ESPN - New York Knicks, Golden State Warriors agree on Al Harrington-Jamal Crawford deal; Zach Randolph also traded NY to GS: Jamal Crawford GS to NY: Al Harrington NY to LAC: Zach Randolph, Mardy Collins LAC to NY: Tim Thomas, Cuttino Mobley I know there are some Knicks fans here, your thoughts
Its funny how espn is now saying its 100% chance bosh lebron or wade go to new york if they dont its going to be hilarious.
Lebron is not leaving a title contending Cavs team for a last place NY team which is what they will be now and in 2010.
As a Knicks fan I am happy for the trades because it's the biggest sign that we are closer to shedding some of that dead weight that was bogging down the team salary. Now there is a light at the end of the tunnel as far as finally turning things around. Sure, the Knicks will suck butt again this year but they now are giving themselves some wiggle room to finally have the space to improve. I like the trades. Kudos to Donnie Walsh for having the balls to pull off the moves that needed to be made. The Knicks save about 27.5M so we can go after LeBron AND sign another big name on the team. To say LeBron won't leave to the Knicks because they are a last place team now is very shortsighted. The Knicks will now have the room to package LeBron with another big name free agent (Bosh, Wade, Stoudamire, etc) and also bring LeBron to the biggest market which will put even more money in his pocket. James would literally be King James in New York and the starved fans will embrace him and make him the next icon to come into NYC.
No team can pay him as much as the Cavs can. Its called Bird rights. The Cavs will be a good team AND they are where he is from AND they can pay him the most money.
But will the Cavs be able to afford his salary and afford to field a competative team? Not like the Knicks can now that they have cap room in place. And Cleveland can't be compared to NYC when it comes to his chances at endorsement deals. He can choose to stay in Cleveland and remain a star or he can go to New York and become a icon.
He already is an Icon. And Yes, the Cavs can afford his salary. By 2010 they will have lost 1. Wally Szerbiaks contract-13 mill 2. Ben Wallace Contract-14 mill 3. Eric Snow Contrat-7 mill Those three contracts are horrible and all 3 players are very easily replaceable. They will make little to no difference as far as how good the Cavs are. Also by that time Lebron will be making 17 million. A new MAX deal would start him off at right around that amount. Won't hurt the Cavs at all. They will actually have some room of thier own to sign another solid FA as well as having the MLE and LLE to use. What endorsements is he not getting now that he would get in NY? He is already pulling in money from: Sprite Nike State Farm Upper Deck Powerade Vitamen Water Last season he made more money from endorsements then anyone else in the NBA. And was the 3rd highest paid athlete in all of sports from endorsements.
