Why is Us Magazine trying to break the hearts of Ohioans—not to mention the hearts of rich basketball team owners in NY, NJ, and Chicago? "LeBron James has rented six cabanas at the W Hotel South Beach this weekend to celebrate his team decision, two sources confirm to UsMagazine.com. That adds more fuel to the fire that James, 25, will announce he's joining the Miami Heat Thursday night, as several insiders told ESPN this morning. (He's still confirmed to attend NBA star Carmelo Anthony's Saturday-night wedding to former MTV VJ LaLa Vazquez in NYC.)"
Lebron James will make his decision at 9 p.m. tonight on ESPN and Bill Simmons has a great column—"Twenty-Three Random Thoughts Before Tonight's LeBronocalypse"—for instance:
16. I need to make that point a second time: How can you care about winning and NOT go to Chicago? Unless …
17. LeBron picks New York. Ballsiest move. Fulfills his "global icon" wishes, puts him in the best possible basketball city, allows him to live a relatively normal life in our biggest city, gives him the biggest possible challenge (saving basketball in New York) and the biggest possible reward (going down in history as the guy who saved basketball in New York). I wouldn't love the thought of him crushing Cleveland for a similarly shaky situation, but if he spun it the right way, you could talk me into it. And here are the words I'd want to hear:
"Bringing New York a championship -- and doing it in the biggest city in America, in the best arena to play basketball -- would mean more to more people than anything else I could do as a basketball player. It's a challenge I could not resist."
Say that and I'm signing off. Anything less … no.
The Chicago Tribune handicapped the teams in the running: For the Knicks, "Why: There's a worldwide appeal to the city. Mike D'Antoni offers an up-tempo style. And they have financial flexibility moving forward. Why not: They have suffered nine straight losing seasons. This season's roster is non-competitive, even with the addition of Amare Stoudemire. "
Mike Lupica thinks NYC deserves King James: "New York doesn't deserve him more than the other cities in the great free agent chase of July 2010. The owner of the Garden, James Dolan, doesn't deserve to win the player known as King James. But Knick fans do. The ones who were there through all the losing, the ones who kept coming because they remembered what the Garden was like when it was run by better people and had better teams and mattered - they deserve a chance to have LeBron come play for their team."
