According to the Chicago Tribune, William Wesley may be shopping LeBron and John Calipari as a package deal. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
League sources said Sunday that noted NBA power broker William Wesley continues to work back channels to sell John Calipari and James as a package deal to franchises such as the Bulls, Nets and Clippers with coaching vacancies and salary cap room.
Another league source confirmed that an unknown Calipari connection contacted Bulls management over the weekend. This not only once again renders the coach’s vows to remain at Kentucky hollow, it underscores the juggling act general manager Gar Forman and senior vice president John Paxson must navigate as they tackle a coaching search while planning for free agency, which begins July 1.
Lovely stuff. I won’t go on too much about this because it’s 5:30 in the morning and I need to sleep at some point, but nothing about this makes me happy at all. Calipari appears to be the best coaching choice for a team that wants LeBron right now, because LeBron wants Calipari. LeBron wants Calipari because William Wesley is a mutual friend. It’s the ugly side of professional sports rearing its head. By the way, Chicago, there is no possible scenario in which Joe Johnson would be a better addition than LeBron.
Thoughts on this:
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=381236
Along those lines, I wonder if Mike Woodson and Joe Johnson will go somewhere as a package as well?
“The LeBron Situation”
I like it.
I live near Seattle and keep getting calls/texts from friends back home in Cleveland – allegedly Delonte has been having an affair with Lebron’s mom? Anyone know if there’s truth to this rumor?
Rose, Joe Johnson and lebron would be am awesome team. They have to make that happen somehow.
I believe Chicago can sign one max offer and one 15 million deal next season if they lose Miller and Deng? Don’t hold me to that, though.
Here’s what I’d like to see happen…
I think its pretty much a certainty that if Lebron stays in Cleveland, this team is not built to win. Way over the cap, no draft picks, team in chaos as is. Not much room for things to change.
So he leaves, the Cavs fall apart. They got lucky – more luck than any Cleveland team has ever gotten – and build back up like OKC has.
Lebron is a FA again 3-4 years down the road. Re-signs with Cleveland with a very good supporting case. Everybody wins.
This is assuming the Cavs dont fold, dont move and draft wisely. A huge longshot but one can dream. Afterall, dreams are the only thing Cleveland sports has going for it.
And later in the day we are told none of this is remotely true, but let’s pretend like it is anyway.
@Jimmy:
No way in hell can LeBron leave and come back. He won’t be embraced by the fans. If he leaves, his career in Cleveland is over.
I think LeBron is WAYYYY underestimating the hatred a fan can carry. He might able to take it if Cleveland hates him, but he is gonna be shocked if the city of Akron hates him. He thinks his status there is untouchable no matter what he does, but I’m not so sure. I can that city turning on him if he leaves and I’m not sure how he would be able to handle that. How could anyone?
Really? No way he can ever come back? I don’t know about that. I guess Lebron would be an extreme example that would test that, but players are often beloved by the fans of their first main team later in their career, even if they spurned that team earlier. And if Cleveland still hasn’t won a championship by then (based on the status of current sport teams, likelihood = practical certainty)….. winning cures almost anything.
Everyone keeps talking about how the Celtics sold their souls to win one championship. Last I checked their team is in good position to win it all again. Meanwhile, the Cavs “all in” season has left them totally effed in the a. Thanks a lot Danny Ferry, you’re a real class act.
Sadly, you can’t win in the N
@Todd:
There’s a difference. For example, Allen Iverson asked for a trade, then was able to come back to fans with open arms.
If LeBron were to leave, he’d be leaving an organization that bent over backwards to please him. An organization that wasn’t able to build a team properly because he always held it over their heads that he would leave if they weren’t competitive. LeBron would be leaving in his prime, hanging the team out to dry.
@Kevin:
Don’t blame that on Ferry. He continually turned crap into legit players. Blame it on LeBron for threatening to leave if the team didn’t get better in a hurry.
Sadly, you can’t win in the NBA with just one superstar. It takes at least a few talented players and coaches to get a championship. Lebron is a great player but the Cavs aren’t able to get him that supporting cast. I dont think Cleveland will hate him too much. They know he loves his hometown but you can only take mediocrity for so long. He needs more of everything.
@Siefer
You don’t realize the amount of hate Cleveland fans are capable of. He will be booed, viciously, until the Cavs are competitive again.
YEa Siefer, no offense but I think you said you don’t live in the area and are only a LeBron fan. He will be hated for the rest of his life in Cleveland.
And I’m sorry, but Colin is right. You guys needs to start heaping some of the blame of mediocre teams on LeBron. Ariza said no to coming to Cleveland because LeBron wouldn’t promise he was staying. That has happened year after year. how can you act like LeBron is blameless in the lack of another star on this team. Second, LEBRON SUCKED SOMETHING FIERCE in the last 3 games against Boston. Stop blaming the rest of the team when the leader decided he would no longer be able to shoot the ball.
JK, this isn’t news. This is sports-TMZ bull crap.
Yay for sports TMZ bull crap. I am so glad I am not watching basketball anymore. All my scoffing at the people obsessed with the SUMMER OF LEBRON is coming back to bite me; the coasters are having the last laugh I guess. Oh well.
Maybe I’m alone here but I would have no problem whatsoever with Lebron returning if it could win us a championship in 4-5 years. Carlos Boozer is up there with Art Modell in terms of screwing over Cleveland sports and I would be thrilled to see him rejoin the team. Though perhaps the hatred that the city would show Lebron in the meantime means that it would never be a possibility.
But I wouldn’t hate him if he left. I would be disappointed, but I wouldn’t hate him, and I wouldn’t boo him. I just wouldn’t want to watch. At this point, I just hope that he hasn’t ruled out returning, that he will give the Cavs a chance to convince him that they have a plan to get him a championship in Cleveland.
I do wish he would have at least said he was committed to the team even if he wasn’t. So what if he ends up screwing over Ariza?
This team could have desperately used Trevor Ariza. basically the synthesis of Parker and Moon. Athletic and long 2, who can shoot threes. I mean………would have been perfect on this team.
I heard something interesting on LA radio last Friday. There was a topic surrounding LeBron and Kobe’s supporting casts. Basically, LeBron has never had a player on his team as good as any of Kobe’s following teammates over the past two years: Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum, Lamar Odom, Ron Artest, Trevor Ariza. Isn’t it sad to know that LeBron has never had a single guy who is as good as any of Kobe’s current starting line up (other than Derek Fisher)?
It’s amazing how quickly people have been claiming sour grapes, especially considering the guy hasn’t even left yet (and there’s no guarantee he will). Cognitive dissonance much?
Seriously, there is no way you can convince me Ron Artest is better than Jamison or Varejao. Same with Ariza. Nice players, but fairly overrated…particularly Artest. He is not a defensive juggernaut anymore, and has been reduced to a stand still three point shooter on offense, who isn’t particularly great at it (not bad either..but not great).
Yea. The Artest of 5 years ago might have been better, but the guy today is a shell of his former self. Jamison and Varejao stunk up the joint in the playoffs, but they’re still better than Artest.
Not sure why everyone keeps bashing the rest of the Cavs roster. When we added Jamison the majority of informed opinion said he was the final piece of the jigsaw. Now apparently he’s a poor man’s Trevor Ariza.
This one was on Brown and LeBron. No one else.
LeBron and AV not 100% meant we required quality adjustments on the fly – not Brown’s strong suit. We created bad match-ups for ourselves on D (KG/Jamison, Rondo/Mo). We couldn’t get LeBron healthy enough to destroy Boston’s D two games in a row. When we couldn’t summon the Kraken we mailed it in. That’s it in a nutshell.
If I was Gilbert I’d be bending over backwards to get Phil Jackson here. Otherwise Game Over in Cleveland.
If anyone thinks Phil Jackson is coming to Cleveland, you should probably wake up.
Phil Jackson is an old dude now and the last place he wants to be is somewhere where the weather drops below zero. In LA, the weather never drops below 40.