If you're a devotee of checking NBA scores, one Tuesday night probably jumped out at you. I speak of the Los Angeles Lakers' 112-57 demolition of the Cleveland Cavaliers, a team now in the midst of an 11-game losing streak and owners of the worst record in the NBA. After losing LeBron James to the Heat last summer, they're not exactly in the best of circumstances.

LeBron apparently doesn't feel much sympathy for his old team in these troublesome times. In the closing minutes of the Cavs game, with the only issue left to determine being whether or not the Lakers would double-up the Cavs, Cleveland's former savior Tweeted about karma, hate, and divine retribution. Here is what he said:

Crazy. Karma is a b****.. Gets you every time. Its not good to wish bad on anybody. God sees everything!

Well, that's not very nice, is it? He basically said that God wants the Cavs to fail as punishment for their poor treatment of LeBron in the wake of his departure. Plus, while LeBron says that it's bad to wish ill on someone, he also seems to be reveling in their failures. Does that mean it's all right to be happy when someone fails as long as you don't wish for it beforehand? Whoever said God works in mysterious ways wasn't kidding.

On the other hand, it's possible to understand LeBron's emotional state here, if not his exact reaction. He gave seven seasons to the Cavs and carried the team close to a championship with, as we're learning this season, a relatively substandard supporting cast. When he left town, Cavs fans and franchise owner Dan Gilbert reacted like he'd murdered a hobo with a velvet voice in cold blood. Obviously he left town under terrible circumstances with the "Decision" debacle, but that doesn't mean he deserved to be treated like a criminal.

Then again, two wrongs don't make a right, as they say. LeBron handled his business Tuesday night like a fool, treating the Cavs like hellbound sinners deserving of whichever terrible fate befalls them. The team, the owner and the staff are still people dealing with some pretty rough professional circumstances right now. It's fine not to feel a ton of sympathy for them, but don't rub their failure in their faces.

James recently said that he's embracing his villain role, but there's a difference between being a compelling bad guy and a jerk. Right now, he's leaning towards the latter.

Or maybe he was talking about something else. Who knows?

Find this article at Yahoo.com

Just like that, The Witness has become The Wimpness, because he is double-dribbling with his tongue.
One moment, LeBron James is saying the NBA needs to "shrink" by contracting teams, and the next, he is saying those evil media folks are twisting his words on the subject.

Whatever, dude.

When it comes to LeBron's original comments, which essentially were that he thought the league actually did need to get rid of some teams to improve the overall competition, he was wrong. He was WAY off base. He wasn't within a couple of fast breaks of reality.

That's because he didn't go far enough.

He should have said all four of the major professional sports leagues in North America need to contract. Then he should have peered into the eyes of everybody in the room with the unspoken look of "Yeah, I said it. So what do you want to do about it?"

The NBA should go from 30 teams to 27, 26 or less. With barely a nudge, for instance, Clipper fans would morph into Laker fans soon after that lesser of the two franchises in Los Angeles didn't exist. And, in contrast to the Colts sneaking out of Baltimore in the middle of the night during a blizzard, the Grizzlies could slow-dance out of Memphis in broad daylight at rush hour without hearing a whimper.

The same goes for the Nets in the Meadowlands, where their turnstiles threaten to rust every season, and where they'll remain the "other" team in the New York City area, even if they relocate to Brooklyn.

Plus, regardless of their place in the standings, the Hawks have resided near the bottom in NBA attendance for decades, which means much of Atlanta would shrug and become more obsessed with Georgia Bulldog football if the Hawks flew out of town.

Elsewhere, in baseball, no matter how prolific the Marlins and the Rays have been at times, most folks around Florida couldn't care less. So get rid of them, or combine them with the Oakland Athletics -- if that struggling franchise also isn't contracted.

Phoenix. Atlanta. Charlotte. Nashville.

Nobody in those warm-weather cities would mourn the loss of their NHL teams after a few months (or days, maybe hours). That should be just the start of contraction for a league that also lacks fans in places beyond those more suited for sunshine than snow.

Oh, and you shouldn't have an NFL team when you're in your sixth consecutive season of covering up 10,000 seats for each of your home games in an attempt to create sellouts.

Hello, Jacksonville Jaguars.

It should be goodbye, Jacksonville Jaguars.

I can dream, can't I?

Unfortunately, the player unions of each of these leagues have become so powerful that contraction won't happen -- at least, not easily. We needn't go further than the ongoing NBA labor negotiations that feature commissioner David Stern suggesting that contraction would help the league's overall financial situation, and it would.

The NBA players union couldn't care less, though, since contraction would trigger the loss of jobs for its members.

So this wasn't surprising: within milliseconds of James saying what he claims he sort of said but really didn't mean to say or was misinterpreted in saying it, he got blasted by his peers.

Thus this ongoing sight of James backpedaling faster than he ever has either on or off a basketball court.
He says now that he doesn't even know what "contraction" means. He says reporters didn't hear exactly what they heard him say last week before a game for his Miami Heat in Phoenix.

This is what they heard LeBron say: "Imagine if you take Kevin Love off Minnesota and add him to another team and you shrink the (league). Looking at some of the teams that aren't great, you take Brook Lopez or you take Devin Harris off these teams that aren't good right now, and you add him to a team that could be really good.

"Not saying let's take New Jersey and let's take Minnesota out of the league. But, hey, you guys are not stupid. I'm not stupid. It would be great for the league."

Yes, it would. And, as LeBron added that day in Phoenix before his backpedaling nearly took him from the Arizona desert to South Beach to somewhere over the Atlantic, "Hopefully, the league can figure out one day where it can go back to the situation of how it was, like in the '80s, where you had three or four All-Stars, you had three or four superstars, three or four Hall of Famers on the same team. The league was great. It
wasn't as watered down as it is (now)."

No, it wasn't, and the Milwaukee Bucks of the 1980s were a microcosm of those times by ranking high among the NBA's all-time greatest teams that nobody ever remembers. They had stars such as Sidney Moncrief, Bob Lanier and Terry Cummings, and they were led by Don Nelson, who won NBA Coach of the Year honors twice during that decade.

In one stretch, those Bucks won their division seven straight years while winning 50 or more games each of those years.

Here was their problem: the Philadelphia 76ers of Dr. J, Moses Malone and Maurice Cheeks, and the Boston Celtics of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish. As a result, those Bucks never reached the NBA Finals, and they rarely reached the Eastern Conference finals, but they showed how gifted many of those other NBA teams were during the 1980s.

That's all LeBron was saying. Well, before he swore he really didn't say what -- well, you know.
What I'm saying is that, although the NBA's national television ratings are up by 30 percent so far this year, those ratings would soar to levels beyond a combination of vintage Air Jordan leaps if the league sliced either some or all of its franchises that produce yawning.

I'm still dreaming, of course.

This article contributed by Terence Moore of Fanhouse.

Brian Windhorst, Special to The Plain Dealer

Miami, Florida — These days, LeBron James and members of the Miami Heat shake fingers at those who dared suggest that their new mega team wasn’t going to work. The pleasure of hindsight never ends, especially when some important details are dismissed.

One of the reasons the Heat, and James himself, are playing toward their potential after a shaky start is because James is going back to the way he played as a Cavalier.

Wednesday night, the Heat won in Houston to finish off a 15-1 December and became the first team ever to go 10-0 on the road in a calendar month. Their run of success started in Cleveland on what has now become a key date in the NBA season, James’ Dec. 2 return to The Q.

So they’re hot, there’s no doubt. Some of it has been time together, which is the issue Heat players and coach Erik Spoelstra point toward when they shame those who questioned their future after they started the season an underwhelming 9-8. But a huge adjustment, which wasn’t announced, was to get James, who celebrated his 26th birthday on Thursday, back to his roots.

“At the start, we weren’t playing our games,” James said of himself, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade. “We were being too unselfish. We had to forget that and go back to being ourselves.”
During the Heat’s ragged November, James’ scoring and shooting numbers plunged while his turnovers shot up to totals not seen since his rookie season. He was throwing wild passes, taking 3-pointers out of the offense, and Spoelstra was playing him at point guard the most since Paul Silas tried it as an experiment in the fall of 2003.

Then something happened in Cleveland. The Heat committed themselves to featuring James for that game, an obvious strategy with James carrying so much personal meaning into the game. Then James went out and played his best game of the season, scoring 38 points.

Part of it was because of some abnormal great shooting, which James has done on the road off and on during most of his career. But the other part was it created a comfort zone for James to play in a familiar role.
Seeing the impact, Spoelstra changed his rotation to allow James six to 10 minutes a game as the featured player. Usually, it happens at the end of the first and third quarters, when James is given the green light. The result: Lots of shots, lots of freedom, lots of scoring.

“It has been a process for both the players and coaches to find a comfort level,” Spoelstra said. “We knew it would take some time but that these players were too talented not to be successful.”

James has used these moments to feed his desire to build his statistics, something he may not admit publicly but it always has been a driver for him, and the Heat seems to benefit from it. In December, by getting his bursts of freedom, James’ scoring average jumped two points a game and his shooting jumped nearly seven percentage points.

He had several games where he squeezed off 10 points or more in his allotted freedom minutes and the Heat usually experienced a surge. On Wednesday night in Houston, for example, the Heat outscored the Rockets, 16-2, when James was on the floor without Bosh and Wade.

In turn, Spoelstra has reduced James’ minutes at point guard by inserting Mario Chalmers into the rotation, allowing James to play more point forward, the position he played in Cleveland. As a result, the turnovers have dropped and the Heat’s offense has gotten stronger.

Wade, who now gets his exclusive scoring time on the floor without James, has seen his scoring average jump six points a game in December over November and his shooting percentage soar nearly 10 percent.
Though he usually plays with Bosh on the floor, the changes allow Wade to play more like he was accustomed to before James arrived.

Whether this dual-star role will work under the pressure of the playoffs remains to be seen. The Heat have had mixed success at the end of games, sometimes barely hanging on to leads with Wade and James on the court together. But they have also been able to carry the Heat to some victories by their individual play.

What seems certain is that finding a balance and putting together wins has come partially by going back to some old ways.

“We’ve all had to sacrifice things from our games to make this work,” James said. “This is why we came together, to be able to play together and win together.”

Former Plain Dealer writer Brian Windhorst is a reporter for ESPN.com, focusing on the Miami Heat.

MIAMI — Will South Florida ever truly love LeBron James?

Not admire or respect or, even in the case of some kids, idolize but love?

Will this area ever love him the way it loves plastic surgeons, early bird specials, gated communities, food courts, the rare on-time nonstop to LaGuardia and cold snaps that offer excuses to show off designer sweaters? Will it ever love him the way it still loves its memories of a slinging Dan Marino? Or even like it loves Dwyane Wade?

Will it ever love him like Cleveland loved him, before Cleveland hated him?

Those were questions that came to mind, even before another night of late-comers and no-show-ers at American Airlines Arena, this one for the visit of James' tattered old team, the Cavaliers.

Those are questions that continue to answer themselves.

It's already clear what James most sacrificed by leaving his home state and taking his talents to South Beach last summer. It wasn't just his image, turning off so many observers around the country. It wasn't just money, though he gave up some of that. It was his unique place, as the most important, beloved, unconditionally-defended figure in a reasonably large metropolis and in everything adjacent. It was being a necessity to a community, not just a shiny accessory. It was never running the risk of an area ever getting bored with him, and moving on to the big thing, after the initial hysterical celebration.

It was never being ignored, by anyone, his presence on a team sufficient to preclude any need for a "Fan Up" campaign, to tell fans how to cheer and when to arrive.

While it was unreasonable to expect anything close to an equal and opposite reaction to the frenzied angry scene in Cleveland on Dec. 2, there just wasn't much to see here Wednesday night.

There was the occasional, fleeting "Cleveland sucks" chant, more out of obligation than antipathy. There was brief booing for any Cavalier with the ball, indiscriminate and inappropriate, since the only crime Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison committed was failing in the playoffs, which helped convince James to relocate. There were five rows, at the top of section 110, that revived the unwieldy "Mi-a-mi Loves You" chorus that they spawned in the Heat's first home game following the "Akron Hates You" serenade at the Quicken Loans Arena.

And there was something else at AmericanAirlines Arena:

Emptiness.

Empty rows, at tipoff.

Empty seats in every section, long after the game began.

You wonder if, somewhere deep down, it left James with a bit of an empty feeling.

Before the game, I asked if South Florida's response to him had met his expectations.

"For me, I come here to play basketball," James said. "I respect the fans every night they come out and support us, and as players, we just try to go out and do the things that need to be done to keep them coming.

But for me, I've never been a guy that just chased the claps and chased all the other stuff. I just play basketball and let things happen.

"It's been great. It's been everything I expected and, as a team, we just need to continue to get better."

His team will, even if Wednesday's 101-95 victory wasn't its best night, just a six-point win against a team that had lost eight straight.

He will likely win rings - yes, more than one - here before he's done.

South Floridians will gasp over his dunks, gobble up his jerseys, gloat to fans in other cities.

They'll be amazed by much of what he does.

But will they ever be smitten by him?

Like Cleveland was?

These first two months certainly could make you wonder about that and wonder about whether he wonders too.

This is an excerpt from an article written by Howard Bryant of ESPN.com:

Last week I wrote a column suggesting that Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert needs to take some responsibility for the current state of his franchise and his role in the events that led to LeBron James' departure instead of blaming James entirely for what has transpired with the Cavs over the last six months.

For the record, I am not particularly enamored of James, on or off the court. If he is the greatest physical talent to enter the game since Wilt Chamberlain, he is also a difficult offensive player to admire. He is a scorer, not a shooter, and yet he has an ongoing love affair with an erratic, unattractive jump shot. James has improved his shooting percentage since his rookie season but not necessarily his overall game -- not in the mold of Magic Johnson (who entered the league with a poor outside shot but left a competent 3-point shooter), Larry Bird (who developed a devastating low-post game late in his career), Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant (both entered the NBA as dunkers but could soon score 30 points a night on jump shots).
He's very good, but there are arguments to make that LeBron James isn't as good as he could be.
He presents a mismatch for virtually every defender in the league, but despite a 6-foot-8, 260-pound frame he has no low post game and after nearly a decade in the league seems to have little interest in developing one.

On offense, he does not move without the ball and is not a threat unless he is initiating the action from the top of the key. When he is not handling the basketball, he often stands languid on the wing and does not draw defenses with movement or pressure them with positioning. In the midst of his eighth season in the league, James has never been a presence on the offensive or defensive boards, which is a must for a great player. His offensive and overall rebounding averages have dropped over the last three years -- 1.2 offensive rebounds per game for his career shouldn't wow anyone. In fact, Rajon Rondo, who is seven inches shorter and 100 pounds lighter, is developing into a better offensive rebounder than James - the numbers back that up -- and, for his size, Rondo is far more competent on the defensive end.

For all of his physical gifts, James has yet to find players who complement his game over the course of a full season and vice versa -- Allen Iverson-like.

Of all active players compared to James in their primes (of course, at 25, James might not yet be in his prime, depending on one's measure), I would select him for my team no higher than fifth, behind Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan and Dwyane Wade. At present, James isn't even the best player on his own team.
And yet, James is a hugely-significant figure in the NBA and sports world today for what he represents. He is the first mega-athlete to emerge in the 24/7 multimedia age that has been able to successfully navigate and capitalize on the shifting power dynamics that come with it. He is the perfect storm of 20th century battles: player freedom and control; free agency; the bypassing of the college game (those players were once called "hardship" cases); and the athlete as a corporation backed by a bigger one -- in LeBron's case, Nike.

Other modern athletes, including Tiger Woods and Jordan, have straddled varying elements of change during their times. No one has enjoyed the benefit of each of those developments in his prime as James has.

CLEVELAND -- Well, that was not what they wanted.

No, Cleveland was hoping its plucky young team would drive hard to the basket, hit its free throws, grab every loose ball and dump LeBron James in a vat of hot wax. It was clear the night wasn't going well for the Cavaliers when the second half started and they asked the refs if they could use a Nerf hoop.

This was all wrong. And yet, it was completely right. This was a Cleveland sports night -- the whole exquisitely miserable experience wrapped up in one cold and unfulfilling evening. It began with an electric, playoff-like atmosphere and ended with the Heat drilling the Cavs. The final was 118-90, but it wasn't even that close. The Cavs scored garbage-time points against Eddie House, Erick Dampier and three of LeBron's accountants. (He got them roster spots because hey, they're his friends!)

The basketball lesson for the day was that 'tis better to have LeBron James than to have loved and lost him. But this night was never really about basketball. It was about Cleveland. It was about Brian Sipe and Earnest Byner and Craig Ehlo. It was about Cavs fan Bart Gruber, who brought his 8-year-old son to the game -- not so much to cheer or boo, but because they are Cavs fans. I asked Gruber what he told his son after "The Decision."

"After he cried for two hours," Gruber said, "I just told him this was life."

Miami will never have a night like this. Never. The Heat may win championships, but their fans will never pack their arena simply to boo. The team will never be ingrained in the city's fabric like every Cleveland team. There are passionate fans in Miami, of course, but not as many. Some of the biggest roars of the night were for former Brown (and Cleveland native) Bernie Kosar, who went to one Pro Bowl. Any town can celebrate championships. Cleveland celebrates heartache.

On some level, James has to realize this now. He played his butt off against Cleveland -- 38 points, eight assists, five rebounds in just 30 minutes. It was an especially impressive performance considering that he seemed self-conscious the whole night. He knew everybody was judging him. He knew it when he listened to his headphones in a crowded locker room before the game, when he did windmill dunks in the layup line and when he did his famous powder-clap before the opening tip.

And he surely knew it when he went over to the Cavs' bench during the game to joke with some of his former teammates. It was calculated, a way to soften the crowd. See? These guys like me. How bad can I be? And you could tell by the Cavs' faces that they were stuck -- they didn't want to ignore him but didn't want to be seen talking to him, either.

At one point, in a moment caught on video and posted on YouTube, Cavs assistant coach Jamahl Mosley appeared to tell James to shut the bleep up.

Mosley was not alone. In Miami this week, somebody asked LeBron if he would like to see his number retired in Cleveland someday. He was, after all, the best player in franchise history. He said he would love that, and you know what? I think the Cavs would love to hang his jersey from the rafters, as long as he is in it.

Most Cleveland fans say -- and have said since July -- that they aren't mad that LeBron left; they're mad at how he left. Of course, this is easy to say. It allows fans to take the high road and still be mad. But ask yourself this: If LeBron had played for Miami for seven years, then left for Cleveland in the same way, would Miami be nearly as angry as Cleveland is?

Trick question. NBA stars don't leave Miami for Cleveland.

I'm no psychologist, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that a guy who calls himself King James and has his initials and "Vivat Rex" -- Latin for "Long live the king" -- on his custom-made Nike jacket, and has CHOSEN 1 tattooed across his back and WITNESS tattooed on one calf and HISTORY on the other calf might have a big ego. It is an ego borne of insecurity, and this is why he left for Miami in the first place:

He wanted things to be easier. He wanted Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh at his side and South Beach a short drive away. That is the fundamental disconnect between James and Cleveland fans. They gave up on easy a long time ago.

So there they sat, at a table, the self-anointed Big Three, from left to right, Wade, James, Bosh. James said he loves Cleveland fans but that a "I'm a Miami ... Heat guy," because when you do something stupid like give your team a singular nickname, this is the silly stuff your stars have to say.

Behind the Heat bench, where fans wore shirts that read LeBUM, and a man and woman hugged and wore matching VICTIM shirts and looked like they had just run over their poodle, it got ugly. James may have ungodly leaping ability and ridiculous hand-eye coordination, but he also has ears, and the fans knew he could hear them.

Some of the chants were amusing ("Scottie Pip-pen!) and some were cruel ("Ak-ron hates you!") and many were unprintable. At least one cup flew out of the stands toward the Miami bench. It was a little inappropriate, considering he does have that CHOSEN 1 tattoo and it is Hanukkah.

Anyway, James seemed unfazed. He joked with Wade and Bosh about a broken bobblehead doll that landed near them. He ignored almost everything the fans screamed.

And then a few guys sitting on the baseline got his attention. They didn't taunt him. They didn't yell. They just said:

Look around. Do you see all the fans? This is Cleveland. This is what you're missing. You'll never have this in Miami.

And LeBron James agreed.

"He said, 'You guys are crazy,'" said one of the fans, named Ryan Napier.

James meant it as a compliment. They are crazy. He has left them for a land where there is no winter, for teammates who were stars before he joined them, for fans who care passionately about their basketball team for every bit of the final two minutes of playoff games. Someday, he'll miss those crazy fans and those winter nights. Someday, he'll miss all those witnesses.

This here giant is 7 foot 3", and battled through countless foot injuries early in his career to become one of the best shooting big-men in the NBA.

Zydrunas was born in Lithuania and played 2 years for his hometown club team Atletas Kaunas before he entered the 1996 draft.  He was selected as the 20th overall pick, and the 260 pound he-man was ready to prove his worth in the association.

Z's foot injuries in the early part of his NBA lifespan were a major concern to the organization.  He battled through countless foot surgeries and beat the odds to play 13 productive seasons in a blue-and-orange (and then Wine and Gold) uniform.

Zydrunas is the tallest player in Cleveland Cavaliers history.  Enough said right there.  With the exception of Yao Ming, Ilgauskas has looked down on almost every other human being he has encountered in his life.  Take a minute, and just think about how tall 7 ft. 3" is.  He's a certified man-child.  Z hardly even had to jump to dunk the basketball.  It's a wonder why he didn't dunk more often.

Big Z never backed down from anybody, and took on multiple fights to back up his teammates.  On more than one occasion, Zydrunas could be seen walking off the court with blood gushing from his head, then receiving stiches in the locker room to come back out and play in the same game. 

He never took crap from any other team especially Boston, and you could always count on him yelling in his Lithuanian-accent when he wasn't happy.  Zydrunas was also famous for calling out officials if he felt they made a bad call, consistently giving them dirty looks and looks of exasperation.  He never seemed to agree with a travel call made on him. 

His footwork was one of the best parts of his game.  He knew exactly what moves to make when he was in the post, and the statistics prove it;  Zydrunas has a career 48% field goal shooting percentage to go along with almost 14 points a game.  He was a reliable free throw shooter and he drew a ridiculous amount of fouls in his career. 

He averaged 28 minutes a game on the floor in Cleveland, but his last season he only averaged 20 due to the addition of Shaquille O' Neal.  He accepted his role but you have to wonder why he wasn't getting more minutes in Mike Clown's rotation during the playoffs.  This last season must have been a major disappointment to Ilgauskas, who gave everything he had to win a championship in this city.  Don't get me started on Mike Brown's inexplicable lineup strategies. 

Zydrunas played with the Cavaliers longer than any other player in history.  Z has left his mark on this organization, and claimed many franchise records.


Z also takes 2nd place in All-Time Points Scored.  As of right now he has just over 10,600 points in his career.  That number will rise this next season as he proves to be a valuable kick-out option for Wade and Prince James' drive-and-dish mentalities.
 
LeBrick James loved playing with this guy.  So much so that Z even made a cameo-appearance in the infamous Nike-Puppet commercials.  "I would like to buy some DVD's!"  (Insert Lithuanian accent)

James was well-aware that Ilgauskas was certainly a more consistent and reliable knock-down shooter than even he was.  Unlike LeBron, Z never quit on the team in the playoffs.  Will they put his jersey in the rafters?  The numbers would certainly warrant it, and the loyalty he showed to this franchise was unmatched.  Many in the Cavaliers organization speak highly on the character of Ilgauskas, and what he meant to the city of Cleveland.  He never wanted to leave, but he and James are good friends and Z knew the possibility of a championship was far more real in Miami this year.  
 
Although I'm saddened by the fact that Zydrunas is not finishing his career in a Cavaliers uniform, I will remember him as an excellent player in Cleveland sports history.  No other man as tall as he has ever had such a smooth jump shot.  Ilgauskas was a seasoned veteran and a solid leader that this team needed.  Zydrunas gave his heart to the franchise, and deserved to win a championship.  It's a shame that we didn't have a halfway decent team when Ilgauskas was in his prime.  I can still hear the fans at the Q yelling in unison, "Zeeeeeee!" as he swished another deep jumper. 
 
You can't blame him for taking the chance to win one this upcoming year alongside James, whom he has played with for the last 7 years.  Why do you think the Miami Heat wanted him?  He presents a legitimate presence at the center position. 

What other 7-footer do you know that can consistently drain shots from any spot on the floor?  He will likely see a lot of minutes with them this year, in an attempt to put that elusive ring on his finger with the Heat.  Big Z, farewell my friend.  Your services will be missed.  Zydrunas Ilgauskas is Underrated

                       

Yes, you read correctly.  Damon Jones is the 5th greatest Cavalier of all-time (of the last 15 years).  There's not really a whole lot room for of debate on this one.  Although not currently with an NBA team, Damon is quite a talented player and made his impact on the Cavaliers organization, while exuding a prodigious amount of swagger that P Diddy could only dream of. 

Damon was born in the great state of Texas in 1976.  He played his high-school ball for the Ball High Gordon Tornadoes, and was such a good perimeter shooter that he single-handedly helped create a popular cheer.  "Three's Please!" the crowd would chant, and Jones would deliever more times than not.  He graduated high school in 1994 and decided to stay in-state, playing his college basketball for the University of Houston. 

Damon Jones would only play 3 years at Houston and still left as the school's all-time leader in 3 point field goals.  After his junior season he decided to take his talents to the NBA, and effectively declared himself eligible for the 1998 NBA Draft.  Little did he know that no team wanted him, as he went undrafted. 

Jones eventually signed with the New Jersey Nets and would bounce around the league in his first few years in the Association.  All before 2004, he wore the jerseys of the Nets, Celtics, Warriors, the Mavericks, Grizzlies, Pistons, as well as the Kings and then Bucks.  He probably racked up some solid frequent flyer miles just by being traded alone. 

DJ would finally find a team he would have a significant impact on when he signed with the Miami Heat for 2004-2005 season.  It was in Miami that he would see career highs in minutes (31 per game) and points (11 per game).  He also shot 43% from behind the 3 point line.  The Cleveland Cavaliers took notice and decided to give Jones a 4 year, $16 million dollar contract for his services. 

Bringing in Damon was part of an ongoing effort to surround LeBron with excellent perimeter shooting, and Jones was just the man for the job.  He made a career sitting at the 3 point line, waiting for a pass to come his way, as Shaq and then LeBron drew double teams.  It's no surprise that the supremely self-confident Jones would become famous for his proclamation, "I am the Best Shooter in the World." He would later refer to himself as the "Black Brad Pitt." 

Damon brought a new level of excitement to the Cavaliers that meshed well with the emergence of Cleveland as a powerhouse in the Eastern Conference.  Damon's most notable performance of his career in a Cavalier uniform undoubtedlty came on May 5, 2006.  DJ has not been seeing much of any playing time in the playoffs, but was inserted into Game 6 vs. the Washington Wizards in the 1st round of the playoffs, late in the game.  How late?  DJ came off the bench in overtime, and in his first minute of action he hit the game-winning shot to bounce the Wizards out of the playoffs.  LeBron would show his apprecation.

Less was made of another game, my personal favorite of his time in Cleveland.  On November 13th, 2006, Damon would play one of the best games of his career. 

The Cavaliers traveled to Madison Square Garden to dominate the Knicks.  Everyone expected LeBron to tear the roof off of the building he says he loves playing in.  Enter Damon Jones, who in this game would match King James with 29 points, setting a franchise record for 3 pointers in a half making 7 of 10.  Jones was simply on fire, and and I could not have been happier as I sat there watching Damon light up the Knicks at basketball-mecca MSG.  Damon definitely let the crowd know about it too. 

Although he would never average more than 6 points per game in any of his 3 seasons with the Cavaliers, Damon was one of the most exciting players on the team to watch.  His high leg-kick to back off defenders, and "Three's on a platter" made him a fan-favorite, and Damon was truthfully my second favorite player on our team from 05-08.

Another interesting fact about Damon is that he sold his soul (or sole) to the Chinese company "Li Ning" for his shoe deal.  Much like LeBron, he had aspirations to become an international business man and make his name known around the globe.  He truly marketed himself as the greatest shooter in the world, whether or not that statement was justified (it wasn't).  Damon was the first NBA player to ink a shoe-deal with a Chinese company. 

D-Jones is also known for his outlandish wardrobe selection;  He has been seen in some of the most inexplicable outfits ever seen.  Damon on the NBA dress code:  "I created the dress code. I am the dress code. A lot of guys were upset about the fact we had to put suits on. But when you go into the business world, you have to be presentable, you can’t go into a Fortune 500 company with jeans, a T-shirt and do-rag on your head."

Another great quote from DJ came after a game where he played against the best player in NBA history, Michael Jordan.  Listen to him recall his first on-court conversation with Michael Jordan:

“I told him if he left me open again that I was going to burn him,” Jones said.  “He looked at me like, ‘Do you know who I am?"

“So he left me open again,” Jones said, “and I burned him.”

Damon was one of the most colorful players in NBA history and took trash-talking to another level.  He never underestimated his abilities, which made him highly quotable and he became regarded as one of the most comedic players in the league.  The Cleveland Cavaliers were the only team in his career that he would play consecutive seasons for.  Damon Jones is a Cavalier-Legend in my book.  Damon Jones is Underrated

                    

Enough time has passed.  Resuming the countdown, we arrive at the 6th greatest Cavalier of all-time, Andre Miller.  Andre had several years with the Cavs where he was one of the few consistent players who legitimately deserved to have the prestige of representing the Cleveland Cavaliers. 

Andre was born 34 years ago in Los Angeles, California.  The 6 foot 2" point guard played all 4 years at the University of Utah, something you rarely see great players do now-a-day's. 

In 1998, Andre led Utah to the NCAA championship, where they lost to Kentucky.  He had the pleasure of playing alongside the great Keith Van Horn.  Miller also made headlines when he had a rare triple-double in the NCAA tournament.  Unlike a select few un-educated players in Miami, Andre actually has a college degree as he earned his Bachelors in Sociology. 

The Cavaliers saw real upside with Miller and drafted him with the 8th overall pick in the 1999 NBA Draft.  In his rookie season, he started 36 games and quickly proved his worth on the court.  Andre averaged an impressive 11 points per game, to go along with almost 6 assists.

After the Cavaliers moved Shawn Kemp out of the picture, this was pretty much Andre's team.  In the 2000-2001 season he would lead the Cavaliers in points scored.  He averaged 15.8 per game, on a team with Lamond Murray, Wesley Person, Trajan Langdon, and Brevin Knight.  Unfortunately, that year the Cavaliers weren't exactly playoff-caliber, as the 30-52 record might suggest. 

After the season, coach Randy Wittman was replaced and in came John Lucas.  Andre was already established as the starting point guard and his numbers would only get better.  He shot 45% from the field that year, and led the Cavaliers in just a few minor categories: games played, minutes played, assists, field goals attempted, free throws attempted, and he posted an impressive 126 steals on the year.   

Other than a few Ricky Davis dunks, Andre Miller pretty much was the 2001-2002 Cavaliers.  Without enough (or any) help surrounding him, the Cavaliers record would get worse, and they finished 29-53 on the season. 

After the season, Andre Miller was inexplicably traded to the Los Angeles Clippers for one, Darius Miles.  Although Darius also could dunk, this was essentially throwing in the towel on the 2002-2003 season, as we gave away our best playmaker in Miller.  Andre's stats and play had improved every season and he should have been held on to for much longer.

Andre would spend only one year in Los Angeles before he was signed a multi-year deal with the Denver Nuggets.  He would play a huge part in the Nuggets rise to respectability in the Western Conference.  He has never had problems with durability;  Andre had only missed 3 games in his first 7 seasons in the NBA.  Compare that to one, Prince James, who for all intents and purposes missed two games in the playoff series with the Boston Celtics this year.

He would play 3 productive seasons in Denver before playing from 2006-2009 with the Philadelphia 76ers.  They really were never going to be a competitive team, and in 2009 Miller decided to take his talents to Portland, inking a 3 year, $21 million dollar contract. 

During his time in Cleveland, he was on the NBA All-Rookie First Team, became the first player in Cleveland history to win player of the week twice, and also set a franchise record for total assists in a season (882).  He also was the only NBA player to average 10+ assists and points during the 2001–02 NBA season.  He played the game at an uptempo speed and caused match-up problems against other Point Guards in the league. 

I'll never forget how his feet barely came off the floor when he took 3-point shots.  It was like he was barely even jumping.  Luckily he escaped Cleveland before the 17-65 team took the floor the next year.  Andre was a great Cavalier and he gave the Cleveland franchise far more than they deserved at the time.  He rarely dunked, but as you'll see, when he decided to, he was going to do it big.  His passing ability was spectacular and he always played to win.  Andre Miller is Underrated

Yesterday there was an article that appeared on ESPN.com.  It showed a first-hand look at just how consumed with himself LeBron James is, and his new demeanor and attitude during a trip to Las Vegas.  The article was up for about an hour and then ESPN took it down, similar to the tab on Sportscenter entitled "LeBron in Las Vegas" that disappeared midway through the show  Many believe that the most pathetic manager in sports, Maverick Carter, was behind this.  This just shows how pathetic both LeBron and ESPN are.  The article was orignally written by Arash Markazi, and I'm publishing here in its entirity. 

Go check out my new blog: Cleveland Deserves Better

LeBron James leans against a waist-high stone wall with a 16-foot-tall Buddha hovering over him.

He’s at Tao, a bustling restaurant and nightclub inside the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas, and his arms are crossed as he listens to Lynn Meritt, senior director of Nike Basketball, and Charles Denson, president of Nike Brand.James is quiet, occasionally applying Chap Stick on his lips and nodding when he hears something he likes.

Five security guards are stationed around him, one at each corner of the table he’s about to sit at and another roving around with him, watching his every move. Anyone who takes two steps toward James is stopped and must have James’ approval to come closer.

The waiter bringing him his cup of green tea with a spoonful of honey and a dash of lemon juice makes the cut, as does the scantily clad brunette with a tattoo of a heart on her right shoulder.

She wants to take a picture with him. “I can’t right now,” says James. “Maybe later, upstairs, I’ll remember you’re the one with the tattoo.”

James will host a party later in the upstairs nightclub at Tao, but he is currently hosting a dinner for his friends and family in the downstairs restaurant. Wearing a gray striped shirt and gold crucifix around his neck, he bobs his head to music played by an amped-up saxophonist who weaves his way around the table like a one-man mariachi band.

I have somehow found myself at this exclusive table, seated beside Eddie Jackson, who is introduced to me as James’ father (though he actually began dating James’ mother, Gloria, after LeBron was born and the two are no longer together). Jackson, wearing a muscle shirt accentuating his large biceps, looks like a member of James’ four-man entourage, like one of his childhood friends.

James’ circle includes Randy Mims, seated to his right at the center of the table, Maverick Carter, seated at the head of the table, and Richard Paul, seated in front of James. The quartet makes up the initials behind LRMR Marketing, the management firm James founded almost four years ago with his buddies. Their offices in downtown Cleveland gained notoriety this month as the location teams flocked to for their meetings with James.

LeBron James partied at Tao last weekend, complete with a kings’ cake and an entourage to make heads of state jealous.

Seated to the right of James is Chris Paul, whose brother, C.J., is seated across from him. The New Orleans Hornets point guard has seen how James has positioned himself to win a championship by signing with the Miami Heat and joining forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh and has reportedly considered a similar move himself.

The truth is, in James’ dream world, the duo he would love to play with for the next decade would be Wade and Paul, his two closest friends in the NBA. Paul has been like a brother to James since the two were in Las Vegas four years ago for USA Basketball training camp, when as a rookie he carried James’ and Wade’s bags to and from the team bus.

James and Paul are fairly quiet at the center of the table as they take in the scene around them. As family style plates of miso-glazed Chilean sea bass and crispy lobster and shrimp dumplings are brought to the table, James effortlessly picks up the food with his chopsticks and occasionally raises his cup of green tea to passersby as they raise their martinis and mojitos in his direction before being helped along by security guards.

When trays of dessert plates are brought over, James gets up, preferring to start his party upstairs instead of indulging in the giant fortune cookies and chocolate cake. A security guard comes over and puts plastic wristbands on our wrists and escorts us through the back of the restaurant, up a flight of stairs in the bowels of the hotel and through a back entrance into the club. About a dozen security guards, moving their flash lights, direct us to a roped off section on the dance floor of Tao next to a couple of apparently nude women in a bathtub full of water and rose petals.

James, now wearing sunglasses in the dark club, immediately stands up on the couch and folds his arms high on his chest and nods his head. He smiles as he looks at the dozens of people crowded on the dance floor. Noticing him, they stop dancing and snap pictures as the DJ screams out, “LeBron James in the building!” and plays LMFAO’s “I’m in Miami.”

Carter, LeBron’s childhood friend and manager, begins dancing around James like Puff Daddy in a Notorious B.I.G video. A giant red crown-shaped cake is brought over to James while go-go dancers dressed in skimpy red and black outfits raise four lettered placards that spell out, “KING.” Carter grabs a bottle of Grey Goose and pours a quarter of it on the floor and raises it up before passing it off.

James’ infamous one-hour special, “The Decision,” was reportedly the brainchild of Carter, a 28-year-old who has never managed anyone outside of his friend James. This three-day party marathon in Vegas (which James is being paid six figures to host) is also Carter’s idea.

Bottle after bottle of “Ace of Spades” champagne is delivered to the table by a waiter flying down from above the dance floor like some overgrown Peter Pan on a wire. One time he’s dressed like a King, another time as Indiana Jones and another in a replica of James’ No. 6 Miami Heat jersey.

James, who can hardly see the flying figure through his tinted glasses, almost gets kicked in the head on the waiter’s last trip down. He looks at the girls around him and says, “I wish they’d have one of these girls with no panties do that instead of the guy.”

Toward the end of the night, Boston Celtics forward Glen Davis walks past James’ party and looks at the scene up and down several times like a painting in a museum, soaking in the images of the go-go dancers, the “King” sign and the costumed man delivering bottles of champagne.

Davis shakes his head and walks on.

James dances on the couch and sings along with the music blaring from speakers all around him.

The more you hang around James, the more you realize he’s still a child wrapped in a 6-foot-8, 250-pound frame. The night after the party at Tao, he and his crew walk through the casino at the Wynn and Encore and he pretends to dribble a basketball as he walks past ringing slot machines and tourists who do double-takes. In a Nike T-shirt, jeans and sneakers, James’ pantomime seems unconscious. He stops every few feet to shoot a jump shot, his right hand extended above his head on the follow through. He weaves through a pack of a dozen friends and pretends to connect on a layup as he walks past a gift shop. He passes overhead casino signs and jumps up and slaps them, pretending to dunk. Columns covered with advertisements for lounge acts become stationary defenders, chumps to fake out before connecting on imaginary mid-range jump shots.

James probably goes through a practice’s worth of shots as we walk from the XS nightclub at Encore (James left his poolside table when he saw the club was practically empty), through Wynn and over the bridge to the Palazzo.

Soon after arriving at Lavo, a restaurant and nightclub at the Palazzo, a scene straight out of “West Side Story” breaks out when James and Lamar Odom, seated at a nearby table, engage in an impromptu dance-off to California Swag District’s “Teach Me How To Dougie.”

Odom, smoking a cigar, can’t quite keep up. James celebrates by crossing himself and taking a shot of Patron. Moments later, a handful of girls dressed as cheerleaders walk toward his table with someone dressed in James’ Heat uniform. Someone throws talcum powder in the air as James does before every game, while his new unofficial song, “I’m in Miami,” plays.

Odom casts a glance James’ way before looking in the opposite direction and raising his glass at a couple on the dance floor who point to their ring fingers and smile.

Back at his table, James and his crew sing every word to Rick Ross’ “Free Mason.” LeBron raps every line to former teammate Damon Jones (who played with him in Cleveland). Jones, puffing on a cigar, nods.

James rips out the lines:

“If I ever die, never let it be said I didn’t win/ Never, never say/ Never say legend didn’t go in/ I just wanna die on top of the world.”

While he looks at club-goers flashing the LA and Westside signs at him, James smiles and points to Jackson’s T-shirt, which reads, “Another Enemy,” and raises his glass of champagne.

Finally, Carter tells James it’s time to leave the club and they do, LeBron pretending to cross-over tables and shoot over slot machines all the way back to his room.