Thank God that's over.

I guess he can indeed win the big one.

Mark Cuban gets into it with Skip Bayless and basically tells him he doesn't know anything.

LeBron may have finally won, but he did one thing that the true greats never did. Not Isiah, MJ, Kobe, Dr. J., Bird, & Magic never once came close to doing. He quit on his team and he will never be mentioned as one of the greats above. Not only did he quit, he didn't even have the decency to tell the Cavs he was leaving until announcing it on tv to the public. That showed me his true character - being raised to be a punk and without class.

It infuriates me that he won because of the message it sends to kids: look out for yourself and there will be no consequences.

I hear what you are saying. Lebron was wrong to leave like he did. That said though it is a business. He was a free agent. His obligation to Cleveland had expired.

Most of the greats had some not so nice sides to them on and off the basketball court.

I can't get mad at James for leaving, not when the Thunder owner moved the Supersonics to Oklahoma City, primarily because he couldn't get what amounted to welfare money for a new stadium. Business is business.

Agree Lilo. He had every right to leave. He just did in such a classless way. Shaq didn't host his own TV show when he left Orlando to announce his departure.

The other thing LeBron did that gets frequently overlooked: from 2008-2010, he would never give the front office any type of indication as to whether he was staying. That made it nearly impossible to sign quality free agents. Instead, the Cavs had to get middle-to-lower tier free agents.

Dan Gilbert did everything to entice James to stay: built a new practice facility closer to Akron, fired the coaches James did not like, and catered to James' posse. That's why I will never forgive James for not being man-enough to tell Gilbert what he was intending to do. From the 2008 Olympics forward, James knew that he would not re-sign in Cleveland, for which he had every right not to. But he did it in the most classless way possible.

Gilbet's such an asshole I can't exactly feel bad for him. (The fans? I pity them.)

Anyway congrats to the Heat for winning the championship. They deserved it.

Actually, Gilbert is really not an a-hole. He had that one very bad moment after LeBron left. And he had every right to be pissed. The whole situation was handled badly, both by Gilbert and James.

Gilbert has done a lot for the city of Cleveland. He had our first Casino built which opened in May to high praise. Plus he has done a lot of behind the scenes things. I would love to see him be the owner of either the Browns or Indians with his deep pockets. He's an owner who gets it. He's not as brash as Mark Cuban, but Gilbert is very smart.

DANG IT what the heck is going on in the NBA?! Free agency just began and look at what's transpired thus far:

-Landry Fields is going to the Toronto Raptors
-Jason Terry is going to the Boston Celtics
-Deron Williams is staying in Brooklyn
-Michael Beasley is going to the Phoenix Suns
-Joe Johnson was traded to the Brooklyn Nets
-Jameer Nelson is staying in Orlando
-Chauncey Billups is staying in Los Angeles (Clippers)
-Jamal Crawford is going to Los Angeles (Clippers)
-Steve Nash is going to Los Angeles (Lakers)
-Jason Kidd is going to New York

Very true Irish. I would also add obviously Ray Allen taking his talents to South Beach.



I actually supported him leaving Cleveland for Miami, I thought it was the sensible move if he really wanted a ring. Hell Kevin Garnett left Minnesota for Boston, as we remember.

King James (yes he finally truely earned that crown) just did the worst possible PR move on his way out that turned him from another Michael Jordan successor to the NBA's Ric Flair: The #1 heel.

But other than that, to belittle James (and the Heat) for winning their ring is just silly. They earned it, and they didn't, well the Thunder and Celtics and everybody else should've fucking played better. He's been needing a championship to make do with the hype and attention given him for all these years, and that title lifts a whole lot of weight off his back. It reminds me when Kobe Bryant finally won a championship without Shaq's help.

Really I couldn't care less if the player is a saint or a dick. It's been endlessly debated for over 20 years about Isiah Thomas being snubbed from the Dream Team. Should he've been on the team? Absolutely, he was one of the best, hard playing NBA stars of that era. He was absolutely the most ruthless, inconsiderate, dirty-playing son of a bitch star of his era too, but would anybody sympathize with my feeling that at least it was OK to be a douche when fighting for titles instead of most of these modern atheletes who seem rather indifferent?

I mean NBA TV recently did a terrific documentary on the 20th anniversary of the Dream Team. All those members danced around the Isiah Thomas controversy, with Michael Jordan outright lying that he had nothing to do with Thomas getting snubbed.

But fact was this: Most if not everybody on the Dream Team fucking HATED HATED HATED Isiah Thomas.

Jordan despised his guts, never forgiving Thomas for his team walking out of that playoff defeat without shaking the Bulls' hands. Jordan played with Pippen, who also hated Thomas and admitted in that doc he didn't want to play with him on the DT. Jordan was a close associate of both Charles Barkely (who agreed with Pippen) and the elder Magic Johnson (Jordan was one of the first players to learn about Johnson contracting AIDS), and of course Johnson was close to Larry Bird.

So all that starpower networking, it's not a surprise Thomas wasn't on the Dream Team. He's a douche, a bad (if well-earned) reputation that obscured that he was awesome.

It's not the size of the dog in the fight. It's the size of the fight in the dog.
And Isiah had heart as big as anyone although he was usually the smallest guy on the floor. And Scottie Pippen should stay silent. My memories of him are of him having a migraine before game 7 with Detroit and later refusing to return to a game because he didn't get the final shot. And Malone? Big bully with no heart. Malone and Pippen on Dream Team? This is what I think about that!


Isiah Thomas was driving through New York City, enjoying the sights of his new home.
It was a peaceful moment, but he knows that's about to change. The phone calls will start soon. NBA TV is airing a documentary about the 1992 Dream Team at 9 p.m. Wednesday, and although Thomas was not on the team, he remains a central figure in the project. About 2½ minutes of the film are devoted to Thomas and why he was left off the team. Thomas declined to be interviewed for the project although producers reached out toward him.

The so-called "Dream Team" was comprised mostly of NBA players competing at the Olympics after years of allowing only amateur players.

But Thomas was snubbed. Thomas is not mentioned in the following quotes but you know who Malone and Pippen are talking about.

"I don't think we (Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen) wanted to be on the team if he was on the team. We're enemies," Pippen said.

"I didn't select anybody. OK? If you weren't chosen then shut the (heck) up," Karl Malone said.

Still, Thomas won't get caught up in the controversy. He's not about to relive that part of his life.
"I think I will bypass that today as I have before," he said. "I will have no comment on that."

Beating the old guard
Thomas was the leader of the "Bad Boys," a team that not only beat you, but beat you up. They were rough, physical and stood up to the establishment of the Lakers, Celtics and Bulls.

And along the way, resentment grew.
The Lakers and Celtics ruled the NBA in the 1980s. Then along came the Pistons, who first toppled the Celtics in the 1988 Eastern Conference finals and then the Lakers in the 1989 NBA Finals. The battles were long and angry.

The Pistons never were supposed to be among the elite.
And it caused problems.
"When you go outside the structure, there is a price to pay for that," Thomas said. "Who is this team that had the audacity to beat the Lakers and the Celtics, and to beat the Bulls? How dare you challenge this?"

And then there were the Bulls, who controlled the 1990s. They had to go through the Pistons, and part of that infamous history that dogged the Pistons for years was their walking off the court — before the game ended — as the Bulls were in the process of sweeping them out of the 1991 Eastern Conference finals.

And Malone …
His elbow to the face of Thomas during a game in Utah in 1991 was uncalled for. It was vicious and a cheap shot. It was premeditated, and it was Malone's payback for Thomas dropping 40 points on Jazz guard John Stockton during a game at The Palace.

Thomas needed 40 external stitches — and about 50 internal ones — to close the wound. The greatest team…minus one

Still, the Dream Team was the greatest team in history.
Larry Bird. Jordan. Magic Johnson. The elite of the elite. They won 14 NBA titles between them.
Thomas, however, belonged with the group.
He wasn't. He was replaced by Stockton, a great player with great numbers — and no titles to show for it.

Thomas? He won two.
The documentary will be done and well received, and it will give fans a peek into the greatest team in the history of basketball.
But that team was not complete without Thomas.
"I will just let it go," Thomas said.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120608/OPINION03/206080408

Thomas' absence from the team was conspicuous. I knew that some players disliked him, but Magic and he were very close.

I agree with you on Pippen and Malone - especially Malone. He always seemed to lack the rabid desire or heart to win. When Bird, Magic or Michael were on the floor, you could sense that they were out to win as if their lives depended on it. Their passion and focus elevated their teams. I never saw this quality in Karl Malone.

Fun Fact: the last player picked for the Dream Team was planned to be a college player. Obviously the golden boy at the time, Laettner in star power was a no brainer. But he wasn't the only one considered. That other college player?

Shaq.

BTW, the Knicks trashing Jeremy Lin on the way out is quite silly. Yes he didn't play in the playoffs, neither in the last few playoff games did that one Knicks player who broke his hand punching a fire extinguisher. Where's his punishment for being fucking stupid?

I especially loved Carmelo Anthony's "ridiculous" comment, one coming from a ridiculously overpaid, overrated player that Knicks gave up way too much to get.

(Not a member of Linsanity, but Knicks were perhaps fiscally smart to not match that Rockets contract. But their PR handling? Bunch of clowns.)

Evidently it was personal with Dolan.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-d...20611--nba.html

Fascinating.

So does Ray Allen really think he'll get the ball more in Miami?