Fourth and Lebron

Lebron James opting out of his contract with the Heat was not a surprise. Pat Riley’s transparent press conference about Miami’s loss in the NBA Finals was a few weeks back. Yard staff could sense that James was tired of dragging Wade’s legacy along with his history. At his press conference, Riley was calling out the team not to quit just because they got knocked off. He said to all that this is not about quitting this was about coming back. With his best Tony Montana, he challenged his players to respond to getting rolled by the San Ancient Spurs. We think he was only speaking to one. Decision II will hopefully be less pretentious. Is Lebron headed back to Cleveland as the Prodigal Son returns? It will be great theater to see how Miami courts Lebron, who deserves the max salary while not disrespecting an aged Dwayne Wade. James acknowledged that he would seek the max contract and he deserves it. He has been paid well but he is still barely in the top ten of NBA salaries. He trails behind Kobe, Dirk and Amare Stoudemire among others. Lebron is 29 and he will be 30 before 2015. A max contract is for a lot of money from what Yard finance has uncovered. If Lebron gets what he deserves, Wade and Bosh have to take big pay cuts. Socialism in NBA pay only gets to the Finals four times before the big dog needs to get paid. James left $20-30 million on the table when he took his skills to South Beach. The King got the titles he needed to deserve the crown but is he done in Miami? The Heat was never Lebron’s team. The team and the City will always be Wade’s. He led the Heat to their first NBA title in 2006. It was also Riley’s first NBA title since Laker Showtime in the 80’s. Wade will always be revered. Riley sees this as his last chance for a dynasty to call his own. Magic and Dr. Jerry own the original Laker dynasty. There have been others and just like Kobe, someone still has to do the day to day grind. James carried the team while Riley and Wade prepared to race each other to the championship podium. During the regular season, King James showed up every night and willed that team to the Finals. Lebron started 77 games and played the equivalent of 30 more games during the season than Wade. D-Wade was resting his knees for the playoffs while channeling Kanye planning his wedding to Gabriel Union. Lebron was vilified for getting cramps in Game One of the Finals and missing key minutes. He outscored Wade in that game and was the leading scorer in every other game. Wade never got any heat for shooting 43% from the field while averaging 15 points per game over the five games. He was 4 out of 12 with 11 points in the season finale. The Heat got run out of the Finals and without James they would not have been there. Riley can no longer use Wade to lure James to stay on with the promise of the Big Three. Riley has to show James he can build a solid team to support the Big One and the declining two. Cleveland has had two number one picks in the past three years. Kyrie Irving is rounding into a solid point guard and just signed his max contract. He would flourish with James on his wing. Last year’s top pick Anthony Bennett is being considered a bust. He was the best freshman in a solid Mountain West Conference in 2011. He has a decent outside shot and averaged 16 and 8 as a 19 year old. He might not be a #1 pick but he will be a better player. The Cavs drafted Andrew Wiggins with the first pick this year. He could be the next Kevin Durant. Kyrie is 22, Bennett is 21 and Wiggins is 19. There will be plenty of salary cap in Ohio for the next three years. Mrs. King wants to bring the kids back home to raise them. With the King on the wing, they might be able to bring Cleveland a ring. Magic owns LA, Michael owns Chicago, Carmelo owns…nothing. Lebron it is time to lead Cleveland back into your legacy. The LA Kings bandwagon was such a nice ride and it has been hard to step off it as shallow a ride as it had been. We have since been all in on World Cup and US Soccer until the 120:00:01 mark today. We are still in for the future but that was an unnecessary speed bump when we had barely applied our safety apparel and protective head gear. Fortunately, the Dodger bandwagon is shining up a seat for us. There still seems to be some acrimony in the clubhouse and the outfield. The Dodger starting pitching is scary for any opponent and the best still seems to be warming up. The Giant hallmark pitching staff is showing their wear earlier than their age. The Giants were looking in their rear view mirror when the Dodgers passed them on the inside last night. The Giants had that 9.5 game lead on June 9th. The Dodgers had never won more than three games in a row since last season at that time. It is not easy to make up nearly ten games in the standings in 20 games played but alas they did. The Dodger burst was sneakier than last year without all of the Puig and circumstance. It is solid defense, pitching and timely hitting by a team that is well paid to do that. Long ways to go but the horses in blue seems to be rounding into form. The pumpkin colors not so much. Up Next: It has been a good run for the City by the Cabernet but the natives from Easter Island want Bruce Bochy to return their head. We are not being alarmists. Manager Bochy has more than 62% of his body above his waist and 35% of that weight is above his neck. The similarities between missing relics and Bochy’s cranium are Discovery Channel worthy. This is more of a public safety and historical issue than Yard snark. San Francisco is in an active earthquake zone. That pumpkin has teetered on his neck without straps for too long. It is unlikely it would ever be launched during his Sausage Race like trot out to the mound when yanking another starting pitcher but who wants to take that chance? The upper girth launches Bruce forward at 55 degrees with legs barely able to stabilize the G forces. It is an anomaly that Newton never pondered. It may seem like Yard bile but we challenge you to look just once through our prism. You will be unable to un-see it.