Ok, so you wont be going to that website at all during the season? Because there is a mass amount of basketball fans both for and against LBJ that will check it out throughout the season.

Imagine if they had a Bulls type site when Jordan was in his prime....i wouldnt have been able to get enough of it! Marketablity wise, LBJ is the equivalent right now.

I definitely wont be going to that website. I can't stand the Heat and I couldn't careless if they all choke on each others couch splutter cough in the locker room....

I can't see the 'good' of these guys playing together. Sure, they will win a ring or two and it will be great for the Miami Heat and individually for LeCrab, D-Whistle and Biatchboy, but will it be good for the greater NBA???

I don't want to see two or three 'elite' teams and that's the way it's heading. Granted the Celtics started it, Lakers and Miami have continued it. I expect next season that the Knicks will jump on board when Melo signs, and the year after, CP3 hooks up in New York.

I'm not going to bang on about 'the decision', it's been done and dusted. I just don't like ESPN. They should be independent and have an unbiased view and cover the whole league, which includes the Sacramento's, LA Clippers, Charlotte Bobcats, Golden State Warriors of the league. I get sick of watching Lakers, Boston, Chicago, NY every single week. I'd love to see Blake Griffin, John Wall, Brook Lopez, Gerald Wallace, Stephen Curry, Danny Granger etc over watching LeCrab and D-Whistle travelling all over the court each possession.

End of the day, ESPN is a mega sporting empire and is after the $$$, so business sense, I guess it's a smart decision. Just want until it's been going for a month and then they want a subscription to read anything of value.

Can't believe there isn't a Carlos Boozer equivalent. Would've loved to follow him this season. OK, maybe not the next two months ..... or the ones after that or perhaps the ones after that or ..... damn you LeBron. You were supposed to be the Chosen One. You were supposed to bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!

Thats gold Moses! Don't worry though, when Anak... I mean Lebron tries to do a 360 flip and dunk over Obie... er... KG's head, the Big Ticket will finally go Mel Gibson on us and scythe the chosen one off at the legs.

TR, I agree wholeheartedly in the small market teams being given a fair go, but its not going to happen with mass market media. Happily, we now have League Pass, so you can watch every Bobcats game if you want to online!

Anon, it's a worthwhile discussion though - how many people have had enough to the point that they may seek out alternatives to ESPN?

I visited the ESPN site today, looked around for a few seconds and then left - Miami, Miami, Miami. I don't read the Miami articles any more but, as TR says, there other stuff is good - just a shame there isn't more of it.

Why do ESPN make things like this? Because it's what the majority of people are interested in reading..
Honestly how many people actually care about the teams that are on the bottom of the ladder?
ESPN want to get the best ratings possible in order to make money, whats there to dislike about it? It's a business..

By you hating on this site, it's got ESPN more publicity from people reading this, who then click on the link. At the end of the day, it's just a business.

League pass gets my money yearly...

Miami is the Collingwood of the NBA. You either love them to death or hate them to death. There isn't much of an 'in between'.

It's going to be an interesting season...

If you read my post anon, I agree it's a business decision by ESPN, what I don't like is the nut riding of the larger franchises in the league.

Let's be honest, the Bucks are a shot of going deep into the EC playoffs. If Bogut wasn't Australian would we even know that Milwaukee had a basketball team?

What happens if the Clippers blow up this year. They had the team and players to do some damage. Who would know??

What would of happened if Jordan and the Bobcats pulled of the rumoured trade for Melo and CP3 about 3 months ago?? Would ESPN of made a website just for the Bobcats?? Highly unlikely.

If Bosh went to Cleveland and Lebron stayed would Cleveland of getting a special website?? Don't think so.

If Wade and Bosh went to Chicago would the Bulls have received a special website, more than likely.

If Lebron teamed up with Amar'e in New York, would ESPN by riding their sack... Hell yeah....

TR, I don't want to watch some of the teams you are talking about. I would rather watch mainly the best (LA, Boston, Miami, OKC, SA, Chicago) with a smattering of the rest. But I sure don't want your Bobcats & GSW & Memphis on high rotation. I am intrigued by the Miami situation. I reckon D-Wade is a gun, LeBron yet to meet his potential & Bosh overrated. I want to watch Boston v Miami in the conference finals & the Lakers beat whoever wins.

This is the first time ever that I want the Lakers (or Western Conference for that matter) to win the ship...

That's the spirit TR, go the Lakeshow!

I really like Henry Abbott's Truehoop blog on ESPN: it's quiet and understated (particularly compared to the normal ESPN hyper-coverage), but covers a lot. The 'bullets' he comes up with every second or third day always seem to have a heap of different links to lots of interesting and diverse points of view. It's good stuff IMO.

Much like Bo Hamburger, I enjoy reading the Truehoops blog (especially the 'bullets' he does every few days).
In terms of ESPN articles, I really only use ESPN these days to catch up on the columns by Bill Simmons.

For my general NBA news I browse the ESPN headlines, but generally get my NBA news from the SBNation network. (www.sbnation.com/nba) and the team specific blogs for team by team coverage.

IMO the SBNation team blogs provide the best in-depth coverage of each team, with every team (as far as I am aware) having a dedicated blog full of breaking news, team specific discussion as well as fan posts for threads about trade ideas and other team/basketball related topics.

Rightly or wrongly, how the Heat fare this season will be the biggest story in basketball. ESPN aren't there to make judgement calls on the ethics of LeBron and Bosh's decisions to join Miami (although some of their columnists will).

ESPN will cover the Heat in detail, because if they don't, a competitor will and they will lose more readers than the number of readers pissed at seeing another Heat article

I agree that it would be nice if the coverage on ESPN.com was broader than just covering the marquee teams, but like many people have said, there is a reason why they do things the way they do.

If you want more indepth coverage of smaller market teams that are not in the championship race (i.e teams that get less coverage on ESPN.com) then just find out what the local newspaper is and put their site in your favourites. For example, you'll get your fill of Bucks news from the Milwaukee Journal Sentential.