In keeping with that ancient Visigoth philosophy, haters gonna hate, some NBA owners are crying foul over the Heat's recruitment of LeBron James and Chris Bosh and plan to take it up at tonight's meeting in Las Vegas.
“I’m going to bring it up to the league that we really do have to re-evaluate the issue of player tampering,” said Dallas owner Mark Cuban. “...There has to be more definitive rules.”
Yeah, okay. If Cuban is suggesting (and he is) that Wade tampered with Bosh and 'Bron, it can just as easily be argued that 'Bron tampered with Wade and Bosh with respect to playing in Cleveland or Chicago. And good luck trying to keep players from talking to each other, or pinning anything on Pat Riley. As the Cleveland Plain-Dealer illustrates, Riles uses MIND CONTROL, and that leaves no paper trail.
Last November...During a Cavs visit to Miami, Riley arranged a get together with Michael Jordan and James. During the meeting, Riley talked to James about how more modern players should pay homage to Jordan. Riley always had led this effort, retiring Jordan's No. 23 even though Jordan never played in Miami.
The Cavs knew about it, and while it seemed like it could be classic tampering, they decided not to make an issue of it -- mostly because the meeting technically wasn't about free agency.
That night, after the game, and after seeing Jordan and Riley sitting together courtside, James made an emotional statement on the court that he was going to ditch jersey No. 23 out of respect to Jordan. In fact, he felt all players should stop wearing No. 23.
It was controversial and got headlines. Riley probably didn't care so much about the statement but how his conversation obviously influenced James. It likely gave Riley confidence that he could win James over by playing to his emotions when it came time for free agency.
See? Riley isn't involved in any tampering. He works only with the power of suggestion, Jedi Force, pheremones, and strategically places horses' heads, and he's off bending spoons with his brain while every great free agent left in the NBA feels compelled to call up and offer to work for less.
But the grapes, they are spoiled, and no one outside Miami wants to believe players actually gave up money to play together without foul deeds afoot. Sports are a place of greed, and the hunger for money and branding has somehow become more demanded of players than the hunger to win amongst friends is considered a good thing -- and isn't the latter that pretty much the premise of the whole shebang in the first place?
(We blame Shaq for this, out of habit.)
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Not that we're claiming everything was entirely above board -- everyone in the NBA contacts players on the sly, and everyone knows it. We're just suggesting that tampering charges won't ever stick to the Heat, nor should they. Stockpiling three stars at once is all in the game: if teams can overspend into luxury tax, then players, likewise, can decide to take less. Maybe we're just not used to them making decisions -- or in Cuban's case, rejection.
Janie Campbell is a Florida native who believes in the pro-set and ballpark hot dogs. Her work has appeared in irreverent sports sites around the internet.
