LeBron keeps fans, NBA waiting

LeBron James keeps everyone hanging as the NBA and the rest of the world waits for The Decision 2.0

The man the whole NBA is waiting for — LeBron James. Source: AP

WHILE two cities and an entire league waited for LeBron James to settle on The Decision 2.0, the man at the centre of the storm was happy to make everyone wait a little longer.

After James met with Pat Riley and Heat general manager Andy Ellsburg in Las Vegas earlier this week — the only face-to-face meeting the world’s best player will grant to any team during free agency — he spent Thursday afternoon (Friday AEST) playing pick-up games and spending time with players at his skills academy, where he was joined later in the day by Heat teammate Dwyane Wade.

James later flew back to Miami — accompanied by Wade — before flying to Rio de Janeiro this weekend to attend the World Cup final between Argentina and Germany at the Maracana. Both the Heat and Cavaliers are expecting his decision before he leaves the country, according to Yahoo! Sports.

Meanwhile, chaos reigned 2,000 miles away at James’ estate in Bath, Ohio, a sleepy suburb northwest of his hometown of Akron, where police cruisers were stationed outside his home. Cars full of fans hoping for his return to the team that drafted him back in 2003 lined up across the street.

Fans congregating at James’ house — while he was on the other side of the country — brought out the humorous side of Twitter, with people creating fake accounts about the property, including @LeBronsHome and @LeBronsLawn , while an Ohio television station even had a brief livestream of the home before it eventually was taken down.

It was almost the exact opposite of the drama that played out in Miami 24 hours earlier, where fans tried to decipher the meaning of moving vans stationed outside of James’ house in South Florida to remove his fleet of luxury cars (it turned out he does that every summer).

That’s what this story has devolved into, as the two fan bases most impacted by “The Decision” four years ago square off over the right to root for the world’s best player again, and the rest of the NBA awaits his decision in order to get on with its collective business — all while James himself isn’t talking to anyone.

The fact both James and Carmelo Anthony, who was expected to choose to remain with the Knicks either Thursday or Friday, have yet to make their free-agent choices known has set back the entire free-agent market. Outside of a few minor moves, the rest of the league is waiting for the two stars to choose first, with a flood of transactions expected to come afterwards.

“I think it’s probably more your part,” Celtics general manager Danny Ainge said of how much patience GMs have needed to exhibit waiting for James to decide.

“I see every one of you [reporters] following your Twitter non-stop trying to follow everything going on in free agency, but I haven’t been worried that much about it.”

While the world waited for James to make his decision, other teams began making moves. The Mavericks offered a three-year max contract to Rockets restricted free agent Chandler Parsons, which puts Houston — which has a max contract offer of its own extended to Heat star Chris Bosh, who like everyone else is waiting for James to make his decision — on a 72-hour clock in order to sign Bosh in before it has to decide to either match Dallas’ offer to Parsons or let him walk.

But while several other teams are waiting to see what happens, they’re all powerless to do anything while the game’s most powerful person plots his next move.

Source: NewsComAu