Lamar Odom Q&A

3 08 2010

I’ve written it before and I’ll write it again. Living in New York City does have its advantages. Yes, rents are astronomical. Sure, the work environment is extremely competitive and being around people everywhere everyday — subways, streets, you name it — can get exasperating. But there are opportunities unique to this city. That includes nightlife events attended by celebrities which offer great interview possibilities.

I ran into that yesterday when SLAM dispatched me to a Casio event on W. 34th St., in what I believe is the building which houses the Hammerstein Ballroom. The Casio event was held to unleash the company’s Fall/Winter collection of G-Shock, Baby G and Edifice watches. Celebrity spokespeople for Casio attended the press conference, including singer Kesha, skateboarder Stevie Williams, some actor from the HBO show “How To Make It In America”…and Mr. Lamar Odom of the L.A. Lakers. He’s obviously the reason why SLAM sent me there and following is my interview with him.

Click on the link below to read the story.

Lamar Odom Talks Team USA, Lakers


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WeightWatchers.com: Prince Fielder; NFLers battling the heat

3 08 2010

Whenever I tell people that I write for WeightWatchers.com, they always give me a curious look. They question whether I write about the healthiest bon-bons for people to eat while they watch daytime soaps or whether I write about the latest new weight loss tips. And I always counter that it is actually an ideal site for a sportswriter because there are so many issues today pertaining to health in professional sports. There’s an endless list of subjects for me to write about. Such as…

Prince Fielder and his worthiness for receiving a hefty new contract. Prince is a hefty man himself, so much that his weight could ultimately be the deciding factor in just how large a contract he receives. I wrote a blog post about that.

Tom Shaw, professional trainer to a litany of NFL players, and how he keeps them hydrated during his off-season camps in Orlando. Awareness for hydration must be at an all-time high in professional sports, especially in football. I spoke with Mr. Shaw about what he does to ensure his players maximize their physical performance in the Florida heat.

Click on the links below to read the stories.

Prince Fielder

Tom Shaw hydration


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Is LeBron’s brand trashed?

2 08 2010

LeBron James is on the comeback trail. Even though he hasn’t committed any sort of crime against anybody or anything, even though he hasn’t committed adultery (to our knowledge) and even though he’s still largely maintained his excellence on the basketball court, LeBron’s image is perceived as being in the tank. Yet that will likely change.

Ray Lewis was accused of murder in 2000 and within a few years, after pleading guilty to lesser charges, he was doing commercials for the NFL. Kobe Bryant was accused of rape in 2003 yet after the case was dropped and he settled with his accuser in civil court, he has grown to become one of the world’s most admired athletes. Tiger Woods went through more drama than TNT the last six months and his popularity is still sky-high. So needless to say, if Bron Bron did anything to truly hurt his image, he’ll likely regain his fans with some time on the basketball court. Why will it be that easy? Check it out here.

Click on the link below to read the story.

LeBron’s Re-branding Effort


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Sports fan rule

1 08 2010

Some folks view Twitter as the ideal setting for self-expression. I see it as the opportune place to get into arguments with people whom I’ve never met.

I did exactly that a couple days ago after seeing one user’s interaction with a sportswriter who I follow. I clicked on the user’s Twitter profile and saw that he is a fan of the L.A. Lakers…and Boston Red Sox. My blood started boiling. How the hell can a Lakers fan ever root for a Boston sports team? From the time I became a Lakers fan, I learned from the team’s history that I was supposed to hate the Celtics. That carries over to other Boston teams, since the Boston sports fan culture stays the same whether it’s the Celts or Sox or anyone else. What made me even more infuriated is that after I called out the guy, he claimed to live in New England. So why isn’t he a Celtics fan?

He said he began following basketball in 1996, the year Shaq and Kobe came together on the Lakers. So he’s a frontrunner, apparently. (He also cheers for the Packers and Duke. Yeah, I know.) That doesn’t make it okay.

I’m of the belief that if you’re from a geographical region which has a professional team, then you should root for that team. If you’re from an area that doesn’t have a local team, like say in Montana, then you’re free to pick your favorite teams no matter their location. But if you’re from New England, especially if you’re close to Boson, please don’t root for the Lakers. There’s enough history between the Lakers and Celtics to show that sports fan pride should supercede the need to express freedom through picking a favorite team that’s located in another part of the country. In other words, if you’re from New England, your pride for your home location should encourage you to hate the Lakers. Your desire to cheer for the Lakers should be negated by that hometown pride.

I imagine if this guy was born in the ’60s, rather than the late ’80s, then he’d be a Celtic for life. Things are different for his generation, which probably used computers — and consistently logged onto the Internet — from the time it began its elementary and junior high years in school. In the Internet Age, sports fans have access to cheer for whomever they please — hometown pride be damned.

Note: For full disclosure, I cheered for the San Francisco 49ers from 1990-2008 even though I am a native of Los Angeles. I spurned the Rams and Raiders for years to root for the Montana/Rice/Young-led 49ers. Last year, I came to the realization that I was a gigantic hypocrite and dropped the 49ers from my fandom. Still waiting for the Chargers to move to L.A….


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Ocho-T.O. aren’t punks

29 07 2010

When you think about all the NFL players who get into trouble with the law every year it starts to make Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco seem less harmless.

Both players might have reputations as headache cases, and now that they’re on the same team it might become all the rage for NFL fans to feel sympathy for Carson Palmer and how he’ll manage them on and off the field. (You shouldn’t, though, because Palmer is in the midst of a $119 million deal that pays him to hold this kind of responsibility.) Yet T.O. and Chad aren’t bad guys.

Each has been an incredibly productive wide receiver during his career. Each stays generally healthy and seemingly plays as hard as a wide receiver can. (Every guy takes plays off here and there.) While their personalities are at times divisive, especially in T.O.’s case, fans don’t always appreciate all the personality conflicts that likely exist on every team.

I just finished reading Sam Smith’s The Jordan Rules, which documented the soap opera of a season with the 1990-91 Chicago Bulls. Michael Jordan was portrayed, I’m assuming realistically, as a selfish diva. Scottie Pippen was an enigma who just hadn’t matured. Horace Grant was thin-skinned to criticism and bitter that MJ and Pippen took the majority of the team’s shots every game. Every other player seemed to have some sort of conflict with someone else during the season. But they co-existed and won a title, the first of three for that particular team.

I liked how Smith reviewed his experience at the end of the book. He noted that anytime you get a group of well-paid men in their 20s and 30s on one team, with their egos and aggressive personalities having to live with each other for the length of a season, conflict is always likely to arise. Same case with T.O. and Chad. Conflict will always be there. But they don’t ever seem to get arrested.

Perhaps there have been instances in which they were let out of compromising situations. All we have to go off of is that T.O. and Chad aren’t Michael Irvin. You don’t see them getting caught in a hotel room with cocaine and strippers. They’re certainly not Rae Carruth, getting caught trying to kill a woman who got pregnant. T.O. and Chad are largely harmless when you consider that they don’t get in trouble with the law.

What Carson Palmer has to do is ensure their egos can work with each other, and that they don’t potentially pull the locker room apart with their occasional selfish tendencies. In other words, Palmer has the job this season of a normal NFL quarterback.


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Lane Kiffin is a Spoiled Child

28 07 2010

It feels weird to be writing on this page again. It’s been over two weeks since I posted anything, which is due primarily to a vacation that’s taken me to St. Louis, Phoenix and Montana. Not much writing has been done on this trip but that’ll change. It’ll change because it has to, because I need to get back into that work mindset again.

What better way for me to resume my blog writing than to announce Lane Kiffin as the perfect head coach for a school known as the University of Spoiled Children to all who hate on the University of Southern California.

It was no secret just a few days ago that Kiffin was a ruthless, arrogant punk. That he left the University of Tennessee for Southern Cal after only 14 months on the job showed precisely where his loyalties lie — with himself and himself only.

Yet his latest move, hiring Tennessee Titans running backs coach Kennedy Pola without first informing the Titans of his intention to talk to him, is surprising. Kiffin’s move to SC gave him a reputation of a slimeball willing to do whatever it takes to gain ground in his career. Hiring Pola showed that Kiffin doesn’t even have the discipline to lay low when his botched credibility is still fresh in people’s minds.

In just about any profession, when you want to hire someone from a different organization, it’s appropriate to initially discuss your intentions with that person’s boss. In the football coaching world, a world in which connections and relationships is as important as anything, it would seem like that would have to be Priority #1.

Even more confounding is that Kiffin made this move against a team whose head coach played for USC. Titans head coach Jeff Fisher is a respected man in football coaching circles and has shown pride in hailing from USC. Maybe Kiffin didn’t target Pola with the intention of leaving Fisher without a running backs coach a week before training camp opens, but I don’t get why Kiffin wouldn’t have re-considered his intentions knowing that he would put an alumni of the school he represents in an awkward position.

Kiffin is only 35 years old, so perhaps his arrogant nature will wear off. Perhaps he’ll mature and realize that he can’t dismiss certain unwritten rules in the coaching world. Even though he should be more aware than the average 35-year-old coach, since his dad Monte has been a football coach for 44 years, it just might be that Lane needs a longer period of time to reach his maturation stage. Or, perhaps, he’s just an arrogant punk. Either way, I’m glad he’s the head coach of Southern Cal football so that I, a UCLA fan, can be certain that I’ll be rooting against the Trojans every Saturday this fall.


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Celebrating green in Minneapolis

11 07 2010

Minneapolis is a city which has contributed a mighty amount of good news to sports stadiums the last couple years. Target Field, home of the Twins, opened in downtown near Target Center, home of the Timberwolves, to much buzz. It’s a beautiful ballpark with a very endearing outdoor space, which is called Target Plaza. Yet before that opened this past April, Target Center already made its contribution to the sports arena world by becoming the first arena in North America with a green roof. It looks elegant from afar but its purpose is more based on functionality. Read about it in this SLAMonline story (below the pictures).

Firebreaks are what make up the leaf-inspired design of Target Center's green roof.

Target Plaza at the Twins' ballpark.

Click the link below to read the story.

Green Roof in a Purple City


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LeBron, LeBron, LeBron

9 07 2010

While considering how dumb MLB is for letting fans continue to vote for the All-Star Game after Swisher was voted in ahead of Youkilis…

Here is a short (maybe) question and answer session with myself regarding the LeBronerator’s decision:

Why wasn’t LeBron smart enough to see the backlash that would build from airing The Decision?

Ego can mask foresight. It can alter a realistic perception of a current situation. Just because LeBron is a great basketball player (and he is great), it doesn’t mean he’s smart enough to have foreseen the hate that has accumulated against him. And as for his “management” team, they’re just a bunch of his buddies from high school who kind of seem like the Turtle, E and Drama to LeBron’s Vinny Chase. Nothing against them but they’ve seemed to hitch a sweet ride onto LeBron’s coattails.

Is Miami the right city for LeBron to leave Cleveland?

Hell yes, it is. Bill Simmons is correct that the ceiling of LeBron’s possible immortality would be winning a title, or series of titles, with the Knicks. Resuscitating a New York franchise would legitimize his Chosen One nickname, even if the Knicks’ legacy is slightly overrated. New York is New York and Madison Square Garden is legendary. HOWEVER, Miami is a big market, ripe for business opportunities, will save Bron lots of dough thanks to its lack of a state income tax and there are two really good players for him to team with. Which leads to…

Shouldn’t LeBron want to win a championship on his own?

I hate the idea that LeBron should be expected to lead his own team. Often times, we sports fans want athletes to fulfill our unrealistic expectations for them. LeBron’s his own guy and hats off to him if he can recognize at a young age (25) that he doesn’t have “it” — the kind of “it” that you see in Gatorade commercials. The “it” that Michael Jordan had and that Kobe Bryant has. Is it a disappointment that LeBron doesn’t have that same fire to be the alpha dog no matter the circumstance? Of course it is but it only feels that way because of the hype the public has built up in LeBron since he was a high schooler. And perhaps LeBron’s peak as a basketball player isn’t in the MJ/Kobe mold. Which brings me to…

Why join Bosh and Wade? Won’t the Heat be considered Wade’s team?

Perhaps LeBron knows the best way for him to maximize his basketball talents is to be what some are calling the Pippen to Wade’s Jordan. I don’t buy this precise theory because MJ had to push Pippen emotionally and physically to become the beast that led him to being a top-50 all-timer. Wade doesn’t need to push Bron like that. It’s really not close to the same scenario; it’s just a convenient analogy for people who want to critique LeBron.

What LeBron can be with Wade is the ultimate alpha dog — without having to score to do so. He can become known as the guy who makes plays for Bosh and Wade. Why is that a bad thing? LeBron can re-define what it means to be an alpha dog. Scoring is important, obviously, and the most celebrated of all basketball skills. Yet passing — playmaking — is what can turn Bron into one of the game’s top five all-time players.

I don’t care that Wade already won a title in 2006. This won’t be Wade’s team — it’ll be Bron’s. Did you see the reaction Miami had when Bron made his choice official? Is there any doubt the city of Miami and the Miami Heat organization would have been majorly disappointed, and perhaps crushed, if Bron had spurned Miami for Cleveland or another city? The reaction to LeBron’s decision is the most telling part of whose team this will become. LeBron is undoubtedly a better overall player than Wade. And Wade recruited Bron and Bosh for a reason. He knows he needs help and as badly as he must have wanted Bosh, he had to have wanted Bron that much more. And it’s likely because he knows who The Man is.

Does LeBron joining Wade and Bosh in Miami make the Heat prohibitive NBA title favorites?

No, but they’re not far off. It’s silly to really evaluate this until all the free agency dust settles. As it stands now, the Lakers are back-to-back champions and look set to bring back their five best players (Kobe, Gasol, Bynum, Artest, Odom). Their frontcourt size is still a huge advantage against any other team and Kobe’s motivation will grow (if that’s possible) with all the Heat hype.

The Heat can’t be considered automatic to win a title in the next two or three years but they’re very close. I’m also tired of hearing that they need role players to win a title. Please don’t overrate the significance of role players. I’m a Lakers fan so I know their importance — Kurt Rambis, Michael Cooper, Rob Horry, Derek Fisher. I could go on and on. We know how important role players are. Yet they’re not the be-all, end-all. There’s a reason there are far more great role players than great players. They’re replaceable and often arise to the occasion only when paired with great players. The Heat will find plenty of good role players to surround the New Big Three.

Don’t sell short the idea that very good veterans will want to play with Bron/Wade/Bosh. Think about it. Three of the top 15 players in the League — and two of the top three — in the prime of their careers playing in a warm-weather city with gorgeous women, a great nightlife scene and in a state with no income tax. You don’t think there are a few ring-less vets who will take the financial hit for a year or two to play there? Plus, they won’t have any pressure on them since the New Big Three will be carrying it all on their backs.

Update: Damn, re-read this a few times and just realized I didn’t write the most important point that can be made in my argument for James to Miami. (Yes, professional writers are not supposed to make these mistakes.) I refuse to bash LeBron for his decision because he opted to take less money to put himself in a better position to win. That’s what this comes down to. I know he’ll still make a sick amount of money and it looks as if he is copping out on our expectations for him to win a title on his own (which isn’t possible since even MJ and Kobe needed major help).

Yet just take a deep breath and remember the two things athletes are criticized for most often: they care too much about making the most amount of money they can and not enough about winning. Well, LeBron chose to take less money so that he could put himself in the best position to win. You can’t hate on him for that.


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Chris Henry’s brain and Carlos Zambrano’s anger

8 07 2010

I’ve been writing a sports blog on WeightWatchers.com but haven’t given it much exposure. I’ll try to change that now. If you go into my WeightWatchers.com header at the top of this page, you’ll see a PDF of each story underneath the ‘Blog’ title within that section. Below are two of my latest entries. The blog deals with fitness, weight loss, mental health, nutrition and injury issues related to sports.

The Chris Henry post looks at the study that came out in late June (I also wrote the post then) that showed Chris Henry had extended brain damage, likely from his football career, before he died late last year after falling from a moving truck.

The Carlos Zambrano post deals with athletes and anger management training. Zambrano epitomizes the hot-head mentality that many athletes are stricken with, including Zambrano’s good buddy, Ozzie Guillen.

Hope you enjoy the posts (they’re very short and to the point, as is WW.com’s requirement for the blog) and I’ll be tackling all kinds of sports in upcoming months.

Carlos Zambrano

Chris Henry


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Turn around your season

8 07 2010

This is a time of the fantasy baseball season where it pays off to trade for a player who’s about to heat up. It also is a time where it might make the most sense not to trade the guy who you’re peddling to the rest of your league. Here are five gentlemen who you should expect to heat up or stay hot after the All-Star break.

Click on the link below to read the story.

Fantasy MLB (2nd half stars)


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LeBronzilla

7 07 2010

What, you didn’t expect me to call it LeBronGate, did you? The LeBronanator will make his hour-long special on ESPN tomorrow night, and I’m happy for him. It’s what he needs and I suppose it was an inevitable part of his free agency. You can read here from a true LeBron expert why the hour-long ESPN special shouldn’t be a surprise.

You think that if Alex Rodriguez had been a 24-year-old free agent this past January instead of in January 2001 that he wouldn’t have used a LeBron-like stage to announce his free agent choice? The guy practically disrupted a World Series on his own a couple years ago just to announce, through his agent, that he was re-signing with the Yankees for $100 billion.

You think that if Shaquille O’Neal had been a 24-year-old free agent now rather than in 1996 that he wouldn’t of set up a press conference from the HOLLYWOOD sign in L.A. to announce his impending contract with the Lakers? Please. He would’ve owned the spotlight now, just like a young Alex Rodriguez, just like a young LBJ. It’s LeBron’s right to announce his intentions however damn well he pleases. Only he better understand that the way he’s doing it will put even more pressure on him to win a ring soon — very, very soon.

I won’t watch the ESPN special tomorrow night and it’s not just because I don’t have cable at my apartment. (Can you believe that?) I just have no interest in watching an hour-long program for a 5-second answer. I can track that on Twitter anyway.

What really grinds my gears, as the great Peter Griffin would exclaim, is that LeBron and his camp want people to think there’s a genuinely good-natured element to the conference in the form of a charitable donation. All advertising money made off tomorrow’s ESPN special is supposedly going to support the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, at LeBron’s request. If the guy is feeling so philanthropic, then maybe he should make a private donation with his money, not others.

Another layer to this perplexing free agent process is the reporting performed by ESPN’s Chris Broussard last night. He stated that independent sources told him ESPN would possibly air LeBron’s decision at 9 tomorrow night. First, as the Dan Patrick Show astutely pointed out on today’s show, why can’t Mr. Broussard walk up the stairs of his own company and ask his bosses what the hell is going on? Second, why is ESPN leaving its reporter out to dry? By making Broussard claim independent sources are informing him of a possible upcoming program on the network for which he works, ESPN is eroding Broussard’s credibility by making him look as if he’s not informed of his own employer. And it comes at a time when many are questioning the motives of reporters in jackhammering each other for free agent scoops.

Back to LeBron, I feel that if he’s going this far in announcing a decision, he better go all the way. Have a hat from each team he’s considering on a table. Throw up a highlight video of his first seven years in the League playing on loop on a flatscreen behind him. Get his family and friends beside him and gather a group of fans from each team he’s considering to sit on a makeshift bleacher section. Finally, just to display his social media savvy, have the camera focused on LeBronpalooza while he Tweets his decision into his cell phone, where his 255,000-plus followers can read his final answer. It better be worth it.

(I’m rooting for the Knicks or Nets since I live in NYC)


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Don’t get the NBA hate

5 07 2010

I’ve embraced NBA free agency as a potential seismic shift in the NBA landscape. Others write it off as an over-hyped annoyance. What separates those two trains of thought is an acceptance of journalism as it stands today.

I accepted beforehand that free agent speculation would be rampant. How could it not be? Think of the major players reporting on the League — every newspaper in an NBA city, ESPN.com and its five “local” micro-sites (Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, New York, Boston), NBA.com, Yahoo! Sports, CBS.com and on and on.

Unlike a lot of naysayers, I don’t believe the journalists and reporters who have been documenting NBA free agent news are pulling their rumors out of the thin, blue air. Most have legitimate sources who they feel are giving them reasonable, story-worthy rumors. So what are these reporters supposed to do? Sit on that intel? It’s their job to report what they hear, and you can be sure the pressure is on from their editors to report what they know. Not doing so is cheating their readers.

So what if every rumor doesn’t work out? It’s unreasonable to expect everything to work out as reporters write it. I don’t want to give the impression that I think journalistic standards should lower — they shouldn’t. But if we live in an age of Twitter and 25-minute Free Agent Rumor roundtables on ESPN and the ability for journalists to easily communicate with their sources through something as simple as a text message, then we as sports fans should ready ourselves for the plethora of rumors that come from this being summer being potentially a game-changer for the League’s elite teams.

*****

I’m feeling snarky, so I’ll throw down a few more lines about the NBA hate. One of the agreed-to contracts people seem most bent out of shape about is Darko’s 4-year/$20 million deal. While not actually a bad player, Darko is associated with being a draft bust since he was selected ahead of Carmelo Anthony in the 2003 Draft. Now his contract agreement can be presented in two ways.

Scenario 1: How would you feel if your favorite team signed Darko to $20 million?

Scenario 2: How would you feel if your favorite team signed a 25-year-old 7-footer who’s a proven good post defender/very good shot blocker to a deal that averages $5 million per over four years — or nearly $1 million less than the average salary of an NBA player during the 2009-10 season?

Darko’s deal doesn’t look so unreasonable in the second scenario. But for people who don’t actually watch NBA games, it’s easy to put Darko on blast without considering that once Al Jefferson is traded, Minnesota will have a pretty good defensive front court with Darko, Kevin Love and Corey Brewer.


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The Lakers’ female scout

4 07 2010

If I were to ask you to list the all the jobs a beautiful woman would work in the sports industry — from most to least likely — I bet scouting would be near the bottom of that list. Right above the guys at NBA games who take care of all the players’ errands/requests in the locker room and probably on par with the guys who wipe down footballs at NFL games when they’re pulled fresh out of the box.

Scouting is not a glamorous profession and many times goes unappreciated. That a former cheerleader/model would work in the profession goes against everything we associate between beautiful women and sports. The idea to interview Los Angeles Lakers scout Bonnie-Jill Laflin sprouted only recently. I wanted to interview an NBA scout for my SLAMonline blog to understand what components of a player’s game they look for, why they look for it and any other scout-related information I could pull from that person. I wasn’t sure where the interview would go but I felt like my blog’s readers would appreciate reading a scout’s assessment of his/her job.

Given that I’m a Lakers fan, I thought it might be an interesting twist to interview Laflin — the first and only female scout in the NBA. I wanted to tailor the interview toward almost entirely scouting. I wasn’t interested in highlighting Laflin’s sex appeal or doing a soft interview about her cheerleading/modeling career. Maybe it seems self-important of me to take some sort of pride in steering the interview toward basketball, but I believe basketball fans want basketball stories. Even with my SLAMonline interview with the New Jersey Nets’ entertainment manager (she runs their dance auditions), I had her explain her job and how she performed it. Laflin was enthusiastic and could talk for hours about scouting…there’s about 30 minutes worth of conversation here:

Click the link below to read the story.

The NBA’s only female scout


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Lakers-Celtics Finals affect Bulls, Heat free agent plans

1 07 2010

There are already deals being made in NBA free agency. Drew Gooden to the Bucks for 5 years/$32 million. Darko re-signing with the Timberwolves for 4 years/$20 mil and reports the Joe Johnson and the Hawks have agreed to 6 years/$119 mil and Rudy Gay and the Grizzlies agreeing to 5 years/$80 mil. That’s a lot of money but teams might have a little less to spend than they originally thought. Here is why:

Click the link below to read the story.

NBA Playoffs Affect Free Agency


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NBA free agency is FAN-tastic

30 06 2010

Monday, I wrote about how awful the NBA Draft was to see in person. Today, I will write about NBA free agency, which is on its way to being the opposite of awful; it’s going to be a thrilling ride. I refuse to predict where players will sign. If plugged-in NBA folks like Chad Ford, Adrian Wojnarowski, Brian Windhorst, Stephen A. Smith and Marc Stein all have differentiating stories, then that should tell you how much false crap is being spewed from all these unnamed sources we see cropping up in each free agent story.

What I will talk about are where I would like to see the free agents go. As a Lakers fan, I shouldn’t have a care in the world. As you may have heard, the Lakers are defending back-to-back champions. But obviously free agency will affect every team in the League. If the Mavericks re-sign Dirk Nowitzki and do a sign-and-trade for LeBron James, or hometown boy Chris Bosh, or even Joe Johnson, then they’ll threaten the Lakers for Western Conference supremacy.

If the Bulls add LeBron and Bosh, as they are able to do financially without a sign-and-trade, then that pair along with Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose will form an intimidating title contender. If the Heat re-sign Dwyane Wade and convince LeBron and Bosh to tail it to South Beach, then they’ll have possibly the best triumvirate of teammates in NBA history. Here is what I hope happens:

Bulls get LeBron James, Chris Bosh. Chicago is a great sports city and the Bulls have six championship banners hanging in United Center. They’re a great enough organization that they deserve another layer added to their team’s history. If a new NBA fan were to turn the pages through a history book of the Bulls, they’d probably remember the MJ Era and a whole lot of trash before and after it. The Bulls and their fans deserve better than that. LeBron and Bosh would team with Rose to form a hell of a squad, an instant title contender. I’m a firm believer that every professional sports league is better when its teams in this country’s top three media markets — New York, Los Angeles and Chicago — are playing at an elite level. Plus, wouldn’t it be fun if the game’s two greatest players (LeBron and Kobe) were each firmly in MJ’s shadow simultaneously?

Heat get Dwyane Wade, Carlos Boozer, Ray Allen. I don’t see any reason why Wade wouldn’t want to stay in Miami if he’s assured of another top free agent joining him. Think of all the positives playing in Miami — no state income tax (that saves a max contract player roughly $500K per year according to recent free agent stories), truck loads of really hot women in mini skirts, decent weather and an outstanding nightlife. Miami might be the perfect NBA groupie city.

The reason I don’t want to see LeBron and Bosh sign in Miami with Wade is that Miami is a really crappy sports town. Heat fans participated in “whiteouts” during Miami’s 2006 title run not to distract opponents. They just thought it was a really fashionable thing to do. The Marlins are averaging 16,500 for every game, second worst in MLB, even though they won World Series in 1997 and 2003, have one of the best players in the league in Hanley Ramirez and consistently field competitive squads despite perennially being financially hamstrung by team owner Jeffrey Loria. Miami doesn’t deserve Bron/Wade/Bosh.

Boozer definitely should not be allowed to play with LeBron again after spurning him and lying to then-Cavs owner Gordon Gund, who was blind, about re-signing with Cavs in 2004. Instead, he bolted to the Utah Jazz on the reasoning that he’d be closer to his home state of Alaska, which is still like 2,000 miles from Utah.

As for Ray Ray, he just needs a slashing scorer like Wade so that he can hit spot-up threes. And Miami will have more money to spend than Chicago on a third free agent.

Knicks get Amare Stoudemire and Joe Johnson. I wouldn’t mind if Amare re-signed with the Suns just for the fact that Steve Nash deserves better than for his team to be ripped apart. I feel bad for him that he’s stuck with one of the worst owners in sports, that buzzkill named Robert Sarver.

I also feel bad for Knicks fans. They’ve been punched in the face for a decade. They need some relief. While Amare and JJ aren’t going to bring them a title, it’d be exciting to watch them reprise their Phoenix Suns ’7 seconds or less’ days with Mike D’Antoni. With Danilo Gallinari and potentially Luke Ridnour (!), they’d be a very fun offensive team to watch. Absolutely no defense, but a worthwhile watch during the regular season.

Mavericks get Dirk Nowitzki, David Lee. Although I wouldn’t mind seeing The German sign with the Nets to play for The Russian — and his former Mavs coach, Avery Johnson — Dirk is a Maverick through and through. Plus, Mark Cuban might turn suicidal if his buddy Dirk left. Which is why I would like to see the Mavs pull the free agent who nobody is talking about.

Some people have linked Lee to the OKC Thunder, who have the cap room to give him a fat (phat?) contract. Being the Lakers fan that I am, I can guarantee I’d give myself a concussion if that happened. That team is scary enough as is. They’re active enough as is. They’re young and talented enough as is. If they were to add Lee, that and an inevitable boost of maturity would make them serious West players. I don’t know if Lee could fit in with Dallas but they could use another rebounder who can score cheap points.

Nets get Rudy Gay. Maybe this would be a bummer for Nets fans hoping for a game-changer but I don’t really care. They have a good tandem in Devin Harris and Brook Lopez. If Derrick Favors works out and they nab Gay, they’d have a legit team. You just know that if it came down to the Nets whiffing on every major unrestricted free agent, The Russian would tantalize Gay, a restricted free agent, with a contract offer the Memphis Grizzlies would be too intimidated to match.

That’s all. I know Shaq and Paul Pierce are unrestricted’s (Pierce will reportedly opt out of his contract) but I don’t care where Shaq goes and I would like to see the Celtics remain competitive with Pierce returning. You know, just so they can meet the Lakers in the Finals again and blow a 13-point second half lead in Game 7. Have a wonderful summer, Celtics fans!


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