Friday, May 14, 2010

Born Here. Raised Here. Plays Here. Fails Here.

By Sean Mackey

We may have witnessed LeBron James' last game in a Cleveland jersey on Thursday night as the Boston Celtics finished off the Cavs 94-85 to win the best of 7 series 4-2. The Celtics will meet the undefeated Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals Sunday afternoon.

After LeBron James' terrible almost triple double performance in game 5, the Cavs tried to rebound from 2 days of bad press but couldn't seem to put it together. Mo Williams had almost 20 points at the end of the half and only trailed by 2 points. Every time the Cavs tried to make a run, the Celtics handed it right back to them on the other side of the floor. LeBron finished with a triple double with 27 points with 10 assists, and his 19 rebounds. It's safe to say, the elbow wasn't a factor.

After last year's controversy with not shaking the Orlando Magic's hands, this year, LeBron took the time to congratulate the Boston Celtics. LeBron was also the last person to speak at the post game press conference as ESPN waited on air for almost an hour for his appearance. LeBron was vague about his plans for the offseason but said that winning would be the most important factor.

While New York can offer bright lights and possibly another semi top tier player, New Jersey can offer Brook Lopez and possibly John Wall or Evan Turner (if they hit it big in the draft) and Miami can offer a team that has Dwayne Wade, the best possible situation for LeBron has seemingly become the Chicago Bulls.

Chicago is loaded with a team already built for the King. Derrick Rose is a top 5 point guard, Joakim Noah is a top 10 center and Taj Gibson has a great future in front of him. The Bulls also have two huge trade pieces in Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich. The Bulls are also one of the hardest, workman like teams out there. They overachieve and REALLY want to win. This is a team that's not going to lay down the way the rest of the Cavs did in the last two playoff games against Boston.

ESPN analyst Chad Ford sent out this tweet after the game last night:

"Most of you think Knicks or Bulls. I just heard from 3 GMs. All said
Bulls."

followed by

"Note to all of you bemoaning no Kobe vs. 'Bron Finals: If LBJ joins the Bulls this summer, you won't be waiting long"

And then the interweb erupted with LeBron to the Bulls with sign and trade scenarios that involved Luol Deng. It's crazy how much LeBron owns the NBA right now. As much as I detest LeBron James, I would welcomingly accept him as a Bull. While it would be way more ideal for Derrick Rose to tear apart a LeBron lead squad with Chris Bosh at hand, the Bulls would win the titled immediately with James.

However, I still think he's going to sign a 3 year deal with the Cavs, see how things go. Regardless of if he wins a title there in that time or not, he'll bolt for the Brooklyn Nets after that contract is up. Stay tuned for any developments via the Chicago Bulls KY twitter feed www.twitter.com/chicagobullsky . The next few months are going to be nuts, and just as it has all season, the 2010 free agency frenzy has already overshadowed the outcome of the 2010 NBA playoffs.

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