The Decision

LeBron James has formally announced "The Decision": that he will join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami.

Well, it is not unexpected, really. We all knew that LeBron was going to leave Cleveland, and that he was going to choose either the Bulls, the Nets or the Heat. (Please, the Knicks and the Clippers never had any real chance.) And after Bosh had committed to join Wade, it was logical for him to go down to Florida and to create possibly one of the biggest "Big Three" in the history of NBA.

And I just hate that.

Makes no mistake, I know LBJ gave up not less than $30m of money for the chance to play with his two friends. And I do not think that there will be any major chemistry problem between the three, after they had played together in Team USA for a few years. I too do not think that James and Wade would argue over who is going to take the last shot. Well, not until they fail to score the champion after 3 years. And I genuinely believe that Pat Riley can somehow work things out and fill up all the now empty roster with serviceable role players.

But I still hate it.

1. I Hate the Reality Show

First and foremost. I hate the way James revealed The Decision by way of a national televised 1-hour reality show. This is ridiculous. Why on earth did he still need such publicity? That's just narcissistic. Such a prima donna. What didn't he just make a simple statement to the press, or at most hold a press conference and announce the decision just like the way MJ made his comeback announcement? Why did he need a freaking "show"? What so special? Has he ever considered the feeling of the Cavs supporters? That is so cruel to Cleveland fans. Quoted from the mailbags of ESPN's Sports Guy:

"Imagine you're an average dude in high school. Somehow, you begin dating the hottest girl in school. It goes good not great, but hey, she's beautiful and you aren't really going to complain. Senior year, she breaks up with you and begins dating the new quarterback that just transferred into the school. Exceptshe did this on stage at the homecoming coronation, embarrassing you in front of the whole school. This is what LeBron did to the city of Cleveland."

Read more.

The thing is, I think The Decision had been made long before. It was particularly obvious after Bosh's commitment to the Heat. These three players had planned to play together FOR YEARS and somehow they finally found one genius (Pat Riley) who managed to dump ALL players to create enough salary space to do that. LBJ had known that he's going to Miami. Despite that, somehow, LeBron and his buddies decided to play around with the world, inviting all the potential teams to make their pitches, sending all the mixed signals via unofficial sources while keeping their mouth shut officially. And then finished the whole bonanza with a "grand finale" on TV. That's real bad. That's so self-absorbed. The worst is, LeBron had the gut to say during the show that the decision was made that morning? Who on earth is going to believe that? It might make him feel better by saying so, but it did nothing but harm to all the sports followers around the world. I feel bad about all those teams that had made their pitches. I think this reality show has really alienated LeBron from not only the Cleveland fans, but also other NBA teams, other NBA fans who do not support the Heat.

And, why did you need a reality show to make The Decision? I know I had asked before, but tell me, why? Why?

2. I Hate His Cowardice

I hate this because it is a loser's play. It is a coward move.

When LeBron said it's all about winning, I believed him. That's because he needs it. He wants to be a global icon, and he needs one. Without a ring, he will never be a global icon the way Kobe or MJ or Tiger are. So I genuinely believe that the decision is about ring and not about money (which he has way way more than enough). Also, LeBron is a smart guy. After having tried for 7 years, he knew he could not win with this team (which I have reservation, we will revisit this later.) He thought he needed help. Give him credits, he had tried to stay in Cleveland. He had tried to lure Bosh to come to Cleveland and the Raptors had principally agreed to a sign-n-trade with the Cavaliers. The deal-breaker was that Bosh did not want to go to Ohio. He prefers Miami, which makes sense because of the weather and the state tax free of Miami. So with Bosh joining Wade, James can either (1) join Wade and Bosh in Miami to form The Big Three; (2) go to Chicago (Rose, Boozer, Noah); or (3) stay in Cleveland (Mo Williams, Jamison, Varejao). Eventually he chose the easiest way. James is so calculating. He knew that no matter he goes to Chicago or stays in Cleveland, he needs to fight hard to beat the Heat AND the Magic. Objectively, the best chance for him to win a championship is to join Wade and Bosh. He did not want to fight hard. He wants the safest way just to get a ring. In that sense, he made the right choice.

But that also is a shameless and coward choice. He simply shows that he has no balls. In fact, that's the main difference between him and the guys like Kobe and MJ. Balls. Guts. He is just not competitive enough. He thought he was competitive but he is not. He always goes for the easy way. He quits easily. To me, he has never lived up to "The Chosen One" label. If he is indeed THE Chosen One, he should have stayed in Cleveland and fight against all odds to beat out Wade and Bosh's Heat, Howard's Magic, the Celtics, Kobe's Lakers and grab the championship. That is what a Chosen One should do. A Chosen One should go through a lot of tests and obstacles, fight all the battles and play it all out and eventually win the ultimate prize. If he fails to do it after repeated tries, then he is simply proven that he is NOT the Chosen One. But at least he tried. Alternatively, he could still keep the "Chosen One" name tag somehow even if he goes to Chicago, because that would be another challenge for him. The Chosen One should win the championship on his own. No Chosen One would admit failure and choose the easy way to be PART of a championship. I tell you, if the Heat won the championship, it would be remembered that it is won by three players, not the Chosen One.

Further, don't blame your teammates or Cavs' GM. I've said it again and I will say it once more, the Celtics series was lost by LeBron James. He played horribly in game 5 and game 6 which led to the early exit of the team. Don't blame Mo Williams or Jamison for not stepping up. Think about it, other than Scottie Pippen and later Dennis Rodman, who did MJ have? BJ Armstrong? Will Purdue? Steve Kerr? Horace Grant? If you ask me, I think MJ can still win the championship with Mo William, Jamison and Varejao.

In a way the games were lost by coach Mike Brown too but LBJ should get most of the blame. And somehow, he chose to leave business unfinished and find a greener field in Miami with a more easy road. I mean I won't blame anyone doing that, just anyone not self-proclaimed The Chosen One.

After this decision, I am glad that we can settle all the arguments about how great LeBron is. He's far from MJ or Magic. He's not even Kobe or The Dream. At most he would be in the rank of Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing and David Robinson. KG quitted the Wolves too, but I respect KG more than LBJ because at least he did try for 10+ years. And BTW KG was traded, not signing as a free agent and hosting a reality show to announcement his decision.

3. I Hate The Creation Of The Evil Empire

I hate that The Decision has made the League less competitive. This is not just about LeBron, but the Heat. After getting James, Bosh and Wade, the Heat is officially the team to beat. The Heat has become the Evil Empire. I could hardly imagine any team other than the Lakers would post serious threat to the Heat. Forget the Celtics, they are one year older and one year slower. Forget the Magic, we have seen that D12 can be contained in the playoffs, and the so-called sharp shooters like Rashard Lewis could disappear in the playoffs. (Can you imagine JJ Redick was a more important player than Lewis in the Playoffs?) With proper addition of role players (3-pt specialists, bangers), who could stop the Heat in the East? It would be so boring in the East for years to come. As for the Lakers, yeah, they would remain competitive this year, but I doubt whether they can remain a real threat to the Heat 2 years down the road. After all, no teams has won 4 straight since the Celtics in the 60s, when there was just 8 teams in the league.

Had James gone to Chicago, we would have got one of the most competitive rivalries in the history of the game. LBJ & Rose vs. Wade & Bosh. But nah, that's not gonna happen, because James chickened out and played it safe.

Also, the Heat has surpassed Lakers and has become the public enemy in the league. Everybody wants to beat them. All the fans outside Miami hate them. They want them to lose. They have become the Yankees or Duke of the NBA. People would boo them hardly.

But well, at least I am happy that the guessing game is over. I am so sick of all the guessing and analysis and speculating all these months.

Yes, we are all witnesses of this mess.

Raptors send O'Neal to Heat for Marion

The trade:

Toronto Raptors agreed to trade center Jermaine O'Neal and swingman Jamario Moon (with a first round pick) to Miami Heat for ex-Suns Shawn Marion and guard Marcus Banks (and $3m cash).

For the Raptors:

Hailed as an up-n-coming team, the Raptors has been flat out horrible this season. Not only they failed to elevate to another level as expected, they are now second last in the East and can basically be ruled out of the playoffs even though there are still 30 games to play.

Apparently the management feels the same too. Yes, they were hit by injuries (Jose Calderon, Chris Bosh, JO). But even so, they shouldn't be that bad, ay? OK, they fired ex-COY Sam Mitchell (long due), but things didn't get any better with Canadian coach Jay Triano. With 2006 No.1 pick Andrea Bargnani finally coming to perform (yes, I traded him for JO early this season in my fantasy game, which looked good back then but obviously I gave him up too soon), they finally abandoned the JO experiment after just 50+ games.

As to why the JO trade failed, while there are many reasons, I believe the main problem is that both JO and Bosh are low post scorers who need the ball to be effective. Ideally, they should have turned JO into a role player, i.e. focusing on rebound, defense and facilitation while playing along with Bosh, and then taking the lead to score when Bosh sits. Somehow it never happened. At the same time, they saw Bargnani play extremely well after a horrible November. The problem is, even though he likes to shoot the 3s, Bargnani can't play at 3, since he can't catch up with the quick SF in the league. On the other hand, he did a passable job in blks and rebs. As such, the ideal frontcourt of Bargnani-Bosh-JO is not viable.

Given the age and the injury history, JO is obviously the odd-man out among the three. Matrix is quite ideal because they desperately need some scoring from the swingman position, because Anthony Parker or Jamario Moon are not scoring enough, while Jason Kapono only shoots 3s. Moreover, JO's contract is until 09-10 while Matrix's will expire after this season. So the Raptors can get some cost saving (10th highest in the league with $72m payroll this year) should they decide not to re-sign Matrix. Since they have all but given up this season, they can use the remaining 25-30 games to take a good look at Matrix.


For the Heat,

It's simple, size. Rookie Joel Anthony (6'9") is helplessly undersized at C, while Canadian Jamaal Magloire struggled mightily, start or not. With JO they have a legit C. WIth Dywane Wade shooting and slashing, JO has the entire paint for him to score. Udonis Haslem can now play at his natural position at PF. They don't need JO to be a 20-10 guy anymore, as they can settle him to be just 15-8. Matrix is expendable since he was never comfortable playing in Miami, as evidenced by his sharp drop in production (12.0 PPG 8.6 RPG this season vs. career avg of 17.9 PPG and 10.0 RPG).

Never underestimate the inclusion of Jamario Moon. Moon is an athletic player who is heavily underrated becaus he can't score much. However, he's a perfect role player, who plays hard and does all the dirty little works. He would be an ideal facilitator between Wade and JO. With Mario Chalmers running the game at PG and Haslem resume his old PF position, suddenly, the Heat have a complete lineup. While it will be a bit stretch to say they are contender now, but on paper they should be able to compete against any team not named Celtics or Cavaliers.

Furthermore, with JO manning the paint, Wade now needs not to take up all the scoring load and should see more open looks as a result of some double-teamming of JO. And we have seen how the Flash could single-handedly lift up the team to another level given a similar situation (2006 championship run).

What they give up is (1) salary flexibility. JO's $23m salary next year, which means they won't be able to make bid for any of this year's free agents (most notably Carlos Boozer); also without Matrix's expiring contracts, they will not be able to acquire talents from teams who want to dump salaries (Amare of Suns, for example); and (2) potential injury of JO, who's never played 82 games in any year and never played more than 70 games since, gasp, 03-04.

It's a calculated gamble for the Heat and even if it fails, they do not lose much and they still have the cap space for the 2010 mega free agency.

LA Lakers @ Miami Heat, Fri, Dec 19, 2008

A running diary:

First Quarter

• Game started, still see empty seats around. For Lakers in town? Against the red-hot Wade? That shows how bad business is right now.
  
• Wade played terrific defense on Kobe early on. The Heat forced the Lakers to commit turnover, followed by a fast break by the Heat, with Marion drawing fouls. The Lakers were 1-2 FG and 2 TO in the first two minutes. Phil Jackson called an early 20 sec timeout. That’s early.
  
• Things didn’t do better after the timeout, as the Lakers continued to miss shots and turn the ball over.
  
• The Heat looked sharp from the perimeter, Wade and Chalmers took turns to hit the 3s. But Kobe decided to take it personal, trying to make things happen all by himself. He scored back-to-back turnaround Js over Wade.
  
• The commentators were trying to imply that this is a battle between Wade and Kobe. I think that’s just how Kobe looks at it too, a duel between him and Wade.
  
• Wade tried to throw an alley-oop pass, but it was so off that it hit the top of the board! That’s probably the worst alley-oop pass I’ve ever seen. Then, the balls bounced hard off the board and ended up back in Mario Chalmers’ hands 25 ft from the basket.
  
• But the Heat were badly undersized.
  
• Jordan Farmar looked good, made a couple of nice backdoor passes for easy layup, include the one to Kobe for a buzzer beater reverse layup.
  
• Game tied at 26-26 at the end Q1.
  

Second Quarter

• Farmar continued his brilliant performance, drove past 3 defenders and scored on a tough layup. Moment later, he drained another 3. Wow.
  
• The second team of the Heat led by Beasley did ok on offense, but was helpless in defense failing to make any stops.
  
• Starters checking back in with 6 min to go.
  
• The Lakers were leading by a comfortable 6-8 pts but then Heat made a few stops, Mario Chalmers hitting a 3 and 2 FTs, and then the Lakers made some slow defense rotation which resulted in Marion made a wide open dunk to end the 1H.
  
• After the end of Q2, the game is tied at 46-46.
  

Intermission

• I’m not impressed by the Lakers. Yes, Kobe is the same old Kobe. He had 17 pts and 3 ast in 1H. But the team didn’t have good ball movement. And they turned the ball over (12 TOs in 1H). On defense, they failed to stop Wade and at the same time allowed Chalmers to have open looks from the arc. Anyway, they didn’t look like the best team in the league to me. Bynum completely disappeared in 1H. zero point, 2 reb, 1 ast and 2 TO.
  

Third Quarter

• Bynum finally scored his first goal. Drew foul, but did not make the FT.
  
• Another brilliant driving layup by Wade. This guy is really impressive. I think Kobe is going to do something to counter that soon.
  
• A great steal by Wade off Luke Walton, then he made the break-away dunk and fell to the floor. No foul called. Wade was furious and complaining, but I don’t think there is contact there. He just flopped.
  
• Game was tight as the Lakers did not play that well. Kobe dominated the ball too much. Don’t know why he always takes tough shots. Play some teamwork, man!
  
• Also, I don’t know why Phil Jackson didn’t take the clear size advantage and call for more low post plays. Obviously there’s no chance for the Heat to defend both Gasol and Bynum, right?
  
• Another back door pass to Marion for an easy layup. Bynum was called for his 4th foul. He has to sit again. Heat up by 3, 62-59.
  
• See? Another tough shot in the paint by Kobe. Yes, he made it. 62-61
  
• Another wide open mid J by Haslem, 65-61 Heat with 3 min to go in Q3. Phil Jackson has had enough and called a timeout.
  
• The Lakers didn’t play better after the timeout. They relied too much on individual plays, mainly by Kobe and Gasol. While Kobe forced tough shots, his teammates didn’t have the patience to pass the ball around, usually opted for shooting the ball after 1 or 2 passes, and they usually missed.
  
• On the other hand, the Lakers continued to let the Heat guards getting open looks. Just now, backup PG Daequan Cook made a couple of 3s and the Heat are now leading 72-63. 1 mins to go in 3Q.
  
• Oops, Marion is down, grabbing the back of his head. Obviously his head hit teammate Joel Anthony on their way down in a hustle defense play. Hope he’s fine.
  
• Oh, it’s clearly Wade’s night. Last minutes of Q3, Ariza almost stole the ball from Wade, but Wade was able to recover the ball and threw a “hail Mary” from 30 ft as the buzzer sounds. And the shot went it!
  
• Heat led by 75-63 after Q3.

Fourth Quarter

• The Heat actually played some very good defense, forcing the Lakers to commit an unusually huge number of TOs.
  
• OK, the Lakers fought back. A 7-0 run led by Vujacic (who scored 5 pts) and the lead is trimmed to 75-70. Without Kobe, no less.
  
• 5.15 to go. Kobe and Fisher is now checking back in.
  
• This is Kobe’s sequence: a dunk, a good defense on Wade to force a backcourt violation, a missed long J, after a basket by Wade, Kobe then forced a drive to the paint, almost lost the ball, and threw it to Bynum, who had no choice but throw up a missed shot as the shot clock expires. Perfect.
  
• Wo, Wade had a driving layup, and then a running J, as the Heat’s lead extended to 88-82 with 1.17 to go.
  
• Final sequence:
  
• Kobe made a left spin and scored a fadaway jumper over 2 defenders to pull within 86-88 with 41 sec to go.
  
• The Heat came out empty on the next possession.
  
• 20 sec left, Lakers possession. Kobe drove the lane, dished to Lamar Odom, whose running J was blocked by Joey Anthony. Odom got the ball back, threw up another shot, blocked again by Wade. Gasol got the offensive rebound but the ball was once again knocked out of bound by Wade. Superb defense!
  
• After each of Gasol and Wade making only 1 FT, the Heat maintained a 89-87 lead with 5 sec left. Lakers possession. Kobe started at half court, drove across the FT line with a back-the-back dribble, elevated and fired a fadaway over the long hand of Marion. The shot look good in the air, and ball went in, then out as the clock expire.
  
• Final score: 89-87 Heat.
  

BEAT L.A.!

• It’s really a duel between Wade (35 pts) and Kobe (28 pts). When Kobe scored many tough shots – in the traffic, with hands on his face – Wade would answer back with a tough shot of his own, or a long range J. Actually I don’t know whether it’s Kobe answering Wade, or Wade answering Kobe.
  
• The Lakers clearly are not at their best. Defense is the Lakers main problem, but then their offense is not smooth and does not have any chemistry. They turned the ball over too much. Kobe played selfishly this game, which is always not the good sign. I think Gasol and Bynum are under-utilized.
  
• On the other hand, for the Heat, it’s basically a Wade show tonight. The reason why I do not complain about the selfishness of Wade is that he was not forcing his way, instead he just took what the Lakers’ defense gave him. Moreover, the Heat need him to score 35 pts more than the Lakers need Kobe to score 28 pts. And the Heat overall played better defense than the Lakers.