An NBA source who has spoken to LeBron James said the biggest reason for The King spurning the Knicks was the prospect of having his and his family’s personal lives intruded upon under the intense scrutiny of New York.
“His private life would’ve been affected too much under the New York microscope,” the source said. “He experienced it in the last few weeks. It was out of control.”
Judging by his announcement show on ESPN, James likes the spotlight, but not when it intrudes on his family. James’ mother wasn’t thrilled with a move to Manhattan after seeing photographers camped outside her home twice during the buildup to her son’s decision.
“He’s used to walking around Akron and nobody bothers him,” the source said.
POLL: HOW MAD ARE YOU AT LEBRON?
James, wearing his new No. 6 jersey, had his welcome party last night at American Airlines Arena as the newest member of Miami’s “Dream Team,” while Knicks fans were in a depressed state after two years of longing for James to come to the Garden.
“The Road to History,” James wrote on his Twitter page early yesterday, “starts now!”
Along with James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and another Knicks target, Mike Miller, will form the core of the new Heat.
“It’s still surreal, man,” said Wade. “Me, Chris and ‘Bron. We ready. We want to go to the gym now.”
Behind the scenes, the Heat continued working on sign-and-trade deals for James and Bosh, and tried to clear space for their own free agent, Udonis Haslem, Wade’s teammate for seven seasons and someone the 2006 NBA finals MVP wants back for the next chapter.
James, Wade and Bosh (who both announced on Wednesday they would sign with the Heat) have admitted they were planning for months to team up in Miami. The Knicks were simply a smokescreen.
Maybe the snub of the Knicks is for the best; maybe James would have caved under the pressure of New York City. Knicks owner James Dolan said at a press conference on Thursday he only wanted players who wanted the challenge of the spotlight.
James, who spent seven years in Cleveland without winning a championship ring, won’t find the same level of pressure and criticism in soft South Beach.
The source said James simply outgrew Cleveland and Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert. James wasn’t surprised Gilbert vilified him after he chose Miami, with the source suggesting that the owner’s amateur side showed through. James is livid and the source said the NBA also wasn’t thrilled at Gilbert’s written attack.
Gilbert said on radio that James quit in the playoffs and wrote in a letter to fans: “This was announced with a several day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his ‘decision’ unlike anything ever ‘witnessed’ in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment.”
It turns out that some members of the Heat family had more than an inkling James was coming long before his announcement show.
“I knew this was going to evolve a while ago,” Heat executive Alonzo Mourning said yesterday. “We knew a long time ago. We did our due diligence on our recruiting trip, and we had a good feeling about this. When we came back, we knew that it pretty much was going to evolve in our favor.”
The end result is that Miami has three of the top nine scorers in the league last season, the two-time reigning MVP in James, their own superstar in Wade (who said he wouldn’t have stayed if either Bosh or James hadn’t come to Miami), and reason to believe the franchise’s wild pendulum — NBA’s best in 2006, NBA’s worst in 2008 — is on a decided upswing.
“It’s going to take all of us to do it,” Wade said.
Yesterday, in Miami, the scene was sheer bliss.
James jerseys weren’t even going on hangers inside the Miami team store; for the most part, they were getting sold as soon as they could be taken out of the box. A line of fans snaked around the arena on a steamy morning just to put their names on a waiting list for tickets. The switchboard at AmericanAirlines Arena was overwhelmed for much of the day, and the 13,000 free seats for the welcoming bash were made available online at 4 p.m. — and were gone in an hour.
There wass glitz and glamour in Miami last night, for sure, but Wade said the NBA’s newest Big 3 can handle the hype.
“Yeah, it’s going to be Hollywood down here,” Wade said. “But when we step on the court, it’s going to be about business. And everyone who wants to be part of this organization is going to have to make that sacrifice.”