NBA: “King” James heads to Miami, expects to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh
‘The Chosen one’ has chosen a team. The state of Florida is where LeBron James will be mesmerizing the audiences. Yes that’s right, “King” James has revealed on national television that he will be playing for Miami Heat from next season onwards.
The announcement has ended months of speculation about who James will be playing for next season. This has been one of the greatest transfer sagas in the history of any sport after the high profile transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United to Real Madrid in 2009.
James announced his decision on national television last night confirming that he is heading to Florida, where he will be joined by two fellow free agents Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
This is great news for Miami Heat. The Miami Heat team are looking to regain the NBA title having not won it since 2007 when they completed a hat trick of titles with three consecutive triumphs.
Bosh, Wade and James will form the nucleus of a Miami side that looks ominous.
"The major factor was the opportunity to win, and the opportunity to win now, those are two great players, two of the greatest players we have in the game today, and now you add me and we have a really great team", James was quoted as saying on national television.
In an interview that followed the announcement by the NBA MVP, James said that the model set by Boston Celtics in 2008 when they bought Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce was his inspiration as the players transformed the fortunes of the team to help them win the title. James said that the three signings helped the players around them play better and made the team stronger than ever and that’s exactly what he will be trying to do with Bosh and Wade.
July the 1st was the first day teams were allowed to speak to the players regarding possible transfers. Although, many players had verbal agreements before then, there still was a long queue outside James residence as almost every team in the League wanted to take the star to their team. There had been high profile campaigns in all the major cities like New York, Chicago and Boston with the general public, City Mayor and even the President of the United States joining the campaign to lure the 6-time NBA All star player to their team.
Chicago Bulls, Nets, Clippers, Heat, Knicks, Bulls and the Cavaliers all were after James but the player has decided to move to the coastal town of Florida.
James was the first pick in the NBA Draft of 2003 when Cleveland signed him from St Vincent and St Mary high school in Ohio. Since signing for Cleveland, James has gone on to become one of the best players in NBA history, winning the MVP title twice and representing the NBA all stars 6 times in 7 seasons. James was also named the rookie of the year in his very first season in the NBA but has so far failed to win the NBA title with the Cavaliers.
James is expected to get a transfer fee of around 16 million USD, and, had there not been a budget cap in place in the NBA the amount would have soared to 43 million. When asked about his feeling on leaving Cleveland, James said "I never wanted to leave Cleveland, and my heart will always be around that area, but I also felt like this is the greatest challenge for me is to move on, I feel like it's time to change".
In seven seasons, James has averaged more than 27 points a game. The sunshine state will be hoping LeBron brings the Heat back to winning ways and ends his Championship title hunt.
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