LeBron and "The Decision"

As a Knick fan every since 2008 I have put all my hopes and faith into signing LeBron in 2010. But as the summer approached I realized we had serious competition. New York, Chicago, Miami, LA Clippers, Dallas, New Jersey and of course Cleveland all were in the hunt. I immediately knew the Clippers were eliminated. There was no chance that LeBron would go to Los Angeles and be in Kobe's shadow and literally be playing in Kobe's house. The next team to go was Dallas because it was clear that Dirk was not going anywhere and the deal was too complicated to work out. The only reason people even mentioned Dallas is because with Mark Cuban anything is possible. Now New Jersey, even though it seems that New Jersey was in the race I thought they had no chance. If he would leave Cleveland he would not chose New Jersey over New York. The Nets are stuck in New Jersey for 3 years with no roster. This leaves Cleveland, New York, Chicago, Miami. I felt any of these were possible. At the time I also had thought Wade was considering leaving Miami for hometown of Chicago and possibly bring in LeBron. I dismissed the rumors of LeBron, Wade, & Bosh going anywhere together as a fantasy. All 4 had there features: Cleveland- his hometown, his team for 7 seasons, family, loyalty, legacy...Chicago- best core group of talent and money...New York- best city in the world, marketing, msg, money...Miami- flexibility, good city, smart management. In my reasoning I did not attach Wade to Miami. I then narrowed it down to two: Cleveland and New York. Of course I am biased but I have reasons. Cleveland will always be in it because it is team and home, but if he was going to leave why would he go to Chicago where he will always be #2 to MJ and compared in every way. In Miami there is no one on the roster unless he brings people with him and with Wade it will always be wade vs lebron to the fans. The fans would be most understanding to a move to New York because it is the greatest city and a major career opportunity outside of just basketball. He could rebuild a team and be the King of New York. But when LeBron announced he was joining Wade and Bosh in Miami for a big 3 it was career suicide. For Wade and Bosh this is a good move because Bosh has a chance to get his max money and win titles (he is not worries about legacy since he is not one of the greatest of all time) and for wade he already has his ring and is staying at home. But LeBron is concieding any chance at being considered the greatest player of all time. No matter what he does he will never surpass Kobe, Michael, Magic, Kareem, Bird, and Russell. All were players who were commited to intergirty in the game. All of whom also have won a large number of titles. Even if LeBron wins 4 rings in the next 6 seasons he will be behind a large number of people. He put himself into a situation where Wade will always be better than LeBron due to the 1 ring advantage. If he had stayed in Cleveland and proved his loyalty then he had a chance to stay there for the rest of his career and even if he only won 1 or 2 titles he would still be in the top 10.