When LeBron James recently said that he believes the league’s talent level has become “watered down,” and illustrated his point by asking people to imagine what the league would look like if the best players from the Timberwolves and Nets were distributed among the rest of the teams in the NBA. Although LeBron did say that he wasn’t advocating for the Timberwolves and Nets to be disbanded in his original comments, some people took his comments to mean that he supported contraction and was undermining the player’s union before the coming CBA negociations.
Today, LeBron clarified his comments to ESPN’s Michael Wallace, and says he was never advocating for contraction:"[It’s] crazy, because I had no idea what the word ‘contraction’ meant before I saw it on the Internet,” James said after the Miami Heat’s practice Monday. “I never even mentioned that. That word never even came out of my mouth. I was just saying how the league was back in the ‘80s and how it could be good again. I never said, ‘Let’s take some of the teams out.’ ”...
..."I’m with the players, and the players know that,” James said Monday. “I’ve been with the players. It’s not about getting guys out of the league or knocking teams out. I didn’t mean to upset nobody. I didn’t tell Avery Johnson to leave either. I didn’t say let’s abandon the Nets, and not let them move to Brooklyn or let’s tear down the Target Center in Minnesota. I never said that.”LeBron has gotten himself into trouble a few times this season by making comments he later needed to clarify. None of his comments have been unforgivable on their own, but LeBron doesn’t seem to realize that his popularity is at an all-time low after “The Decision,” and people are going to be looking for another reason to hate him every time he opens his mouth. Until the Heat have some significant playoff success, which always seems to change people’s mind about a player, LeBron may be best served by letting his superb play do most of his talking for him.