Deehntr56
06-03-2009, 10:23 AM
to another market?:confused:
Good article.....and what do you thinK???? Will he stay in Cleveland or bolt to a major market and make millions more???:confused::biggrin:
Analysis: by Brian Windhorst Tuesday June 02, 2009, 10:00 PM
Alex Brandon/Associated Press
The microphones and the endless speculation of local and national media are likely to be a constant story as LeBron James closes in on free agency at the end of June, 2010.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Brace yourself, Cavaliers fans.
With the season over and the 2009-10 season essentially in progress, the year of the LeBron James contract is underway. The next 12 months could get bumpy and stomach-churning at times -- especially when watching national sports shows and reading national publications and Web sites.
Chances are all the attention that's been paid to James' potential free agency next summer will increase dramatically, starting very soon. Sooner than you may have thought.
James' contract, which will pay him $15.7 million next season, runs another year. He also owns an option within that deal to extend the contract through the 2010-11 season for $17.1 million.
However, the first issue with James' future will come to the forefront as early as next month. With it will probably will come the first wave of speculation and dissection nationwide.
Under the rules, James has the chance to sign an extension of up to four years this summer. It is similar to the position he was in back in 2006 when he signed a three-year extension even though he had one year left on his original contract with the team.
The Cavs can make a similar extension offer, at the highest salary allowed, anytime after July 18 and James can sign it anytime before June 30, 2010.
As he left for his summer break -- the first full summer off from basketball since 2005 due to his participation with Team USA -- James made it clear he wasn't ready to decide.
"I'm just going to take time off from basketball and not think about contracts or the game, period, and relax with my family," James said. "We'll figure out once [the offer] comes from them."
Kathy Willens/Associated Press
Every photo of James and Spike Lee or anyone else with New York connections will be perused as the basketball equivalent of tea leaves to determine James' next move.
LeBron James' salaries and options
2008-09 season: $14,410,581
09-10 season: $15,779,912
10-11 season (player option): $17,149,243
Earnings possible with 3-year Cavs deal: $55 million*
Earnings possible with 3-year non-Cavs deal: $51 million*
Earnings with a maximum Cavs extension: six years, $126 million*
Earnings with a maximum non-Cavs extension: five years, $92 million*
* -- projected on a salary-cap figure of $55 million. The current salary cap is $58 million but league officials have said it could drop over the next two years due to the struggling economy.
-- Brian WindhorstIt is likely, however, that James will not sign the extension this summer and will choose to become a free agent next summer. He has a lot of good reasons not to sign it and not all of them have to do with his feelings about staying with the team. Because he has no commitments this summer, he may even stay quiet about the offer for weeks.
James is in the same position as several other NBA stars. The Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade, the Toronto Raptors' Chris Bosh and the Houston Rockets' Yao Ming are just a few of the franchise players who will likely get extension offers from their teams this summer. Like James, it is probable that most of them pass and wait for 2010.
Regardless of what happens with his peers, if the day comes that James publicly announces he does not intend to accept the extension offer, there is a good chance it will unleash a wave of speculation that he doesn't want to play for the Cavs long term.
It will likely be magnified by the fact that the team was eliminated in the Eastern Conference finals last week, despite having the No. 1 seed in the playoffs. Some will probably even ignore James' words on the subject.
"Losing this series doesn't affect the way I will continue to approach the game here in Cleveland," James said. "I've always expressed the fact that I love playing here. Fans were great and have always been great."
There are a couple reasons why James will likely skip the extension this summer.
The first is he wants to retain as much flexibility as possible. It is rare for a star athlete, much less the Most Valuable Player of the league, to have the chance to become an unrestricted free agent so early in his career. Michael Jordan, for example, did not become an unrestricted free agent until he'd been in the NBA for 12 years and had won four Most Valuable Player awards.
Knowing his potential and judging the market having this chance was why James -- and Wade and Bosh -- decided to sign just a three-year contract in 2006. Other young stars signed safer deals that guaranteed them more than $30 million more than James.
Now do you think LeBron James will stay with the Cavaliers beyond 2010?
Yes. This is his home, the Cavs are still one of the NBA's best teams and they can pay him the most.
No. This is the beginning of the end of the LeBron era in Cleveland
Not sure. Let's see what Danny Ferry does in the offseason.
Created on May 30, 2009
Two examples are Orlando's Dwight Howard and Denver's Carmelo Anthony. They decided the extra security and protection against a weakening market was worth more than having free agency quicker and they locked themselves up for five years.
James took a gamble for the right to have options next summer and he doesn't want to let it go now that it seems to have paid off. He's become a top player in the game and teams across the league, especially the New York Knicks, are scrambling to clear salary-cap space to offer him a contract next summer.
Another reason is that things in the NBA change often very fast and players sometimes can get stuck with a long contract on bad teams. Wade, for example, played on an NBA championship team with the Heat in 2006. By the end of the 2007-08 season, the Heat were one of the league's worst teams. The franchise has rebounded but there's concern in South Florida about Wade's 2010 decision as well.
The Cavs appear to be set to compete for titles with James. But nothing is for certain. Not being locked into a five-year contract has such advantages.
Perhaps the most savvy reason for James to bypass the chance this summer is for marketing purposes. He enjoys grabbing headlines and attention not only for his play but also for the uncertainty over his future. Each time he plays in New York or New Jersey he gets huge coverage and every word he speaks is studied for a hint of his intentions.
The major sports networks -- which draw massive viewership in New York and see spikes in ratings whenever discussing any sort of player movement whether it is a draft, trades or free agency in any sport -- are eager to follow along. The extra face time and stories only supplement James' national and worldwide popularity.
In addition, this summer James is planning a major promotional tour to promote his wide-release documentary, "More than a Game," which will hit theaters in September. Joining it in release is a book called "Shooting Stars," which mates with the movie about James' youth and high school teammates.
As a result James will be spending time on the talk show circuit in New York, where the topic of the extension is sure to come up and he's sure to hedge on his future to make the interviews more appealing. He has shown the business sense to know the value in that to the mass market.
If he'd already signed a new deal with the Cavs, it certainly would limit the interest many fans, especially the No. 1 market of New York, would have in the movie and the book.
So the issue is multi-faceted to say the least. One thing that is simple to understand is how the general interest and hometown uneasiness will be expanding in this next year.
Good article.....and what do you thinK???? Will he stay in Cleveland or bolt to a major market and make millions more???:confused::biggrin:
Analysis: by Brian Windhorst Tuesday June 02, 2009, 10:00 PM
Alex Brandon/Associated Press
The microphones and the endless speculation of local and national media are likely to be a constant story as LeBron James closes in on free agency at the end of June, 2010.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Brace yourself, Cavaliers fans.
With the season over and the 2009-10 season essentially in progress, the year of the LeBron James contract is underway. The next 12 months could get bumpy and stomach-churning at times -- especially when watching national sports shows and reading national publications and Web sites.
Chances are all the attention that's been paid to James' potential free agency next summer will increase dramatically, starting very soon. Sooner than you may have thought.
James' contract, which will pay him $15.7 million next season, runs another year. He also owns an option within that deal to extend the contract through the 2010-11 season for $17.1 million.
However, the first issue with James' future will come to the forefront as early as next month. With it will probably will come the first wave of speculation and dissection nationwide.
Under the rules, James has the chance to sign an extension of up to four years this summer. It is similar to the position he was in back in 2006 when he signed a three-year extension even though he had one year left on his original contract with the team.
The Cavs can make a similar extension offer, at the highest salary allowed, anytime after July 18 and James can sign it anytime before June 30, 2010.
As he left for his summer break -- the first full summer off from basketball since 2005 due to his participation with Team USA -- James made it clear he wasn't ready to decide.
"I'm just going to take time off from basketball and not think about contracts or the game, period, and relax with my family," James said. "We'll figure out once [the offer] comes from them."
Kathy Willens/Associated Press
Every photo of James and Spike Lee or anyone else with New York connections will be perused as the basketball equivalent of tea leaves to determine James' next move.
LeBron James' salaries and options
2008-09 season: $14,410,581
09-10 season: $15,779,912
10-11 season (player option): $17,149,243
Earnings possible with 3-year Cavs deal: $55 million*
Earnings possible with 3-year non-Cavs deal: $51 million*
Earnings with a maximum Cavs extension: six years, $126 million*
Earnings with a maximum non-Cavs extension: five years, $92 million*
* -- projected on a salary-cap figure of $55 million. The current salary cap is $58 million but league officials have said it could drop over the next two years due to the struggling economy.
-- Brian WindhorstIt is likely, however, that James will not sign the extension this summer and will choose to become a free agent next summer. He has a lot of good reasons not to sign it and not all of them have to do with his feelings about staying with the team. Because he has no commitments this summer, he may even stay quiet about the offer for weeks.
James is in the same position as several other NBA stars. The Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade, the Toronto Raptors' Chris Bosh and the Houston Rockets' Yao Ming are just a few of the franchise players who will likely get extension offers from their teams this summer. Like James, it is probable that most of them pass and wait for 2010.
Regardless of what happens with his peers, if the day comes that James publicly announces he does not intend to accept the extension offer, there is a good chance it will unleash a wave of speculation that he doesn't want to play for the Cavs long term.
It will likely be magnified by the fact that the team was eliminated in the Eastern Conference finals last week, despite having the No. 1 seed in the playoffs. Some will probably even ignore James' words on the subject.
"Losing this series doesn't affect the way I will continue to approach the game here in Cleveland," James said. "I've always expressed the fact that I love playing here. Fans were great and have always been great."
There are a couple reasons why James will likely skip the extension this summer.
The first is he wants to retain as much flexibility as possible. It is rare for a star athlete, much less the Most Valuable Player of the league, to have the chance to become an unrestricted free agent so early in his career. Michael Jordan, for example, did not become an unrestricted free agent until he'd been in the NBA for 12 years and had won four Most Valuable Player awards.
Knowing his potential and judging the market having this chance was why James -- and Wade and Bosh -- decided to sign just a three-year contract in 2006. Other young stars signed safer deals that guaranteed them more than $30 million more than James.
Now do you think LeBron James will stay with the Cavaliers beyond 2010?
Yes. This is his home, the Cavs are still one of the NBA's best teams and they can pay him the most.
No. This is the beginning of the end of the LeBron era in Cleveland
Not sure. Let's see what Danny Ferry does in the offseason.
Created on May 30, 2009
Two examples are Orlando's Dwight Howard and Denver's Carmelo Anthony. They decided the extra security and protection against a weakening market was worth more than having free agency quicker and they locked themselves up for five years.
James took a gamble for the right to have options next summer and he doesn't want to let it go now that it seems to have paid off. He's become a top player in the game and teams across the league, especially the New York Knicks, are scrambling to clear salary-cap space to offer him a contract next summer.
Another reason is that things in the NBA change often very fast and players sometimes can get stuck with a long contract on bad teams. Wade, for example, played on an NBA championship team with the Heat in 2006. By the end of the 2007-08 season, the Heat were one of the league's worst teams. The franchise has rebounded but there's concern in South Florida about Wade's 2010 decision as well.
The Cavs appear to be set to compete for titles with James. But nothing is for certain. Not being locked into a five-year contract has such advantages.
Perhaps the most savvy reason for James to bypass the chance this summer is for marketing purposes. He enjoys grabbing headlines and attention not only for his play but also for the uncertainty over his future. Each time he plays in New York or New Jersey he gets huge coverage and every word he speaks is studied for a hint of his intentions.
The major sports networks -- which draw massive viewership in New York and see spikes in ratings whenever discussing any sort of player movement whether it is a draft, trades or free agency in any sport -- are eager to follow along. The extra face time and stories only supplement James' national and worldwide popularity.
In addition, this summer James is planning a major promotional tour to promote his wide-release documentary, "More than a Game," which will hit theaters in September. Joining it in release is a book called "Shooting Stars," which mates with the movie about James' youth and high school teammates.
As a result James will be spending time on the talk show circuit in New York, where the topic of the extension is sure to come up and he's sure to hedge on his future to make the interviews more appealing. He has shown the business sense to know the value in that to the mass market.
If he'd already signed a new deal with the Cavs, it certainly would limit the interest many fans, especially the No. 1 market of New York, would have in the movie and the book.
So the issue is multi-faceted to say the least. One thing that is simple to understand is how the general interest and hometown uneasiness will be expanding in this next year.