DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Jay-Z’s relationship with James should worry Cavs

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-lebronjayz022508&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports
Feb 25, 4:19 am EST


As Jay-Z made a toast next to his co-host, LeBron James, at a VIP dinner during All-Star weekend, he spoke of branding, about a new world order of celebrity businessmen. They declared this the Two Kings dinner in New Orleans and the star-studded list of invitees included NBA owners and stars, music label executives and A-list performers. Jay-Z talked of a tomorrow when these two monuments to music and basketball will transform the rules of engagement for the iconic performer, one witness said. He talked of making history.

For the Cavaliers officials watching, there had to be something of a collective gulp. They have been uneasy witnesses to a dance between James and Jay-Z, a bond between a generation’s most celebrated entertainer and athlete. These two spend a lot of time together – traveling, talking and sharing big ideas.

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What’s unnerving to Cleveland is that Jay-Z happens to be a part owner of the New Jersey Nets with unlimited access to James’ heart, mind and ambitions. Of course, the Nets are plotting a move to a sparkling new arena in Brooklyn, perhaps as soon as the 2011-2012 season. They’re clearing cap space and planning a pursuit of James when he can opt out of his contract in the summer of 2010.

Cleveland officials won’t talk about James and Jay-Z, but if you were wondering about the franchise’s fear of losing him to the brighter lights and bigger city, understand that the trade owner Dan Gilbert and general manager Danny Ferry made had everything to do with winning now and crushing James’ concerns that Cleveland is unable to surround him with a championship cast.

LeBron doesn’t want to just win titles. His stated wants include becoming sport’s first billionaire athlete. Among his advisors, he counts Warren Buffet. Jay-Z has helped James focus his mind on chasing something bigger than basketball. The question will be this: For the kid out of Akron, will his hometown – will even winning – be enough to hold onto LeBron James?

So yes, Sonny Vaccaro has been fascinated to study the burgeoning partnership since the days Jay-Z – whose real name is Shawn Carter – visited James at Vaccaro’s high school All-American camp in New Jersey. Vaccaro is responsible for some of the most profound marketing marriages in basketball history. He sold Nike on paying college coaches to be billboards for shoe companies, on spending everything they had on North Carolina’s Michael Jordan. When everyone else believed Jordan had a chance to be an excellent pro player, Vaccaro was convinced he would be transcendent for the company.

Vaccaro is out of the game, but forever connecting and consulting with those shaping the landscape. If nothing else, he is sure of this: In two years, Cleveland could be fighting a perfect storm of circumstances.

“I think that LeBron will have to look long and hard about leaving Cleveland,” Vaccaro said. “Dan Gilbert and the city have embraced him. They’ve done everything they can to make a championship-type trade. Danny Ferry did a good job with that. But knowing LeBron and knowing the world as I see it, the most appetizing thing would not be the New York Knicks for him, but the Nets with Jay-Z.

“Jay-Z is the one person that I can put in a parallel universe with LeBron from where they started and where they are now. If LeBron has a role model in life, it’s Jay-Z. I’ve never been around a more perfect match of young genius. What would be better than these two kids in New York?

“Maybe this is only able to happen once, when the money is there in New Jersey, and his contract is up in Cleveland. When you think of the marketing roll that LeBron could be on after winning gold in Beijing, wow. …I’m not sure the sun and moon have ever aligned like this.”



(Vince Bucci/Getty Images)
LeBron James has stated he wants to become sport’s first billionaire athlete.
Jay-Z is a Grammy Award-winning rapper, the ex-president of a record label, a club owner, a clothier, a hotelier. Now, he has started a new ad company – Translation Advertising. This is the kind of fortune, the kind of legacy, that James is chasing for the long run.

This drive and determination isn’t lost on Gilbert, the Cavaliers owner who absorbed several million more dollars in salary and luxury tax with the trade that brought Ben Wallace, Joe Smith, Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West to the team on Thursday.

James initially sounded cautious about the trade. After a blowout victory over Memphis on Sunday night, James gushed over its promise. Ferry delivered James shooting and the ultimate wildcard, Wallace. If Wallace has nothing left from his Detroit days, this deal could be doomed. Still, Cleveland feared the status quo in the East. Between the Cavs and the conference’s two best teams, Boston and Detroit, the gap has grown too profound.

Two years ago, the Cavaliers heard Jay-Z’s public position on LeBron’s future and could only imagine what might be said in private. When asked about the possibility of him someday joining the franchise, the Nets’ part-owner paid no mind to league tampering rules and gushed, “How amazing would that be? I tell people all the time, he’s my friend first. If Cleveland is building a championship team around him then my advice is to stay there. If it’s the Nets who are building a championship team that could be around him then my advice is to come to the Nets.”

The league office noticed the comments, but never leveled a fine for tampering. What can Cleveland do? Complain? No chance the Cavs will try to tell James who his friends can be, especially when they pre-date his days in the NBA.

When it comes to branding, nothing and nowhere could be bigger for James’ global profile than becoming the King of New York. There has always been a belief that his endorsement deals, including Nike, include clauses that trigger bigger payouts if James lands in a major market.

The Nets are clearing cap space for a free-agent class that includes James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, but James is the unmistakable target. So much so, the Nets have an internal business plan for the move into the new Brooklyn arena that includes a modest section on his eventual recruitment, estimates of his marketing worth and the salary-cap space that needs to be cleared for his signing.

This is the kind of advanced planning every team does, but there’s a credibility to the Nets’ pursuit that comes out of Jay-Z’s relationship. As for changing the landscape as iconic branders, it was no coincidence that James showed up at a New York-Cleveland American League division series game in October wearing a Yankees cap. Whatever calls of traitor ensued in Cleveland, the deed was done: Suddenly, the world identified LeBron as a Yankees fan.

Mere months later, Nike has a LeBron-Yankees shoe planned for March release. For those wanting to believe James is setting the stage for a move to the big city, the line of shoes does forward the idea that he wants to be identified with New York.

Between now and the summer of 2010, this promises to be a fascinating story line. Jay-Z has opened LeBron James’ mind to looking far beyond basketball, beyond the traditional journeys to superstardom. Together, they talked about changing everything for the global icon. Between now and 2010, the Cavaliers have to sell LeBron James that all that can still happen in Cleveland.

There are some ridiculous quotes in here that I just don't believe.

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What’s unnerving to Cleveland is that Jay-Z happens to be a part owner of the New Jersey Nets with unlimited access to James’ heart, mind and ambitions.

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Jay-Z has helped James focus his mind on chasing something bigger than basketball.

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“Jay-Z is the one person that I can put in a parallel universe with LeBron from where they started and where they are now. If LeBron has a role model in life, it’s Jay-Z.

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I had no idea that Jay-Z was the most celebrated entertainer of a generation...

LeBron stays in Cleveland and he remains the most revered and celebrated citizen certainly of the city and county, but probably the state as well. He goes to New York and becomes just another multimillionaire celebrity.

listen to his music... it's inspiring

The ROC boys in the building 2nite....

As much as I don't want him to go i'm not worried about it. By then our team should be descent and if he leaves we are left with a bunch of money and we go out and sign the best fa's we can get.

Can't stop him so if he don't want to be here then don't let the door hit ya.

If he goes he goes. If he stays he stays. I fail to see how it would affect "real" life as we know it. Pro sports is so out of touch with the average fan it's hard to get worked up over any of them!

Bigger, more important things to focus on than what this guy might do in a few years!

His hometown legacy would be tarnished and he'd be stuck with a big, ugly house in Bath Township.

National Media wants LeBron to leave so bad...but why would he leave? Even if that team had enough to sign him, they would likely be even worse than our team.

This is nothing more than the NY media trying to get LBJ to go to their city.

Jay-Z is supposed to be this "role model, businessman" to Lebron but didn't he just get fired from the record label he was working for?

By then hopefully the Cavs will have won a couple of Championships and LeBron will have fullfilled his usefullness and The Cavs get free up a ton of cash ...not really anything they can stop if he really wants to bolt so it is what it is . James is a good kid and I wish him well no matter where he goes and I hope he reaches his goal to be the first athelete billionaire.

I tend to think it is a done deal.

What I don't get is this...

This ain't baseball. Market size doesn't really matter in the NBA when it comes to covering teams. Unless you're the Knicks, but they're covered for their sheer pathetic management.

Sportscenter hasn't really gone gaga for the Nets in the past few years, they've been just another team.

IIRC, aren't the Cavs on the league-maximum amount of nationally televised games?

Cavs are right up there with the Lakers, Pistons, Suns, Mavs, etc. when it comes to exposure and media coverage.

This ain't baseball where even when the Indians do well it's always Yankees/Sox (Baseball is covered the worst by the media). Hell, this ain't even the NFL where the NFC East appears to be a bit more exposed than the rest of the conferences.

Theoretically, where LeBron plays shouldn't be an issue since he's already a nationally recognized figure. Besides, sometimes I think the rest of the country likes the whole "hometown hero" story.

But, maybe I'm delusional.

His business opportunities grow 10 fold if he lived and played in NY.

Just clicking....

When LBJ is set to renew (and with the way salaries grow each year), he will be able to make probably 30 million more by resigning with the Cavs than with any other team.

With the moves we'll be able to make in 2 years, I think it will be enough to have LBJ sign one more max extension. He has a ton of family in the area, has a couple kids, is building his mansion that is due to be completed and all of his friends are in the area. Gilbert has committed a ton of resources to our brand new state of the art practice facility that isn't far from where LBJ lives as well.

I can see him leaving after this next contract though - which will be about 9 or 10 years from now (I believe he can sign for the max 6 years after this contract).

Lots of inconsisten remarks in this story,, NO WAY Jay Z is the most celebrated performer.. He's not the biggest star of anything.. so this reporter is a bit over the top on alot of this..

When the talk turns to celebrated performers, I think of the Beatles, Mike Jackson, Celine Dion, Elvis, Sinatra, etc etc.. Jay Z isn't even close in stature to those individuals in terms of his "performer status".

But I have to say, I've thought for a while that it's about the money for LBJ and of course, he want's to win.

All this article does is reinforce my thinking.

I'm no B Ball Guru so I don't have a feeling if the trade that was made will lead to the ultimate win.. But based on my limited perspective of the game and what I happened to see some of the other night and what I read yesterday, it sure appears to be a move in the right direction..

To a layman such as myself, that's how it appears.....

Also, what do you think he plans on doing with the enormous mansion he is building? It still has another year to go before it is even done. You think he built that for the heck of it?

It's all about the size of the pie...and the pie is bigger there with more opportunity to run elbows.

I also get the impression he wants to be a part of the "scene".

One he can't seem to find in Cleveland.

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The BIG money is made with Nike, Powerade, CocaCola, etc ,,, you know ... companies he's already signed on with.

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The really big money comes from LeBron James, Inc... whatever that is and whatever that will mean...

Peens point and I guess mine as well is, if it's more exposure that LBJ desires, then there are better places to play than in cleveland.. NYC, LA, Chicago...etc..

Exposure makes Nike or Hanes or one of them willing to pay more money.. The more "POSITIVE" exposure LeBron gets, the more these companies will pay him.

Now, am I saying that he's leaving.. No,, I hope that in the end he sees that if he helps bring championships to a city like Cleveland, he will end up getting plenty of exposure,,, In a funny way, it could end up being more because the task or challenge may appear greater.

But in the end, I'm convinced it's about money.. and if he can make the same money here that he could in NYC,,, then my guess, my hope is that he stays.. I just am NOT convinced that is possible. There's the rub!

I don't remember who brought it up, but as for the mansion he built in Richfield,, LBJ has so much money that he could afford to let the thing sit, and never lose a nights sleep over it. What was it he supposedly spent on it,, 25 Million or something.. He's not gonna let getting to a net worth of a Billion be hampered by an investment of 25 mill...

This is just my opinion,, I don't have any inside info that I can point to to prove my point.. nobody else does either....

I understand what you guys are saying, and why you think it, but you are missing what others are saying.

Sure NY and LA are bigger TV markets, but do you really think those people don't know who LeBron is? Do you think LeBron is bigger than Kobe? In the world of the NBA, LeBron is bigger than everyone, no matter where they play. LeBron does just fine in NY and LA, and living there won't make a difference in his wealth. Why would Nike pay him more if he played in NY or NJ? Because there are more fans? If you haven't noticed, kids are the ones keeping Nike and Gatorade and all the other companies filthy rich, and most kids are fans of PLAYERS not TEAMS.

Where LeBron plays will make no difference when it comes to endorsement deals. The guy is already huge overseas as well as here in the USA. He can't get any bigger, and there is not one person on this planet that has not heard the name "LeBron James."

In the end, he may leave, he may not. I just don't think it will be for the ridiculous reason that you guys think.

True indeed...we're all just speculating...

It's just that my speculations are more accurate than yours!

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It's just that my speculations are more accurate than yours!

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Are you saying that because you are African American that you have a better insight to the minds of LeBron and Jay-Z ???? Way to play the race card !!!









It's been longer than a week since someone has argued about race and I was getting concerned that they all forgot about it.

Nice

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Where LeBron plays will make no difference when it comes to endorsement deals.

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It doesn't really matter if that's true or not, what matters is LeBron's perception of whether it's true. If he perceives bigger opportunities in the big city, then he might be inclined to go...

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The guy is already huge overseas as well as here in the USA. He can't get any bigger,

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You can always get bigger.... there is always an untapped market or product or service out there somewhere...

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In the end, he may leave, he may not. I just don't think it will be for the ridiculous reason that you guys think.

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Money isn't a ridiculous reason.... I personally think that whether or not he stays will be based more on winning... winning gives you opportunities to make money that even the big city can't compete with.