bobbob1313

He called them beforehand, apparently.

but still, pretty shitty.

Granted, with what we now know about Dan Gilbert, there was likely no way to leave and make it right.

This whole LeBron thing is representative of the larger media as well. They are in bed with the people they cover (as shown by the Washington Press Corps' embaressing show at the Biden Barbeque a few weeks back), and as such, are incapable of asking them any serious questions are calling them on their bullshit.

I'm happy that he came to my city and makes the team I'm rooting for incredibly fortunate to have his services (no matter what the curmudgeons say), but this whole process has been awful. It's the nadir of sports journalism. And I hope it never recovers. What a fucking joke.

Apparently A'Mare Stoudemire, who has won even less than LeBron, is the only free agent in the NBA who isn't chickenshit.

He's gonna gut you guys to a 6 seed!

"When"?

The best part about this is how thrilled you and every Knick fan would have been if he'd gone to New York.

But since he didn't, he's a loser who doesn't know how to win and never will win and blah blah blah.

They got Halladay when they trade Lee.

FOXSports.com's Jon Paul Morosi reports that Rick Porcello has been pushed back in Triple-A Toledo's rotation and notes that it could be trade related.

Morosi says it's not an injury. We really doubt that Porcello is being traded, but for what it's worth, Morosi did work for the Detroit Free Press before joining FOX. If there's one team to trust his sources on, it's the Tigers.

Tigres fans. Any rumors of Porcello being on the move?

The team that spent $90 mil for their title?

I'm absolutely thrilled about that.

I'm not going to be one of those people who pretends I don't know why people hate us. It's awesome. Nobody hates crappy teams.

Also, that analogy fails on a couple of different levels, primarily because the Heat are operating within the same financial constraints as everyone else in the league, whereas the Yankees use their massive income disparity to cause the talent level in MLB to become unfairly distributed. If anything, they are the Patriots.

Also, it's better than being a fan of the New York Knicks of the NBA.

Well, that would put him on the same level as Patrick Ewing and any number of other Knick greats.

Cliff Lee's a pretty good haul, though he wasn't all that great with Philly last year at the deadline.

Personally, I don't make that trade, but I understand why they would. I could definitely see Pettite and Hughes regressing as the season wears on, and going in with just CC as a reliable pitcher could prove problematic.

So is getting Lee for 1/2 a season worth it for the long-term of Montero? I'm not so sure since the NYY already have a strong rotation. I know they're looking to possibly dump Vazquez and Hughes is headed south with innings pitched, but still...

Well, they've got two pretty mediocre guys in BUrnett and Vazquez in their rotation.

Personally, I wouldn't do it, but almost everything I've read about Montero over the last year has mentioned that he's likely to be traded because they don't know if he'll stick behind the plate and he's not moving Teixiera. So it's certainly possible.

Cliff Lee's awesome, and he's having an historic season right now. His K/BB ratio is the highest in the history of the game.

But Montero's awesome too. There are some doubts that he'll be able to stay at catcher, but the bat is super legit. He's 21 and struggling a little bit in AAA, but he's been hot recently, and he could be one of the top hitting catchers in baseball before long. He's one of the top 3 players still in the minors, I would say.

I have low standards as a sports fan. I would root for Glenn Beck if he could give me 25 solid minutes per game at the 4.

I didn't say Boozer was better than Bosh. I said I'm glad we got Boozer i/o Bosh.

Boozer is 3 years older with a pretty bad injury history, and the difference in their salaries likely isn't going to be that big.

Bosh at 31 at 18 mil a year is likely a much better value than Boozer at 34 at 16 mil a year. That's how old they will be at the end of their contracts.

Hanley might or might not be in the Home Run Derby.

I'd like to see it.

Oh, I wouldn't dare try to defend the Heat if all of that stuff happened now. But as a 10 year old, the Knicks were the bad guys who picked all of the fights and were responsible for everything that went down.

Basically, I approached sports when I was 10 like Dan Gilbert does now.

"He quit," Gilbert said. "Not just in Game 5, but in Games 2, 4 and 6. Watch the tape. The Boston series was unlike anything in the history of sports for a superstar."

In LeBron's defense, apparently the whole team tried to hide from him the fact that Delonte West was boning his mama.

Classic. You're ok with me, Mr NYC Hater.

From the ages of 8-12, I was probably a bigger NBA fan than MLB fan, to be honest, and during that time, the Knicks (from my point of view) were just so fucking evil. You have to understand, my formative years were spent watching Charles Oakley and PJ Brown fighting on the court, with Jeff Van Gundy attached to Alonzo Mourning's leg like an angry poodle. The first NBA game I ever went to was a Knicks-Heat first round game in the last year of the Miami Arena, and the Knicks won by twenty.

Nobody made 10 year old Bobbob more angry than Larry Johnson. I've never (and likely will never, since I'm much more rational about sports now) hated any athlete like I hated Larry Johnson.

It's a shock I'm still a fan of basketball after being raised on those brutally ugly Knick-Heat series.

Also, someone really needs to get Gilbert and LeBron together to work out terms for this Championship garauntee.

He had a contract, he fulfilled all his obligations, and then went to another team. Where's the bad example for the kids? Seems like this letter is the bad example for the kids.

Who uses Comic Sans MS anymore? What is this, an AIM conversation from 2002?

I'll agree that the process was narcissistic and egotistical and pretty disgusting (I personally blame it for keeping me up until 2 am with a stomach ache), but all of the other crap goes too far.

He's pissed because his franchise just lost 40% of it's value, and that's fine, but don't talk about loyalty in professional sports when you're trading your players left and right for this guy. Dan Gilbert has loyalty to one thing, his checkbook. Anything that makes his checkbook look better, he is a fan of. You know he would trade every single person on that team for LeBron right now. Where's the loyalty in that?

Loyalty in professional sports is overrated.

I want LeBron to release a statement on the Heat website that just says "You mad."

Right now, they've got 7 players on the roster. 3 of them are rookies, so there's your 10, 11, and 12 players. Mike miller is, reportedly, a done deal at 5/30.

So they need 4 guys at the minimum. I could see Ilgauskus coming to play center, but they'd need another defensive minded big guy.

I'm not too worried about the team. You really only need to be able to go 8 deep in the NBA.

I'm excited, it should be fine. Depth is a bit worrisome, sure. But you can get some ring chasers.

It's going to be funny watching owners try to explain the contracts from this offseason during next year's CBA negotiating sessions.

Mark your calendars for whenever Miami goes to Cleveland. They're gonna have to play that game in an empty arena.

No, really. Carlos Boozer isn't better than Chris Bosh.

I'll bite. He automatically makes any team he joins a winner and you know it. He was surrounded by shit in Cleveland and they made it to the finals and won 66 and 61 games the last two years.

 

The question is not whether the team he joins will win, the question is whether the team he joins will be a champion. Bulls/Heat become championship caliber teams if he joins them. Not the Knicks without some more pieces, of course.

 

I realize you hate everything that is NY, but to say the Knicks "do not win" is one of your more off the wall statements around here. Teams win when they add players which is exactly what they'd be doing if he was competitive enough to want the ultimate prize -- a title in NY.

It's called trash talk. Don't take it seriously. The Knicks are the worst.

Also, I hate this "If he's truly got the heart of a champion, he'll go to New York" thing.

I don't know. I don't buy that the Heat are championship caliber if he joins. I'm not smoking the Bosh hype. I'm glad the Bulls got Boozer instead.

Boozer is not better than Bosh. If you want to argue that the salary difference makes up for it that's one thing, but no. Chris Bosh is a better player than Boozer.