LeBron joins Bosh and Wade in Miami. Thoughts?

Not sure if sports is really an area that's too popular here, but I just wanted to know some people's thoughts on LeBron James' announcement that he would be going to South Beach to party it up and win lots of championships with Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade on the Heat.

Personally, I was hoping he'd come to my hometown Chicago; hell, I was hoping one of them would come. After Bosh and Wade met in Chicago with the Bulls staff and posed for photographs together hinting that they wish LeBron was there, I was all but sure the Bulls were about to pull off the trifecta. I thought if that wouldn't happen, maybe Wade would stay in Miami and LeBron would have the spotlight all to himself in Chicago. Then, I thought, worst case scenario, all of the Big Three free agents would go their separate ways and we'd get Bosh.

As it turns out, the Bulls got none of them!! We got Carlos Boozer, who's awesome, but seriously, to go from the good possibility that we'd get all of the Big Three to settling for Boozer just saddens me.

Now, if the Heat don't win seventy games and win every playoff series in at most five games, it'd be a miracle.

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I would not count on that at all. I'll bet you right now that they do not win 70 games. LeBron and Co. seem to do fine during the regular season, but they haven't proved that they have the mettle to make it through the grueling playoffs.

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Of course, 'seventy games' is an exaggeration, I thought that was implied, but sorry if I wasn't clear; they probably won't win every playoff series in five games, for that matter. But I do think they'll win a championship. My point is they're now the best team in basketball. They're better than Kobe and Gasol in L.A., they're better than Rondo and his crew in Boston, and they're better than Dwight Howard and the Magic.

And I'm not in agreement with the popular consensus that LeBron doesn't have what it takes to make it in the playoffs. He got pretty far more than once with a bad team and an even worse coach. I know if there ever was a team sport where one man can make all the difference it's basketball, but he can't do everything. Now he has Dwyane Wade, a consummate professional on the court with a ring and plenty of playoff experience, a perennial all-star in Chris Bosh, and great management with Pat Riley.

The only conceivable problem I can foresee next season is too much talent and not enough room on the court. LeBron and D Wayde aren't going to score 30 points a game every night. One of them, or more likely both of them, will cut their production almost in half if they're on the court at the same time. And who's their go-to player in clutch situations? I would still think Wayde, but then again, LeBron James is LeBron James! How can any team afford not to have him as their number one?

I don't know, I'm not a professional sports analyst, but I don't think it takes one to know that the entire dynamic of the NBA just shifted and a team that didn't have a chance at making the Finals just became the favorite to win it.

My opinions may be clouded by the fact that I'm bitter my team the Bulls didn't get any of those three.

True, and footnoted for future reference.

I'm also about as far away from a popular consensus as anyone I know. All you have to do is look at my fave films!!

Ha! That is something I've been meaning to comment on. Elmer Gantry? Little Big Man? Really? Very good, maybe great films, but ten best?! Have you made one of those Top 50 or Top 100 lists? I wonder if we'd share more than ten movies.

You're almost as funny as Holden is recalcitrant... I mean, ornery. After you spend an hour or so over here, please try to post something original over at this thread because it matters.

i hope lebron loses to bryant in the finals..the look on his face would be just priceless..

I'll agree with the chorus of fans and media personalities in labeling "The Decision" as pretty tone deaf. In fact, it's so ill-conceived that, when I heard LeBron was announcing his choice during a one-hour special, I was certain it would be Cleveland, because that's the only choice that wouldn't make him look like a jerk under the circumstances of the announcement.

That said, I think the reaction to all this has been, for the most part, pretty ridiculous. I'm thinking primarily of:

1) Fans who toss around the word "betrayed" like jilted lovers.
2) People who think this somehow reflects badly on James as a player or competitor.

#1 speaks for itself; I have been, at times, very emotional about sports, but I know I shouldn't be, and I've never let it have a profound effect on my day to day life. I've really enjoyed my teams' successes, and I've definitely been saddened by their failures, but I've never felt like they were close enough to me that I could ever feel an emotion as heightened as betrayal. The most I've ever gotten is disappointed.

Elaborating on #2: I've heard a lot of people say that this is still "Wade's team" and that Wade is "the guy" while LeBron is some kind of Pippin type. This strikes me as pretty silly. For one, being a competitor means wanting to win, not necessarily wanting to be "the guy." The best competitors are the ones who choose winning even if it means stepping out of the spotlight from time to time.

Also, not every situation has a peer. This situation is unique. It's not Jordan and Pippin redux, it's more like a hypothetical situation where Jordan and Magic Johnson played together. If James wins, his championship won't be tainted because he happened to do it with another great player, and I think it's presumptuous to try to preemptively devalue such a huge achievement just because he did it with more help rather than less, particularly when we all know it'd have felt completely different if he'd stayed in Cleveland and convinced someone to sign there.

Meta questions about his legacy can be interesting and thoughtful, but I can't help but be amused by people who want to pretend they can get into LeBron's head and ferret out some kind of deep insight into his psyche out of this.

All we really know is that it was a tone deaf thing to do, PR-wise, and that we have a fascinating and unique situation now. This is one of the most interesting things that could've possibly happened. I for one can't wait to see how it shakes out.

Lebron James does seem like a selfish player though. In all of his interviews it was mainly "I" "I" and "I". Does Miami have the most talent? Absolutely. Should they win a championship? Absolutely. But I could see another team taking them out. This big 3 is just a bit bigger than Boston's original big 3 when they first all came together. Garnett and Pierce were then top 10 players in the league and Allen was very Bosh-like in the fact that he was about a top 20 player in the league.

The interviews just tell me that he's selfish in general, or for a human. I'm not sure that makes him a selfish basketball player, or selfish for a basketball player. I take it for granted that they're pretty much all selfish compared to your average person on the street. Anyway, he averaged 7-8 assists a game on a team where he was far and away the best player, so he seems perfectly willing to give up the shot when it's called for.

As for someone else taking them down...sure, absolutely. They'll have to fill out the rosters with a lot of long-shots and, if they're lucky, a couple of guys who want to win badly enough to take a salary around the league minimum. But in a few years they'll have certainly added at least a few decent role players. At that point it wouldn't surprise me at all if they come to dominate the league.

I wouldn't mind seeing domination.....I really like Dwayne Wade. It's just that I'm not sure if LeBron will actually help out his game. He should help out his chance for a second NBA championship though.