adminImagine this: Lionel Messi is on the open market for any team to sign. No transfer fee involved. No deal to be negotiated with Barcelona. But plenty of clubs lining up to tempt Argentina’s football superstar.
That is the scenario in the United States following LeBron James’s decision to opt out of his contract with top basketball side Miami Heat.
James does his job as well as Messi does his. He also plays in a sport where one player has a greater impact on a game’s outcome and can lift a franchise, even an entire city.
So his decision to opt out of the final two years of his Heat contract this week has caused a free-for-all of hope, hyperventilating, possibility and infernal noise across much of sporting America. In Miami, there is panic on the streets as radio talk-shows debate whether James is really going to leave or, as many predict, eventually sign a lucrative new deal.
In other cities, fans are salivating and teams plotting in the hope of luring this once-in-a-generation player who shimmers before them, taunting them with his brilliance, encapsulating everything desired in a player: talent, health, charisma, attitude, championships.
At 6ft 8in and weighing almost 18st, the 29-year-old is a powerful physical package of unusual size and speed who can play all five positions on the court in a given game.
He is also a team player. He finished third in the league in scoring last season, was 11th in assists and led Miami in rebounds.
In four years as a Heat player, James has led them to two National Basketball Association titles and won two Most Valuable Player awards, giving him four in the past six years.
In fact, Miami have advanced to four consecutive NBA Finals in James’s four years there, only the fourth team to achieve the feat. — BBC.
Online Reporter