So I've been thinking about this Lebron "decision" situation some more and it has occurred to me that there are some really interesting questions that we may never know the answers to. First and foremost who was pulling the puppet strings the ultimately led to Lebron choosing Miami? Does D-Wade have that much juice in the league right now? Have we underestimated him as the second-fiddle in this free agent class? Or was it Riley? Does the "Coolest White Man Alive" still wield the force it took to manage quite possibly the most ego-laden teams in NBA history in Los Angeles? Where does Worldwide Wes fit in? Call me naive but this move doesn't have his stamp on it to me. If LBJ had ended up in Chicago or New York I would buy it, but there are too many alphas in Dade county already for me to believe that Wes was able to throw whatever weight he has around.
Regardless of the answers to those questions (which, like I said, we'll probably never know) it seems clear to me that there is one winner here and that's Dwayne Wade if...
HE WOULD JUST SHUT THE F#!*% UP!
Seriously D-Wade, a World Trade Center reference? What's next calling the rest of the league a bunch of chrome-dome kids with leukemia? Is there a hotter button to push than 9/11? Oil spill jokes maybe? I don't care what he meant by it (and that fact that he's at least partially right doesn't matter). Just SHUT UP!
You won, you pulled off something that I and everyone else with an opinion thought was impossible. You took the biggest free agent in the history of sports and made him at worst your equal and at best your sidekick. Ride the wave, bask in the glory of your victory, buy another mansion or Lotus, but for the love of God stop talking about it.
It hasn't been discussed much but how could this have worked out any better for Wade? He gets to stay in South Beach where he is a king. He gets to play alongside what would have been the greatest player of all time and another one of his best friends who's no slouch. And the icing on the cake is that he will take none of the James-ian fallout from his former team or fans and comes out smelling like roses (especially in Miami) because he took a discount to stay home and try to win. AMAZING! Who hates Wade right now (assuming he SHUTS UP!)? Chicago maybe for not coming back to his roots? That's it, otherwise all he did was make himself a legend in Miami and probably to some degree change a lot of perceptions about him. Which brings me to...
If Miami rattles off three championships in a row is D-Wade the Jordan of this generation instead of Lebron? The conversation is over in Miami. After pulling this off James could reinvent the wheel and South Beach would still be Wade territory. But the credit and the legacy for any rings depends dramatically on how the championships are won. Say they split the workload 30,30,20,20 (Wade, Lebron, Bosh, supporting cast). Can we say those championships "belong" to Lebron when he joined Wade's team where he had already accomplished several things James couldn't? (Won a championship, attracted Bosh, leaned on the organization hard enough to get him help...) Unless LBJ goes for 40,17, and 11 through a playoff run the answer is no.
Let's go over it again. Wade, the alleged second prize in this free agent class managed to: 1. Attract a premier big man to his team; 2. Lead (not follow) the biggest free agent in sports history to his home team (where he will never be more than a 1A to Wade's 1); 3. Convince the organization to find a way to pay all three; 4. And keep his reputation relatively in tact or enhance it from some perspectives while the prince of basketball's image was going all "Mickelson at Wingfoot" for joining him. Unbelievable.
So maybe we underestimated you Mr. Wade... Maybe you are the big dog in the draft class of '03... Now please... PLEASE SHUT UP and make me believe it.
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