LeBron to...the Lakers?

Everybody seems to have this undeniable urge to weigh in on the NBA’s free agent class and the ramifications the moves will have on the future of the league. Naturally, at the center of this talking point is Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James and the countless preposterous scenarios every sportswriter south of Anchorage has created (and that doesn’t even include the gabillions of bloggers who seem to think their opinions matter).

That said, I didn’t necessarily want to opine on such a topic simply because it has become both cliché and tacky to fall into that trap of run-in-to-the-ground discussion. And I won’t. Instead, I came across an awfully interesting take on the matter yesterday while listening to Tony Kornheiser’s talk radio show out of Washington.

Former Chicago Tribune writer – and author of two fabulous books on Michael Jordan – Sam Smith laid out a possibility that I haven’t heard discussed yet. Because I love you, the well-rounded sports fan reader, I thought I’d add yet another corner of the room that has become the speculation of where Mr. James will land. Interesting:

“I lean toward him staying in Cleveland,” Smith said. “Because they’ve made the first move – they’ve gotten rid of their coach, who he (James) implicitly said he didn’t want anymore.”

After likening Mike Brown’s exit to Doug Collins’ exit from the Chicago Bulls after Jordan’s early years (the front office ran it by Lebron and Lebron didn’t object to the firing of Brown, much like what happened when Collins got pushed out of Chicago), it really gets interesting…

“I have no doubt he’s going to look around, but I still think that (if he leaves) the best option is L.A. I see Lebron as really more of a super-sized or super-charged Scotty Pippen,” the writer continued. “He’s somewhere between Magic Johnson and Scotty Pippen as a player. His first inclination is to be a team player – move the ball around, rebound, do a lot of things. And if he wants to play with Phil (Jackson) in the triangle, and he wants guaranteed winning, to me, that’s where you go. You do a sign and trade with Cleveland. You see, Cleveland is not going to want to do a deal with a rival, like Chicago…If he wants to make the max money and not sign another short deal, Cleveland is going to want him out of the conference – not in Miami, Chicago, New York, not in any of those places that can knock them out in the first round. L.A.’s got players…they could have a decent sort of team in Cleveland if they lost Lebron with the players they have if they get a center. And I know (Andrew) Bynum has had injury issues, and all that sort of stuff, but if you could get Lebron out of your conference and get a center in return, maybe some draft picks…if LeBron wants to win, that’s the place to go. Why wouldn’t it be the favorite choice?”

Come on. You didn’t really think we’d go that long without posting on LeBron, now did you? If nothing else, it gave us the opportunity to show this crazynuts video (sorry, Sheed)…



And finally, if you’d like to see a preliminary list of the players available this summer, go here. Much more on all of this mumbojumbo as it unfolds.