From the article: Cleveland's All-Star forward agreed Saturday to sign a contract extension of up to five years and worth as much as $80 million with the Cavaliers. The keys are "up to" and "as much as" since LeBron signed a different deal. What's interesting is that Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh are following LeBron's lead.
UPDATE: Nope. Attention Cleveland - you have 3 years to prove to the Mighty One that you are worthy of his splendidness. And even if you win championships, he'll still leave. I fail to see how this turns out otherwise. Nike wants him in a major market, he wants to be Puffy, or Diddy or whathaveyou, and there's nothing that can stop that from happening. Winning just changes the speech from "We tried to make the best of it" to "We've accomplished what we wanted to". And it's sad.
Ok, yes LeBron signed a 3 year deal...but what we are all forgetting is that the NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement ends when LeBron's "3 year deal" is over...so he could be setting himself up to jump ship...but he could be setting himself up for a different contract...I think that LeBron is not doing this to hold Cleveland ransom...Hughes is a solid player. Z is slow and needs to go...put Andy V out there with LeBron...but they need another piece (someone like Flip Murray...but not Flip himself) who can put some points on the board and is versatile...and is taller than 6'4". Cleveland is in good shape though...LeBron will get better...
Yes, I agree that the deal is motivated more from the CBA standpoint than anything else - but it also segues nicely into his leaving without having to make a trade demand. I think Lebron really wants to win in his hometown. I also think that anyone who believes that he'll spend his whole career there is nuts. This guy is going to LA or New York. The persistent rumors of this doubling the price of his Nike deal (into the stratosphere of > $100 million) are too numerous to dismiss.
