Michael Ventre

As LeBron James will soon discover, there are no guarantees in life.

For instance, most of the sports fans who tuned into ESPN’s “The Decision” on Thursday night probably assumed LeBron would announce his decision in a timely fashion, delayed by almost no inane banter, so there would be little chance for a mass wave of nausea to sweep the nation. But, of course, they were mistaken.

LeBron must also understand, now that he has decided to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh with the Miami Heat, that just because he has completed a superstar trio in South Beach, it doesn’t guarantee a drawer full of championship rings. Or even one.

The major impediment James now faces is the basketball culture’s seemingly incurable addiction to individualism. It exploded in the ‘90s, when Michael Jordan became a champion in marketing as well as on the court. It resulted in kids practicing dunks and 3-pointers rather than working on going to their left, or on free throws, or on moving their feet on defense, because they were more interested in making highlight reels.

And it reached a crescendo Thursday night, when LeBron allowed his ego to be televised in prime time.

What does that mean in basketball terms for the Heat from here on? It means LeBron has been pondering this move from an individual standpoint rather than a team view, and as a result the Heat might not be nearly as formidable as the glow from its three marquee players might promise.

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The obvious problem is the Heat have those three and little else. They’re sending Michael Beasley to the Timberwolves for salary cap reasons. They’re reportedly bringing in Mike Miller to be a sharpshooter. The rest will be guys making at or near the minimum.

The two primary requirements to win a championship are defense and rebounding. Whatever image you have of the Los Angeles Lakers — the uninformed often confuse their performances with those of the club’s female dance troupe — they beat the Boston Celtics by playing badgering defense, and by dominating the glass.

As currently constituted, the Heat are neither a great defensive team nor a formidable rebounding one. Miami will pose a stiff challenge to other team’s defenses with the scoring of James, Wade and Bosh, but then again, there are five men on the court, and it will be possible for teams to help on those three by leaving the other two open. Miami also could use somebody to play center.

This is obviously a long-range plan that Heat president Pat Riley has implemented. If Miami doesn’t win it all next season, it at least has three of the game’s finest stars in the fold, and additions can be made later.

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But the club will still have the same numbers-crunching problems down the line as well. For the upcoming 2010-11 season, the salary cap for each team will be a hair over $58 million. The Heat will have three players signed to deals in excess of $100 million each. You don’t have to be a salary cap guru to determine that when you go shopping and spend most of your money on three luxury items, it doesn’t leave much for groceries.

Then there’s the little matter of sharing the basketball. James, Wade and Bosh got along splendidly when they played for the U.S. team in the 2008 Olympics, but that was easy, because that is an environment in which selfishness is considered unpatriotic.

Throughout his entire life, LeBron has been accustomed to getting the basketball when he wants it. Throughout HIS entire life, Wade has been used to the same thing. Ditto for Bosh. Now you have three players with enormous egos suddenly thrust into an unfamiliar dynamic.

It could be possible that they get along beautifully. It could also be possible that initial confusion could give way to frustration, and then into simmering dissension. Plus, how do you cram three superstar entourages into one postgame locker room?

The model of the Boston Celtics, with Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, doesn’t translate here. Allen was 32 and Garnett 31 when they joined the Celtics in 2007, and each had toiled for 12 unsatisfying NBA seasons. When they moved to Boston to join the then-30-year-old Paul Pierce, who also had suffered through nine lean seasons, they were all finished with their respective individualistic phases. They were ready to work together and win.

LeBron, Wade and Bosh have only played for seven NBA seasons each. They don’t know any different. They’ve never had to share the spotlight, save for 2006 when Wade won his one NBA title in Miami with help from Shaquille O’Neal, who was fading even then. This will be a much more daunting adjustment than anything the Celtics’ Big Three had to face.

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Also, what are the Vegas odds that Erik Spoelstra remains as head coach? It seems to me that any minute now he’s going to suddenly develop the urge to spend more time with his family. Enter Riley, who will have his new Magic Johnson-Kareem Abdul-Jabbar-James Worthy arrangement for 2010 and beyond.

Wade is used to Riley, and Bosh probably will play along. But how will LeBron handle being barked at and ordered around after sharing a comfort zone in Cleveland with Mike Brown?

Putting players of the magnitude of LeBron, Wade and Bosh together is not a terrible idea. It can work. But a lot more will have to fall into place than the gathering of the three highest-profile free agents in NBA history. Right now the Heat, as it stands now, aren’t better than the defending champion Lakers, aren’t better than the Celtics or Orlando Magic, and might not even be any better than the Chicago Bulls with the addition of Carlos Boozer.

It’s a grand experiment, to be sure. But as of right now, it’s still just an experiment.

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