LeBron James opting out

LeBron James' agent, Richie Paul, has informed the Miami Heat that James will exercise his early termination option and become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.

IT HAS BEGUN. The Decision: Part Deux

http://espn.go.com/nba/truehoop/miamiheat/story/_/id/11127329/lebron-james-opt-contract-miami-heat

Where do you think he'd go? Where do you want him to go? Does this affect your opinion of him? So many interesting questions.

Hm... Golden State?

That would be the dream scenario. Is it an attractive place to live? Don't really see him playing somewhere that isn't a big city like LA, New York, parts of Chicago, etc.

Oakland isn't very nice, but it puts him within striking distance of San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Both of which offer some comfortable places, to say the very, very least.

Smells like flowers everywhere in the spring.

EDIT: GS is a little goofy, I hit post reply but no reply is posted until I hit it a second time, and I get two replies...

Not too surprised. With Melo also opting out, the off season got interesting very fast.

He is going to play with Dwight. After that 2012 all star game intro, I was convinced they wanted to play with each other.

How's his back, though?

I wish Lebron would make the decision to BE the superstar, not attach himself to another superstar (I use that term somewhat loosely).

doesnt mean hes leaving Miami

I'll be a Lebron fan w/e he goes.

Obviously it's not a sure thing (yet?) but that team is on a downward spiral so unless they get some players to compliment him, he's gone.

Golden State LOL

Stay in the East and it's pretty much a walk to make it to the finals, or go to the West and risk losing in the first round? He won't leave the East if he does leave Miami.

Chicago would be a smart choice, not sure about their salary cap situation though

I still don't understand why he's leaving in the first place, if he does that is. The Heat went to four championships in a row. Why would you want to leave that?

Maybe because they lost their last finals in 5 games, losing three straight by a point differential of like 57 points. The team isn't getting any younger, especially Wade. As Aljosa said, the only way I can see LeBron returning to Maimi, and the only way they win another championship, is if they make some big moves to compliment LeBron.

I think the Heat management are capable of doing just that, not to mention that Wade and Bosh are both completely capable of improving their game in the off season. While Lebron may want to win another championship post-haste, the Heat weren't really challenged in the East this year.

All the more reason to go elsewhere in the East if you ask me. I think any decent team in the Eastern Conference with LeBron could make it to the finals, easily going through a LeBron-less Heat team, and have as much of a chance at winning as he would returning to the Heat.

Honestly, I just want him to stay in the East. Conference sucks enough as it is, if he goes West then they'd be better off just giving the Championship to whoever wins the Western Conference Finals.

Lebron will remain in Miami, take that to the bank

Not an OKC fan, but I thought it would be cool to see him play with Durant and Westbrook. Durant and James are 2 of the more team oriented super stars so I could see them playing off each other well. That being said, I don't know if they can afford him.

I would not want 'Melo and James on the same team. Carmelo is a black hole.

Well, if he cramps so easy I'd move somewhere cooler. If he's so flexible why not take a lesser pay to move to a city that's nicer, like New York would be pretty cool maybe.

And this is why we fail.

He wouldn't go to New York because the Knicks suck and the Nets are way over the cap.

He's the fcking King. He can do whatever he wants and bring in whoever he wants. He will stay in Miami with Riley and create a Lakers of the East.

???

I think him going back to Cleveland would be an interesting plot twist, "Return of the King' so to speak. Antagonist becomes protagonist, ha. =P

If I were Lebron I'd stay far away from aging Wade, his bum knees, and cry baby tactics. Wade is gonna opt into his contract anyway and ruin everything regardless.

I don't see him leaving. Opting out gives the franchise more cap options, if he takes a slight cut also. He's made enough money any rational person could live comfortably for several lifetimes. They need younger talent. He knows it, Riley knows it.

There's no improving old. The type of game Wade plays is rough on the body. This past season he logged the lowest mpg of his career*. Most of that was due to saving him for the playoff run. I don't thinks that's a selling point for LeBron to stay, unless Wade is to come off the bench full time. Think his $21.65m cap hit next year will keep him in the starting lineup. Hey, he could opt out and resign at a lower wage, so who knows.

Why wouldn't you want to go play ball in Fla? No income tax, beautiful scenery, 4 straight finals appearances.

@musicalmac: Yea and if you take the 237 from oakland toward san fran you can smell the sewage everyday lol. Also oakland has some very very nice parts, as does almost every city.

The last time I was in Oakland, I actually saw a man deal drugs out of a baby carriage on a corner opposite that of a police officer on a bike. And that smell -- I can concur that is a thing.

But if you can live in Silicon Valley, or north of San Francisco and enjoy a drive across the golden gate bridge, that's not such a bad life.

@musicalmac: Yea, oakland definetly has some really messed up parts lol. I would still rather live there than san francisco though. The last 3 times I was there crazy messed up stuff happened. Saw a guy get stabbed near haight street. Saw a guy get demolished by a truck(who would drive a truck in san francisco anyway). Then at an event I went to I saw cops closing up 3 body bags outside the venue. Needless to say I now try to avoid san francisco at all times lol. People die when I go there.

I only got into basketball a few months ago (Thanks 2K Sports) so I'm a total noob as far as off court stuff goes...how long does he have to make his choice?

Negotiations begin July 1. Signings are allowed a week later.

@Namgis: Thanks ^_^

Guessing he stays in Miami

Maybe he should get together with Chris Paul, Kevin Durant, Kevin Love, Carmelo Anthony and whoever else is in the top 10 of the NBA. That way they can win several championships in a row against far inferior teams and consider themselves true champions. That's what winners do.

Hopefully back to Cleveland. Not a big basketball fan but when he was here everyone was a fan.

He'll stay in Miami so he can coast to a few more Finals loses by staying in the East.

lol dat passive aggression

No one ever won a championship alone.

No one ever won it alone, but I dont like this new trend of all the best players trying to get together to just to win. I think it adds more to winning when all the odds aren't massively stacked in your favor. You can cheer for these super teams, but I just dont like them out of principle. If the Heat land Carmelo, then yes, I'm sure they'll have lots of fans, but I think it just hurts the league in the long run.

Well the heat just made their first move in trying to keep him (LeBron), nabbing a shooting guard in the draft. With the departure of Shane Battier, the wing is looking very empty with basically the going-on-40 Ray Allen the only guy left. Huge move for them, and as always Riley makes it happen.

EDIT: Oh apparently I was confused. I didn't actually watch the draft, and I thought they drafted Napier then traded him for a SG, well this makes much more sense trying to get Napier.

Sh*t, I guess this means they're ditching Chalmers. *sigh* Well 'Rio, I'll always be a dedicated fan of you, wherever you go.

Looks more likely LeBron stays in Miami after they went out of their way to get Shabazz.

lol dat butthurt lebron bandwagon fan

you're the worst

You don't know what I'm a fan of lol.

Appears that Wade and Bosh are also opting out. Can only imagine this means all three will re-sign for less to bring in more talent.

More wizardry from Pat Riley. I'm mildly shocked Wade opted out, as he has said previously he wants no less than what he is making now. If Bosh and Wade can trim their salary from $20 mil to maybe 17-18, they maybe could make a good run at landing Evan Turner or Kyle Lowry as both can play the point and it's pretty much assured that Norris Cole was part of the trade to get Napier. They maybe could even add Steve Blake as a veteran wing player or Shawn Marion to replace the departing Shane Battier as they have similar defensive capabilities.

I keep hearing Lowry's name in Heat discussions but after how he played last season it would have to be a drastic pay cut for him to go the Heat. He might be offered close to a max money from other teams.

Lowry has said on a number of occasions that the end game for him is like all NBA players, a Championship. I don't think he has a problem with getting less money as long as he wins a title.

I know this is off topic, but I like how Evan Turner of all people, is a free agent. Him and Lance Stephenson. Do the Pacers have any chance of keeping either of them?? If they both leave the Pacers will be left with a dysfunctional group of starters without a true distributor, and a woefully bad and ineffective bench that basically only features Luis Scola.