“That’s crazy, because I had no idea what the word ‘contraction’ meant before I saw it on the Internet.”

LeBron James once again ended up in the crosshairs of controversy earlier this week when he (falsely) claimed that the league would be better off if there were more players like him who could create a superstar team in order to not have to work hard to win a championship. He said it would be better if there weren’t good players like Kevin Love on bad teams like the Timberwolves.

Team and league officers shot back, saying that contraction would be a bad idea. Of course LeBron was never referring to “contraction” specifically, because of course he doesn’t know what the word means:

“That’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.’ “

- ESPN

I don’t doubt LeBron’s excuse that he doesn’t know what “contraction” means, but his comments themselves were supportive of the practice of contraction, as you can see.

He said:

“Imagine if you could take Kevin Love off Minnesota and add him to another team and you shrink the [league]. Looking at some of the teams that aren’t that great, you take Brook Lopez or you take Devin Harris off these teams that aren’t that good right now and you add him to a team that could be really good. Not saying let’s take New Jersey and let’s take Minnesota out of the league. But hey, you guys are not stupid, I’m not stupid, it would be great for the league.“

Of course, there is one section of his quote that some people might disagree with. I’m sure you can find it easily…

You can see how he first mentions “shrinking the league” then denies that he wants New Jersey and Minnesota out of the league but then reiterates that “it” (presumably referring to “let’s take New Jersey and let’s take Minnesota out of the league”) “would be great for the league.”

We all know how “great for the league” LeBron creating a “tri-nasty” on a nationally televised ego-trip is turning out and for LeBron’s publicity…

Actually, the comments really seem to be LeBron’s way of trying to rationalize his easy-way-out decision. Its as if he wants to say, Hey, I don’t think I’m being an ego; I want this for everyone!

Maybe LeBron wants everyone to play for a laboratory-made superteam (or not: It would bring back the competition that he sought to avoid.), but competitive players don’t want to.

As Jordan said, “There’s no way, with hindsight, I would’ve ever called up Larry, called up Magic and said, ‘Hey, look, let’s get together and play on one team. I wanted to beat those guys.”

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