It didn’t take long for LeBron, D-Wade and Company to give their thoughts on why Peyton Manning should bring his talents to Miami.

From SunSentinel.com: “I’m just sayin’, Dolphins need a quarterback, and Peyton’s available.” — LeBron James

From D-Wade’s twitter account: “I’m just gonna put it out thr..peyton that number 18 wld look gr8 in a dolphins uniform..steve ross let’s go.. marlins & heat style..All in”

Even Udonis Haslem weighed in.

From the Palm Beach Post: “I’m already working on that, I’m thinking Peyton Manning and Reggie Wayne. If we can work that out, we’ve got big Brandon Marshall, then we’re on our way. We got a solid defense. So, if you all hear me, Peyton and Reggie, you know what I mean, wink, wink, make it happen.”

(photo via)

After missing the last three games due to his grandmother’s death Chris Bosh returned to the team on Tuesday. Funny thing, after the Heat’s game day shoot-around practice D-Wade revealed that he has a little thing for Chris Bosh. No biggie.

“Very good to see him. You realize how much you missed the guy. Had a little bromance moment for a minute. Wanted to hug him. But I didn’t. I kept it cool.”

(photo via TBJ)

Here are some thoughts from All-Star weekend:

• The dunk contest represents everything the NBA is not: The dunk contest officially hit rock bottom this year, with four relatively anonymous names (to the general viewing audience) and tired gimmicks that overshadowed some impressive dunks. When Kevin Durant tweeted after the game that Lebron, Wade, Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook should enter the contest next year, he echoed the thoughts of many: it’s time to make the dunk contest relevant again. But I don’t think we necessarily need to bring the biggest names out to rejuvenate the event. We just need better personalities. While it’s easy to merge these two thoughts of best players and best personalities as one, remember that some of your favorite interviews and best follows on Twitter are not necessarily from the top guys. Though he tried his best to entertained, Chase Budinger is still, well, Chase Budinger. We still don’t know who Jeremy Evans is, and despite being rising stars in a league of many, Paul George and Derrick Williams don’t have that connection and reach to an outer audience. For a professional sports league brimming with individuality, it’s tragic that the one event that takes center stage on All-Star Weekend highlights everything that the NBA is not: boring, stagnant and deprived of any fun.

• My favorite photo from this past weekend: Chris Bosh being Chris Bosh.

• The All-Star game, surprisingly entertaining: The first five minutes of the game salvaged the entire weekend. The real stars came out and put on a show for the fans. Continuing with the theme of individuality, every superstar’s personality came through in the game. From Derrick Rose’s surly response to his teammate’s dancing during the introductions, to Kobe mouthing off to anyone within his line of vision, to Dwight Howard generally not taking much of anything too seriously, it was a reminder of why even though the quality of basketball has suffered, it’s nice to have these players around instead of hibernating through a nuclear winter of lockout talk. Even watching Russell Westbrook’s athleticism on display without the shadow of whether he’s taking too many possessions away from Durant, and Deron Williams exiled from New Jersey for one night and back on the big stage, there were so many interesting subplots to follow that made what is often called a farce, surprisingly entertaining.

• My favorite tweet from this weekend: Ozzie Guillen on Nicki Minaj.

• What’s our opinion on Dwyane Wade? For the past two years now, Wade has gotten away with almost everything. When in doubt, blame Lebron. From The Decision, to their mocking of Dirk’s sickness during the Finals, it seems Wade is protected as all the criticism is directed towards Lebron. On Sunday, Wade broke the unspoken rules of the all-star game and took a swipe at Bryant that resulted in a broken nose and a mild concussion. Competitive? Or out of line? I’m surprised more hasn’t been made about this. In the same breath, it was Wade who bobbled a breakaway pass from Lebron with over a minute left that would’ve put the East in the lead. Of course, it’s easier to lament Lebron’s deference on the final possessions. Slowly but surely, I’m starting to view Wade as a bigger villain than Lebron. To be continued.

• The tipping point for our hatred of Lebron James might’ve been this weekend: You know it’s crazy that we’re all sitting here criticizing Lebron’s passiveness in the final seconds of an all-star game. Key word: all-star game. Somewhere in Lebron’s head, he genuinely believes that when he’s making these passes and not taking the final shots, he’s making the best basketball decision on the court that’ll lead to victory. And who are we to question the best basketball player in the world right now? The criticisms for Lebron since the Decision have gone from reasonable with a touch of bitterness to irrational with complete bias and jealousy. I think this Sunday will be the tipping point where we will all start moving towards rooting for Lebron again. When he’s in that position again in the playoffs, with much more on the line, we will find ourselves rooting for Lebron to take that shot, and root for that shot to go in. If only to satisfy our desire to move onto to the next conversation. And that’s the best storyline as we head into the second half. This is Lebron’s championship to lose. Even as we’ve waited year after year for him to come through, it seems the pieces are finally in place. But we’ve been down this road before. If anything, we are moving closer towards embracing Lebron again. I can’t be the only one. But if he falls short again, we will re-start this conversation with another year’s worth of evidence to support all that we hate about him.

Learning To Accept Lebron

Technically, there’s still a sequence of events that need to happen before the lockout is officially over, but don’t let that stop you from immersing yourself in the latest Chris Paul or Dwight Howard rumor, it’s been too long since we talked actual hoops.

Practice facilities will open later this week, free agency expected to start on December 9^th and the season will open on Christmas; which means I have little less than a month to gather my thoughts on the Miami Heat and decide whether I want them to succeed this year.

The first season of Lebron and Wade – I have too much respect for the knowledge of people reading this to include Bosh with these two – exceeded all expectations. We’ve all long forgotten about their slow start to the regular season,  how they came together in the playoffs against Boston and Chicago and all the game to game drama in between that.

In fact, after reading and watching so much of this team of villains last season, there is only one takeaway: they collapsed in the Finals.

I took satisfaction in seeing Miami fall apart and come up short, as I’m sure many did. I don’t think there’s a sense of personal hatred when it comes to Bron, Wade and Bosh. It just wouldn’t have felt right for their season to be so preordained. To have a victory parade before and after the season seemed a bit too much. It would have validated everything that they did.

Given this thought process, you couldn’t have scripted a better ending for the Heat.

But is there any value to root against them over and over again, season after season, in the hopes that it never works out for them? It inevitably becomes a question about how you feel about Lebron James.

It seems difficult to pinpoint what exactly we want from him, or why exactly we want to see his demise. He will be the defining player of this generation, like Kobe before him, Jordan before that.

On the court, he is as unselfish a superstar we’ve seen – almost to a fault, especially since he’s had consecutive years of coming up short in the biggest moments. Off the court, he is the exact opposite. He is only about himself and is either unaware of this perception or aware but unable to do anything about his because he’s spent his whole life being told he’s the greatest.

This is how I see Lebron, but even with all that, I can’t think of a reason why I wouldn’t want to see him win a championship. If a lesson needed to be learned, if egos needed to be humbled, than their loss to the Mavericks in the Finals served those purposes. But why would I want to see him fail anymore?

Like it or not, we are basketball fans in the Lebron James era. With all great players, there comes a point when no matter how much you despise them for your own reasons, you can’t help but respect what they’re doing on the court, even appreciate and root for them after a period of time.

That time will come for Lebron James. It always does. I just have to figure out whether I want to see him fail just a little bit longer.

- steven lebron

Follow @steven_lebron on twitter.

Somewhere Craig Sager is smiling.

Of course @LeBronJamescom would retweet this image… LeBron James, D-Wade and Co. have brought the Celtics to their knees, literally.