“Getting help is one thing; fleeing to someone else’s Super Friends party is just bitch-made, scared-ass shit.” So opined Joey from Straight Banging the evening before LeBron James announced his decision to abdicate a Cleveland throne for a very chummy, star-studded scenario in Miami. Michael Jordan might not be a Straight Banging reader, but in quotes supplied by CBS Sports’ Ken Berger, he takes an equally dim view of James’ manuever.
“There’s no way, with hindsight, I would’ve ever called up Larry, called up Magic and said, ‘Hey, look, let’s get together and play on one team,'” Jordan said after finishing tied for 22nd in the American Century Championship golf tournament in Stateline, Nev. “But that’s … things are different. I can’t say that’s a bad thing. It’s an opportunity these kids have today. In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys.”
“Mike and I are in 100 percent agreement on this,” Charles Barkley told the Arizona Republic this week. “If you’re the two-time defending NBA MVP, you don’t leave anywhere. They come to you. That’s ridiculous. I like LeBron. He’s a great player. But I don’t think in the history of sports you can find a two-time defending MVP leaving to go play with other people.”
As for Jordan, he couldn’t have summed up my feelings any better when it comes to the Miami Big Three — the Dream Team or the Scheme Team, depending on your perspective. One executive scouting Summer League games told me he hadn’t heard Jordan utter those words about Bird and Magic, but he didn’t need to. “When I brought the subject up, he was just typing on his Blackberry,” the executive said. “And he was just shaking his head; you know, like when you’re disappointed? He didn’t say anything. He was just pecking away on his Blackberry.”