it doesn't strike me so much as pride in perseverance as it is just masochism. there's so much pride in this heritage of losing, it's like they get off on it. a championship would be fleeting joy for the city, a brilliant burn mark on a tapestry of failure.

"There's nothing to do ... except masturbate and cry."

-just described 95% of the internet.

Actually I think it would be the exact opposite, at least for most of the people I know.


Best twitter today:

Oh yeah, and this:

http://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/18150750353

one championship is not going to be enough for cleveland fans to wash away all the misery and despair. in fact, i'm convinced that (besides the self-aggrandizing tv special) most of this vitriol against lebron is because cleveland fans know that the cavs have no chance of winning anything without him. they were counting on him to deliver multiple titles, to ease their pain and suffering, to save their city.

but in typical cleveland fashion, they expected him to do it all by himself, the most difficult way possible. lebron had to suffer. lebron had to suffer like everyone in cleveland suffers. lebron had to toil and endure and overcome. anything less, and it wouldn't be a true cleveland championship.

and he tried. he carried that team for 7 years and made the chumps that gilbert & ferry put around him look like great players. one player has never single-handedly carried a team to a title - not even jordan - and as good as lebron is, he wasn't going to be the first. but it was the only way cleveland fans would want it. their guy - the hometown hero - has to be saddled with this burden and he must carry it alone, just like they all do every day. just like they always have and always will.

I kind of feel sorry for Byron Scott.
also
Who has better record next year... Cavs or Nets?

I still am not sure how I feel about all this. Earlier in the year all I wanted was to see LeBron and Wade on the same team. I think they have really great chemistry and I don't believe Wade will be selfish. There will be more ally-oops than the NBA has ever seen. As far as James he tried to get Bosh and he said no. And though it all, I would rather live in Miami than Ohio, so I can't blame him. If it weren't for the whole production behind drawing it out and then stabbing Cleveland in the heart on national television I don't think I could be mad at him... Except he said "I have one goal and one goal only, and that's to bring a world championship to Cleveland." Why isn't there more footage of that clip floating around?

fuck it, bring on Football.

Pat Carney on Lebron
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/07/ ... rom-akron/

Matt Taibbi: The Five Funniest Things About the "Lebron James: Global Superdouche" Broadcast http://bit.ly/d0dxbV

Brian Windhorst, writer who's been following LeBron since high school. Probably has the most objective, well-informed and no-bullshit approach towards all this than anyone.

http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2010/07/inside_the_decision_miamis_cou.html

Everyone's an asshole. LeBron just revealed his hand faster than Jordan.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5372266

Someone wasn't amused by Gilbert's letter.

seems more sharpton than jackson. I'm a bit surprised at the hyperbole. I mean, that's a 'slave owner' that pays pretty damn well. I'll be anyone's slave for 15 mill or whatever it was.

Dude , what the hell are you talking about

First, Lebron wasnt an starving intern over the last 7 years, he was compensated quite nicely and was treated as deity

2nd, Duncan has 4 titles, did SA break the bank on free agents? did the Pistons of the early 2000's have big time names? I reiterate Pippen was a draft pick from Central Arkansas, and Gasol was a your basic "all star reserve after thought" before he got to the Lakers (kind of like Moe and Antawn J)

Had Lebron chose the route Kevin Durant just did the building of the CAVS roster would of been much different,
However without a long term commitment we had to build for the short term
Lebron wanted Damon Jones, Larry Hughes and Donyell Marshall and we got em
he wanted Shaq, we got him
He wanted Jamison we got him
He wanted Ben Wallace- we traded for him
we've added pieces wherever we could (Moe, Parker, Moon)
resigned Andy V, cuz he liked him
we didnt trade JJ, cuz he liked him (in retrospect im very happy for this)

every move and offensive set was based on LBJ

bottom line is, Lebron is not who we thought he was, so we are guilty for that.
The man thinks (for now) that being 2nd (or 3rd) banana will suit him fine. I think he will regret it

Well shame on the Cavs for making him a GM. Kraus didn't let Jordan do it (for the most part) and that's eventually what led to Jordan's retirement.

Are you talking about the 2004 Pistons? Rasheed Wallace / Hamilton / Ben Wallace / Prince. The team was pretty effin good, dude.

Pippen may have been from Arkansas but he was the 5th player taken. It was no secret he was good.

Anyway, who cares, what Justin wrote was some of the funniest shit I've seen in weeks on here.

Not sure where the humor is in the post, but I do understand taking pleasure in certain cities sports related misery

however even if this would of happened to the Jazz (who I despise) or an NFL team I hate like the Bengals, I dont think I would of supported the player

Lebron isnt and is never going to be Jordan (or Kobe). This decision cements that, and its our fault for getting duped

I cant support the "organization didnt do anything to help him" argument. They did win 60+ games the past 2 seasons

(and the main cog in the Pistons title runs was Billups who was an NBA castoff prior to Detroit)

I'm not supporting the player. I'm just not supporting the city or that poor excuse of an owner. Lebron took less money to leave and win.

You best take another look at that 2004 team. Cause, at best Billups shared the spotlight with Hamilton. Prince was really good and a younger Rasheed and Ben Wallace made for one hell of a team....http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/DET/2004.html

You seem like a basketball fan, so I know I don't need to point out how pointless wins during the regular season are in the NBA. The playoffs are different and Cavs never had a team built for the playoffs. The only reason they went anywhere, ever, was because of Lebron.

I absolutely do know the regular season is watered down, but 60+ wins is 60+ wins. No one diminishes the Bulls 72 regular season wins

The Bulls however sealed the deal 6 times after several failures, LBJ refused to finish the job

as for the Pistons, no one on the lineup you mentioned could garner a max contract. They were however all very good players. We had a max guy in Lebron, and filled in the other spots with complementary players (of which, Z, Moe, Jamison, Ben Wallace and Shaq had/have been all - stars).

if you guys have ideas on specifically what the Cavs could of done differently, id be welcome to hearing them. Im a die hard Cavs fan and dont have complaints with the moves of the front office. I do feel Byron Scott would of been the right coach to take the next step, similar to Phil Jackson taking over for Doug Collins in Chicago.

Lebron was the star and he was compensated accordingly. His lack of focus and level of play in the 2009 playoffs were a big part of our failure. Its becoming clear that his focus may have already been shifting to Miami during that time

Scoop Jackson, for once, with some common sense.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commenta ... son/100710

Obviously 'Bron is still an asshole for doing the special, though.

how much longer did you need? was 7 years not enough? do you think you would've finally gotten that title by the time lebron turned 40?

seriously, if an nba franchise is dumb enough to turn personnel decisions over to a player, no matter how good he is, they've got serious problems. look what great GMs guys like michael jordan and isiah thomas turned out to be; at least they were out of the league before they started ruining teams. giving a 20 year-old kid free reign to do as he pleases with 8 figures worth of payroll is a pretty good indicator that your front office is a terrible judge of talent and character.

i've said it before and it's been conveniently ignored: if you don't have at least two *current* all-stars on your squad, you're not taking home a title. the only exception to that in the last 10 years were the 2004 pistons, but that team was a total fluke. good players playing team basketball with tenacious defense and superior coaching. mike brown is no larry brown, my friend.

anybody remember when lebron dropped 48 (including the cavs last 25 points) on the pistons in the 2007 playoffs? over his career, lebron put up numbers in the playoffs that were better than his regular season averages. and for a guy who supposedly quit on his team this year, he still shot over 50% from the floor and 40% from 3-point land (while putting up 29 points a game). for a team that won over 60 games the last two years, it's pretty telling that those guys didn't show up in the playoffs when lebron did. cavs regular season record without lebron james in the lineup over the last 3 seasons?

1-13. and that's with all these talented players like shaq and mo and jamison and varejao. <wank>

so he went to "play second fiddle" to d. wade in miami. if it gets him a ring, do you think he cares? he doesn't have to turn in a herculean effort every night anymore just for his team to have a chance at winning.

no matter what, cleveland would only ever be happy if lebron turned out to be the greatest of all time. why do you think they sold a quarter million "witness" shirts? they had to have their hometown guy do it in their hometown, and he had to be wholly responsible for it. you needed him to be bigger than jordan, but you had the wrong MJ from the start: lebron is going to be the second coming of magic johnson, but gilbert and ferry never recognized that in his game. and it was never good enough for cleveland, a town that jeered lebron for passing to open teammates instead of "taking the big shot."

the entirety of the time lebron was in cleveland, he was never the highest paid player on the team. shaq, ben wallace, larry hughes, z, drew gooden, eric snow, donyell marshall, tony battie, and darius miles all made more than lebron at one point or another.

oh yeah, and rasheed wallace made $17 million in 2003-04.

FYI:

Post Season vs. Boston:

Lebron: Min. 42.5 FG% 44.7 RPG 9.3 APG 7.2 PPG 26.8

Kobe: Min. 41.1 FG% 41.1 RPG 8.0 APG 3.9 PPG 28.6

Both players were below their averages against the Celtics in the postseason.

as for max contract guy, it was a poor choice of wording on my part, my point was they didnt have a truly high profile guy

and im missing something here, you guys have asserted that they didnt do enough to keep him, but are also chastising the front office for bending over backwards to keep him happy

he was more Magic like, guess who probably would of utilized that... Magic's former teammate Coach Scott

He had the right to sign elsewhere but in doing so he gave up and it sucks, it sucks even more that he was fom NE Ohio

As a Cav fan Im done talking about it, im more interested in the moves there going to make moving forward and do plan on attendng more games this season then last

I have enjoyed trading barbs about the NBA though, its rare to find people that give an f about it esp on donewaiting

where are the stats on turnovers?

Kobe 3.9
Lebron 4.5

Hey man, it's all good.

fwiw, it may be years before Im able to discuss this situation with any sense of objectivity

Have you guys heard about this new LeBron James iPhone?














_
You can only set it to vibrate because it doesn't have a ring.