LeBron Was Almost Left Off Olympic Team, Doc Rivers May Be Next Heat Coach, & Other Juicy Morsels

by Dan Fogarty | 10:37 am, July 18th, 2010

Among the things we learned from yesterday’s Yahoo Sports piece on the wooing of LeBron: Pat Riley may look to replace Erik Spoelstra with Doc Rivers if Spoelstra doesn’t win a title this season. Also, the process that got LeBron to Miami was every bit as sinister and Machiavellian as you could have hoped for.

The report, written by Adrian Wojnarowski, lays down a timeline of events that ultimately led to the “biggest free agent coup of all time.” Here are some other juicy tidbits in an article that is full of them:

- LeBron James was almost left off of the Beijing Olympic squad for being a bitchy prima donna. According to sources, he and his manager, Maverick Carter, put on such a display of standoffishness during the 2007 All-Star weekend (and the 2004 Olympics), that the NBA told USA Basketball it would be fine if they left LeBron off the team.

- Jason Kidd was essentially hired as his babysitter during their gold-medal run, and James only truly became a team player when Nike told him to get with the program.

- “The Decision” was partly a product of Maverick Carter’s jealousy of the media attention heaped on Worldwide Wes. The one-hour program was Carter’s baby and he made sure it got done.

- LeBron was apparently turned off to the Chicago Bulls because Derrick Rose never texted him. Aw, poor ‘Bron.

- James wasn’t a fan of the Knicks presentation because it was too long, and essentially harped on the same themes that the Nets did: how to make him a billionaire.

- LeBron wouldn’t talk to Tom Izzo as Cleveland desperately tried everything to keep him on the Cavs.

- Pat Riley is the basketball version of Gordon Gekko.

I urge you strongly to read the piece. It is, essentially, a definitive timeline of events that have been gossiped about for the last two months, and likely will confirm your deepest fears (or hopes) regarding the Free Agency Clusterfuck of 2010.

[Inside look at LeBron’s free-agent coup] Yahoo Sports