There is one story in sports that is consuming us all.

Where will Lebron James go?

The NBA’s biggest free agent ever, part of the NBA’s best free agent class ever, with repercussions that that could push the NBA toward a new stratosphere in the sporting world (behind only the behemoth that is the NFL). The NBA with stars in L.A, Boston, Miami, Dallas, and possibly New York/Chicago? Hello drawing power, fan interest, and a boatload of revenue.

With every sporting outlet reporting on this event for the month of June, it is near-impossible not to get sucked up into the story (hey, we all need some type of sports-fix in the boring summer months). I’ve been keeping up, and therefore saw an article penned by S.I.’s Ian Thomsen about the play New York is going to make for Lebron.

From Thomsen:

“By dividing its cap space equally among three elite recruits — another idea floated on behalf of Miami — the Knicks would pay starting base salaries of $11.5 million each to James, Johnson and the power forward. That amounts to a salary cut of $5.3 million per year compared to the max salary each player could receive from another market.

The Knicks will enhance the offer by pointing out the numerous off-court opportunities available to star athletes in the world’s largest media market, enabling the players to ultimately make more money in New York than each could on a max contract in other NBA cities.”

After reading this, I couldn’t help but compare it to a Notre Dame recruiting pitch.

The pitch is basically this:

Both of these teams offer something that none of their competitors can.

Fame and opportunities by playing in the world’s “largest media market.” For the Knicks, that is literal, New York is the largest media market in the world. For Notre Dame, it is more figurative, their broad national appeal makes them the most media-friendly team in college football. As Bobby Bowden commented on the appeal of the Irish to high schoolers (even as he has his own football power at Florida State), “If you can halfway play football, you can win the Heisman (at Notre Dame). I mean, all you gotta do is wear that shirt.”

It is a pitch that is oh, so appealing.

However, there are also drawbacks for these influential teams.

In the Knicks case, Lebron would not get the max salary he deserves, and the team’s overall depth would still be a question mark (most feel that winning a championship is high on Lebron’s priorities), and New York winters.

In Notre Dame’s case, you have the academic standards, weather, and that fact that kids from talent-rich states are staying closer to home, all swaying recruits to look elsewhere (and this is from a guy who used to think that Notre Dame had less negatives that any other school).

So, in summation, each team can offer an opportunity that nobody else could. Not the Lakers in the NBA, not USC, Florida, or Alabama in college football.

They also have negatives that the aforementioned opportunity might not be enough to overcome.

We’ll know real soon how the pitch plays out for the Knicks.

For Notre Dame? We’ll have to wait to see what the Brian Kelly era brings.