With his “decision” in the Free Agency 2010, LeBron James triggered an earthquake that shifted the balance of power within the league – forever. Contract negotiations? Not with the superstars!
Where will LeBron James play in the 2018/19 season? This question dominates the Free Agency starting on Sunday like no other. In almost every NBA city there are posters designed to attract the King – some serious, others less. Elsewhere, scenarios are spun about what Team X has to do to free up space for a maximum contract, which LeBron – after all, there is agreement on this – will demand. And: How do James, Paul George and Kawhi Leonard fit together in a team? Here, too, there are analyses.
What has as much tradition as these speculations is the fact that James does not let himself be looked into the cards. Perhaps he himself does not yet know what he tends to do, perhaps he has already decided long ago. Recently, he said that he didn’t need the whole “recruiting” circus around it, everything would happen in his time.
Whoever reads this statement inevitably thinks: “LeBron and Recruiting Circus? There was something” – and lands in his memories in 2010, when James just drove this circus to its peak and announced his free agency decision in a nationally broadcasted TV show. “In this fall I’m going to take my talents…” The rest is known.
Eight years have passed since that moment. And year after year, Free Agency for Free Agency, it becomes clear how much LeBron has shifted the balance of power within the league through “The Decision” – or how much he has sharpened the players’ awareness of what a strong position they actually find themselves in.
In no other league in the world do players have as much influence as in the NBA – that’s nothing new. There are sporting reasons for this: With only five players, there are few athletes on the court compared to other team sports, and the individual influence of the individual is correspondingly great.
Added to this is the one-on-one style of play of many teams, which ensures that the particularly talented matches can decide on their own. And not just on individual evenings, but over weeks, months and years.
In other words, individual players determine the success of a franchise, individual stars can turn a lottery team into a playoff team. Nobody proved this more recently than LeBron at the Cavs.
In 2010 he was a smooth 26 years before entering his Prime (at that time no one could have imagined that he is still improving year after year to this day). Due to the Cavs’ failure to provide him with a competitive team, he seemed to be available as a free agent, which brought the Knicks, Clippers or Nets onto the scene as well as the Heat.
They freed Cap Space by firing players or cycling away, armed with Power Point presentations, they came to LeBron to convince him of their franchise. In a way, they volunteered to become his hostage in the hope of landing the big one.
The longer James waited for his decision, the more devastating it would be for the teams that went away empty-handed – other free agents were off the market, but their own squad “mucked out”. Stupid running. With the move to Miami James destroyed the plans of several franchises.
The Clippers are still waiting for a serious play-off run, the Nets tried a desperate move a little later, which sunk them into the basement of the table for years and the Knicks got nothing on the chain anyway, except to get Carmelo Anthony from the nuggets. The Cavs became the lottery team in one fell swoop.
On the other hand, Miami shone with three All-Stars, the ultimate Big Three was born. “Not three, not four, not five” championships, a new power arose.
Such an event had never happened before in the history of the NBA.
Of course, superstars were traded every now and then (also at the request of the players). But that a superstar in his prime leaves the team that has drafted him to get together with other stars in another team? This was a novelty. One could perhaps use the Boston Celtics, which in the summer of 2007 placed Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen alongside Paul Pierce. But this was a trio beyond the 30 years that wanted to make a final title run possible.
In the history of the NBA, most dynasties have not been built via the Free Agency, but via the draft. The Lakers around Magic Johnson and the Celtics around Larry Bird or Bill Russell can serve as a prime example, the Spurs with Tim Duncan anyway. In the case of the Heat, however, it wasn’t a front office that formed a team – it was a player that made everything possible. It was LeBron James who chose the Heat and not the Heat who chose LeBron.
“It was incredible what an impact this had on the power of the players. We players still benefit from this today. We can look at ourselves and say to the franchise:’Hey, I have the feeling that it doesn’t work like this with us anymore. Therefore, it would be best if we part ways’, said Kyrie Irving recently – eight years later.
In theory, superstar free agents have always had such power – but for years it seemed an unwritten law to be faithful to “his” franchise. The Larry Bird rule also ensured that there were many financial incentives to stay.
However, the latter are hardly a priority these days. Players like LeBron James build their own business, have business partners, see what is best for them and where they have the best chances of success. What if there’s only $25 million instead of $35 million? Gifted – because you can also make a good living from it. In addition, there are enough other sources of income than the classic salary.
James’ 2010 decision unleashed all these developments. The players know their power and use it – and LeBron James is a role model here too. In an ESPN story, one of his consultants is quoted as to how the negotiations with the Cavs should have gone by 2015 after James left his one-plus-one contract and thus became a free agent again. “We said to them: Prepare the maximum salary, we don’t take less. “For how long we sign, we’ll tell you.”
This doesn’t sound like negotiations, but like a dictation – and the Cavs wrote down eagerly and fulfilled all the King’s wishes. What else could they do? They had no choice, because the alternative would have been another team in the lottery.
That’s why teams get involved in the games of the superstars. They know it’s worth the risk: even if a LeBron player only plays one season with them, it’s a huge boom, both sporty and economical. Jerseys are sold, the halls are sold out completely, matches are broadcast on national TV.
Superstars are the backbone of the league, they generate interest, make oversized TV contracts possible, they create the rivalries that make sport so. That is why the franchises accept that a few players can dictate the events and shift the balance of power within the league with their decisions for years to come.
Currently, Kevin Durant is someone who shows it wonderfully. He will probably go into his third season with the Warriors – and in all likelihood he will not do so again with a long-term contract. So far, he has signed a One-plus-One contract twice without resorting to the “plus”. Maximum flexibility for the players and minimum planning security for the dubs are the result.
Here KD follows the path leveled by LeBron. That’s a little bit the irony of fate: Through his pioneering position in superstar power, James has created the Warriors’ monster, which he has now clearly failed twice in a row in the finals. It is hard to imagine Durant taking this career path without his decision and his business path.
James has to live with that. Or just create another super team equal to the Warriors. If he does that, he will again dictate the Treaty – wherever – there will be no negotiations in the classical sense.
A king does what he pleases. No event has made this as clear as his TV show eight years ago.