Coming to NY?

The natural hype surrounding the big name free agents to be always include rumors that they are coming to New York. With the Cavs recently being bounced from the playoff picture, the biggest rumor, that hasn't died after 2+ years of hype, is that LeBron is virtually free to come to NY and the Knicks are waiting. Or is it the Nets? Or is anyone crazy enough to think this will actually happen? Naturally, the loud-mouthed mayor of NYC has chimed in here.

With the NBA salary cap, there's only a handful of teams that can currently offer Bron Bron the max, Knicks and Nets among them, but who cares? Cleveland can offer the max + so if money is the motivator, he won't get more anywhere other than Cleveland.

If money is not the motivator, let's consider winning. If the knock on James is that he has not won a title in Cleveland why would you take two-to-three steps back and go to two of the worst teams in the league? Look at super-coach Phil Jackson, when his run in Chicago was done where did he go? And why did he go there? To win. Sure, the public Jackson talks about loving the LA lifestyle and blah blah blah but let's be real, Jackson saw the easiest path to winning. The zen master was recently asked about coaching for Michael Jordan in Charlotte if he does not renew his deal in LA and Phil said, "no." Jackson is known as a winner but he's always positioned himself on teams that can win and going to Charlotte is not the path to doing that. Back to LeBron, Chicago is another rumor du-jour and while that makes some sense, James does not put them over the top. They're a marginal playoff team as it is and bringing in one of the top players will not put them over the top.

If winning is the motivator, do the smart thing. Look at the top NBA teams and go there, e.g. the Lakers, the Celtics, the Magic, the Spurs. If you want to win, don't just win, go out and dominate.