Pat Riley Drops the Hammer on LeBron James

[Double-Up]

Miami Heat President and Free Agency Mastermind, Pat Riley


LeBron James spent the first 7 years of his NBA career controlling nearly every aspect of his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers. Many wondered if this would continue with the Miami Heat under the watch of NBA LEGEND, Pat Riley. The answer is a RESOUNDING NO!


According to local Cleveland radio host, Michael Reghi with ESPN 850 WKNR, LeBron James has had his privileges revoked by Pat Riley. Reghi was the Cavaliers play by play announcer for the first few years of LeBron James’ career and was removed when Dan Gilbert purchased the team. He has watched LeBron James very closely, has inside knowledge regarding the team and its operations and still has various contacts within the NBA.
For those who are not aware, LeBron James received tremendous, and sometimes inappropriate, benefits from the Cavaliers organization. They will now to try to downplay it in order to minimize any repercussions with the league office and to minimize their feeling of embarrassment, but it is certainly accurate.



For YEARS, LeBron James was given preferential tickets for his family and friends, locker room and team flight access for his friends (including Maverick Carter and LRMR), and even jobs and cars for part of LeBron’s entourage. In addition, LeBron regularly controlled the team’s schedule and flight itinerary in order to accommodate his ability to stay an extra night when the Cavs played in L.A., NY, Miami, New Orleans, Atlanta, etc. This happened quite often during the year and over his 7 years in Cleveland. Some of this was grandfathered in by Gilbert upon his acquisition of the team and some of it was added in an attempt to keep LeBron happy and improve the chances of resigning him to a long-term deal.


Honestly, who could blame Dan Gilbert or the Cavaliers. LeBron is a great player and WAS a Cleveland Icon. The organization was handcuffed and were forced to continually roll over and give LeBron, his friends, and his family ridiculous benefits in an attempt to keep him. According to Reghi, Pat Riley has put an immediate stop to this type of benefit for LeBron James. One of LeBron’s friends was given, for all intents and purposes, a seat on the Cavs bench for EVERY game and several of his friends were permitted to fly on the team plane and stay in the team hotel. Pat Riley has not allowed this type of benefit, let alone the jobs and cars provided to LeBron’s friends and family and reports are that LeBron is PISSED.


Reghi indicated that this source said LeBron is very unhappy that these benefits are not being provided and that he’s starting to regret his decision to leave. In addition, in one of Miami’s final pre-season games this year against the New Orleans Hornets, LeBron is said to have approached an Assistant GM and requested that the team stay an extra night in New Orleans. When asked why, LeBron is said to have given his typical response in these instances…. to party and to hang out on Bourbon Street with Chris Paul. The Assistant GM is said to have called Pat Riley who said for “everyone get your asses back to Miami immediately”. This again, is said to have rubbed LeBron the wrong way.


As I mentioned before, Maverick Carter and LRMR were given incredible access, influence, and benefit with the Cavaliers during the LeBron James era. But in Miami, they are not allowed the same benefits or latitude and LeBron, THE ENTITLED ONE, is not very happy with Riley or with his new team. LeBron may adjust and learn to live with Riley’s groundrules, but it’s honestly doubtful that he’ll do so happily. He knows with the criticism he took this summer that he can ill afford to appear even MORE selfish and like even more of an asshole so he’ll keep quiet. But if you have paid any attention to who LeBron is and what he’s about, you’ll know that he will not take this well.


It's absolutely the right move for Riley as he has a chance to cut this type of BS out before it starts, whereas Dan Gilbert inherited much of it. If history tells us anything about Riley, we also know that he is only about ONE THING….. WINNING. Pat Riley doesn’t give 2 shits about spending the team’s off day in New Orleans for an extra night so LeBron can party with his BFF. But if history has told us anything about LeBron, it’s that he is ABSOLUTELY about this type of thing and he will not take it lightly. LeBron will NEVER admit it because he’s too stubborn, too proud, and is honestly too hurt from the backlash he received nationwide and in Cleveland, but I think he’s starting to see that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.


http://clevelandleader.com/node/15114

[DeadlyDynasty]

man, slavery's a bitch:cry:cry:cry

[Venti Quattro]

pat riley is enslaving lebron. what a bitch slave-driver. won't even give his slave a day-off :cry :cry :cry

[koriwhat]

whawhawha

[nkdlunch]

LMAO Pat Riley owned everyone, the NBA, the Cavs and Lebron/Wade/Bosch

he owns all of them. he will just sit and watch and when it's the right time, playoff time, he will send the Filipino coach back to the rice patties and take the coaching reigns and take the Heat to another championship, but his way. he will say "run negroes, run!"

the white man wins again

[nkdlunch]

imo Riley is sick of Phil Jackson's face. that Finals chess match between those 2 white persons and their respective negroe armies is gonna be tight!!!

[MiamiHeat]

ROFLMAO!!

"According the Cleveland radio host...."

Cavalier fans hoping to make shit up :)

Riley will bend over backwards to make this trio successful. Full of shit :)

btw, I havent heard A SINGLE WORD of anything like this on our radio stations, tv, local forums, nothing.

it's complete bullshit :)

[Jose Canseco]

Definitely smart of Riley. I thought there was already an understanding that the Heat organization would provide some of these perks and that was like an unwritten condition of signing LeBron. Guess not.

In fairness to Gilbert, Riley has the resume and clout to do this and he has LeBron locked up for 5-6 years. When Gilbert took over the Cavs, he had two years to build a respect and trust relationship with LeBron before he became an RFA in 2007. Once LeBron did the three year contract instead of a full 6 year deal, Gilbert again had to bide his time because he knew he had a shorter timeline to work with. As the article stated, some of those benefits were already in place when Gilbert bought the team. But then you take a new owner and circumstances of LeBron's contract situation, it would have been very hard for any new owner with limited knowledge of the business of the game to not concede to every LeBron wish. Sucks for him.

But, hey Cavs > Celtics > Heat so good on him.

[MiamiHeat]

dude, it's well known that Riley let LeBron know that his friends would be taken care of.

this article is hearsay from a CLEVELAND RADIO HOST lol.

[Double-Up]

BOSTON – When LeBron James (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3704/)(notes) (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3704/news) was running roughshod over the Cleveland Cavaliers (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/teams/cle/), it became common for him to respond to tough coaching and differing degrees of conflict with the sheer shutdown mode. There goes LeBron, stomping off to the locker room with a staff member in hot pursuit to talk him back into practice. Come on back, King. We need you.


James would mope back onto the floor, reluctant to be told that someone disagreed with his belief on a matter. The Cavaliers’ culture of enabling, letting things go and go, exacerbated these issues. James stayed in a cocoon of perpetual adolescence.


“His coping skills,” one perceptive ex-teammate said, “had been largely underdeveloped.”

The world is watching James in a different way now, with a far more critical eye. Everything changed in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals last May, when the private acting out spilled into the public for the first time. Without leaving the floor, LeBron walked out on the Cavaliers and so started a spiral that eventually led him on that private jet to Miami International and into the waiting arms of old man Riles and his boy wonder, Erik Spoelstra.

James had come to Miami to escape the cocoon of Cleveland, the so-so talent surrounding him, a management and ownership who never commanded his respect. He had come to find a way through the Orlando Magic (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/teams/orl/) and the Boston Celtics (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/teams/bos/), yet suddenly it felt like old times on opening night at the Garden. Around LeBron James, Chris Bosh (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3707/)(notes) (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3707/news) played the part of J.J. Hickson (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/4481/)(notes) (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/4481/news), and Dwyane Wade (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3708/)(notes) (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3708/news) had the playoff touch of Mo Williams (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3750/)(notes) (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3750/news).

“Rome wasn’t built in a day,” James declared.

He had 31 points and eight turnovers, a part-splashy, part-sloppy debut. This was no coronation for the Miami Heat (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/teams/mia/) but an affirmation of some hard truths: For the incredible strengths they’ll have this season, they’ll have severe flaws too: size, shooting and the bench. The Celtics exposed every one of those elements in an 88-80 victory on opening night. Miami will get its 58, 60 regular-season victories, but it won’t get through Boston or Orlando unless James understands that this Miami franchise under Pat Riley can have transformative powers.

There was a Finals-esque media crush at the Garden, a night that Celtics general manager Danny Ainge brought him “more ticket requests for any game ever.” This wasn’t because of the deepest Celtics roster since the 1980s, nor Wade and Bosh. Everyone comes for the Drama King, LeBron James.

“We know what’s going on,” Bosh said. “You turn on TV [and] you see what’s going on. We knew it was going to be like that. Dealing with it is another thing.”

Coping with it, he means. That’s James’ burden. He didn’t take well to the pressure a season ago and cracked before everyone’s eyes in that exit series to the Celtics. The Heat are James’ team, and that has nothing to do with who’ll score the most points or who’ll take the most shots, or even the big ones. For better and worse, James fills up the locker room, the team plane, the floor – fills up space – in a way that demands most of the room’s air. He stepped out of LRMR’s kiddy marketing pool this week into the big leagues with a Nike campaign that asks: What should I do?

The Heat are telling him simply: Stay in line. After a preseason game in New Orleans, a league source said, James was chatting with Chris Paul (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3930/)(notes) (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3930/news) outside the locker room and decided that he wanted to hit the town with the Hornets star. The Heat’s charter planned to fly home that night, but James suggested to Wade that perhaps they ought to ask Spoelstra about leaving in the morning to return home.

James could always do this in Cleveland, but Wade wanted no part of seeking permission. James did, and the message the coach delivered was unmistakable: Get on the plane; we’re going home.

This is how the Riley regime will make James accountable in ways the Cavaliers never did. James isn’t holding them hostage the way he did in Cleveland. No more separate sections of the team plane that belong just to James and his guys. He signed his free-agent deal and shouldered a burden to win – and win now – unmatched in the history of American sport. There’s never been such a target in the NBA, and that includes the Jordan Bulls, the Showtime Lakers, no one. These Heat are the creation of the digital media age, the time of 24-7 viral assault on your senses. Bosh is right: It isn’t going away. So how do you deal with it all? Eventually, he isn’t going to like something Spoelstra tells him. Or one of Spoelstra’s assistants tells him. He won’t like the way he’s getting blame when the team’s struggling and Wade, the Miami icon, gets a pass.

Something will spur him because it always does, and then everyone will find out again about LeBron James’ coping mechanisms.
James never has been able to make fun of himself, and he needed a Nike campaign to do it for him. He’d better find a way to take a sobering look at his flaws, his failures and scrub away old stains with a new start on South Beach.

What should he do?

Take a look around, embrace Riley’s culture and understand that he needs the Heat as much as they need him.

What should he do?

No more running, LeBron. No more hiding. Finally, there’s someone to confront James. There’s someone who isn’t held hostage, who isn’t terrified of telling him, “No.” Opening night, a sluggish loss to the Celtics, and none of it mattered so much in late October. Cleveland is long gone, and so needs to be the perpetual adolescence of that cocoon. He’s under Old Man Riles’ watch now, and that could change everything for LeBron James. That could complete him.


http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-heatceltics102710

[JoeTait75]

Riley will bend over backwards to make this trio successful.

Riley bending over backwards is the last thing he should do if this trio is to be successful.

LeBron needs to get his priorities straight, and part of that involves limits on the extra-curricular shit.

[Double-Up]

It'll sure as hell be interesting to see how things develop.

[Cane]

Smart of Riley imo although a lot of that article is probably bullshit but I can see LeBron wanting the preferential treatment he and his friends got from the Cavs only to get it denied.

[MiamiHeat]

oh, and riley doesn't speak that way to his star players.

"get your asses down here.."

LOL.

[Rummpd]

PR you da man!

[Venti Quattro]

pat riley setting sending that 0'fer ass to the tree of woe

[SomeCallMeTim]

I wonder if Pat makes LeBron address him as "Massa Riley" yet?

Frankly, I'm not surprised how yet another white, entitled elite power broker is exploiting LeBron in this way... it's just a further indictment of how this country denies civil rights to its most vulnerable citizens and enslaves them.

Miami fans, are there any protests being organized locally over this yet?

[Jose Canseco]

I remember a story a while back talking about where Riley would text Wade "BIW" like everyday to remind him that he was the "best in the world." I wonder if Riley texts LeBron "2BIW" all the time.

[ogait]

I wonder if Pat makes LeBron address him as "Massa Riley" yet?

Frankly, I'm not surprised how yet another white, entitled elite power broker is exploiting LeBron in this way... it's just a further indictment of how this country denies civil rights to its most vulnerable citizens and enslaves them.

Miami fans, are there any protests being organized locally over this yet?

:lmao:lmao

[JoeTait75]

I actually don't really understand why LeBron wouldn't want to change up some of the things he's been doing. He's in a new situation, a fresh start, and obviously whatever he was doing in Cleveland wasn't working. Why not do things differently?

[poop]

LMAO Pat Riley owned everyone, the NBA, the Cavs and Lebron/Wade/Bosch

he owns all of them. he will just sit and watch and when it's the right time, playoff time, he will send the Filipino coach back to the rice patties and take the coaching reigns and take the Heat to another championship, but his way. he will say "run negroes, run!"

the white man wins again

LMAO!!!!!!! :rollin

[Jt.ONE]

it's all falling apart so fast ahha

[Venti Quattro]

LMAO Pat Riley owned everyone, the NBA, the Cavs and Lebron/Wade/Bosch

he owns all of them. he will just sit and watch and when it's the right time, playoff time, he will send the Filipino coach back to the rice patties and take the coaching reigns and take the Heat to another championship, but his way. he will say "run negroes, run!"

the white man wins again

Clearly the race card is being played here.

[Jose Canseco]

I actually don't really understand why LeBron wouldn't want to change up some of the things he's been doing. He's in a new situation, a fresh start, and obviously whatever he was doing in Cleveland wasn't working. Why not do things differently?

Self-entitlement from hundreds of millions of dollars, superstar stats, fellating fans and media, and because he's always had it that way. It's like a brat kid whose parents always spoiled and never gave thorough lessons in discipline and then one day they decide he can't play with his toys anytime he wants. LeBron knows no other way. He is used to getting his way all the time. That's who he is. It's a hard thing to change overnight.


I would agree with those who will say parts of the Cleveland article are probably exaggerated or even fabricated but I'm sure there plenty of truth to it too. If I were a Heat fan, I would hope the New Orleans part of the story is true and that Riley did lay down the law. Even if LeBron pouts for a while, it sets a precedent and you would hope he would learn to understand it's not supposed to be a party. In negotiations I'm sure Riley made it appear he would bend over backwards for LeBron and his friends and family. But I don't think that's how Riley really operates. He's one of the strictest guys when it comes to his players being prepared and being in top condition. I don't think he's going to condone bullshit even from LeBron. I'm sure in some ways he hated dealing with Shaq's lazy bum ass.

[nkdlunch]

I wonder if Pat makes LeBron address him as "Massa Riley" yet?

Frankly, I'm not surprised how yet another white, entitled elite power broker is exploiting LeBron in this way... it's just a further indictment of how this country denies civil rights to its most vulnerable citizens and enslaves them.

Miami fans, are there any protests being organized locally over this yet?

:lol

[cheguevara]

when Riley said "get in da damn plane" was Lebron taking notes?

[Jose Canseco]

when Riley said "get in da damn plane" was Lebron taking notes?

Should LeBron just disappear? :(

[TheManFromAcme]

Riles just making mental notes....:rolleyes

[Venti Quattro]

Should LeBron just disappear? :(

or should he just get on the plane?

[LoneStarState'sPride]

lol heat

[Jose Canseco]

Should he stop listening to his friends??? They're his friends!!!

:( :( :(

[ogait]

I actually don't really understand why LeBron wouldn't want to change up some of the things he's been doing. He's in a new situation, a fresh start, and obviously whatever he was doing in Cleveland wasn't working. Why not do things differently?

He should, not necessarily because of his game but for the sake of his team. He's just so talented, he makes what he does look so effortless, things will happen for him even if he parties all the time.

But what about his team, if they see their best player working out every time they'll want to do the same. But no, they see him doing all those things and then come to night games and still perform better than anyone else.

Then comes the playoffs and we wonder why his team mates don't deliver.

[TheMACHINE]

Damn...OP has a nice sig and avatar

[Double-Up]

Damn...OP has a nice sig and avatar

Nigga quit instigating...

[Muser]

Great fucking slave :cry

[DMX7]

wow, so when it all falls apart we can say it started in the pre-season no less. LMAO

[lefty]

LeRiled

[LkrFan]

LeRiled
:lol

[dbestpro]

There may be hope for Lebron, yet. Thanks to Riley.

[pawe]

I always picture HBO's entourage whenever I hear Lebron and LRMR. I wonder who's the whipping boy Turtle in that group.

[Dex]

Lebron was able to live up to the hype initially. His basketball abilties immediately made him marketable, and his personality was easy enough to accept.

But the more and more you find out about this guy, the more you come to realize he is nothing but an over-talented spoiled brat.

[ElNono]

Pat Riley knows what's up. Spoelstra is next in line.

[monosylab1k]

He was gonna party with Chris Paul for the fuckin kids :cry

[Killakobe81]

He was gonna party with Chris Paul for the fuckin kids :cry

LOL i actually laughed on that one ...nice.

[ducks]

james always got what he wanted
he will not know how to act
what he needs is a spanking
heat stuggle
james might ask out
I could see the nets gutting their team to get james

james then could do what he wants

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

He was gonna party with Chris Paul for the fuckin kids :cry

:lol

[UV Ray]

BOSTON – When LeBron James (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3704/)(notes) (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3704/news) was running roughshod over the Cleveland Cavaliers (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/teams/cle/), it became common for him to respond to tough coaching and differing degrees of conflict with the sheer shutdown mode. There goes LeBron, stomping off to the locker room with a staff member in hot pursuit to talk him back into practice. Come on back, King. We need you.


James would mope back onto the floor, reluctant to be told that someone disagreed with his belief on a matter. The Cavaliers’ culture of enabling, letting things go and go, exacerbated these issues. James stayed in a cocoon of perpetual adolescence.


“His coping skills,” one perceptive ex-teammate said, “had been largely underdeveloped.”

The world is watching James in a different way now, with a far more critical eye. Everything changed in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals last May, when the private acting out spilled into the public for the first time. Without leaving the floor, LeBron walked out on the Cavaliers and so started a spiral that eventually led him on that private jet to Miami International and into the waiting arms of old man Riles and his boy wonder, Erik Spoelstra.

James had come to Miami to escape the cocoon of Cleveland, the so-so talent surrounding him, a management and ownership who never commanded his respect. He had come to find a way through the Orlando Magic (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/teams/orl/) and the Boston Celtics (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/teams/bos/), yet suddenly it felt like old times on opening night at the Garden. Around LeBron James, Chris Bosh (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3707/)(notes) (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3707/news) played the part of J.J. Hickson (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/4481/)(notes) (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/4481/news), and Dwyane Wade (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3708/)(notes) (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3708/news) had the playoff touch of Mo Williams (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3750/)(notes) (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3750/news).

“Rome wasn’t built in a day,” James declared.

He had 31 points and eight turnovers, a part-splashy, part-sloppy debut. This was no coronation for the Miami Heat (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/teams/mia/) but an affirmation of some hard truths: For the incredible strengths they’ll have this season, they’ll have severe flaws too: size, shooting and the bench. The Celtics exposed every one of those elements in an 88-80 victory on opening night. Miami will get its 58, 60 regular-season victories, but it won’t get through Boston or Orlando unless James understands that this Miami franchise under Pat Riley can have transformative powers.

There was a Finals-esque media crush at the Garden, a night that Celtics general manager Danny Ainge brought him “more ticket requests for any game ever.” This wasn’t because of the deepest Celtics roster since the 1980s, nor Wade and Bosh. Everyone comes for the Drama King, LeBron James.

“We know what’s going on,” Bosh said. “You turn on TV [and] you see what’s going on. We knew it was going to be like that. Dealing with it is another thing.”

Coping with it, he means. That’s James’ burden. He didn’t take well to the pressure a season ago and cracked before everyone’s eyes in that exit series to the Celtics. The Heat are James’ team, and that has nothing to do with who’ll score the most points or who’ll take the most shots, or even the big ones. For better and worse, James fills up the locker room, the team plane, the floor – fills up space – in a way that demands most of the room’s air. He stepped out of LRMR’s kiddy marketing pool this week into the big leagues with a Nike campaign that asks: What should I do?

The Heat are telling him simply: Stay in line. After a preseason game in New Orleans, a league source said, James was chatting with Chris Paul (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3930/)(notes) (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3930/news) outside the locker room and decided that he wanted to hit the town with the Hornets star. The Heat’s charter planned to fly home that night, but James suggested to Wade that perhaps they ought to ask Spoelstra about leaving in the morning to return home.

James could always do this in Cleveland, but Wade wanted no part of seeking permission. James did, and the message the coach delivered was unmistakable: Get on the plane; we’re going home.

This is how the Riley regime will make James accountable in ways the Cavaliers never did. James isn’t holding them hostage the way he did in Cleveland. No more separate sections of the team plane that belong just to James and his guys. He signed his free-agent deal and shouldered a burden to win – and win now – unmatched in the history of American sport. There’s never been such a target in the NBA, and that includes the Jordan Bulls, the Showtime Lakers, no one. These Heat are the creation of the digital media age, the time of 24-7 viral assault on your senses. Bosh is right: It isn’t going away. So how do you deal with it all? Eventually, he isn’t going to like something Spoelstra tells him. Or one of Spoelstra’s assistants tells him. He won’t like the way he’s getting blame when the team’s struggling and Wade, the Miami icon, gets a pass.

Something will spur him because it always does, and then everyone will find out again about LeBron James’ coping mechanisms.
James never has been able to make fun of himself, and he needed a Nike campaign to do it for him. He’d better find a way to take a sobering look at his flaws, his failures and scrub away old stains with a new start on South Beach.

What should he do?

Take a look around, embrace Riley’s culture and understand that he needs the Heat as much as they need him.

What should he do?

No more running, LeBron. No more hiding. Finally, there’s someone to confront James. There’s someone who isn’t held hostage, who isn’t terrified of telling him, “No.” Opening night, a sluggish loss to the Celtics, and none of it mattered so much in late October. Cleveland is long gone, and so needs to be the perpetual adolescence of that cocoon. He’s under Old Man Riles’ watch now, and that could change everything for LeBron James. That could complete him.


http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-heatceltics102710

His emotional IQ is not what it should be and his intellect is suspect. It may take more than Riley to change that, if it's possible at all.

[rickross]

dam nigga this thread is a flagrant foul on bron .. sten need to step up his game, his boy is gettin to much heat

[Sisk]

It's a Cleveland based article, so I'll take it with a grain of salt. But I'm sure there is some validity to this.

[z0sa]

Waaay too much speculation and possible exaggeration.

[JoeTait75]

FWIW the part about LeBron wanting to party in New Orleans and being denied comes from Adrian Wojnarowski.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-heatceltics102710


The Heat are telling him simply: Stay in line. After a preseason game in New Orleans, a league source said, James was chatting with Chris Paul outside the locker room and decided that he wanted to hit the town with the Hornets star. The Heat’s charter planned to fly home that night, but James suggested to Wade that perhaps they ought to ask Spoelstra about leaving in the morning to return home.

James could always do this in Cleveland, but Wade wanted no part of seeking permission. James did, and the message the coach delivered was unmistakable: Get on the plane; we’re going home.

This is how the Riley regime will make James accountable in ways the Cavaliers never did. James isn’t holding them hostage the way he did in Cleveland. No more separate sections of the team plane that belong just to James and his guys. He signed his free-agent deal and shouldered a burden to win – and win now – unmatched in the history of American sport.

[z0sa]

The Heat team might need a full season to get used to one another. And James was a spoiled brat because he never had to share the power or the glory. This will definitely be a learning experience for him. How he comes out of it - Wade and Bosh, too - will change the fate of the NBA.

I highly doubt anything like ducks asserted will occur, in any case. They all have too much pride, and the future is too bright.

[mingus]

anybody see what what Bosh said ealier this week? it was on front page of Realgm.com. he basically said that the main reason he joined Miami was because of the exposure. that he didn't like averaging 20-10 in Toronto and not getting recognition for it.

this Lebron shit and what Bosh said has really had be doubting whether this team has what it takes.

[mingus]

i also have no doubt that what was said in Lebron article was true. i have no problem assumming that it's true for a guy that refers to himself as the King and in third person 50% of the time.

[cheguevara]

this team absolutely does NOT have what it takes