Heat Are Favorite in Las Vegas to Win NBA as LeBron James Joins Wade, Bosh
July 9 (Bloomberg) -- Reporter Jim Gray discusses two-time National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player LeBron James's decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat. Gray, who hosted the ESPN special where James announced his decision, spoke with Deirdre Bolton and Michele Steele on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack." (Source: Bloomberg)
The All-Star trio of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh make the Miami Heat the favorites to win the National Basketball Association title next season, according to Las Vegas oddsmakers.
Las Vegas Sports Consultants dropped Miami’s odds of winning the championship to 4-5 after James’s announcement last night that he’ll sign with the Heat.
“You definitely don’t want to give anything away here,” said Sean Van Patten, an oddsmaker at Las Vegas Sports Consultants, which advises Nevada sports books on gambling lines. “Four-to-five might be a little low, but everybody is going to bet them if they’re going to come in to bet.”
Coming off a second straight first-round playoff exit, Miami was listed at 25-1 after last month’s NBA Finals.
The odds were lowered to 6-1 when Wade said two days ago he was returning and Bosh announced he’d sign there as a free agent. Wade was the Most Valuable Player when the Heat won the NBA Finals in 2006 and the 6-foot-10 Bosh is a five-time All- Star.
Now the Heat have added James, who joined Hall of Fame center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the only players to win two NBA MVP awards by the age of 25.
Lakers Are 5-1
The Los Angeles Lakers, who have won the past two titles, are the second favorites at 5-1. The Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic are given 10-1 odds of winning the championship, followed by the Denver Nuggets at 12-1.
At 4-5 odds, a winning $100 bet on the Heat would return $80 along with the initial stake.
“All our mindset is on winning the NBA championship or we wouldn’t have come together,” James said last night during his nationally televised announcement. “This isn’t where we’re happy with a 55- or 60-win regular season, or getting out of the first round, we want to win it all. The only reason we play this game is to win championships.”
Jon Barry, who played in the NBA from 1992-2006 and is now an analyst for ESPN, said the addition of James doesn’t guarantee a championship team in Miami.
“There are too many holes that this team has to fill,” said Barry, a son of Hall of Famer Rick Barry. “They have only four guys on their roster. They’re going to have seven or eight guys playing for minimum contracts. Who is that going to be? I don’t think they can put that together in this short amount of time to be title contenders next year.”
Filling the Roster
Eric Snow, an NBA TV analyst who played with James in Cleveland from 2004-08, said he doesn’t expect the Heat to have problems finding talent to play alongside James, Wade and Bosh. The trio averaged 70.3 points last season and all three were among the top 10 scorers in the NBA.
“Every guy that is making the minimum (salary) is trying to go to Miami,” Snow said. “Now that he is there, filling out the roster is going to be easy.”
While the oddsmakers in Las Vegas have pegged the Heat as heavy favorites, James says there’s still plenty of work to be done before the NBA’s regular season begins in October.
“I feel it’s not a super team right now because we don’t have enough guys to fill a roster,” James said. “A championship team isn’t built on just three guys, it’s built on the whole organization and everybody having the same goal.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net
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