LeBron part 2 - Brand diminished

In the previous post, I covered the part about how LeBron mismanaged the decision making process. Now I want to talk about the decision itself. I hate it. I am one of those guys who never wanted him to leave Cleveland, but thats not the only problem with this decision. Miami to me was a head-scratcher. He is definitely diminishing his brand by joining forces with Wade - a top 5, if not a top-3 talent in the league and Bosh - a top-10 talent. I realize that he is doing this for winning championships, but winning with this group will not make him a "global icon". He will be lucky if he even becomes a bigger icon than Wade in Miami! Wade already has a ring and he will always have one more than LeBron in this setup.

I realize that our culture is really obsessed with winning and we rate people with championships much higher than the ones without. Dan Marino is probably the best quarterback ever, but he never gets the credit because he has ten fingers, but no rings. LeBron clearly thought about this and got intimidated by Kobe's 5 rings and MJ's 6. He looked at himself and his Cavs team and just could not imagine winning 4 or 5 or 6 championships, which is what he thinks he needs to do to be in that "best ever" discussion. But the part he missed is that having multiple rings is important, but how you win them matters too. MJ gets all that credit because he won those rings as the "alpha-dawg" in those Bulls team. Thats why the 2008 ring was so important for Kobe because Kobe's first 3 rings are not his, but Shaq's.

There is no question that LeBron is the better and the more popular player than Wade. I thought the news about how the Heat season tickets were flying off the shelf once the news of LeBron's arrival in Miami leaked was interesting. Wade and Bosh were already in town and I am sure they sold a lot of tickets too, but LeBron is just at a different level as a star. With all that said, Wade is no joke. He is no Pippen or even Pau Gasol. Plus LeBron is going to his town and Wade already has a ring. So LeBron has to share the limelight with Wade. There is no guarantee they win multiple championship, but if they do, LeBron has to share it with Wade. Wade always screamed "this is my house" whenever he hit buzzer beaters or made big plays at home in Miami. Thats exactly the point! LeBron is going to his house. They may be giving him the keys to the master bedroom, but it's still Wade's house.

LeBron's career averages are 27.8 points, 7.1 boards, 7.0 assists and Wade's are 25.4, 4.9 and 6.6. I can easily see Wade being the better scorer in this team give LeBron's tendency to give up the ball and be tentative in the clutch sometimes. LeBron might end up with better all-around numbers, but Wade could end up being the alpha-dawg. Thats not good for LeBron's brand. You could say that he is sacrificing his brand and salary for winning, but thats just a fake argument. To quote one of my friends - "taking less money to play with a bunch of elite players is a false positive for having heart". You can't go and team up with other super-stars , accumulate rings and claim I am better than MJ or Kobe. Ain't gonna happen. LeBron will never be better than MJ now. He could win 7 rings, but will still be ranked lower than MJ and may be even Kobe. I don't think there was ever a situation in any sport where pick numbers 1, 4 and 5 from a year's draft end up on the same team while they are still at their peak. He can never get away from that fact in any "legacy" discussions.

Even NY or Chicago would have made more sense to me than this. He would have been on a great team in Chicago and would have still been the alpha-dawg. It would have been his team, but Miami is not his. As a 25 year-old superstar, he should be working towards winning his championship for his team. Instead, he is joining forces with other stars in another city like older superstars do to get a ring before they retire. I feel like he could have given Cleveland some more time - may be another 3 year deal, and resorted to some mercenary tactics later. I think he seriously tried to convince Bosh to join him, but when he didn't, he didn't see any strong running mate left, panicked and ejected. He is not that far from a championship in Cleveland and the Cavs have been spending money. In fact, if he didn't have a gun to their head for the last several years with this impending free agency, they might have built a more viable team than go after quick fixes like Shaq and Jamison. But they did spend the money and I am sure they would have tried to build a winner for LeBron. And that championship would have meant a LOT more for his legacy than the Miami rings ever will. He might have even become a legend with just a single ring at Cleveland. Now, he needs at least 2 championships to even make a mark.

Winning will solve a lot of problems, but LeBron has a boatload of work to do to fix and rebuild his brand.