents in the summer of 2010.
With this is mind, many teams dumped salary and players over the next few years, e.g. the New York Knicks, essentially "gutting" their teams, believing they had an honest and fair chance to compete for James, as well as Wade or Bosh.
This was done at the expense of their fans who paid good money to watch lesser talent, hoping they would be able to land the big prize, LeBron James, in the summer of 2010.
The six teams (Cleveland, Chicago, New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles Clippers and Miami) invested time and hundreds of thousands of dollars preparing their presentations for "King James."
Realistically, no one gave the Clippers nor New Jersey a chance. The remaining contenders were thus pared down to Cleveland, Chicago, the Knicks, and Miami.
Since LBJ wouldn't answers texts and calls from Dan Gilbert, and/or Cleveland management in the days leading up to his "Decision," it was surmised that the Cavs were not on James' free agency mind, primarily because they didn't have enough cap space to sign him, Wade and Bosh.
When Toronto attempted to work a sign-and-trade with Cleveland for Bosh, so as not to lose Bosh to free agency without receiving anything in return, Bosh turned the trade down.
The fact is, Bosh could have joined James in Cleveland for max money. He would have given the Cavs the interior scoring presence to help LeBron put Cleveland into serious NBA championship contention.
Instead, Bosh refused to be traded to the Cavs, giving a lame excuse saying he didn't want to play in Cleveland.
And now we know the answer.
It was all predetermined, perhaps as far back as 2006, that LBJ, D-Wade, and C-Bosh made an agreement to play together on one team!.
Why else would all three only take three-year extensions as opposed to five?
James was NEVER going to re-sign with Cleveland based on the "blood brother pact" the three made years ago, unless Cleveland could sign all three players.
When Bosh refused to go to Cleveland, that was the clue that told me he knew LBJ WAS NOT staying in Cleveland.
It was the KEY piece of evidence, and reinforced their commitment, that under no circumstance was any one of the three going to bolt from their pact to ALL play together! .
If that wasn't the case, why would Bosh say no to joining LeBron in Cleveland? With Bosh and LeBron plus a supporting cast that had won over 60 games the past two seasons, they would've had all the pieces necessary to get over the top and win an NBA title.
Since LeBron, Wade and Bosh had decided to do an "all for one, one for all," "Three Musketeers" deal, and the Cavs couldn't deliver on signing all of them, they were eliminated from the "LeBron Stakes."
That left the Bulls, Knicks, and Miami.
As mentioned earlier, D-Wade was not interested in leaving Miami. Flirting with Chicago steered the media off track. Remember when he told the media he was seriously considering Chicago so he could be closer to his kids?
The reality was he was waiting for LeBron to play out his "LeBron Stakes" hand, knowing if certain things such as available cap space fell into place, eventually they could all wind up in Miami.
It's not without reason that the "Three Musketeer" scenario had, at the very least, "player collusion" written all over it, and arguably with Miami ownership's knowledge, which would rise to the level of tampering,
Coincidence or not, did you know that Nicky Arison, son of the Miami Heat's owner, Micky Arison, was part of the 2007-2008 Olympic team staff?
Could it be that, as far back as 2007, Nicky was made privy to the "Big Three's" plan of playing together in 2010...in MIamI??
What was behind Pat Riley's furious activity to dump salary at the end of June, if not to clear enough cap space to sign all three players prior to the July 1 free agency signing date?
Based on what we now know, it's obvious that the "LeBron-A-Thon" was rigged years ago by LeBron, Wade, and Bosh, and they acted their parts out well enough to fool NBA organizations, and an adoring, ass-kissing media.
As I mentioned earlier, why did people such as Stephen A. Smith come out weeks before the July 1, 2010 free agency date saying the Three Amigos were going to Miami?
Stephen A. is pretty well connected in the basketball world, and I believe he had to know something concrete in order for him to make such a bold prediction!
In retrospect, the "LeBron Con" felt like a scripted B movie with a thin plot line, one lead actor, two supporting actors, a jilted lover, a villain, and an ending that left most of the sports world unsatisfied.
To reiterate, what was done was not illegal, except for possible NBA tampering charges, but, I submit, it reeks of disingenuous actions on the part of the principals.
Since the media was agog over this story, devoting hours and pages of press, radio, and TV time to it, no one deemed it newsworthy to look into and expose the true facts of the story, choosing instead to go with the story's sizzle since it was THE event of the summer of 2010!.
Absent from the media's reporting was the aforementioned possibility of tampering by Miami.
However, with news that Dan Gilbert was preparing a tampering case against Miami, and "others potentially involved" in December 2010, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports wrote:
"The NBA won’t launch an investigation into a tampering case without a formal request from a team, but sources say Gilbert’s plan is to give commissioner David Stern a detailed case that includes meetings, phone calls and contingency plans that date as far back as 2008."
"Gilbert will implore Stern to use his powers as commissioner to get access to phone records and testimony of key people surrounding Heat president Pat Riley, James and others potentially involved."
Since Stern publicly endorsed LeBron and Bosh's move to Miami, seeing its national publicity as a PR and cash benefit to the NBA, there was no reason to investigate tampering unless a formal request was made by a team or teams.
After all, why ruin a great story for the NBA, even though it's a distinct possibility that it arguably was a premeditated, disingenuous, potential tampering sham.
Knowing Pat Riley, those of us who were involved in the LA sports media during the 80's knew that win at any cost was his mantra, his motivation. The question is: was he above bending the NBA's rules?
Dan Gilbert seems to think so.
At this moment, the question of tampering has yet to be answered. As they say,"To Be Continued."
Regarding the Knicks involvement in all of this, reports were that during meetings "LeCON" had with Knicks' management, purportedly James asked if they would consider firing their head coach, feeling that Mike D'Antoni's style lacked the defensive scheme to win NBA titles.
Obviously, the Knicks said no, refusing to let D'Antoni go. If they had agreed to a coaching change, they could have cleared enough cap space to bring in two players for sure, and possibly all three to NYC.
Their "No" to dumping D'Antoni, eliminated the Knicks.
In terms of which team would have been most ideal for James to achieve his stated desire to win NBA championships, most analysts felt the Chicago Bulls gave him the best opportunity.
With Rose, Noah, and Deng, adding James and Bosh would have given them a starting line-up that would be arguably the NBA's best!
His refusal to go to Chicago, once again goes back to the fact that the Bulls most likely couldn't clear enough cap space to sign ALL three, or that Wade, who wanted to stay in Miami, knew that Riley could make the necessary cap space happen to retain him and obtain James and Bosh.
That left the Miami Heat as the last team standing.
To think that LeBron, Wade and Bosh were individually and seriously considering other teams to sign with, and I emphasize individually and seriously, I believe was patently dishonest.
Through it all, what transpired was that a number of teams spent lots of time and lots of money thinking they fairly and honestly had a chance to sign LeBron, and possibly Bosh or Wade, when in truth they didn't have a chance in Hell of breaking up their "blood-brothers" pact to play together!
It can be argued that NBA teams, fans, media, cities, etc., were led astray, and deceived into thinking that there REALLY was a chance to sign them separately, and/or together.
And if anyone believes they were going to separately sign with different teams, knowing what we know now, I have a bridge to sell you in the Arizona desert!
Here's the bottom line, Bosh was not in favor of being individually traded anywhere so as to protect the triumvirate's solidarity agreement.
Wade knew Miami would commit to clear cap space to bring all three players to the Heat, and LeBron was the lead composer in acting out their agenda so as to make it seem like everything was fair and square, and on the "up and up."
The inside knowledge that the "Big Three" had Miami in place to make their dream come true just needed time to be made whole, i.e., Riley clearing cap space, and the parties agreeing to their contract numbers to fit that cap space.
Whereas I strongly disagree with Dan Gilbert's letter rant after the "Decision," I can understand how he and other teams felt they were purposely misled, disrespected, deceived, and lied to,
The truth is, for LeBron, Wade and Bosh to give the impression that they were available free agents willing to individually sign with other teams was simply NOT truthful.
The tampering charges being prepared by Dan Gilbert against LeBron, Wade, Bosh, the Miami Heat ownership, and others, may well reveal the caper's "dark side," that which was initially given a pass by the media and David Stern.
What we do know for sure is the self-professed, "King James," who has yet to win an NBA title, was given a free access pass by the media and the NBA to orchestrate and act out his free agent status on a grand, national scale, replete with every form of media coverage, enhancing his already overblown, egocentric persona.
If there is such a thing as investigative sports journalism, I personally would like to see it rise to the occasion, especially in this case, where sordid lies, deception, and untruths were dished out to the gullible, idol-fawning public and sports media.
JOE VECCHIO
The VECCHIO FACTOR
