The backlash against LeBron James has been intense this summer. The reigning league MVP has been accused of betraying the Cleveland Cavaliers and the fine people of his home state. He is now the biggest villain in the NBA, and possibly in professional sports as a whole. How dare he turn his back on the only organization that he ever played for?
The entire debacle surrounding “The Decision” has been fierce. It made LeBron seem even more egotistical and self-centered than he already was. But the fact of the matter is that ESPN and Jim Gray were the ones that pitched the entire idea to LeBron and his handler, Maverick Carter, during the NBA Finals. However misguided, LeBron and co. viewed it as a good opportunity to increase their brand, contribute some funds towards a charity and put a definite end to the situation before it dragged too far into July.
But once the dust had settled, LeBron was no longer one of the most popular players in the league. What he, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh had done was seen as unfair to many. How could the players change the landscape of the league on their own? The NBA is a league driven by stars, and LeBron and Bosh were the stars in two of the thirty markets. But they took it upon themselves to change all of this by coming together in South Beach.
The owners and the agents make their fortune off of the players, while maintaining a level of competition between the teams, or so they make it seem. There have been eight teams that have won NBA championships in the past thirty years. Eight teams. Yet now we are getting mad that there will be no disparity in the league? Where was the outcry when Jerry West gave Pau Gasol to the Lakers for Kwame Brown? These players were free agents and had the contractual right to sign wherever they pleased.
Now that the players have taken control of their own fate, sports fans and scribes alike have begun to lose their mind. There have been countless pieces written about how LeBron, Maverick, power broker Worldwide Wes, agent Leon Rose and LeBron’s marketing company LRMR are what is wrong with sport, and they all deserve to be framed as the villains in this situation. But what part of it bothered people the most? The power shifting away from the owners and agents who have yielded power for so many years over these players, now the players have finally stood up and taken the game back.
The players are the ones who make the money for the organizations, they are the reason that fans fill the seats and buy merchandise. But they were getting a raw deal at the end of the day. Sure they get paid millions of dollars, but that is nothing compared to the amount that the franchises make off of them. They are out there risking their personal health every night in front of 20,000 fans, and they get this reaction when they decide to control their own destiny.
News in the league has been slow since “The Decision”, until last week when word surfaced that New Orleans Hornets point guard Chris Paul, and arguably the best at his position in the world, was demanding a trade to Orlando, New York, Portland or Los Angeles. The hounds smelt blood once again, and thanks to Paul’s close ties to LeBron and LRMR, the entire situation was blamed on the former Cavalier once again. But on the surface this seemed like a world-class player who was simply fed up with losing, and wanted to play in a big market for a team that was trying to win. Paul has put up with the losing ways of the Hornets for years, and they have consistently failed to put any elite players around him. David West? Paul made him an All-Star. Who else have the Hornets brought in to make them into a championship contender? Morris Peterson? Emeka Okafor? Peja Stojakovic? Paul is the best point guard in the world, and who can blame him for wanting to win?
But it was seemingly unacceptable for a star player to demand a trade to a winner. This happens in every league, every year. But because of the perfect storm that had been created surrounding the Big Three in Miami, and the ties between Paul and LeBron, this was utter abandonment by Paul. Cleveland and Toronto had already lost their star players this summer, and the powers that be were doing everything they could to see to it that New Orleans would not be the third team on that list in one off-season.
Much to the relief of the Hornets and the entire Association, Paul met with the Hornets new head coach and GM, alongside his agent Leon Rose, and word is that they came to a resolution that would keep Paul in New Orleans, at least for now. Or maybe it was simply realized that unlike Bosh, Wade and LeBron, Paul is still contractually bound to his team for the next two years, and therefore had very little leverage in the situation. There is no reason that the Hornets would trade him and receive anywhere near full value in return.
The likely result is that the Hornets will continue to quietly shop Paul during the season, and a deal might be hammered out by next summer. By then the storm will have settled, and everyone will come to their senses and remember that he simply wants to play for a winner. Imagine how many Chris Paul jerseys have been sold during his tenure in New Orleans; yet the ownership has continued to refuse to dabble in free agency and bring players in to help him win.
After the Three Henchmen partnered up in Miami, it became evident that this relationship was formed during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. LeBron, Wade, Bosh, Paul, Carmelo, Kobe and the rest of the stars of the league came together to form the Redeem Team, and all of the young players on the team without a ring got a taste of what it was like to win and be surrounded by players of their caliber. It was simply too good to be true, and once the Heat cleared the necessary cap space, it became a reality. But the perception remained that the players should not be able to yield this much power, and that they owed something to their teams. But in the case of LeBron, Bosh and Paul, their teams had been unable to bring the right mix of players in that translated to a championship. So they took it upon themselves to come together and try to win it themselves.
No one likes what the players did, or what they plan to do. But this represents a fundamental shift in the way that players interact with teams and leagues. We could soon see star players in other leagues take notes from the Heat and try to join forces in an attempt to win the elusive championship. Adrian Peterson and Chris Johnson will be free agents at the same time in a few years in the NFL, so prepare for what is to come.
Editor’s Note: Lawrence Dushenski is a Toronto Raptors fan. You can follow him on twitter @LD10. Read more of his articles by clicking here.
