LeBron James & Chris Bosh Are A Waste of Time for the New York Knicks

In the aftermath of the 2010 NBA Draft, it should be painfully clear to fans of the New York Knicks that the organization’s chances of landing LeBron James in this summer’s free agent market are virtually non-existent.

Not only were the Knick contingent forced to watch the Utah Jazz select Butler’s Gordon Hayward with the ninth overall pick in the Draft, a pick Utah acquired when New York traded for Stephon Marbury in 2004, they could only stand by helplessly as the Chicago Bulls and the Miami Heat finalized trades to clear enough salary cap space to potentially sign two elite free agents within the next several weeks; particularly James and Chris Bosh.

To add insult to injury, these multiple death knells for New York, as far as their plans to persuade James to ply his trade in the Big Apple, all took place in Madison Square Garden.

If that weren't enough to prompt New York to put their contingency plans into motion, the rumors that have been running rampant over the past several days should be a collective slap in the face to the Knick front office.

According to the New York Times, an unidentified NBA executive of one of the five teams (Bulls, Heat, Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers, New Jersey Nets) who plan on meeting with LeBron James in his hometown of Akron, Ohio on July 1 said he gathered from fellow executives that James was strongly leaning toward signing with Chicago in tandem with Chris Bosh.

“I think it’s a done deal,” the executive said.

The executive, speaking on the condition of anonymity, further added that he thought James was going ahead with the meetings in Ohio “to be respectful to all these teams who jumped through these hoops,” an obvious reference to clubs, like the Knicks, who traded reasonably talented players like Jamal Crawford the last two seasons in an effort to open up as much salary cap space as possible.

However, according to “reliable” sources in Cleveland and New York for FOX Sports Radio’s Stephen A. Smith, LeBron James and Chris Bosh are planning to head to South Beach to play with Dwyane Wade on the Miami Heat.

So, depending on who you want to believe these days, it certainly appears that either Chicago or Miami will be the likely landing spots for James and Bosh when the dust finally settles.

If this is indeed the case and both James and Bosh have already made up their minds about where they’re going to sign or, at the very least, narrowed down their options to two specific teams, they should really spare organizations like New York the insult of a ‘pity meeting’.

And for their part, the Knicks should find more constructive ways to spend their time than by making impassioned pitches to players who have absolutely no intention on coming to the Big Apple; because, at this stage of the game, New York has invested enough energy, money and time on wooing LeBron James.

There are plenty of other quality fish in this year’s free agent market, including Joe Johnson, Carlos Boozer, Amar’e Stoudemire and Dirk Nowitzki; and it’s time for New York to place more of its focus on the attainable reality as opposed to the unattainable dream.

The acceptance of this ‘pity meeting’ from James is simply an opportunity for Knick brass to do more begging and groveling at the feet of a man who has been placed on much too high of a pedestal.

If New York refuses to accept this hard truth then LeBron James, and Chris Bosh, should open up their respective mouths and tell Donnie Walsh not to bother with making any recruiting excursions.

That would be the honorable thing to do; wouldn’t it?

Click here to read the original article on Examiner.com, which includes relevant links and video updates on 2010 NBA free agency.

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Q & A with NY Knicks Prime Free Agent Target Chris Bosh – Part 2

As reported here, Toronto Raptors prospective free agent power forward Chris Bosh co-hosted ‘Mike and Mike in the Morning’ on 1050 ESPN Radio on the day of the 2010 NBA Draft.

Bosh’s one-day co-hosting assignment was essentially a four-hour Question & Answer session, with the five-time All-Star fielding questions regarding his pending free agency from daily show host Mike Greenberg, ESPN NBA Insider Chris Broussard, callers and even actor/comedian Adam Sandler.

From this particular point, what follows are continuing highlights from Bosh’s special appearance on ‘Mike and Mike in the Morning’. Click here to read Part 1 of this series.

‘Mike and Mike in the Morning’ – Thursday, June 24

Greenberg: Ever since the season ended and everything, we have all been talking about ‘The Summit’. Dwyane Wade really was the one who brought it up, who said you guys would all talk to each other.

Now the way I interpreted that from the outside is, you guys are friendly, you run in the same social circles, you all have a really big decision that you’re each making at the same time. It would only make sense that you would sort of feel each other out; “What are you thinking? What are you thinking?”, that kind of thing.

What has the communication been like between you pending free agents so far?

Bosh: Well, for me, it’s been non-existent. I just talk about it with my friends and family. Everybody’s just keeping their secrets close; and I think everybody’s doing that as well as the teams and the individuals.

To read about the ‘The Summit’ and stuff like that, I remember when somebody first told me they were like “Yeah, you know it’s the meeting and they’re calling it ‘The Summit’ now.” It’s ‘The Summit’? They gave it a name? It’s crazy. But it’s fun to watch that stuff because, you know, when things come out about you, it’s like alright I didn’t say that, but that’s funny.

Greenberg: So there is no ‘Summit’?

Bosh: No, there is no ‘Summit’.

Greenberg: You have not talked to LeBron at all?

Bosh: No.

Greenberg: Really?

Bosh: Nah.

Greenberg: Now see, I would find that strange. I would think if I were a guy in your situation I would be talking to LeBron and if I were in his situation I’d be talking to you; the way you each play the game it would seem you were such a nice fit together. Why wouldn’t you have some conversation?

Bosh: Well, I think it’s just all at a point in time it’s gonna come together. If we’re gonna have a conversation it’s not gonna be now, might not be before July 1st. But whenever it happens that’s when it’s supposed to happen. That’s the kind of mentality I’ve been taking into this, and I’ve just been rollin’ with it.

Broussard: Chris, the feeling around the league among a lot of people is that you and LeBron would like to play together. I talked to LeBron a few years ago when this free agency stuff just started coming up. It was after the Olympics in 2008; and I asked him of all the guys that realistically would be free agents in 2010, which one would he most want to play with, he said you. And so a lot of people feel like, not necessarily that it’s a package deal, but that you two would like to play together in one of these cities, even it could be Cleveland.

How true is that you guys would like to look at the possibility of playing together?

Bosh: I think that’s something you should look at. He’s going to be a Hall of Famer. Everybody knows he’s an incredible player; back-to-back MVP. And you’d be kind of crazy not to want to play with a guy like that, but I think that makes each situation attractive; to be able to play with another superstar is great.

Broussard: Now will you go visit teams, visit cities and go through the whole recruitment tour?

Bosh: I think so. I don’t know what’s goin’ on, man. I’m still waitin’ to see how it’s gonna happen.

Broussard: Is there any chance a couple of you guys would go together, like maybe you and LeBron would go visit together or anything?

Bosh: I doubt if we’ll schedule something like that, but I wouldn’t be surprised if teams really start pulling some tricks out of their sleeve. There’s no telling what’s gonna happen. People have been planning on these meetings for years now so there’s no telling what, we’ll see.

Greenberg: Why wouldn’t you go on the recruiting trips? There’s no rush in any of this. Why wouldn’t you go, let them wine and dine you like crazy, it’s sort of like college recruiting on steroids. Go to New York, go to Chicago, go to all these places where you know they’re gonna sell you like crazy.

Is there any reason you wouldn’t do that?

Bosh: Well, that’s one thing you have to consider, especially me, because this is something that is very important; this is the next biggest decision of my life. So to be able to take my time and actually feel out the process and see how things go, look at the guys in their face and really talk to the organizations and take my time; I think anybody in this position should do that.

Subsequent to the return from a commercial break, Bosh was posed the following set of questions:

Greenberg: If you’re looking for a max contract, that limits your options? If a max contract isn’t that high a priority, your options are basically unlimited.

Is a max contract a deal breaker for you come July 1st?

Bosh: That’s a good question. This is a business and there’s always a saying you don’t want to leave money on the table; but I never burn my bridges and I always keep my options open. Now is that an option I would really lean towards; that would have to be something discussed between (Sort of jokingly) me and myself, I guess.

There’s just so many different scenarios. Do you take max, do you not take max? Do you go here, do you go there? It’s kind of confusing at times. That would be something that guys would really have to look at but, at the same time, guys have to be on the same page. Everybody has to be on the same page.

Bosh was also referring to taking less than maximum money to play with two other free agent superstars in his response.

Broussard: Conceivably, you, LeBron, Dwyane Wade, you guys could team up in Miami if you agree to take about $13.7 million a year to start versus $16.5 million, which is the max you guys can get.

Is that something that would intrigue you guys, the possibility of you three coming together and taking a slight pay cut but not anything drastic like the mid-level exception?

Bosh: It’s funny, that’s the first time I’ve heard that one; so like I said there’s a bunch of different scenarios. I don’t know if that can happen. I highly doubt something like that…. That’s kind of like PlayStation.

Greenberg: But for the first time ever you could actually do it. This isn’t the Wii.

Broussard: I don’t know who would be around you.

Later on in the segment, Greenberg posed this question to Bosh, which resulted in an intriguing response from the highly sought after prospective free agent power forward.

Greenberg: How much is it your sense that LeBron is a key figure in what everyone else, including yourself, will wind up doing?

Bosh: He is THE figure, to be frank about it. You have to wait on what he does. He’s the biggest free agent in, probably, the history of sports. Quite frankly, you’re gonna have to wait on him and after he makes a decision, no pressure, LeBron, the rest of the league is gonna fall in order.

And Bosh’s response only further confirms that, like Brett Favre in the National Football League, LeBron James has been built up to be bigger than any player, any one individual team and the game of basketball itself.

That is just too much influence and power for any one man to have, even if he is, arguably, the best player in the NBA.

Click here to read the original article on Examiner.com, which includes relevant links and a special video presentation featuring Chris Bosh.

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