ESPN.com NBA Panel: 73.1 Percent Believe LeBron Is Staying In Cleveland

Knicks fans can expect LeBron to keep setting up shop at the Garden in the visitor's locker room.Is it possible that not even the four-lettered network's own employees are buying into the hype that the network is trying to create for the 2010 free agency bonanza?A panel of 52 "NBA noggins" from ESPN.com were asked where they think the top free agents for next summer will eventually end up. The key players they were polled on were LeBron (of course), Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and Amar'e Stoudemire.Well, unlike last year, an overwhelming majority of this panel believe that LeBron is staying in Cleveland. In fact, 38 of the 52 members, or 73.1 percent, believe in the obvious. That's a drastic change from last year at this time, when 11 out of 25, or just 44 percent, thought that LeBron was staying.But let's focus on the 14 of the 52 who are still delusional and think that LeBron is leaving.Of the 14, eight think he's going to the New York Knicks. Another three think he's headed to South Beach to join the Miami Heat. Two more are still under the belief that Jay-Z's 1.47 percent minority ownership will have an impact despite the fact that the Nets will continue to play in that dump known as the Meadowlands. But the wildest one was that some random clown came out of nowhere and said that LeBron is headed to, of all teams, the Boston Celtics.Yeah, you read right.It's also interesting that despite what their own "experts" think, the four letter has brainwashed their own readers and viewers into thinking that LeBron is leaving. A recent survey on a "SportsNation" poll showed that 59 percent of fans believed that James was leaving, with every state except for Ohio having the majority of voters believing such. As far as the other 2010 free agents go, 35 of the 52 voters (or 67.3 percent) believe that Dwyane Wade is staying in Miami, while eight think he's going back to his hometown of Chicago to play for the Bulls. Another six think he's going to New York, two think he's going to the Nets, and one guy thinks that he's headed to...Houston?But things really get interesting when big men Chris Bosh and Amar'e Stoudemire come up, as most of the panel believes that both of these guys are leaving their original teams.Nineteen of the 52 voters think that Bosh is headed to New York to play for the Knicks, while 12 think he'll join a re-signed Wade in Miami. Another four think he's headed to Chicago to form a dynamic inside-outside combo with Derrick Rose, while three more think he's headed to his home state of Texas to play for the Dallas Mavericks.Only three of the 52, or 5.8 percent of the panel, believe that Bosh is staying in Toronto. Look, a lot of these guys on the 52-person panel are far from the know-it-alls they think they are (as evidenced by the guys who think that LeBron and Wade are going to Boston and Houston, respectively), but three out of 52 has to be painful if you're a Raptors fan. These guys have to know something, and if the signs are this obvious that Bosh doesn't really plan to stay north of the border next summer, then will Toronto try to trade him at the trading deadline next February?As far as Stoudemire is concerned, 13 have him going to New York, 10 (or 19.2 percent) have him staying in Phoenix, five have him going to Golden State, and four see him going to Miami. The panel continues to be all over the place when it comes to Amar'e as two guys even see him going to Cleveland, three to Chicago, three more to Detroit, three to the Clippers, two to Dallas, two to New Jersey, two to Portland, and one each to Atlanta, Orlando, and San Antonio.Talk about unpredictable.But one thing's for sure: Most of the very same media that tried to fan the fire of driving LeBron out of Cleveland are finally coming around to the reality.