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The Bulls in 94 after Jordan left were still the #3 seed in the East and lost in game 7 to the eventual Eastern Conference champs, and even then the Knicks game 5 win was on a controversial call. The following year they were the 5 seed when MJ returned half way through the season. So to act like Chicago was worthless without Jordan is a little ridiculous. Was he the greatest ever? Yeah, but he had a lot of help too. Help Lebron has never had, and likely wasn't going to get any time soon.
Was that partially his fault? Yeah, holding off on decisions and being an egotistical gloryhound generally does that. However nobody that isn't desparate to play with him, or has ties to the area is really going to want to play there. They are going to want to play in cities like Chicago, Miami, LA, Boston or NY. Cities where they can get more attention and more endorsements. I mean we talk about Bird, Jordan and Magic well where did they play? Big cities with big money. That's what it's all about, he wants to get all he can while he can. Who knows, in a few years if he has some titles, he may go back to Cleveland to finish out his career.
But just because something is unprecendented doesn't mean it's awful. I mean Moses Malone was the last MVP to leave his team and that was like 30 years ago. Yet does anyone remember that or talk about that? No, after a year or two no one will care about this either and we'll all be on to the next thing we can overreact too. It'll be like the Kobe rape accusations. The only people who will bring it up are people looking to tear the guy down. He handled this deal in probably the worst way he could, but in the end who cares?
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