With Lebron coming to Miami, what effect will it have on the City and jobs?

[fredgarvin]

I'm going with Garvin's mantra in the East: " Fear the Deer".

You heard it here first! UTS is calling it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Caps are proper: FEAR THE DEER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Matt Meltzer]

I like that site, UTS. But the shirt that accuses him of being money hungry and greedy is inaccurate. I hate LeBron now, but one thing he did not do is chase the cash. The one saying "You can Head South, but you Mom is riding West" is perhaps the best shirt I've seen since "Alzheimer's Patients for 9/11: We Will Occasionally Forget." I may have to buy that one.

I boycott the league because it is easily the most predictable of all major college and pro sports. In EVERY other sport, you can legitimately go into the season - and quite often the Playoffs - with only a small idea of who's going to win. Sure, every year the Yanks and Sox are favorites, but a lot of years you have a Tampa Bay or a Florida sneak in and shake things up. Never happens in the NBA. You can, within 4 guesses, predict the NBA champ every year at the beginning of the season. So what's even the point of watching? It's stupid, the league needs to figure out a way to make sure talent is disbursed evenly to keep the league relevant in as many markets as possible. No, it's not pure capitalism. But at the end of the day this is entertainment, and the league has to do what it has to do to make sure it stays entertaining. Which it hasn't been for a very long time.

I think the league should adopt an NFL-like "franchise" tag, where a team can place that tag on a guy and prevent him from leaving the team. In exchange he receives a max contract plus 10%. That way a guy like Durant keeps Oklahoma relevant. Melo keeps Denver relevant. Etc. Is it fair to players? No. But it's fair to fans and keeps the league interesting. Basketball is the one sport where 1 player makes a HUGE difference, so it's important to keep those types of guys spread out if you want the league to prosper. If players don't like it I'm sure Real Barcelona will be happy to pay them 100,000 Euro to go play over there.

[Mario]

Matt, I share your disdain for the NBA, but can I ask why you're boycotting the league? My beef is that the product is, with its almost meaningless regular season, highly suspect officiating (especially for stars), and endless playoffs, a boring fraud.

The NBA and MLB both have regular seasons that could be shortened.

[Matt Meltzer]

MLB is different, though, as it's sort of a backdrop for an entire time of year. And the 162-game schedule and shortened playoffs means a lot of teams can have hope late into the season for a limited number of spots. I see the argument about MLB. You could probably end the season in mid-September and be fine. But at least the regular season is actually relevant.

[Blackford Oakes]

At least the homeless will get clothed.


Cavs fans unloading LeBron James gear after star's exit to Miami - NBA - SI.com

[Jess]

Jeez, the man is allowed to choose another city to play for!

[Blackford Oakes]

The first noticable impact has been realized and it's a negative one. The Miami Heat fired their season ticket staff today.

Here is the statement from the organization; "While the decision to release part of our sales force was a difficult one, we greatly appreciate their contributions to the company. We have also hired a placement service to assist those individuals find new employment. Should any season tickets become available, they will be handled through our season ticket deposit program. We thank those employees for their time with the company and wish them success in their future endeavors.''

Heat sell out season tickets, fire sales staff - CBSSports.com

[Matt Meltzer]

"Fire" is kinda the wrong word to use here, isn't it? I think "lays off" would be more accurate. It was just that there was no work for them to do. Hard to justify keeping them on.

So the LeBron effect, -30 jobs to date. Thanks a lot, PAT!!!!!!