Sure, the Miami Heat are currently in the middle of trying to defeat the 15-headed hydra known as the San Antonio Spurs in the Finals, but it's never too early for so-crazy-it-might-be-true rumors.
Also, it's fun to keep making American super mad at us.
Turns out, two separate reports have come out in the last few hours that the Heat could be making a serious run at New York Knicks scoring savant Carmelo Anthony.
There are a lot of moving parts involved, of course, but the Heat Big-3 could be turning into a Big-4 come later this summer.
The original report comes from ESPN's Brian Widhorst and Mark Stein that says sources claim Heat executives have been discussing the possibility of adding Anthony this off-season once he declares for free agency.
The only way to to that, of course, would be if certain Heat players took pay cuts.
First off, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Chris "Birdman" Andersen, and Udonis Haslem would have to opt out of the final year of their respective contracts, and then re-up with Miami for less money, giving the Heat the needed $50 million in cap space to bring Anthony on board The Most Hated Team In America And We Love It Because, Fuck You.
That's a huge thing to ask professional athletes -- especially when it's tens of millions of dollars they'd have to sacrifice. LeBron, Wade and Bosh all took pay cuts to make their original get-together work. And Pat Riley is a God. So, this is all very much a thing that can happen.
There's also this: ESPN says LeBron is making mega-money thanks to his investment in several off-the-court business, which would give him the flexibility to turn down the max-dollars he actually deserves for being the best basketball player on the planet.
ESPN also says the Heat are looking at the other side of the court -- to the Spurs, a team that has maintained championship excellence for years and years while keeping their three stars and adding other great players.
There's the added motivation to get help because, as it turns out, the Heat's stars aren't getting any younger, and have played a total of one-whole extra season than everyone else in the NBA. All these Finals trips take a toll.
James will turn 30 in December, and Bosh, Wade and Anthony all are in their 30s and mindful of their advancing age.James feels he needs to reduce his workload during the regular season, especially with Wade at a point in his career where knee problems are limiting him to fewer games. Wade missed 28 games during the regular season as part of a maintenance program aimed at keeping him as fresh as possible for the playoffs.
Sustained excellence is the goal, and the team the Heat are trying to beat for the second year in a row for the championship are service as inspiration.
It's also been widely known that LeBron has always wanted to play alongside Anthony, much as he did Wade. All three are close.
The second report on Anthony-to-the-Heat comes from the Sun-Sentinel, which has an un-named Eastern Conference executive telling them he wouldn't be shocked at all if Anthony joined up with the Big 3 in Miami.
This executive says Carmelo probably isn't too enthused about staying in New York while Phil Jackson experiments with a re-building project and his hand-picked coach with zero coaching experience.
Anthony has until June 23 to decide to re-sign with the Knicks, or opt out and become a free agency.
Likewise, LeBron, Wade and Bosh will have to decide what their futures will be, once the Finals are done. They too can opt out and go elsewhere. Or, they can stick around and keeping adding to their wealth of awesome players to become a mega-team and make everyone outside of Miami's collectives assholes explode.
T'would be glorious!
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