"There's no way, with hindsight, I would've ever called up Larry, called up Magic and said 'Hey, look, let's get together and play on one team," Jordan said at the American Century Championship, a celebrity golf tournament in Stateline, Nev. "But ... things are different. I can't say that's a bad thing. It's an opportunity these kids have today. In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys."

I read the SI article over the weekend, I "get it" now - LeBron wants to be Magic and not Jordan, he wants to distribute the ball and watch his teammates score and he was never going to have that in Cleveland.  Pat Riley pitched it where D-Wade was Jordan, LeBron was Magic and Bosh was Garnett.

I still think it's a cop-out for LeBron.  The reason these dudes cry when they win a championship is because they struggle with their teams through the tough times, then finally turn a corner win.

Bosh is a skilled player, but isn't big enough to play with the NBA big men, and after watching him in Toronto in the tough times, he seems to give up and get frustrated rather than elevating his game.

6'10" 230, Dwight Howard is 265.

Bosh is not built like most NBA centres.

ESPN getting slammed by their ombudsman..

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/post/ESPN-ombudsman-blasts-network-for-LeBron-coverag?urn=top-257681

Quote

ESPN's ombudsman despised the network's 60-minute LeBron James free-agency special as much as everyone else.

In a blistering, 4,600-word column posted Wednesday night on the network's website, Don Ohlmeyer ripped ESPN for airing LeBron's free-agency special and writes that it violated the implicit trust between the network and its viewers. The television producer, who serves as ESPN's independent journalism watchdog, criticized nearly every facet of the now-infamous program, writing that it "pandered to a superstar" and gave in to a "celebration of greed, ego and excess."

"The Decision" earned rebukes for its massive build-up, misleading viewers and blurring the lines between journalism and entertainment, or pretty much the same stuff that outside critics wrote in the wake of the program, which aired two weeks ago.

But Ohlmeyer saved most of his venom for what he perceived to be the biggest of ESPN's violations: paying for a news story. Though money didn't technically change hands between the network and LeBron (proceeds went to charity), Ohlmeyer believes that allowing LeBron and his team to sell an hour's worth of advertising was essentially the same thing. By doing so, ESPN compromised the trust of its viewing audience.

"ESPN should never have traded inventory for access or allowed a subject to select his inquisitor," he writes, "and if that meant losing the exclusive, so be it."

Ohlmeyer didn't blame everyone at the network for the fiasco. He mentions the dichotomy between the newsgathering side of ESPN and the one more focused on entertainment, and scolds the latter for compromising the integrity of the former. Letting LeBron and his team take over the network for 60 minutes was "editorial acquiescence, not an editorial decision."

If anything, Ohlmeyer may have pulled his punches. There was plenty more to criticize about "The Decision," from Michael Wilbon's sycophantic interview with LeBron (which Ohlymeyer backhandedly complimented as "straightforward") to the use of children as props during the program. To Ohlmeyer, though, such matters must have seemed trivial compared to ESPN doing its best impression of The National Enquirer and paying for a scoop.

After the column appeared on ESPN.com, the network released a statement saying "it aggressively seeks and embraces feedback of all kinds."

link to the ombudsman's article

Indians fans heckle, throw objects at fan in LeBron Heat jersey.

Good lord Cleveland, get over it. Anyone who went so far as to throw trash at someone because they didn't like his basketball jersey should probably be euthanized.