Brian Cashman
is right. LeBron James will be a Knick, news conference at Madison Square Garden on Thursday.
There is no breaking news here. For that, go to Tommy Dee's
TheKnicksBlog.com, which is distinguishing itself as indispensable during this Summer of LeBron.
The only thing informing this opinion is common sense. The King needs a castle, and Manhattan is the best in the world, towering over the other contenders. It is downright comical how backwater hacks -- looking at you Skip Bayless -- are discounting completely the possibility that the Knicks are even contenders for James' services.
ESPN's Chris Broussard actually worked for
The New York Times, but he is officially missing the point. Even if
this trolling of New York and the Knicks is discarded, Broussard still said Tuesday on ESPN that the Knicks'
best-case starting lineup with James includes Eddy Curry.
Don't forget the Nets, who are the perfect foil for media people who want to stick it to New York because it's the Knicks that are and will forever be New York -- not the Nets, now or ever.
Let's be real: Working in Brooklyn offers all the tax disadvantages of New York City with some fraction of the benefits. There's a reason that Manhattan is synonymous with New York City.
Yes, James will be in Newark for only two years assuming there are no construction delays in one of the toughest places in the world to build anything. That may be "only" to us, but it's 40 percent of the length of the contract that James will sign. James isn't signing a 30-year lease.
But this is a business. So follow the money. Forbes
said it best, through Interbrand (a company whose business is valuing brands like the one James wants to become). The bottom line: James should expect to make $983 million if he signs with the Knicks and finishes his career here -- that's $284 million more than second-place Cleveland. (Cleveland beats Chicago because Michael Jordan already owns Chicago, so winning a title there is worth far less than winning one in New York or even Cleveland.)
Read that again: $284 million. Yes, James will be paying more in taxes, but not $284 million worth. We should all have the problem of figuring out the tax liability for that kind of income.
Again, the media discounted this sort of persuasiveness by saying that Turtle and whoever else is in James' "Entourage" were bored. What did James' Ari Gold think?
Players can't make money if the team stinks. But no team with James can stink -- he's worth about 20 wins by himself. The Knicks have Amar'e Stoudemire in tow. Economist and NBA analyst David Berri says that Stoudemire is worth 8.6 wins, or
about half what David Lee is worth per season. Why is a complicated question. There's a fair probability that these types of formulas do not reasonably weigh the structure of team play. So people can at least argue that Stoudemire is a better fit for the Knicks system and for James and thus will close the gap. Remember, too, that the Knicks can do a sign-and-trade with Lee and get another good player.
We keep hearing about the quality of the Knicks point guards. The Jordan/James/Magic Johnson player never plays with a dominant point guard because they want the ball in their hands for much of the game. So all the Knicks need someone to cross the timeline and then man the perimeter like B.J. Armstrong used to do for the Bulls. Toney Douglas is perfect for this -- he shoots about 40 percent from beyond the 3-point-line and has enough ballhandling ability and speed to quickly make the handoff to James.
But the biggest reason why it's the best basketball decision for James to come to New York is Curry -- the secret weapon. He comes off the books after this year. So he can be traded at any point to a team seeking future cap relief or let go in June to create more cap room for next year's free-agent class. New York would have almost enough for another max contract. Most importantly, he protects James from a change in the collective bargaining agreement that creates a hard cap. James knows that the Knicks will go over the cap if nothing changes. But only the Knicks from among all his suitors can also stay within the cap to get a third big player (or fourth if you count Danilo Gallinari).
Bottom line: The teams that say they have a better team than the Knicks may not necessarily have the better team with James, especially in 2011. James should want the high likelihood of winning 50 games in his first season and then being able to fill a known need in either the second half of Year 1 or next summer.
Michael Salfino writes for the Wall Street Journal
and Yahoo! and is a regular contributor to SNY.tv.
