Wade pulls all the right strings and reels in King James

They say there's nothing good on TV anymore.

That was absolutely the case on ESPN Thursday night because as dramas go, "Who Stole LBJ?" will not make anyone forget, "Who Shot J.R.?"

There was no suspense when LeBron James announced his decision since everyone knew already the big three had landed on South Beach, courtesy of the conductor, Dwyane Wade, who turned out to be smarter than everyone involved in this episode, especially Bulls management.

And you can't blame Wade for that.

Wade was never coming to Chicago, never leaving Miami, never of the belief that he couldn't attract big-time free agents to South Florida.

Chicago was warned early on that Wade wasn't seriously considering Chicago as a basketball destination.

Wade, for his part, never said it might be, but the frothing NBA media bought the bunk and began believing Wade might actually come home, where there is nothing but aggravation waiting for him in Chicago.

No, Wade never really thought about Chicago, despite the spin already spun, and that which you may hear.

What you also had to know was Chris Bosh wanted only to play with James, and would have done it in any number of cities - except Cleveland.

So Wade's plan all along was to first bring Bosh to Miami by convincing Bosh he could only get James if Bosh also quickly committed to the Heat.

Wade figured James would then realize his chances of winning in Cleveland weren't good, and even though LeBron didn't want to leave home, Wade's tactics forced James to South Florida, where enticements - and maybe titles - await.

So Chicago is mad at James for heading to Miami-Wade County, and really angry that Wade played his hometown with no intention of returning, but in reality all Wade did was take a couple courtesy meetings and allow the Bulls an audience.

In fairness to John Paxson and Co., the Bulls never had a chance.

Credit them with recognizing quickly that Wade had all the power and was brokering the deals - orchestrating as brilliantly off the floor as he does on it - so they had to pitch Wade and trust he didn't already have Bosh on board.

Obviously, he did, so now the Bulls have done the unthinkable - they have missed out on the three best free agents in the very best free-agent class in NBA history.

That's almost impossible to believe after they got the cap room they needed and went after the best players to fill the roster, but at least they're not alone, as Cleveland, New York and New Jersey can all say the same.

And at least the Bulls aren't left with Ron Mercer this time, landing Carlos Boozer as the low-post presence they haven't had since Paxson took over.

What they need now is a first-class gunner - like Kyle Korver - and they'll have themselves a competitive and entertaining club in the Eastern Conference, maybe even a contender.

The problem is the NBA is a star-driven league where titles are won by huge names, none of which signed with the Bulls, even though they did all they could to make it happen.

Perhaps they should have gone after Bosh and Joe Johnson hard from the start instead of waiting for James or Wade, but hindsight is 20/20, and the real damage was done by the Bulls in the bad contracts of the past - including Luol Deng's - that kept them from having enough space for the big three.

In any case, the Summer of LeBron is mercifully and finally over, concluding with an odd, selfish, egomaniacal, vanity-stuffed production that James' hero, Michael Jordan, would have found unseemly.

LBJ worships Jordan, but he fails miserably when it comes to understanding the class and tradition of NBA greatness that Jordan considered an essential part of his NBA royalty.

And if this was supposed to enhance the James brand, it has done the exact opposite, turning off a large portion of the casual NBA audience that believes it is still a league of self-interested thugs.

Some people want to blame David Stern for that, but he and the players are merely playing by the CBA rules, and one genius - Dwyane Wade - has manufactured himself quite a coup playing precisely by those rules.

What else could Stern do?

He already handed the Bulls a Derrick Rose ping-pong ball - as he once delivered Patrick Ewing to the Knicks - and where is the Bulls franchise without that bit of good fortune?

With Kobe Bryant in L.A., Stern was hoping LBJ would land in New York or Chicago, but those teams failed to outsmart Wade, so you can't blame Stern, and you certainly can't blame Wade.

Still, for those of you sick of the NBA and the manner in which its stars use a connive-and-control structure not seen anywhere else in sports, well, no one can blame you for that, either.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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