LeBron James is not a free agent. He could not be one right now even if he wanted to, and it'spretty safe to assume he wants to be one. He is, by rule, a Cleveland Cavalier until July 1, and rules state that teams may not tamper with another team's player's status. This, then, would qualify as a violation:
[Mark] Cuban said on the CNN interview: "Come July 1, yeah, of course. Anybody would be interested in LeBron James and if he leaves via free agency, then it's going to be tough. If he does like I'm guessing ... which is say 'I'm not going to leave the Cavs high and dry,' then he'll try to force a sign-and-trade and that gives us a chance.
Whoops-a-daisy! David Stern didn't take kindly to the talk, and fined Cuban $100,000 for the slip in judgment. And lest anybody think Stern's just going after his favorite target out of boredom, the NBA also fined Steve Kerr $10,000 for joking about LeBron taking the mid-level exception in Phoenix.
And besides, we all know that LeBron's going to Chicago. Either he opts out and takes a mountain of money from the Bulls, or he engineers a sign-and-trade where the Cavs get Luol Deng and an as-yet-undetermined expiring contract back. Then LeBron can win somewhere between two and four rings with the Bulls, and the Cavs will move to Kansas City by 2011. Also, Google will buy the state of California.
(This column has just been fined $650,000,000 by the NBA.)
