Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh will all be playing for the NWO, este, the Miami Heat

There’s a new world order in the NBA today after LeBron James announced that he’s joining Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. If you’re on Twitter you’ve probably seen the letter from Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert – written in Comic Sans, no less – ripping James a new one. The letter is way, way over the top, but apart from expressing Gilbert’s anger, it was calculated to appeal to spurned Cavs fan to still care about the team.

Everyone’s getting their shots in – Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski still has nosebleed from the high horse he rode on for his column yesterday before the LeBron decision – but I really enjoyed the take of Will Leitch at NYMag.com: “Fans of teams in the LeBron Derby were disappointed — though no one as much as Cavs fans — but mostly they were flabbergasted by the tone-deafness of the whole enterprise.”

So now that we’re all going to hate LeBron and the Heat, do we all go on the Kevin Durant bandwagon? He’s kind of the new superstar du jour, even though it’ll be weird rooting for Oklahoma City after the whole Seattle debacle. For the true hater, rooting for Kobe is, of course, out of the question.

UPDATE: The excellent Joe Posnanski sums everything up perfectly at SI:

I can understand the draw to Miami, beyond the sun and beach. Dwayne Wade, when healthy, is in the conversation as the third-best player in the NBA behind LeBron and Kobe. Chris Bosh is — well, I’m not entirely sure why he suddenly gets talked about like he’s an all-time NBA great or in the Wade/LeBron league (he’s not), but he’s obviously talented and was a very good scorer and rebounder as the No. 1 option in Toronto. I think there are some major questions about the team and how those three will play together, but it’s obviously very promising and I understand and appreciate why LeBron James would put his chips down in Miami.

...

But, his apparent lack of feeling for his old city … that I don’t understand. He just seemed utterly unfeeling about it all from the start. He mouthed a few words of thanks to the City of Cleveland, which he said with all the emotion that baseball announcers use when reading airport parking advertisements. When asked how he thought Cleveland would react to him, he mostly shrugged and said his friends would stick with him. He simply did not seem aware that he had broken the heart of a city that always feels just one heartbreak away from collapse.

Congrats to the Lakers, from this hater.

[Graphic modified from this K1x original]

It's a really busy day at my real workplace, but here are some things I wanted to pass along:

• A couple of days ago, San Sebastian and Arellano upset San Beda and Letran, respectively. This is turning out to be a crazy NCAA season, even crazier than last year! Btw, is Jimbo Aquino for real?


• Floyd Mayweather is broke and delusional. As TQBR noted, can we stop calling him "Money" now? He's also, apparently, a softie.


• Kobe Bryant is coming to Manila! This is going to be crazier than Gil's visit. I hope Kobe doesn't try to rape anyone. Ha!


• Ginebra vs. SMB game 2 tonight. I think the only chance San Miguel has is if Marc Pingris goes berserk (in a good way). Also, why does Danny Ildefonso turn into a wuss every time he plays Eric Menk? It's been happening for what, ten years now?


• Japeth Aguilar makes a solid debut for Powerade Team Pilipinas, in a tuneup game versus a selection of Christian athletes from NCAA D1 schools. Only six players -- Aguilar, Arwind Santos, James Yap, Kerby Raymundo, Ranidel de Ocampo, and Willie Miller-- were available for the national team, so Yeng Guiao enlisted Wynne Arboleda, Mark Yee, and Beau Belga to help out. I love the idea of Belga on the national team. If we make it to the World Basketball Championships, I'll start a campaign to include him.


• Taking off the snark hat for a moment, here's a shout-out to James Yap's mother-in-law, former president Corazon Aquino, who's in stable but delicate condition. I'd point everyone to this profile of Cory from 2006 written by Sheila Coronel as a good place to look, for anyone who wants to keep her in thoughts and prayers.


• Happy weekend everyone! See you on Twitter later for the game!

Some leftover NBA links I wanted to pass along, before going to bed:



This is the greatest Kobe t-shirt ever. I'd totally buy it if I were a Mamba fan. Even a hater like me can't lie, this is really sweet. Well done! *claps*

(Which reminds me: Letran had this big-ass rivalry against San Sebastian in the NCAA when I was in grade school, so I grew absolutely hating Baste. But the San Sebastian crowd had the greatest fight song ever, which put Letran's or any other team's fight song to shame. If you know the Baste fight song, you'd totally agree.)

True Hoop had a crazy idea last weekend about Kobe becoming Lakers playing coach... and Quinito shamelessly stole it for his column yesterday.

Onion Sports strikes again with this hilarious piece: Nation Desperately Seeks Sportswriters' Opinions On Kobe Bryant.

Speaking of Kobe's greatness, Basketbawful introduces us to the Phil Jackson face.

Here's a cool email exchange between freshly-minted NBA Luke Walton and his father, the legendary Bill Walton, on NBA.com. It was sweet and touching and made me wonder how Bill reacted when Luke told his father he was gay.

(Ok, that wasn't right. I apologize. But still. Loved the trash-talk between the two though.)

It made me realize how much the whole world had been missing the crazy, inane awesomeness of Bill Walton, who had been sidelined for most of the season with a bad back. After the jump, listen to Bill Walton at his lunatic best.