Indians 6 Blue Jays 1: Break Out the Brooms
July 2, 2010Dissecting the Knicks’ Presentation to LeBron
July 2, 2010Despite the pragmatic schedule of potential suitors attempting to pitch their respective teams to LeBron James, the Plain Dealer reports that Heat representatives, led by Pat Riley, attempted to get a bit of a head start on things late Thursday night in a downtown Cleveland hotel lobby. But a source close to the local free agency madness has told WFNY that Cavalier fans should not read too much into the late night rendezvous.
The Miami Herald stated that Riley, along with vice president Nick Arison, coach Erik Spoelstra and former center Alonzo Mourning, left Chicago – where they had met with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh earlier in the day – for Cleveland. Allegedly after landing in Cleveland on Thursday evening, Riley, Arison and Andy Elisburg (assistant general manager) met in the lobby of Cleveland’s Ritz-Carlton where James’ agent Leon Rose would later join for a 45-minute meeting.
But while many will feel that this could simply be another back-channel attempt at getting a leg up in the LeBron James race, WFNY has been told that these meetings are fairly common in situations of higher magnitude. Given the time-sensitive nature of the formal meetings, player representatives prefer to have an agenda hashed out prior to the actual pitch. The Miami Heat have the 11am slot on Friday, so if the meeting were to be dragged out due to lack of preparation, it would only further delay the subsequent meeting with the Los Angeles Clippers. The source deemed the Rose-Riley meeting as “standard,” but one that could be magnified due to being so late at night.
Also not out of the question is the fact that the Rose-Riley meeting was not solely about LeBron James. Rose’s agency was purchased by Creative Artists Agency (CAA), a firm that represents both Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Though the two players are not directly linked to Rose, there is an underlying interest in players whom are represented by his agency. Given that Wade and Bosh were targets of a Riley meeting that occurred earlier in the day, the late-night meeting between Rose and the Heat representative could have also included a simple follow-up on the happenings in Chicago.
Riley briefly addressed the media, but would only discuss the recent hire of head coach Byron Scott. Members of the New York Knicks addressed the media following their pitch to James. It would not be far-fetched to assume that members of the Heat would to the same on Friday afternoon.
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(AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
21 Comments
Rudy Gay gets the max to stay in Memphis, Joe Johnson gets the max and will stay in Atlanta, DWade will get the max to stay in Miami, Chris Bosh will get the max from Toronto in a sign and trade… but LeBron, the back-to-back MVP is going to leave his hometown, leave 30 million on the table and make less than all of those guys to play in Miami or Chicago or wherever? Not seeing it…
Other source close to free agency: Cavs should read heavily into late night meaating. Be very afraid.
I’m starting to wonder why anybody reads anything anymore. If you have no information, you don’t know anything. If you read all the information, you know even less. So why bother?
AMC: don’t know about that. Riley is so cool he breaks the cool-o-meter. Look at him. He’s the Prince of Freakin’ Darkness, master of the jock psyche job.Not sure even a guy as confident as LeBron can resist that. Don’t look directly in his eyes, Bronnie!
Kind of in line with Christopher’s comments yesterday (you know, Matty’s best friend), I am somewhat comforted to see Joe Johnson get the max deal from Atlanta and that Chris Bosh seems to be pushing for a max deal sign-n-trade if MegaMiami doesnt work out. At the very least, its showing that the money is really important, and that it is not being overlooked or sacrificed by the big names guys
How come, in all of these analysts discussing free agency, NO ONE mentions that LeBron will get 30 mill more if he signs with the Cavs? I’ve never heard it mentioned on ESPN, while they endlessly hype the Nets and their billionaire owner or Miami or Chicago.
@ sam – that would require logic, bro. Free agency is pure ANARCHY
sam – its because getting the last dollar doesnt matter to someone like lebron who wants to be a billionaire.
I’ve seen 30mil discussed in a handful of articles on SI or ESPN, but you’re point is taken; it’s few and far between.
The bottom line is that talking/speculating/rumoring that these FA’s are going somewhere else generates hits, subscriptions, revenue, or whatever else you want to call it. It’s all about the $$$.
Example, friend of mine sells tickets for the Miami Heat. The ticket office sold a record number of season tickets the day after the stories of the summit between Wade, Bosh and LBJ hit. Some of the guys in that office made more commission that day than they had the whole rest of the year to date. Regardless of where these guys go, all these rumors are making people in the sports industry a lot of money.
actually, ric bucher did a pretty good job hyping the cavs this morning on mike and mike. Gave the Cavs a 75% chance, and said that was being conservative.
sam
I guess they see $30M as negligible compared to the +/- $?M difference that a decision in this free-agency period could have on the LBJ “brand.” The other players don’t have the same “brand” issues being heightened right now, for whatever reasons.
It’s hard for me to argue with the notion that it is negligible by comparison (?unless he were to give the $30M to [name of charity] up front?), except that, when so much of the LBJ “brand” appears to be driven by writers, the writers are stakeholders in this story and have incentive to say that the $30M is not a decisive factor. I think it is a fair for writers to go on an inference from LBJ’s statements that it is not decisive, and, thus, fair for the writers to ignore it – as being swayed by $30M is not very interesting.
I gotta think that the best way for Miami to have gotten into LBJ’s head and everyone’s head would have been to leave everyone but Pat Riley at home (particularly Eric Spoelstra).
Harv21 has pretty much captured the concept.
this whole process is making me hate players and coaches i used to like
@12 It’s the professionals version of collegiate recruiting unfortunately it’s part of the game. Even more unfortunate is Cleveland hasn’t the prized catch of free agency, well technically I guess the correct wordnis had although only unofficialy. Besides this had the Cavaliers had any cap space they’d be doing the same things as other teams. That reminds me wasn’t this the summer when Cleveland was going after Bosh or Wade? Amazing how things change I know I’d rather be in pursuit of someone instead of having Parker and Moon.
hey matty missed you a lunch this afternoon pal.
totally agree with the only one in that room for the Heat should have been Riley. i heard Riley once touched a homeless man and turned him into jeff van gundy.
i am still holding strong on the $ theory.
btw did anyone else hear that the clips meeting with lebron actually took place in an AOL chat room since they couldnt afford the plane tix out here? (totally stolen from KNR this morning, but still worth the re-post)
@12- there’s the Shamrock we know. you’ve been posting too rationally lately and i’ve been agreeing with you. it was scaring me. this is more like it.
so, you are saying that 3 years ago, before our 2007 Finals run or even just after it, we should tank the next 2 seasons in order to be in prime position to obtain Wade or Bosh with cap space?
and you don’t think that method would have turned off LeBron at all?
I mean, in hindsight, sure we didn’t win a title, so I can see some merit to having that cap-space in a completely vacuumed off world.
But, to waste 2 title contending years for the sheer chance that you didn’t upset your star player that you didn’t bother to try to compete for championships and convince not only him but Bosh/Wade to come join this team that hasn’t shown any commitment to winning (Wade? really think he is leaving Miami to be a 2nd banana to LeBron?)
No, that is not sound strategy. #1 overall seed 2 years in a row may not have gotten us a championship, but it did ingrain that Gilbert means business about competing for championships and will surround LeBron with the best that he can.
or @13…at least got the username right 🙂
the Cavs WILL sign Chris Paul next year (if not trade for him this year) if LeBron stays. BOOK IT!
/Isis’d
@mgbode Thanks for keeping track of what I say but I don’t remember saying or implying that the only way the Cavaliers could go was to tank. I certainly think they could have contended with other choices but hindsight is 20-20. I just wasn’t a big fan of the most recent moves is all eventhough Parker/Moon was better then Wallace/Pavlovic. I didn’t like Gibson’s contract, hated the drafting of Eyenga, mixed emotions on Varejao’s deal, Shaq was a half year to late and Wally should have been traded for a bag of peanuts.
wally can still be used for a s&t with his Bird rights, no? if so, and is used, that’s better than a bag of peanuts.
@ Shamrock – The Cavs play 82 games a season, brah. It’s impossible for them to end up with a 20-20 record.
@20 MattyFos told me it was s manzier!