Twistity Sports Exclusive: NBA FREEZEOUT

 
The dead of summer brings with it a freeze. The NBA can’t move. The players can’t move. Everyone is waiting for the Heat and specifically the star that generates most of it – LeBron James – to break the ice.

Will King James go back to Cleveland, mend fences and lives, bring championships, end unemployment, save the poor and sick? Will he remain in Miami where the era of the Big Three produced four consecutive trips to the NBA Finals and back-to-back championships (without ending poverty or disease)?

Maybe LeBron knows what he wants. Maybe he doesn’t. He has personally spoken only to the Heat and now he plans to watch the World Cup final in Brazil (hey, he’s LeBron, tickets no problem). ESPN breathlessly broke the news on Thursday night that LeBron was ‘on a plane’ from Las Vegas, where he had held a basketball camp, for Miami and then Brazil. Stop the presses (if there are any left).

It hardly seems likely he would make any kind of announcement that might detract from Sunday’s final between Germany and Argentina, but he has certainly upstaged German chancellor Angela Merkel, who had previously stated her intent to come to Brazil.

LeBron will do what he will do when he does it. Then all of the other NBA pieces, locked breathlessly in place by his deep freeze, can thaw out. Chris Bosh can decide – remain in Miami for less money, or go to Houston for the max? Carmelo Anthony can stiff the Knicks and go to Chicago. Cleveland can decide whether it is trading for Minnesota’s Kevin Love or not and whether to burn any remaining James’ jerseys.

Before LeBron gets his $20 million, he will have spawned 20 million rumors. He’s leaving. He’s not leaving. Police have been warned to protect his house due to a pending announcement. Police have not been warned and there is no pending announcement. His house is for sale. Or not. His kids have been enrolled in school in Ohio (they haven’t). Oh, the pitfalls of media – an unlicensed profession in which anyone with a computer and Internet access can declare an interest with no penalties. This, of course, breeds irresponsibility and explains why we need licenses to drive and catch fish (though these activities should not be practiced simultaneously).

Germany or Argentina will leave Brazil with a championship. Perhaps LeBron will depart with an idea of what comes next and the NBA can chill.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .