How Can the Cavs Ensure Multiple Rings?
Editor’s Note: I first made the points below in my piece for SNY.tv about C.C. Sabathia’s impact way back in August…
Solid piece by Howard Beck of The NY Times (grab your pipe and head for the study) who spells out what many people
around the NBA have been thinking. The idea that, in this day and age, Lebron doesn’t need NY from a marketing standpoint to be a mega star.
“…David Falk, the onetime superagent who represented Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning, said, “I don’t think that where you are physically situated is nearly as important as it was 20 years ago.”
The world has changed since Falk brokered the deals that turned Jordan into the greatest sports marketing vehicle ever in the 1980s and ’90s. The Internet gives fans a 24-hour connection to their sports heroes, no matter where they play. Games are beamed to televisions in every hemisphere, and to computers and mobile phones via satellite. Players converse with fans through blogs and Twitter and Facebook.
The sports world is flat. And market size, which was once a key consideration in endorsement deals, is virtually irrelevant, according to agents, consultants and image experts. Moving to New York might give James a small boost, but most say it would be negligible.
However, Beck leaves the reader hanging with a key point at the very end that needs to be addressed.
“…Leaving Cleveland could actually hurt James, the consultants said, if the public starts to view him as disloyal, self-interested or greedy, or if his new team falters badly.
Can James get any bigger, bolder, richer, more iconic? The experts say yes, but not necessarily by moving to New York.
“The most important thing is winning,” Falk said, pointing to Jordan’s six championship rings. “If he were my client, I would tell him you better put yourself somewhere where you can win four or five...”
Which leads me to the point that I’ve been making all along. Cleveland is not in a position to shop thanks to long term deals with Mo Williams, Anderson Varejao and Boobie Gibson. So if it doesn’t work out with Shaq this year, what’s the next play? Lebron may want to win in Cleveland, but does another star player want to? People can knock Jordan Hill and Danilo Gallinari all they want, but the Cavs aren’t saturated with off the charts, young talent either.
So what’s the play for the Cavs to ensure Lebron, should they lose this year, that he can win 1 ring, let alone 4 or 5? They certainly won’t have the cap space for a top tier free agent right Brian Windhorst of the Plain Dealer?
“…When a player’s contract expires and a team owns his rights [the "Bird" rights that give a team the ability to go over the
salary cap to sign him] you have what is called a “cap hold” placed on your cap. For LeBron, it would be a maximum salary hold because his 2008-09 salary is the max. These also exist for draft picks. So while it may look like the Cavs would have $20 million in cap space, they actually won’t because of LeBron’s cap hold. Not to mention Shaquille O’Neal and Zydrunas Ilgauskas cap holds. You get rid of a cap hold two ways: You sign the player, or you renounce his rights — and that won’t happen with LeBron, obviously…”
The Knicks, on the other hand, will have several chances to bring in talent should they not land a co-star this summer and I’ll venture to guess that they can upgrade upon Williams, Varejao and Gibson next season and beyond thus setting the stage for multiple finals appearances for the next decade. This can’t be seen as “selling out” when you consider that the future in Cleveland isn’t real pretty with James, considering they don’t have many trade assets, let alone without him.
And by the way, I have plenty of faith that if he gets the chance to play with James, Jordan Hill can be a cheaper, if not better, version Varejao.
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salary cap to sign him] you have what is called a “cap hold” placed on your cap. For LeBron, it would be a maximum salary hold because his 2008-09 salary is the max. These also exist for draft picks. So while it may look like the Cavs would have $20 million in cap space, they actually won’t because of LeBron’s cap hold. Not to mention Shaquille O’Neal and



