TheLegend
11-27-2009, 09:56 AM
Pretty impossible since we don't have enough money to even get him though.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — I respect young athletes who respect those who came before them. So I respect LeBron James. LeBron said two weeks ago that the NBA should retire No. 23, Michael Jordan’s number. LeBron has worn No. 23 since he was a high school sophomore and he’s willing to give it up.
LeBron and his Cleveland Cavaliers are in Charlotte on Friday night to play the Bobcats. This is a glamour game, so I suspect Jordan, the Bobcats’ managing member of basketball operations, will be there.
I also suspect he and LeBron will talk. If I’m Michael, this is what I say:
"LeBron, you’re the best player to come into the NBA since me. Instead of retiring No. 23, how about you wear it next season — with the Bobcats. Stephen Graham wears the number now, but we can persuade him to give it up and it won’t cost us a cent. If he refuses, I’ll cut him."
Obviously, the Bobcats don’t have the money New York does to spend on LeBron or other coveted soon-to-be free agents such as Miami’s Dwyane Wade, Toronto’s Chris Bosh and Phoenix’s Amare Stoudemire.
The Knicks have carved basketball salaries from their payroll the way the way the rest of us carved white meat. They painstakingly put themselves in position to sign LeBron. So why didn’t Charlotte?
Along with an enormous contract, New York can offer Madison Square Garden, extremely bright lights and, as the media center of the United States, the opportunity to become even more famous. Charlotte can counter that one writer accompanies the team to most road games. But if the Bobcats hire LeBron, perhaps we’ll send two.
Here’s what New York can’t offer_the man who made No. 23 famous. New York’s brass includes Donnie Walsh, Glen Grunwald and James L. Dolan. I don’t recall LeBron saying their numbers should be retired.
Jordan is more than a name. He’s a brand.
There he is on the TV commercial with Charlie Sheen, and Sheen wants to hang out and Michael ignores him, and Sheen is so mesmerized he crashes his car as they talk.
There Michael is with the U.S. golf team at the President s Cup in San Francisco, smiling for photographers, a big cigar dangling from his mouth.
There Michael is looming above one of the best players in the sport. "I’m humbled to be part of the Team Jordan family," says Miami’s Wade, a convert to the Jordan Brand.
There Michael is two weeks ago in the third row at the LeBron-Wade Cleveland-Miami game.
So we know Michael can parlay his name into a good seat at another team’s basketball game, a credential to the President s Cup and a long-running T-shirt commercial with a Sheen.
But Michael works in Charlotte. He runs the basketball operations for Charlotte. Since his name means something, why not have it mean something here?
Yes, I know Jordan can’t officially recruit a player who is gainfully employed. But he probably could remove the cigar long enough to express interest.
If Wade is humbled to be part of Team Jordan, shouldn’t he be even more humbled to be part of Jordan’s team?
LeBron is a once-in-a-lifetime talent, and after this season, he will be free. Why not go at him the way Michael went at adversaries during his Hall of Fame acceptance speech?
Ever talk to Michael? He is forceful, confident and charismatic, and his pitch could go like this:
MICHAEL: LeBron, you will love Charlotte. And don’t tell me Charlotte isn’t big enough for you. You’re from Akron. I’m Michael Jordan and Charlotte is big enough for me. You and me together, the best of all-time and the player who hopes to be? Who can stop us?
LeBRON: We’ll be unbeatable. And if Charlotte is big enough for you, it is big enough for me. Is Charlotte a good place to live?
MICHAEL: I have no idea.
http://news.bostonherald.com/sports/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1214901&format=&page=2&listingType=sco#articleFull
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — I respect young athletes who respect those who came before them. So I respect LeBron James. LeBron said two weeks ago that the NBA should retire No. 23, Michael Jordan’s number. LeBron has worn No. 23 since he was a high school sophomore and he’s willing to give it up.
LeBron and his Cleveland Cavaliers are in Charlotte on Friday night to play the Bobcats. This is a glamour game, so I suspect Jordan, the Bobcats’ managing member of basketball operations, will be there.
I also suspect he and LeBron will talk. If I’m Michael, this is what I say:
"LeBron, you’re the best player to come into the NBA since me. Instead of retiring No. 23, how about you wear it next season — with the Bobcats. Stephen Graham wears the number now, but we can persuade him to give it up and it won’t cost us a cent. If he refuses, I’ll cut him."
Obviously, the Bobcats don’t have the money New York does to spend on LeBron or other coveted soon-to-be free agents such as Miami’s Dwyane Wade, Toronto’s Chris Bosh and Phoenix’s Amare Stoudemire.
The Knicks have carved basketball salaries from their payroll the way the way the rest of us carved white meat. They painstakingly put themselves in position to sign LeBron. So why didn’t Charlotte?
Along with an enormous contract, New York can offer Madison Square Garden, extremely bright lights and, as the media center of the United States, the opportunity to become even more famous. Charlotte can counter that one writer accompanies the team to most road games. But if the Bobcats hire LeBron, perhaps we’ll send two.
Here’s what New York can’t offer_the man who made No. 23 famous. New York’s brass includes Donnie Walsh, Glen Grunwald and James L. Dolan. I don’t recall LeBron saying their numbers should be retired.
Jordan is more than a name. He’s a brand.
There he is on the TV commercial with Charlie Sheen, and Sheen wants to hang out and Michael ignores him, and Sheen is so mesmerized he crashes his car as they talk.
There Michael is with the U.S. golf team at the President s Cup in San Francisco, smiling for photographers, a big cigar dangling from his mouth.
There Michael is looming above one of the best players in the sport. "I’m humbled to be part of the Team Jordan family," says Miami’s Wade, a convert to the Jordan Brand.
There Michael is two weeks ago in the third row at the LeBron-Wade Cleveland-Miami game.
So we know Michael can parlay his name into a good seat at another team’s basketball game, a credential to the President s Cup and a long-running T-shirt commercial with a Sheen.
But Michael works in Charlotte. He runs the basketball operations for Charlotte. Since his name means something, why not have it mean something here?
Yes, I know Jordan can’t officially recruit a player who is gainfully employed. But he probably could remove the cigar long enough to express interest.
If Wade is humbled to be part of Team Jordan, shouldn’t he be even more humbled to be part of Jordan’s team?
LeBron is a once-in-a-lifetime talent, and after this season, he will be free. Why not go at him the way Michael went at adversaries during his Hall of Fame acceptance speech?
Ever talk to Michael? He is forceful, confident and charismatic, and his pitch could go like this:
MICHAEL: LeBron, you will love Charlotte. And don’t tell me Charlotte isn’t big enough for you. You’re from Akron. I’m Michael Jordan and Charlotte is big enough for me. You and me together, the best of all-time and the player who hopes to be? Who can stop us?
LeBRON: We’ll be unbeatable. And if Charlotte is big enough for you, it is big enough for me. Is Charlotte a good place to live?
MICHAEL: I have no idea.
http://news.bostonherald.com/sports/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1214901&format=&page=2&listingType=sco#articleFull