If LeBron says it, it must be true
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Nov 15, 2008 
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Noted Yankees fan LeBron James was asked tonight if he thought the Yankees would sign CC Sabathia, who is a friend of his.
“We’re gonna get him,” James said. “Absolutely.â€
Quick story. I used to cover the UConn basketball team and enjoyed attending the summer recruiting camps to get a first-hand look at the players who were on the rise. It was something I kept doing for a few years even after I started covering baseball just to see old friends and hang out.
In the summer of 2001, LeBron was at the adidas ABCD Camp at Fairleigh Dickinson in New Jersey. He was getting ready for his junior year of high school and was already a beast. The best player in New York that year was a kid named Lenny Cook from Brooklyn. The camp organizers allowed LeBron and Lenny to play a game of 1-on-1 on the middle court one afternoon.
The stands were full of players, high school coaches, college coaches and recruiters. The atmosphere was like a heavyweight title fight. LeBron destroyed Lenny, raining 3-pointers down on him then going by him and dunking.
Poor Lenny looked like he got hit by a bus. When LeBron hit the winning bucket, he put the ball down on the court and looked into the crowd to see if there was anybody else who wanted a shot. Nobody did. He was the king and everybody knew it even then.
LBJ loves the New York scene and always has. The Yankees have a good recruiter on their side.
Rasner saw the writing on the wall… we have so many young pitchers. Karstens, McCutchen, White, Marquez, Ohlendorf, DeSalvo, Clippard, were all released or traded within the past year.
In AAA alone, he’ll be competing with Hughes, Kennedy, Aceves, Coke (if he is a starter).
Smart career decision for him. Best of luck, he always competed and was a class act.
Do it LeBron…bring us CC and then come join him in New York when you join the Knicks after 2010.
LeBron will be a Brooklyn Net in 2010.
All the other celebrity/athlete Yankee fans should seek out CC as well.
from the previous thread:
**Speaking of the Nets, what is going on with the move to Brooklyn? Is that ever even gonna happen?**
SA, its not going to happen at least until 2011. bummer!
LeBron has basically done everything he could legally to show us how much he loves NYC.
Hopefully he’ll join us here soon along with CC
Nets 2-0 against the Hawks. Gave them their third straight loss.
I’m happy for the night.
“SA, its not going to happen at least until 2011. bummer!”
Ed-2011? Yikes.
Jay-Z needs to give CC a call. I know he’s a Yankee fan too.
Diddy, Chris Rock, Denzel, Spike Lee, LL Cool J, etc. all of the Yankee celebrity fans need to be apart of the recruiting process.
2011? How much progress is done on the new arena?
Why does Ratner (Nets owner) just go to the Brooklyn site and start shoveling himself?
*why doesn’t
AP,
Madonna? She might scare CC off!
SA,
Yep. something about wanting to explore the free agents first which will attract the superstars then move to Brooklyn when the season is underway.
Ironically, wasn’t that pic of CC in the Yankees hat taken at a Cavs game ?
Japan paid $1 mil for Rasner. Wonder how much Saudi Arabia would pay for Melky?
That Ryan Anderson and Brook Lopez looks for real. Also Devin Harris hurt ankle he still kills you off the dribble, the Nets need to cut bait w/ Josh Boone it’s nice that he can rebound and score a bit in the post but realistically when Lopez got in foul trouble Sean played near 20 mins. of shut down ball vs Al Horford, Lopez return Horford looked mortal he was held to 12 pts. tonight, post defense at it’s best.
AJ Yanks,
nope. in this pic, LeBron is wearing a black shirt.
http://ballsiest.com/sportsblo.....bathia.jpg
Oh. I see. Thanks Ed
I haven’t really been following the progress of the Brooklyn Arena. Last I remember they were being sued for something…
Does LeBron know something we don’t? I mean, he said with certainty that we’re going to get him. He didn’t say “I hope”, “I predict”, or “I think”.
He is friends with CC after all…
Sabathia wants teams to come to him in California.
Suggest the captain-Jeter, his future catcher-Posada, his closer-Rivera, along with Hal, Brian and Joe pay him a visit soon and bring along the video of the new Stadium. Show him the LOVE!
The only thing holding the Nets back from being a playoff team is Frank.
Trader,
Agree.
Send Jeter, A-Rod, Rivera, Damon (just because he is such a friendly guy), Girardi, Stick, Cashman, Hank, Hal, Felix the Gardener, etc. all out to San Francisco to recruit him
The Cavs come to NY to play the Knicks a couple days before Thanksgiving (and they play in NJ a weak earlier).
Arrange a visit for CC around this time… LeBron can then join the recruiting tour in person.
Clearly Lebron sees a future for himself as a member of the YES family.
From two threads ago:
Trisha, the back-and-forth shtick is all in good fun, for me at least, but I do not appreciate you accusing me of using a sock-puppet screen name to make comments directed at you or anyone else. It’s absolutely false and it’s a really lame accusation for you to make as it has no basis in fact. I don’t respect people who do that and I consider it an abuse of the privilege of posting here.
So here’s what I would like you to do: if you are serious in your acususion, write to Pete Abe and tell him what you think I did. And you can reference this post when you do, as I gladly give Pete Abe my blessing to expose me publicly if I’ve posted under any name that does not include “Nick in SF†at its beginning. He can see all the IP addresses and he can settle it very easily. And he can ban my IP too. Whatever.
Once that has happened and Pete confirms to you that I have not done what you accused me of doing—or if you just come to your senses and figure out that your accusation was pure bunk—it would be decent of you to retract what you said. I don’t care if you apologize, though I’ll accept it if you do, but I would appreciate it if you’d admit that what you said wasn’t true.
Thanks!
For NY they better hope it’s not a pay it forward type thing
YES owns the Nets/Yanks if LeBron knows he’s going to us than CC is going to know $$$ LeBron is going to the Nets.
Ed that pic is of CC Sabathia at a Lakers game w/ a Yankees cap and the guy he’s w/ is rapper “The Game”
Brandon, oh okay. thanks for the clarification.
Lebron James is a putz
Nick in SF…..Sorry about your Cal Bears today as I was hoping ( and betting ) that they win …..As for your integrity, it’s beyond question in my opinion…..Are you getting any fires in the Bay area ???? The Anaheim Hills / Yorba Linda fires are about 18 miles up the 55 freeway from Newport Beach…..Real Bad
Navy lost too, sorry Nick. No fires here in the Bay Area, they hardly ever make it up here, other than the Oakland Hills fires a while back.
Thanks, PAT M, I appreciate it. Sorry about your Cal losses. I had them in a few max teasers that paid out, but I lost more on them than I won. Cal really had its chances today, but the special teams was just too awful and the offense is still too blah. Hopefully these growing pains will pay off next year. But the Cal hoops team won its opener tonight!
No fires up here, as far as I know, but I’m going to head to the east coast after the Big Game next week just in case. Stay safe down there.
Buddy: Navy covered most of what I needed them to cover, that’s pretty much all I cared about. Cal, not so much.
But I remember that Oakland Hills fire, I was in Berkeley when it happened, it got pretty hairy.
How much would we get if we wanted to sell Hank to Japan?
I just moved to the El Cerrito Hills & there was a fire in Albany Hill yesterday but it didn’t make the news. It was put out within an hour & no injuries.
That guy sitting next to CC looks exactly like James Butler (Giants safety), its not though.
I know guys like Jay-Z and Spike Lee are not die hard Yankee fans, but they need to put in a word to CC.
Buddy, enjoy the East Bay. There’s supposed to be a really good Japanese restaurant on San Pablo in El Cerrito (or Albany) but I forget what it’s called. So I guess that isn’t so helpful.
What I find hilarious is that Cashman could have been courteous and told the Japanese team that we didn’t need any financial compensation for Rasner (or take whatever the minimum is in– 275K or something). But instead Cashman took the entire 1 million anyway ha ha ha That’s awesome.
4 x 4,
Why? Because they’re black?
“I know guys like Jay-Z and Spike Lee are not die hard Yankee fans”
One of Jay-Z’s best friends is our 3B he hangs w/ him more than any other NY athlete. BTW Jay-Z is Yankees fan.
http://i37.tinypic.com/6gzryr.jpg
Just not a poser like Spike is he rather not make such a big deal about it.
It’s early, but Cashman is having a heck of an off-season just based on the guys he’s getting rid of. It’s addition by Ras-traction.
Oh, and I have to admit that I didn’t even know we could sell the rights to players to Japanese teams. What’s next, posting fees???
The biggest Yankee poser of all is Stephen A. Smith.
Touche
Are we the first team to sell a player to Japan?
Nick,
It’s a new phenomenon in sports economics.
*Ca$htraction
Hmmmm…. I wonder if there’s a team in Japan looking for a lefty pitcher…. we have one and I hear he speaks the language verrry well…could even give them a 2 for 1 deal…Rasner & the lefty…
I think a 140 million dollar contract should be enough of a “recruiter.”
If Cashman sells them Edwar too, I want to see a picture of him standing in front of a sumo wrestler.
Does SAS know any sports other than basketball?
It’s embarrassing that he had a national show for a while and that Missilini was his sidekick.
These certainly are exciting times. Good to see a little news. Funny thing is I have Rasner in my keeper fantasy league and I have decide which 19 players to keep. Next to the first 28 I have either “Yes” or “Maybe” next to their names, but next to Rasner I already had a “NO”. He definitely had a limited probably of long term success with the Yankees.
Funny thing is I don’t think the Yankees will need any space on the 40 man with losses of Giambi, Mussina, Abreu, Pavano, Pettitte and I Rod. I know they just added two guys, but I guess there are now 5 spots available, 3 for starting pitchers and one for a positional player. Will be interesting.
Nick,
I got your back bud. Trisha accused me of actually being you posing under a different name before, simply because I was arguing with her. I never once insinuated that I was you, however.
Cashman did ok getting $1mil for Rasner. But if he threw Igawa into the deal as an interpreter he could have held out for a bag of bats too.
John November 15th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
What I find hilarious is that Cashman could have been courteous and told the Japanese team that we didn’t need any financial compensation for Rasner (or take whatever the minimum is in—275K or something). But instead Cashman took the entire 1 million anyway ha ha ha That’s awesome.
______
Actually instead of taking the million they should have given them money and told them to take Rasner and Igawa.
Traded Betemit for A) a live human and B) a potential real assett and then sold Rasner for cash money?
I nominate Cashman as MLB Executive of the Weekend.
It’s sad that Igawa’s home country doesn’t even want him back.
They would rather pay $1 million to get Rasner than take Igawa back for free.
CC Sabathia is taking the weekend to think about the Yankees’ offer of six years and about $140 million, a person familiar with the lefthander’s thinking said. Meanwhile, the Yankees continue to be aggressive in their pursuits of free-agent pitchers A.J. Burnett and Derek Lowe.
Sabathia is spending the weekend with friends and family. The Dodgers and Angels also are interested in his services, although they probably won’t bid as high as the Yankees.
http://www.newsday.com/sports/.....7138.story
“I nominate Cashman as MLB Executive of the Weekend.”
Seriously Nick, Cash is trimming the fat nicely. I wonder if we’ll see Shelley Duncan and Melky Cabrera go next?
QUOTE: AJ Yanks said “nope. in this pic, LeBron is wearing a black shirt.” http://ballsiest.com/sportsblo.....bathia.jpg
Umm, I’m pretty sure that is NOT LeBron.
Why all this Net talk? Lebron to the Knicks.
LeBron would own NY if he went to the Knicks.
Hopefully by 2010 we could see New Yorkers wearing CC and LeBron jerseys
Marquez for Nick Swisher?
Sold Rasner to Japan?
These genius moves are coming out of nowhere. I wonder whats next.
Incredible, LSU was down 31-1 to TROY — AT HOME — but just took the lead 33-31. And missed the PAT. Lame.
Maybe LeBron can sign with both the Knicks and the Nets and just alternate every year.
And the bigger question is when will LeBron come to New York? The Knicks are waiting.
I’m too lazy to look it up right now–is Nady signed for 2009?
“Why all this Net talk? Lebron to the Knicks.”
YES Network ——> Yankees/Nets
Nady is locked and loaded.
**Hopefully by 2010 we could see New Yorkers wearing CC and LeBron jerseys**
Cashman will not trade for CC next offseason from wherever he signs this offseason.
“Marquez for Nick Swisher?
Sold Rasner to Japan?
These genius moves are coming out of nowhere. I wonder whats next.”
Marquez and Bet for Swisher
Rasner to me was a…. WTF someone paid us for him ?
Selling Rasner to Japan was an odd, random, and hilarious move.
Shelley Duncan will be dropped from the 40 man roster and somebody will pick him up in the Rule 5 draft for $50,000 if he isn’t included in a trade before then.
We should sell Shelley to a Taiwanese team. I’m thinking they can get it done for under a $1,000,000.
Nick-
Uhhh, thanks for the non-tip on the Japanese restaurant. Jk. There are a few to choose from, but we will try them all eventually.
MLB has been selling player contracts to foreign leagues for years, as long as the player agrees to the deal. They usually pay quite a bit better for the players than they could make in the States, and like Cecil Fielder, they get a chance to work on their game and come back to the States.
Package Britton and Edwar and send them to the Israel.
Buddy, I’ll ask my friend in Berkeley, she’s the one that told me about it. Her Japanese professor took her there once.
Yankees made alot of changes to the 40. As of now it stands at 37. By my estimation we have at least 3 players that can be dropped and or move (they are bolded, or at least I hope they are). I also can see Melky, Damon, or Matsui traded.
Alfredo Aceves
Jonathan Albaladejo
Andrew Brackman
Chris Britto
Brian Bruney
Joba Chamberlain
Phil Coke
Wilkin De La Rosa
Dan Giese
Eric Hacker
Phil Hughes
Ian Kennedy
Damaso Marte
Sergio Mitre
Edwar Ramirez
Mariano Rivera
David Robertson
Humberto Sanchez
Jose Veras
Chien-Ming Wang
Chase Wright
Francisco Cervelli
Jose Molina
Jorge Posada
Robinson Cano
Shelley Duncan
Derek Jeter
Juan Miranda
Cody Ransom
Alex Rodriguez
Melky Cabrera
Justin Christian
Johnny Damon
Brett Gardner
Xavier Nady
Nick Swisher
Hideki Matsui
Britton, Geise, Duncan and Wright will probably be traded or not protected on the 40 man.
Cabrera, Veres and Ramirez will most likely be traded.
Mitre doesn’t need to be protected, because he won’t be ready until late in the season.
Kennedy, Christian, Albaladejo are less likey to be traded, but could be.
LSU with 37 unanswered points to win 40-31 against Troy.
Nick-
Sounds good. You know where to find me.
Hypothetically, if the Yankees have at least 3 solid starters after 2009 (CC, Wang, Joba) who arent going anywhere do they opt out of the Yu Darvish sweepstakes next year(if it is next year)?
update >>>>>
GreenBeret7
What do you mean Mitre doesn’t need to be protected since he won’t be ready? it doesn’t matter when he will pitch. Brackman can’t pitch for us yet, but last year he was on the 40 man at the beginning of the season, than was put on the 60 day.
thats definetly not game in the pic with sabathia with the yankees hat in all honesty it looks like torii hunter
“LSU with 37 unanswered points to win 40-31 against Troy.”
As an alum of Troy, I find that disgusting!!!
I stopped keeping track of the updates on SportCenter because I thought for sure they wouldn’t blow that lead.
At least Bama won!!!
agreed, not the game
Lebron is right Sabathia is going to be a Yankee in 2009 because that is a lot of $$$ to turn down. The Yankees need to sign AJ Burnett, trade Hughes and Kennedy for Peavy and sign Teixeira. That way you can put Swisher in center that way you can bring Gardner and Melky off of the bench. And Marte good signing because the Yankees and every bullpen should have 2 good lefty’s like Marte and Coke.
Here is the 2009 lineup and rotation for the Yankees
Damon,LF
Jeter,SS
Teixeira,1B
Arod,3B
Nady,RF
Matsui,DH
Posada,C
Cano,2B
Swisher,CF
CC
AJ
Wang
Joba
Pettitte
GO YANKEEs