There are things in life that will happen no matter what. The sun will set and rise. People and animals will be born, live and die. And, as Spike Lee and the rest of New York would have you believe, LeBron James will play for the Knicks.
Cleveland's third-straight loss, which came to the Pistons Sunday, continued the team's long, slow slide out of the playoff race and added fuel to rumors that James will either ask to be let out of his contract, force a trade or simply will himself to the Knicks at the end of the season.
That James is just itching for the chance to play for the Knicks seems to be a foregone conclusion in the media. In their world, everyone wants to be in or play for New York, so why shouldn't James?
It's not like James would be leaving a significant city, anyway. Four-hundred-sixty-three Miles East of New York (as New Yorkers no doubt refer to Cleveland) may as well not even be there, except as a place for Jet Blue airplanes to refuel on their way to Long Beach.
New Yorkers see it as a fact of nature that any athlete of superstar-caliber talent should be desperate to play for one of their teams. This sense of Manhattan Destiny mostly centers around the Yankees and their fans (as soon as a Major League free agent is mentioned in the same breath as the Yankees, he may as well have already been fitted for pinstripes by a tailor), but it permeates every sport and ensures that no fan can ever be totally safe from ugly New York rumors.
Blasphemous as this may sound, not everyone wants to play for New York. And, more to the point, there hasn't exactly been a mass exodus of NBA talent from other teams to the Knicks.
Even disgruntled stars who force trades haven't exactly yearned to wear the blue and orange lately, going to other, obviously less-worthy homes.
Shaquille O'Neal went to Miami (sleepy southern port town), Tracy McGrady went to Houston (rodeo, anyone?) and Vince Carter went to New Jersey (a clichéd joke about New Jersey being nothing more than a suburb of New York would go here, but I will not stoop).
Both James and his agent have issued statements saying that he will remain in Cleveland for the remainder of his contract, which makes sense. A product of Akron, just 45 minutes away, James fits in Cleveland like few other pro athletes have.
But even if he did want to leave Cleveland, why go to New York? There are plenty of more attractive places to play. Supposed endorsement clauses notwithstanding, the Knicks are sandbagged at the bottom of the league, and few markets are as pressure-packed or demanding.
People already want to dismantle the Yankees after just two weeks of mediocre baseball. How many minutes would LeBron get to make the Knicks contenders for the national title?
The song may say, "If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere," but if I were a pro athlete, I'd take "anywhere."
This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on April 19 2005.