Because LeBron James Didn't Develop Rivals When He Was Ballin' In High School, That's Why
Add Magic Johnson to the list of former NBA greats who are WTFing James' decision to team-up with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami:
I sense a trend with the players making these comments: they all went to college and developed rivalries with other players that transitioned to the NBA. Magic had a rivalry with Larry Bird. Michael Jordan had a rivalry with Patrick Ewing. All the greats had some baggage from a previous basketball life that was enhanced when they went pro.
Well, newsflash: LeBron James did not go to college. He was drafted out of high school, so didn't get the chance to spend 2-to-4 years at some university to create a rivalry with some other college player.
People will argue that Wade and Carmelo Anthony are his rivals, but why? Because they come out of the same draft class? That's funny; I don't recall Allen Iverson, Stephon Marbury and Steve Nash acting like they were rivals. To be a rival requires time; you need a history of interactions to build a history on. And while a James/Wade match-up or a James/Anthony match-up was cool and got some ratings, in neither case did these guys consider the other rivals.
As I've said to many people but on and off the Internet: anyone who watched the Summer Games saw that a chemistry was developing between James, Wade and Bosh. Those guys probably thought about teaming up, but I doubt they planned it on working out like it did this summer. I'm sure some suit working for the Cleveland Cavaliers noticed this too, and shame on them for thinking that adding Antawn Jamison and Shaq would be enough to get James to stay.
Now I hear people say "It's a different League," like they said when Iverson's star was on the rise. Back then the phrase essentially meant, "Hip-Hop has taken over the NBA, and if you don't like it, there's the door." Now the phrase seems to mean, "I guess stars don't want to try to win it on their own; what wimps." Excuse me, but the guy took a paycut and he's going to a situation where he feels he has a better chance to win a championship; aren't these addressing one of the biggest gripes about the NBA: that players care more about money than winning?
Look; I'm no James fan. But to think that he should sacrifice winning a ring so he can say he had a good 15-year rivalry with his contemporaries only helps the NBA from a financial standpoint. It doesn't help the sport nor does it help the young people who watch it: who should be taught that sometimes, even good/great players need help from their peers.
"We didn't think about it cause that's not what we were about," said Johnson, whose Michigan State squad beat Bird's Indiana State team in the 1979 National Collegiate Athletic Association championship. "From college, I was trying to figure out how to beat Larry Bird."
I sense a trend with the players making these comments: they all went to college and developed rivalries with other players that transitioned to the NBA. Magic had a rivalry with Larry Bird. Michael Jordan had a rivalry with Patrick Ewing. All the greats had some baggage from a previous basketball life that was enhanced when they went pro.
Well, newsflash: LeBron James did not go to college. He was drafted out of high school, so didn't get the chance to spend 2-to-4 years at some university to create a rivalry with some other college player.
People will argue that Wade and Carmelo Anthony are his rivals, but why? Because they come out of the same draft class? That's funny; I don't recall Allen Iverson, Stephon Marbury and Steve Nash acting like they were rivals. To be a rival requires time; you need a history of interactions to build a history on. And while a James/Wade match-up or a James/Anthony match-up was cool and got some ratings, in neither case did these guys consider the other rivals.
As I've said to many people but on and off the Internet: anyone who watched the Summer Games saw that a chemistry was developing between James, Wade and Bosh. Those guys probably thought about teaming up, but I doubt they planned it on working out like it did this summer. I'm sure some suit working for the Cleveland Cavaliers noticed this too, and shame on them for thinking that adding Antawn Jamison and Shaq would be enough to get James to stay.
Now I hear people say "It's a different League," like they said when Iverson's star was on the rise. Back then the phrase essentially meant, "Hip-Hop has taken over the NBA, and if you don't like it, there's the door." Now the phrase seems to mean, "I guess stars don't want to try to win it on their own; what wimps." Excuse me, but the guy took a paycut and he's going to a situation where he feels he has a better chance to win a championship; aren't these addressing one of the biggest gripes about the NBA: that players care more about money than winning?
Look; I'm no James fan. But to think that he should sacrifice winning a ring so he can say he had a good 15-year rivalry with his contemporaries only helps the NBA from a financial standpoint. It doesn't help the sport nor does it help the young people who watch it: who should be taught that sometimes, even good/great players need help from their peers.
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