Carmelo to Miami Would Solidify Miami As the Blueprint

The Carmelo-Anthony-to-Miami chatter hit peak levels on an off-day after Game 3 of the NBA Finals. The idea of another superstar landing with the Heat caused everyone to throw their collective hands in the air in disbelief. How could it be possible, or fair, for this team—who just four years ago assembled a team built around three of the best players in the world—to upgrade their roster again, considering they've made four consecutive Finals appearance since that free agency coup? The answer is actually quite simple, yet we would prefer to complicate it and direct our misguided anger elsewhere.

In the last few years, "narrative" has become a very noxious term that pops up in sports conversations, if only because the downside of explaining trends and framing stories into a simple, easy-to-unpack form helps us explain things with the simplicity that we prefer. It's better to understand with ease, than to take the time to comb through the complicated layers of the grey area that is sports. The rudimentary argument for LeBron James simply states: he's won two championships, but he still never won it by himself in Cleveland, and since those days are in the past, he never will. Hence, any success he attains moving forward would somehow only further that narrative. LeBron cannot win, even if he does. The fact that this is even a sticking point with people is perplexing, considering the dominant performances he's put together over the last three seasons.

This notion LeBron can't do it alone not only dismisses his role in the team's back-to-back championship runs, but the cries of foul play that Miami is destroying the competition by pursuing another superstar assumes the Heat have been this unstoppable machine over the past four seasons. Yes, they've been to four straight Finals, but they lost in the Finals in year one to the Mavericks, needed a 45-point performance from LeBron in Game 6 of the Conference Finals at Boston to stave off elimination in year two, and last year: Ray Allen, corner three. This season? They're trailing 3-1 to the Spurs, a deficit no team has come back from in Finals history.

So the Heat—with a declining (not-going-to-opt-out-of-his-contract) Dwyane Wade and a dwindling supporting cast who have been exposed in these Finals—are going to be just like any other team this offseason, looking to improve the current team while maneuvering within the parameters of the salary cap.

Miami can entertain the possibility of recruiting the best free agent on the market in Carmelo Anthony because they've positioned themselves organizationally as the most attractive spot. That they believe their three stars would opt out and then consider taking another pay cut speaks to the goodwill and trust Pat Riley and Micky Arison have built with their best players in these past four seasons. Every team tries to build itself to an attractive destination for free agents and disgruntled stars drawing checks elsewhere while keeping their core group of players intact, but in reality, only the best teams can do so, and it's to their own credit that Miami did.

If LeBron, Wade, and Bosh do accept a lesser salary, and Carmelo leaves all that fuck-you money on the table and leaves the Knicks, they should be praised for it, too. Not for any financial sacrifices (we know how much these players make when taking into account their non-basketball earnings), but because they as players are making the choice to make the decision that gives them the best chance at winning. Isn't that what we want from our sports stars?

In the current landscape of the league, the best players are faced with an either-or proposition: take the most money but give up the best opportunity for you to win, or vice versa. If you want your cake and would prefer eating it as well, sacrifices have to be made, and the easiest avenue for a player to find his way to the best team is to make the money work under the parameters of the cap. It makes no sense to criticize players who, in a free market, choose lower-paying situations.

Along that line, if the end goal is for teams and for the players to position themselves to compete for championships season after season, then why should we criticize the Heat as an organization for their ambition, creative thinking, and ability to keep their franchise at the top for the foreseeable future? Every fanbase should want Mickey Arison- and Pat Reilly-types running their teams.

If there's fair or unfair, or a necessity to direct ire at something, anything, to balance out the situation, look no further than the rest of the teams in the league, who have not made themselves as attractive a landing spot as Miami (or San Antonio—who admittedly, do things differently).

Or, we could just accept the possibility that the Big Four would be a reflection of an organization at its peak, and a new way of thinking when it comes to the top players in this league. That's the "narrative."