LeBron James didn't just win Monday night's final game against his rival, championship partner, gold-medal teammate, opponent, and banana boat buddy Dwyane Wade. He also had sad-sack Knicks fans thinking they'd been in the running for James' services in free agency this past summer.
After the 108-105 Lakers win following a vintage Wade performance in the second half and the usual LeBron fourth-quarter heroics, the two friends met at halfcourt among a throng of media and tried to shoot the shit like they weren't being bombarded by camera flashes and a dang boom mic hovering above them.
That's when LeBron, playing prophet, said he knew they would face off for the last time at either Staples Center (where they were) or the Garden, meaning Madison Square Garden.
Implicit in the remark was that the Knicks were an actual option for James in this past summer's free agency. That was all Knicks fans needed to scream a HUZZAH! They were in the running for LeBron!
That's when LeBron Whisperer Brian Windhorst said any chance the Knicks had at nabbing James was crushed by the disrespectful way many felt Phil Jackson treated Bron's buddy Carmelo Anthony.
However, the Knicks weren't even in James' thought process when he made the mysterious statement to Wade at mid-court. No, LeBron was referring to the fact the Staples Center and MSG were the only two venues important enough to have housed such an iconic—at least in his mind, and likely in the mind of every media person in L.A. Monday night—moment.
Sorry. The Knicks remain the Knicks, 8-20 to start the season with no inkling of when Kristaps Porzingis might return to the hardwood and few prospects—save a crazy one dreamed up by someone who lives in New York—for this summer's free agency. All this despite New York media's conviction the team is still a destination because of MSG's status as the Mecca of basketball.
