SUPERTEAMS OF THE 2010s: LEBRON JAMES AND THE DECISION

Basketball is a team sport and in competition winning is most times than not, everything and the only thing that matters. In the quest to win, teams may not think as a group but decide to go for it by any means necessary. For these teams, chemistry counts less, as the front office believes more in acquiring talent than building chemistry from the ground up. This is the world of super teams.

In the NBA, a super team refers to having three or more All-star-level players in the same roster. Boston, Miami, and most recently Golden State and the list will go on for some time yet, this is becoming the new normal in the NBA and fans love to hate it (that is if you are not a fan of the team).

Modern day super tams started with the Boston Celtics, but LeBron James is probably the man who has most impacted the culture in recent times, starting with “The Decision”.

Fewer days in sports history have been so highly anticipated than the day of “The Decision”. LeBron James was exhausted of shouldering every possible load in Cleveland, especially if they all ended in losing efforts. The Ohio native had met with the Nets, Knicks, Bulls, Clippers, Heat, and of course Cavaliers. Some speculated he might go to the Bulls, but everyone knew he would have to look for a new number; something no one thought was a possibility. James was chasing the ghost of number 23, and where else than the city of Chicago to go win championships and hearts. The Knicks had all the bright lights but the team was suffering from poor management, and the Clippers just wanted out of the shadow of the Lakers. The team and James probably did not know they would get Chris Paul a year later, may be it would have swayed his mind some more. The buzz, however, was that for the longest time, James had been fantasizing about playing with his two friends Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. The three men had been dreaming of what it would be like if they took to the court on one team, the complementarity, the fun, and the dominance. 

Dwayne Wade was already a legend in Miami and had given the city a title; there was really no reason for him to leave in free agency. He knew the system, was beloved by the city, and had control of the locker room. Chris Bosh was a star in Toronto but no one was going to come out there, not even when the team offered John Salmons more money than the Bulls, and he still choose the Bulls. Bosh knew his chance was now to get out and the stars were aligning for the three amigos. James finally knew what he had to do and there was no going back. He would take on a new number, a new challenge, and a new life in South Beach, alongside his friends and dominate they would, for four years, winning two titles along the way and James establishing himself as the best player in the league.