00:00to talk about lebron's decision i guess we'll talk about the other calves too on the wise heart right
00:05we make it right call kyle right hotline we'll welcome on cleveland.com's nba and cavaliers
00:10reporter chris fedor chris welcome back to the show bud what's going on guys how are you doing
00:15all right i think some people are you impatient some people are getting impatient with this decision
00:21no it's not my decision it's lebron's decision and it's going to happen on lebron's time that's
00:26the thing that we know about lebron every single free agency decision that he has made he's tried
00:31to do it his way on his own terms um this is his story this is his legacy and he's
00:38trying to write
00:39what he thinks is the best final chapter for him and i respect that i think he's earned the right
00:45to do that um based on everything that he's accomplished on and off the floor in the game
00:49of basketball it seems impossible to guess obviously but if you had to guess what timeline
00:53he's operating on what do you think it actually is i think it'll be soon um i do think it'll
00:59be
00:59soon because i think he has at this point you know what these teams can offer at this point you
01:06understand um in your own mind what this decision is going to come down to now i can't define lebron's
01:13happiness you can't define lebron's happiness nobody can define lebron's happiness he has to define
01:18that for himself but he knows what's important to him and he knows what all of these teams can offer
01:25to him um both from a basketball standpoint and a non-basketball standpoint and i just don't think
01:30there's any variable that can change over the next three days four days or something along those lines
01:37and it's just about to him what is the best time to do it you know i've heard some rumbles
01:42from a couple
01:43of people that he may not want to interfere with the world cup final and he may wait until after
01:49the world cup i've heard some rumbles from people that he may want to wait until after summer league
01:55but it certainly feels like it's closer now this one has dragged on i mean if you talk about this
02:01free agency this is the fourth time that he has gone through this and we're almost approaching this
02:07one being longer than all the other three combined um but this one is also a little bit different than
02:14some of the previous ones that he's gone through in his career and i think there are certain ways
02:19that that he wants to paint this narrative um and write this narrative of this particular decision
02:25um that that it's one that he's probably going to be more careful with by the way lebron apparently
02:31saying on cnbc with rich climan uh i won't hold you guys up too much longer so it's great i'm
02:39sure
02:39people won't read into that i think that the title of his documentary is going to be purposely vague
02:46because like even going back to what rich paul did um at the very beginning of this whole free agency
02:52process and with the whiteboard that he brought onto his own podcast yes there were some things that
02:58were interesting but he was very very careful to not reveal things and throughout this time
03:04defining this as a happiness decision is the most vague thing that you can do and it allows you to
03:13have the comfort of no matter what people think about this particular decision you didn't tell them
03:19what this was going to be about except for happiness and at the end of it lebron can just say
03:24hey this is the decision that made me the happiest so they are being purposely vague and they have done
03:30this throughout the course of lebron's career trying to keep everybody guessing because like i said this
03:36is his story this is his legacy and he wants to do it his way on his own terms chris
03:42do you think
03:42retirement immediate retirement is still on the table no uh-uh nope he dyed his beard did you see that
03:49that was a big point of emphasis in today's fanatics but because he's been going around throughout the course
03:56of this off season with this gray beard making him look like grandpa and now he dyed it so now
04:02he's back
04:03in game mode but no the other reason for all of this beyond that is that he's still playing at
04:09an incredibly
04:09high level just a couple of months ago he led the los angeles lakers to a first round playoff series
04:15win
04:15over the houston rockets whatever you feel about the houston rockets and their ability in that
04:21particular series against the lakers he didn't have luca austin reeves was hobbled and he led the
04:27lakers to a series win with guys like luke canard marcus smart jackson hayes deandre ayton
04:34ruy hachimura if lebron would have played enough games to qualify guys he would have been an all nba player
04:39so that's the caliber of player that we're still talking about even at soon to be 42 years old
04:46he's still one of the most impactful players in the league and as long as lebron feels like he can
04:52still play at that kind of level and he still loves the game and he still loves the process and
04:58everything
04:58that goes in to being the greatest player that he can be at this stage of his career then there's
05:03no
05:04reason for him um to walk away so i didn't get the sense in in listening to his mind the
05:10game podcast
05:10and the clips that were out there on social media that he's looking at this as this is my final
05:17year
05:18for sure he actually left it open to the possibility that it could be the final two years
05:23or maybe three years but he also did say that he wants this or at least he alluded to this
05:30being
05:31his last decision and that's one of the things that's making this one um drag on a little bit
05:37more than some of the other ones you said there's some differences in this decision than the other
05:41ones what has been the most interesting difference that you've seen to me the biggest difference is
05:48what he's willing to take from a financial standpoint and how that opens up so many different
05:54possibilities that didn't exist in the past look i mean if if this was about lebron trying to cash in
06:02and getting the kind of contract um that that typically goes to a player of his caliber
06:09the calves couldn't be involved they don't have the financial flexibility to do that right
06:15the 76ers couldn't be involved the denver nuggets couldn't be involved like these other teams that are
06:21high priced teams already that that are pretty cap strapped and they they have all of these um
06:28obstacles to team building like the calves do uh they would have to they would have to sacrifice
06:35components of their roster in order to fit lebron's salary so it wouldn't just be viewed as an addition
06:42it would also be okay what is it going to cost us what kinds of things are we going to
06:48have to
06:48subtract from this roster in order to fit him and in order to fit his salary now you're talking about
06:55and i don't know that he's going to take the minimum that was something that rich paul just
06:59kind of threw out in passing but if it's the minimum if it's even the taxpayer mid-level if it's
07:06the non-taxpayer mid-level you're getting a guy who is probably the greatest bargain in nba history
07:13because the value that he brings to your organization is way more than that kind of contract
07:20so the fact that he's willing to take less money and the fact that this is the first free agency
07:26where you don't have to create a max salary slot in order to get him that just opens up more
07:32possibilities and it brings more teams into the mix and the other thing is i think the other
07:39fascinating thing about this is that yes the calves have a compelling argument for sure and i'm sure
07:46you guys have talked about it on your show i've talked about it on the wine and gold talk podcast
07:50i've written about it for cleveland.com but there are other teams that can make compelling arguments too
07:58and i think there are more teams now that can make compelling arguments than there have been in the past
08:04during these free agency kinds of things um and i think those are the bigger differences than than
08:10what we've seen in the past during other summers of lebron chris we got a espn report the other day
08:16that jalen brown joellen bead and tyrese maxey all personally reached out to lebron to try and get him
08:24to philadelphia do we know have the big stars of harden have donovan are they going to that length to
08:32recruit lebron i have heard that donovan and james have both been in touch with lebron throughout the
08:39course of this offseason of course brandon weems who is the assistant general manager for the calves
08:44is lebron's one of lebron's closest buddies um and they were together for fourth of july weekend so
08:50that certainly helps the calves case as well um but like i said i just don't know that there's like
08:56a recruiting thing that either tyrese maxey can do or anthony edwards or stephen curry or draymond
09:04green that is going to sway lebron he's 41 years old he knows the landscape of basketball he knows
09:11what these teams have to offer and he can see how he would fit with these particular teams whether
09:18it's miami whether it's minnesota whether it's cleveland whether it's whoever you want to throw out
09:22there whoever you think is maybe one of the front runners in this thing um he doesn't need donovan
09:28mitchell to say or james harden to say hey we have four of the 50 best players on this roster
09:34and we
09:35just start coming off an eastern conference finals appearance now maybe it's it's comforting for him
09:41to be wooed and recruited by some of these guys especially given the way that things went down in his
09:47final season in los angeles he probably appreciates that he probably welcomes that probably loves that
09:53knowing lebron um and it probably is comforting to hear if donovan mitchell is saying hey like
10:00i want you here james harden saying i want you here we're willing to make the sacrifices all that kind
10:05of stuff that chris bosh and dwayne wade and all those guys talked about in the past i'm sure those
10:11things are comforting but i don't think that's going to drive the decision or keep him from going to one
10:17place or push him in the direction of another if it's not the calves who at this point do you
10:21think
10:21it would be i think miami has a compelling case i think philadelphia has a compelling case um those
10:28no golden state i don't know that they have a compelling case unless it's really about just
10:33let's have fun and create basketball nirvana playing alongside stephan curry um but from like
10:39a basketball competitive standpoint and this is where it's hard because again i can't define happiness
10:45for lebron but all we can go by at this point because today was the first time that lebron actually
10:50spoke you know we have been going off of clues we've been going off of what people around the
10:57nba think we've been going off of what rich paul is saying on some of his podcasts and his appearances
11:04and things like that but rich did say something along the lines of lebron wants to compete for a
11:10championship so i do think that that matters now is that going to be the number one thing that he
11:17is
11:17looking for or is that going to be the number four thing that he i don't know that but if
11:22that's one
11:23of the parameters i don't know that golden states there they were the 10th seed in the western conference
11:29and there's a bunch of teams that they'd have to compete with um even with lebron and steph and
11:34draymond you know they got two guys that are going to miss what half the season recovering from injuries
11:40there they don't have a lot of financial flexibility to go out and improve the roster either so to me
11:47golden state seems more of a longer shot because they just don't check that box of championship ready
11:54team um philadelphia is a compelling case because if lebron goes there it's the best starting lineup in
12:01the nba that's what it is and we're talking about a team that hasn't won a championship
12:06in more than four decades and that is part of lebron's legacy is going to places making them
12:13relevant and elevating those franchises so ending the championship drought here in cleveland big deal
12:20to lebron you know learning how to be a champion in miami big deal to lebron going to the lakers
12:26the
12:26purple and gold wearing that jersey with all that history and elevating them back to prominence
12:32that was a big deal for lebron and rich paul said earlier um about a couple weeks ago that
12:38if if the knicks didn't win the championship that he would be going to new york so you ask yourself
12:43okay
12:44why isn't he going to new york what would have been appealing about new york what would have been
12:49appealing is one it's new york two he would get to play home games at madison square garden three
12:55they would have a chance to compete for a championship and he would have been responsible
13:00in part for delivering a championship for the first time in 50 years so like what team has that kind
13:07of
13:07setup philadelphia does there's also some lebron related ties there with mike gansey and some other
13:14guys that are there inside that organization so i think they have a compelling case and then miami
13:19taught him how to be a champion showed him that they can build a championship team and they have
13:25yamanis and bam together um and they have other components um off the floor where he could look
13:31at you know cleveland isn't the only place that he can look at and say that's home right miami's home
13:37for him too and that was where he started raising some of his kids that's where he got married you
13:44know
13:44things along those lines so i do think that yes cleveland has a strong case to be made and i
13:51do
13:51think at the end of the day it's probably the best definition of happiness because
13:56the combination of um head and heart basketball non-basketball but i think there are some other
14:03teams that certainly make an argument too chris we appreciate you buddy really bummed to miss out
14:09on your shador takes here but you have a good day i know you were waiting for those i was
14:15hoping that
14:16we would have enough time but you know the way that this goes when it comes to lebron he just
14:20you know he occupies too much time that shador is going to have to take a back seat but you
14:25know
14:25what wrist up buddy wrist up look at that chris fedor there uh calves and nba reporter for cleveland.com
14:31so
14:31you
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