So LeBron James made a decision without us having to watch a decision special and I’m very happy about that. Not a real surprise move by James; he’s going back to Cleveland. You pretty much had to figure he was either going to stay with the Miami Heat or go back home to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers. I did throw out the Houston Rockets as a dark horse team in the show, but that was a long, long shot at best. I have no issues at all with LeBron going back to Cleveland; my biggest issue was the way this was covered. ESPN cancelled their regular programming to cover this story. Was it really that important? While I understand James is the best basketball player in the world and him switching teams is a big sports story with the way it was covered you would’ve thought the Messiah had returned to Earth. I was trying to find sports highlights last night and every show had the LeBron signing as the lead story; which it should’ve been, but did half to three-quarters of the show have been about it. I even ended up seeing the shot you always get of LeBron”s home in Cleveland. The weird thing though was all of the media outlets knew he wasn’t there and they still went to his house; so we could see the end of his driveway and the security gate. Was this really necessary coverage since James himself announced he was going to Brazil to watch the World Cup final. To be fair basketball is my least favorite of the 4 major sports and I’m sure that played into the fact that I thought this was incredibly stupid coverage. Let’s break this signing down into a sports perspective and not the major media garbage they turned it into yesterday. By signing James the Cavaliers automatically become a contender in the Eastern conference and to a lesser extent a contender for the NBA title. Remember the Cavaliers are a very young team and young teams don’t normally win NBA titles. James will play with point guard Kyrie Irving (22 years old), but Irving has had some trouble staying healthy. Also on the Cavaliers roster 2014 1st round draft pick Andrew Wiggins (19), 2013 #1 overall pick Anthony Bennett (21), Dion Waiters (23) and Tristan Thompson (22); Cleveland does still have veteran center Anderson Varejao on their roster with these young players. Now this roster and players I listed could all change through trades and there are already rumors of those out there, but if this roster stays intact this is a very young team with no playoff experience. Even with the greatest basketball player in the world on it can they win a championship. There three rumors I heard yesterday where. 1) a trade with Minnesota for Kevin Love. Love did say he would sign a long term with Cleveland if traded there. 2) Ray Allen would be signed as a free agent to rejoin James and 3) Mike Miller would be another free agent signing. There where some other NBA free agent moves yesterday even though you wouldn’t know it from the media coverage; remember only LeBron matters to them. I’ve been saying for weeks now that Chris Bosh needed to get out of James’s shadow and see if he’s still a top player in the NBA. While he didn’t sign with the Houston Rockets like I suggested he do he did get a 5 year $118 million dollar contract to stay with the Heat. While no one see Miami as the top team in the eastern conference they’re still a playoff team and now it’s up to Bosh and Dwayne Wade to keep them relevent. One of the under the radar free agents appears to be on the move as well. Isaiah Thomas agreed to a 4 year $28 million dollar deal and will be sent to the Phoenix Suns in a sign and trade. The next big NBA free agent show to drop will be Carmelo Anthony and while I bet he stays with the New York Knicks there where reports last night that the Chicago Bulls where still in the running to sign him. The Bulls are also the front-runners to sign Pau Gasol, but they both can’t be signed by the Bulls. If your favorite team hasn’t made a move yet there are still some quality players still out there as free agents besides Anthony and Gasol. Greg Monroe is a restricted free agent and while the Detroit Pistons could match any offer he gets a team could make him an offer to good to refuse; or that Detroit just can’t match. Paul Millsap is an unrestricted free agent and a good NBA big man if your team needs some inside help. Swing man Luol Deng is out there as well as Lance Stephenson. So your favorite team could still find a guy to help them this off-season.
It seems to be major injury week in Major League Baseball (MLB). The St. Louis cardinals lost starting Catcher Yader Molina for 8-12 weeks with a torn ligament in his thumb. The New York Yankees put Japanese import Masahiro Tanake on the disabled list (DL) with what turned out to be a tear in his UCL ligament. Also the Cincinnati Reds lost 2nd baseman Brandon Phillips for 6-8 weeks with a torn thumb ligament. It always hurts to lose a quality starting pitcher like Tanaka I’m not sure the Yankees where a playoff team with him, but in the cases of Molina and Phillips their teams are in the race for 1st place in the National League Central. St. Louis finds itself 1 game out of first place going into today’s game and Cincinnati is just a 1 1/2 games out of 1st. Molina is the best catcher in baseball and while his offense has been down this season there no way to replace what he does behind the plate. St. Louis is going to try to fill Molina’s spot from within the club, but you have to wonder if the recently designated for assignment A.J. Pierzynski might get a look from them. Cincinnati has Ramon Santiago who can fill in for Phillips for now and they also have Skip Schumaker who has plated 2nd base at the major league level before. Schumaker did just go on the 7 day DL for a possible concussion, but I still don’t think Cincinnati goes outside of the organization to fill Phillips’s spot.
So how was your week?
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