ESPN Doesn't See LeBron Coming to New Jersey (or Brooklyn)

i bet hollinger was the one who voted the celtics would land lebron…

lebron to the knicks ?? woww ..

I dont see Lebron to the Knicks, at least not now. If somehow, Walsh can dump Curry and Jeffries (the first is impossible IMO while the second is possible but unlikely) and several of their young guys develop (Milicic, Gallinari, Hill, Chandler), they could be attractive, but that’s a tall order. Hill is my choice for the bust of the draft.

I would not want Lebron, if all he is after, is a “guaranteed” championship. Might as well join the Lakers or Boston or San Antonio. All these great players want to win a championship the easy way. I remember when great players made a average team a contender. Now players want the team to be a contender before they even get there. I guess I’m getting old…

The Knicks have all the money in the world and play in madison square garden – therefore, anything is possible. The Nets have no money and no arena – therefore, nothing is possible.

if the cavs don’t make a finals appearance he is gone.

jayz has 99 problem but lebron aint one ;-)

You can’t take any poll seriously that actually thinks he’s going to the Celtics. And the Knicks? Cmon!

Lebron’s gonna leave Cleveland to join my grandma’s sewing team, book it!

I want no part of LeBron – this is a bad guy. He is everything that is wrong with the modern professional athlete. Period. Any by the way he is anything but a guaranteed championship based on his track record. He has yet to prove he truly has those special qualities it takes to win. Qualities that real winners such as Jordan, Magic, Duncan and even Wade to a lesser degree possess.

It’s obvious that he wasn’t going to come to the Nets anyway. The team couldn’t afford to get him to begin with and moving to Brooklyn wouldn’t help them. Players like Lebron are known to put themselves up to the highest bidder. Pretty much, whatever team can meet their ridiculous demands can get them easily. He probably will stay on the Cavs as predicted and the same would go with Kobe Bryant probably never leaving the Lakers.

Lebron will come to the Nets if Brooklyn happens, it will be the most possible money he can make. That’s all that matters to Lebrillionaire. Billboard in Times Square, close proximity to some of the world’s richest people and brightest business minds, etc. Top endorsements from companies in the #1 U.S. advertising market, new arena. Cavs will fall short this year again and he will want to move on.

Hill will be a bust…I agree 100%!

Alright so 52 NBA “experts” think lebron isn’t coming to the nets and actually chooses boston before us LOL that’s sad real sad

1. Jay Z is not the face of the Nets

2. Whey does ESPN make it sound like Lebron would be moving in with Jay?

They aren’t butt buddies. He’s gonna go where he can make money and win. Plain and simple. So all those choices are valid.

And of course…who cares about this right now. We got a full season coming up!!! Lets go New Jersey!!

How will long will those who support the Nets moving to Brooklyn continue to ride this myth saying that only moving to Brooklyn will make him sign with the Nets? Repeating it over and over again isn’t going to change anything. If he really wanted to come to the Nets, he would have done so be it a move or no move. He is overrated anyway. If he left the Cavs, they would probably go back to being terrible again.

Lebron can land on the moon for all i care…i dont want him as part of part of the Nets…he is OVERRATED & has no class!

at Monica:

“Lebron can land on the moon for all i care…i dont want him as part of part of the Nets…he is OVERRATED & has no class!”

Well put Monica! One of the brightest comments ive seen on this board. I have seen this man behind the scenes and he is a pathetic excuse for a professional athlete.

until ground is broken in Brooklyn, there is NO chance, obviously. But if Brooklyn is going to happen, our chances increase to well over 2 out of 52….. maybe more like 26/52. In order for Lebron to consider it, these things have to happen:

1) Brooklyn is a Go (25% chance)
2) 2009-10 Nets develop a reputation as a feisty, athletic, defense oriented team capable of winning some ballgames (50% chance)
3) Cleveland disappoints again (60% chance)
4) Knicks look bad long-term in comparison to Nets. (75% chance)
5) Lebron continues to be Lebron like. (book it)

LOL @ LeBron being over-rated, I think you people need to stop sniffing the glue at work. LeBron has what it takes to win, the Cleveland Cavaliers dont. If you gave LeBron a team like Kobe was handed with the Lakers, they would have already won the championship without even struggling. Just because his team sucks and has no one to be a true number 2 guy doesnt mean he cant win it. The same thing couldve been said about Kobe before Stern got Memphis to gift wrap Pau Gasol to keep him happy and LeBron is much better all around than Kobe is. Take LeBron off that Cleveland team and tell me you think they would win 66 games with Kobe, D-Wade or anyone else. Sure he’s not coming to NJ, he wouldnt go to Brooklyn either, he’s staying in Cleveland, but to trash the guy and make false claims is just pathetic. LeBron may not be a Net, but I still have to give the proper respect to his game. If he’s so over-rated, show me a better all around player who is better than him.

Also, LeBron does NOT need New York, I dont know how many times I can keep saying it, New York needs Lebron. If this was 1950 you might have a point about playing for New York creating exposure and endorsements. Today we have this crazy thing called the Internet which allows people to build connections all over the world. LeBron has already had billboards in times square, Warren Buffett(2nd richest man in the world) is already a HUGE Lebron fan and theyve actually become decent friends and he shows up at his games, and he has fans everywhere. If the 2nd richest man in the world follows you and talks to you regularly, how badly do you really need New York to make a name? He is already on pace to become a billionaire by the end of his career regardless of where he plays.

If we don’t get LeBron, who is second choice?

Lebron isn’t overrated per say. He’s great but its also been proven he cannot win alone with his greatness or if his greatness is surrounded by a few decent players.

So yeah, he’s great but is not a given to ever win a ring.

The NBA loves him and hypes him up way too much for my liking, but I’m a hater and thats just my style.

@Trenton
Where are these decent players? I havent seen them. Cleveland has LeBron, Ilgauskas(mediocre, but aging) and 13 sub-mediocre players.

Its unbelievable to me how posters on this board can trash Lebron and say, apparerently with a straight face, that they don’t want Lebron on the Nets and/or the Nets would be better off without Lebron. You all have some eccentric points of view, I will say that. Lebron won 66 games last year; if you replace Lebron on that team with even the average all star small forward, they probably struggle to win 30, if not less.

At least Trenton recognizes he is a hater. The rest, hmmm.

Chris2:

Did I say the Nets would be better off with LeBron? No I didn’t. I said I personally can’t stand him and obviously i’m not alone. D-Wade is a class act and a winner, LeBron is neither. He is a pompous spoiled brat that treats people he consideres benath him like trash, I have seen it firsthand. I will not ever root for him just like I would never root for Shaq.

@TheMann

They gave him Mo Williams, Larry Hughes, Joe Smith, Ben Wallace, Wally Szerbiak, Daniel Gibson, Delonte West, Drew Gooden, Damon Jones.

When the Cavs are winning, all those guys are “contributing” whether it be by on-the-court stats or veteran leadership. They are gelling, cohesive and everyone says they have what it takes to win.

Then they lose. Everyone hates on those players. The Cavs release/trade 3 or 4 guys and they try again next season…

I am not actually trying to trash LeBron, I am just disprooving why moving to Brooklyn won’t help in acquiring him. It might be true that he is best friends with Jay-Z, but that doesn’t mean that he will come just because of that. Dennis Rodman was friends with George Karl, but he didn’t end up playing on the Sonics. Even though Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez were friends for a long time, A-Rod didn’t end up on the Yankees until 2004 after playing on the Mariners and Rangers. The Cavs management will feel that they made a bad move if they just let him go. It’s likely that he will spend his whole career on the Cavs and never leave. I say he is overrated because most of the time he plays like a ball hog. When he was injured, the Cavs did terrible until he returned. Keep in mind that he already mentioned how he couldn’t care less where the Nets would end up around 2012 and that was from his own mouth, not his agent’s.

Lebron, Wade, Bosh, etc. get more money to stay put. Wade is way too loyal to leave. Bosh, who knows, but they have a fun team now. Lebron is too full of himself to land anywhere but Laker land or NY – but why would he come to either of the franchises here? We stink. Boston actually makes some sense if he wants a title. I personally don’t want him. Of the three, Wade then Bosh.

Why does espn think the knicks will land all these free agents but not us? I don’t get it is Jersey such a bad place to play? The knicks havent been good since 1999

yo i don’t care bout lebron. going 4 lebron will make us waste all of our money. instead of gettin lebron we could get gay and aldridge, both of their contracts could b the same as lebron’s. imagine that lineup.
harris, lee, gay, aldridge, lopez. thats a finals apperance. all but brook n gay have playoff experience..

Wow, astonishing how people can’t understand basic economics, to think Lebron will make similar money in Cleveland as New York is pure stupidity.

If the Nets move to Brooklyn then he’s coming.

LOL @ the very idea that this broke organization will sign any impact FA next season, nevermind Lebron James

we are all NBA experts here, and we would all say LeBron will join the Nets,

I dont want lebron on the nets. bring in rudy gay and bosh, aldrige, nowitzki or another pf.

Lebron can fix any team, and take it to the next level.

he can come and ill love it cuz i like the nets, but since i like VC15 more ill love to see king james joining the magics.

P.S. Check that while in the bench, any team can scourge the cavs. No cav player but lebron has the leadership needed, and thats why they will rush in 2010 to move earth and heaven if needed to keep him.

they dont even trusth each other and thats why lebron has to play so much, he doesnt rest a lot and he tires in the playoff.

@Trenton
Now look at that list of players you just named, NONE of them are even mediocre talents on their own. I’m sorry if you or other people got fooled by the wins they were putting together, but thats clearly because of LeBron. He makes those guys LOOK better than they are because of the attention he commands on the floor. Ben Wallace would have been good if he wasnt injured all the time and he was about 5 years younger(his Detroit days). Larry Hughes is well documented as a disappearing act, he always had potential but just could never put it together consistently. Mo Williams looked better than he was with the Bucks just because he and Redd were pretty much the only 2 guys that got to touch the ball(No one was fooled this year which is why he didnt get the All-star nod until like 20 ppl got hurt and LeBron still had to campaign for it). Joe Smith couldve been good if it was like 12 years ago. Wally Sczerbiak, Damon Jones(not there anymore, but was never beyond sub-mediocre), Daniel Gibson, Delonte West…are you serious??? Drew Gooden isnt there anymore, he was probably the best out of the bunch that u named and even he wasnt impressive, he was probably the dead middle of mediocre. You cant let yourself see these guys how they are WITH LeBron there, picture them without him and tell me you still think they are all “decent” players, bottom line is they arent. Without LeBron and with a random All-star, that team doesnt even make the playoffs in the east, and if they do, they’re not higher than maybe 5th seed and that’s with Wade or Kobe carrying them to a first round exit.

Whatever. They dominated the regular season and tore up the playoffs until they met up with the Spurs, Celtics, and Magic.

I don’t wanna hear it.

Again, they were praised as good signings until they lost. Lebron praised his team til he lost. Just like Shaq is being praised now…until they lose.

Before we decide who would be best for the Nets in 2010, lets see how the first half of 2009 works out eh.

The current team is full of yet unproven potential that it is not really possible to decidie if Lebron would even be the best fit for the side going forward. He is clearly good enough to get in any side, but perhaps our major weakness will be for a differnt role?

We may even want to look for a couple of differnt (or, lesser?) options.

I think the franchise will certainly want a big name to sell shirts – hence the reveersable shirts promotion debacle – but with such a young team taking shape it would be a shame to just get any big name just for the hell of it.

Lets just see who moves their game on this year within the current roster. If others push on as well as Harris and Lopez did last season, who knows what FA we could be after…Now this may be Lebron (which would, IMO, be great), but its early days to know what would be best for the Nets. Hell, who knows who will even want to come, regardless of the cap.

It’s fun to speculate, but at this moment in time it is little other than that.

@Trenton
Just because they beat those teams didnt make those guys good, that’s my point. They benefit from playing with LeBron, but there is still no 2nd go to guy on the team. Even Jordan needed Pippen(perennial All-Star). Kobe needed Shaq (perennial All-Star). Wade needed Shaq (perennial All-Star). Pierce needed KG and Ray Allen (perennial All-Stars). Kobe needed Gasol (perennial All-Star). See a theme here? Who is that second guy for Cleveland, NO ONE. Without all the injuries AND LeBron campaigning Mo Williams wouldnt have even made the All-Star team for his FIRST time ever. Why do you think this was his first All-Star game? He’s not that good. Plenty teams have had the best winning record and lost in the playoffs, Dallas had the best record(67-15) when they lost to the 8th seed Golden State Warriors. They had a much better team than the carcasses LeBron dragged around and he still pulled out 66 wins even with those guys. Give him a true 2nd guy and not just washed up has-beens and never-wases and it’s championship banners.

Even on those teams you had guys who were better than average role players after the All-Stars. Bulls (Horace Grant then Kukoc and Rodman), Lakers 2000-2002 (Fisher,Fox), Heat (Mourning, Walker, Posey), Celtics (Rajon Rondo), Lakers 2009 (Fisher, Odom).

BUT…had the cavs won. We’d be hearing about how good Mo Williams, Joe Smith, Delonte West etc were.

So there ya go

That’s true, from the same people who over-hype role players on every championship team. Why do you think guys like Posey can go to another team and be overpaid or Big Baby Davis wanted more money? There’s always someone who overvalues the pieces of a championship team. That’s why you have to be able to analyze each guy’s game so you know who really would thrive regardless of who they play with. Even if they won the championship it would have purely been LeBron, I’m not sold on any of those guys no matter how many games they win unless they show me on another team.

I agree people overhype those role players. Anyone who watches basketball knew Wally Szerbiak wasn’t the missing piece in the puzzle.

(I had to scroll up to see what we were initially discussing.)

Its all good. I think we covered everything. I’m ready to move on to the next thread.