NBA Basketball 2009-10: The Thread

[namkcuR]

LeBron says winning is more important than a max contract when making his decision next summer:

"As a kid I visualized playing for almost every team in the NBA," James said. "Right now, I visualize playing with a lot of guys in the NBA. There are a lot of great individual basketball players that I would love to be alongside of and try to contend for an NBA championship. "I think at the end of the day, a max deal or anything like that doesn't really matter to me at the end of the day. It's all about winning for me. So I've put myself in a position that when that day comes next summer, I want to win, and if I feel like the team is capable of winning, I'll make my decision like that."

In his lone visit to New York, LeBron James said signing a max deal is not as important as winning, Chris Sheridan writes. - ESPN

If he really meant that, he'd take the MLE with Orlando and win 10 championships in a row with Dwight. Or take the MLE with LA and win 3-5 in a row with Kobe.

But in reality, he's either BS-ing completely, or he's saying that he's open to taking the 5-year new-team max deal as opposed to forcing the Cavs to sign-and-trade him so that he can get the 6-year bird-rights-included actual max deal.

But hey...he didn't sign a max extension in 2006, and he could have, no questions asked...he signed a 3 year extension that made this 2010 hoopla possible, same as Wade, same as Bosh.