LeBron has to most definitely win and win big, that means a championship. Period. That is the only thing imo that will defuse the backlash/and possible PR disaster that could occur if he shuns his hometown team to join a losing team.

That’s a lot of pressure to inherit, especially when management/ownership hasn’t proven to be exactly stellar in building a balanced team.

I’m just not completely convinced coming here would be the smartest thing for him, he could come here and do the same thing as in Cleveland, as in win 50 games and never get over the hump or never even make it back into to the Finals for NY.

I would love for him to come to the Knicks. Hopefully the pressure of NY wouldn’t get to him and hopefully the pressure of having to win a ring to justify his leaving his hometown(state) team (another thing that I think makes O’Neal’s, Jabbar’s and Wilt’s leaving their initial teams a little different) doesn’t get to him.

Why wouldn’t I want the game’s best player on the Knicks? I just refuse to get my hopes up until the ink dries.

Sidebar: if/when James resigns with the Cavs or spurns the Knicks to join another all-star somewhere else, do you think he’ll finally get booed at the garden? That display of affection for the opposing team’s player is kind of disgusting. I’d like to think so, but the Garden chanted (M-V-P… M-V-P) for Kobe last year.

Hakeem and Duncan are not as popular as they should be. I think that is largely a result of where they play(ed).

If Duncan was in NYC and brought NY multiple chips he would be insanely popular here and everywhere.

people have debated that Ewing was just another great center and not the Bill Russell clone NY made him out to be. Not winning it all had something to do with it. Also, he always had a surely attitude with the press going back to his days with the Hoyas.

Remember that Ewing never signed a shoe contract and went out and had his own shoes made but didnt market them much if at all. This was at a time when Jordan was making 100 plus mil for Nike and shoe deals were all over.

Could Shaq have ever risen to the Superman/Diesel/Global Icon status had he stayed in Orlando with Penny? Maybe but we’ll never know.

Going to Hollywood opened TONS of doors for him and Im sure he is explaining all that to Lebron this year

Here’s my problem with that argument. Shaq like you said has taken somewhat of a hit like you said. Both him and Alcindor I’ll call him Abdul-Jabbar out of respect headed for one of the best organizations in history. The Lakers are run like a machine and they always get the better of the trade and have made some great draft picks. Trading Vlade for Kobe, acquiring Kareem, signing a young O’Neal trading for Pau Gasol etc.

The Knicks are not in that type of company. They boast a building. “The world’s most famous arena”, granted, but the Knicks organization has been anything but a machine. They’ve had terrible drafts, squandered opportunity after opportunity to add talent around a HOF Center in Ewing and haven’t lifted a trophy in 36 years. They have become a laughing stock for a reason. Dolan has stayed on his meds and avoided embarrassing himself for awhile, but I still don’t think this franchise has maximized its storied history and connections with players that have won here. There seems to be a penchant for being at odds with former players or holding petty grudges against the

I wonder if players have those conversations with each other. How their former players are treated by ownership/upper management, I think its an embarrassment that Ewing has held 3 assistant coache jobs in 3 different cities and can’t get so much as an interview in the building where his number is raised in the rafters.

Aside from that I think Kareem and Shaq are not terrible examples, but I think guards are more popular than big men and fans identify with them more. Big men can’t sell sneakers the way guards can and have less endorsement potential.