Dear Cleveland, All Of Northeast Ohio and Cleveland Cavaliers Supporters Wherever You May Be Tonight;

As you now know, our former hero, who grew up in the very region that he deserted this evening, is no longer a Cleveland Cavalier.

This was announced with a several day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his "decision" unlike anything ever "witnessed" in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment.

Clearly, this is bitterly disappointing to all of us.

The good news is that the ownership team and the rest of the hard-working, loyal, and driven staff over here at your hometown Cavaliers have not betrayed you nor NEVER will betray you.

There is so much more to tell you about the events of the recent past and our more than exciting future. Over the next several days and weeks, we will be communicating much of that to you.

You simply don't deserve this kind of cowardly betrayal.

You have given so much and deserve so much more.

In the meantime, I want to make one statement to you tonight:

"I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE"

You can take it to the bank.

If you thought we were motivated before tonight to bring the hardware to Cleveland, I can tell you that this shameful display of selfishness and betrayal by one of our very own has shifted our "motivation" to previously unknown and previously never experienced levels.

Some people think they should go to heaven but NOT have to die to get there.

Sorry, but that's simply not how it works.

This shocking act of disloyalty from our home grown "chosen one" sends the exact opposite lesson of what we would want our children to learn. And "who" we would want them to grow-up to become.

But the good news is that this heartless and callous action can only serve as the antidote to the so-called "curse" on Cleveland, Ohio.

The self-declared former "King" will be taking the "curse" with him down south. And until he does "right" by Cleveland and Ohio, James (and the town where he plays) will unfortunately own this dreaded spell and bad karma.

Just watch.

Sleep well, Cleveland.

Tomorrow is a new and much brighter day....

I PROMISE you that our energy, focus, capital, knowledge and experience will be directed at one thing and one thing only:

DELIVERING YOU the championship you have long deserved and is long overdue....



Dan Gilbert
Majority Owner
Cleveland Cavaliers

The Lakers have won the NBA Championship for second year in row, Kobe was named the Finals MVP. How sweet it is....especially beating Boston and here a song for the champs



"We are the champions my friend and we'll keep on fighting till the end....no time for losers cause we are the champions of the world"

If you haven't heard already, perennial all-star Ken Griffey Jr announced his retirement from the game of baseball. A definite lock for the Hall of Fame. My favorite baseball player of all time and not to mention he had some dope kicks. Thanks for everything, Griff!!!

You already know who I'm riding with



I call Lakers in 6...any thoughts? GO!

We have ourselves a re-match. Lakers-Celtics Part II. I had anticipated this matchup all season long and truth be told, I've been begging for it just for the CHANCE at retribution. Two summers ago, this Boston team beat us mercilessly for 6 games, which included a 24 point comeback win and a 39 point clincher. Needless to say, the Lakers redeemed themselves last year by capturing a championship of their own, but as any true Lake-Show fan will tell you, the victory felt somewhat empty. Yes, we took home the trophy, but we didn't get a chance to get back at Boston. Now two years later, we have our chance.

If you haven't noticed, when I talk about the Lakers, I often use the word "we". As many Laker fans can attest to, there's a family-type bond between us. The Forum Blue and Gold runs through our veins and as I've seen with many other fans, we feel like the team is our extended family. I'm not naive or ignorant enough to believe that we're the only fan base to feel that connection, but this is the team I bleed for and this is what I've seen. No Laker fan I know has NOT been openly cheering for the Celtics to make it to the Finals. David Stern may have wanted LeBron, but WE always wanted Boston. It doesn't feel right any other way. The Lakers-Celtics rivalry is both a referendum on the legacies of the two storybook franchises and an obvious long-standing example of two teams who's players, management and fan bases DO NOT like each other.

Since the embarrassment 2 years ago, I cancelled a planned trip to Boston, stopped wearing green and turned on a whole bunch of players that I used to genuinely enjoy watching. My Paul Pierce jersey is collecting dust right next to his game-used wheelchair, KG has gone from my 2nd favorite player to my most hated and Rajon Rondo fell from being a player I loved in the draft and wanted on LA to a smug little prick who needs to be put in his place. It is not an exaggeration to say I HATE the Boston Celtics. I felt dirty pulling for them to beat Cleveland and Orlando, but a shot at vengeance outweighs spite and disdain. With all that said, I as well as the Lakers, got exactly what I wanted.

This is meant to come off as an un-biased Finals preview, but you must understand how difficult that is in this case. In my eyes, Paul Pierce's acting chops are on par with some of the top Hollywood draws and Kevin Garnett belongs in the same nut-house as Charles Manson. These are NOT guys I feel good after talking about. But they are champions, just like we are and that's what makes this series so compelling and so important for the league as the final chapter before the summer of LeBron finally gets underway and changes the NBA landscape for better or worse. Case in point, Lakers-Celtics XII needed to happen.

Kobe Bryant is one of the greatest players to ever lace them up. But any honest basketball fan can admit that there are 4 series in Kobe's career that taint his resume somewhat. The first was his rookie season when he shot 3 airballs against Utah. If you ever watch Kobe perform surgery on Utah as he did the past 3 post-seasons, you can trace it back to the airballs. He doesn't forgive and he doesn't forget. He will probably continue to dominate Utah until they retire his jersey. Another series that made Kobe look bad was the horrific 3-1 collapse to the Phoenix Suns in 2006. You know the drill, Lakers led 3-1, lost game 5 then blew an almost sure-fire game 6 win, eventually getting crushed in game 7 and subsequently losing to the Suns again the following year in much less thrilling fashion. Kobe returned those favors to the tune of 34 points, 8 assists and 7 rebounds while shooting 52% and hitting dagger after dagger over the past 6 games in a scraping of the Suns. Yeah, he remembers.

By now you've probably figured out that the two remaining series' in question are the 2004 and 2008 Finals, where Kobe's Lakers were humiliated by the Pistons and the Celtics respectively. Why do I bring up the Pistons you may ask? Well if you look back at the history books, you'll remember that the big in-season acquisition that really put the Pistons over the top was Rasheed Wallace, whom they finagled for next to nothing. Yes! The same Rasheed Wallace who was brought in to be the prize off-season addition for THE BOSTON CELTICS! Since the Pistons are going to be in the NBA's proverbial gutter for the foreseeable future, this is Kobe's chance to kill two birds with one stone. Let me re-iterate. Kobe Bryant, the NBA's version of a blood-hungry assassin has a chance to right the two remaining wrongs left in his storied career in one series, all the while getting 1 championship closer to Michael Jordan's 6 rings. YOU DON'T THINK HE REALIZES THIS?!?

I'm not getting ahead of myself. The Boston Celtics are an incredible team. Top to bottom they are cagey, gritty veterans who know how to win, and relish the underdog role. They know that the majority of talking heads are taking the Lakers, but this time they're garnering a lot more respect than they got two years ago. They're still hungry, but in this series, they aren't the guys with something to prove. Kobe has already been mentioned, but Pau has to prove that he's not soft. He's made incredible strides this season, but that Boston series is still in his mind. It's time for him to go back into the mode he was in throughout these playoffs before Phoenix instilled a zone. Lamar Odom is in the same boat. Called too soft and too caught in the moment two years ago, Odom has to be the Laker's un-sung hero and game changer off the bench. Andrew Bynum didn't even play in the Finals 2 years ago. He is no doubt out to prove he's a difference maker and that with him, the 2008 series would have been a little bit different. This brings us to Ron Artest. Ron has been so unpredictable in these playoffs that I went from calling him an awful basketball player to calling him a hero in the span of two real-world minutes. Ron simply has to prove that he's capable of becoming a champion.

The Lakers are hungry. No matter what they all said in front of the cameras, they all wanted this. After the 39 point massacre, they'd be cowards not to. This is the series that will define their season and their dynasty. This series means retribution, redemption and revelation. The last time these two teams met at this stage, Boston was hungrier, tougher and determined to prove all the critics wrong. This time it's LA with an ax to grind. There is no part of me that believes that this will be a short or easy series. This is Goliath vs Goliath and there will be blood. The Celtics hate the Lakers and the Lakers hate the Celtics; no love lost. That all went out the window when a large group of Celtic fans, celebrated their series clinching victory two years ago by class-lessly throwing rocks at, spitting and cursing at and shaking the Lakers team bus as it was leaving the TD Garden. It's a memory that all the Lakers remaining from the 2008 roster still carry with them. This will be an epic showdown, and if you care about basketball, you won't miss it. All things being equal, the Lakers have something that the Celtics don't: Kobe Bryant. He never forgets.

Ok, so by now, most of you have had a chance to absorb and digest LeBron's historically bad Game 5 performance. It has media-types going WILD and has spawned stories that have him bolting for New York Thursday after Game 6, stories saying he doesnt care about winning and stories claiming he's quitting on his coach and teammates. While all these theories have a bit of truth in them, they are far from definitive answers as to what the hell is going on. Look, as many of the pundits have said, it's not the fact that the chosen one had a bad game. Bad games happen to the all time greats. The alarming part is his lackidasical attitude and general reluctance to take the game into his own hands.

Look, I'm a Kobe fan through and through. I've attempted to hide this from none of you. The part that sucks for me is that when he came into the league and throughout his first few years I liked LeBron James a lot. Deep down, I'm hoping he comes to the Knicks or Nets because it isn't often that you get to be around greatness. With all that said, I've soured on LeBron for various reasons. The no handshake after losing to his Olympic teammate and "FRIEND" Dwight Howard made me sick to my stomach (and on a side note, most writers, analysts and fans let him skate for it when no one can deny that if Kobe did that he would get crucified). The other thing that bugs me out is all the insistence that he's surpassed Kobe as a basketball player.

Look, from a completely unbiased perspective, I think this is false. LeBron is the most physically dominant and overwhelming force in the NBA today. But that doesn't make him better than KB24. Kobe is calculating, fundamentally near-perfect and the most cerebral, mentally strong player possibly in NBA history. He doesn't "free-ball" it so to speak. And LeBron HIMSELF has credited his time with Kobe on the Olympic team as what transformed him from an average defender to an All NBA defender and helped make him the player he is today. My favorite sportswriter Bill Simmons of ESPN (a world renowned Kobe hater) said that Kobe should have stayed home and NOT played for the Olympic team because it would have given him more years of dominance, instead, by playing he showed LeBron, Carmelo, Dwight and D-Wade the kind of work that needs to be put in to become a player that will be forever remembered. I want to add a quote Simmons wrote after Kobe took over in the Gold Medal Game and brought it home for us, and then I promise I'm done with the Kobe-LeBron angle:

"Third, for most of the Games, Team USA had an alpha dog issue. Was this Kobe's team or LeBron's? Fast-forward to 8:13 left: Fernández's three cuts the lead to two; the crowd is going bonkers. Spain's bench reacts like a euphoric 15-seed during a March Madness upset, and the U.S. calls timeout. All along, my biggest fear had been a tight game and multiple USA guys saying, "I got it!" Instead, everyone deferred to Kobe, who made some monster plays to clinch it. Know that in the history of the NBA we have never had the best-player-alive argument resolved so organically. Incredible. Kobe, you have the Lord of the Flies conch. Use it wisely."

With all that I've said about both Kobe and LeBron, know that I believe them to be the 2 best players in the league in some order and expect this to continue for 2-3 more years. But back to LeBron on Tuesday. Every writer saying that this singular performance has the ability to define his career is simply overstating the game's impact and grasping for a story. It DOES have the potential to define his career THUS FAR, but for a guy who has 12 years of quality basketball left, the former is a severe overestimation. Every great player is entitled to a few bad games, but do we as fans allow a game where the "best player alive" quits on his team?

It happened with Kobe. Twice infact. Game 7 vs. Phoenix and game 6 vs. Boston. He had developed a bad rap and had a ton of venom spit in his direction, but then he won the title and got the monkey off his back. This is what we need to see from LeBron. No one cares when a superstar has a bad game, but his lapses during the game and his seemingly unfocused approach are what hit us the hardest as NBA fans. It allows us to question LeBron's heart and desire to win, two things that despite similar lackluster performances, never came into question with Kobe (he was enraged with management and his teammates, but the desire and hunger were and are unflappable). If the Cavs don't bounce back in game 6, and LeBron doesn't play his ass off, forget about a monkey, LeBron will have an elephant on his back. The thing people seem to be forgetting is that the game is in HIS hands. How he plays in game 6 will be how we remember him for AT LEAST the next 12 months.

There are 3 potential outcomes to Thursday's monumental game 6.
#1 LeBron eviscerates the Celtics to the tune of about 40-8-8. Cavs win.
#2 LeBron eviscerates the Celtics to the same numbers. Cavs lose.
#3 LeBron puts up a dud. Cavs lose.

If it's option 1 then suddenly the Cavs have life and can still win a title this year and it all just looks like a hiccup, provided they win game 7. I have to believe that options 2 and 3 both lead to Bron-Bron skipping town for New York, Chicago, Miami, LA or Oklahoma City in that order. If it's option 2 then it'll become evident that Cavs management can't surround him with the talent he needs to become the best ever. Option 3 probably makes him realize he's burnt out and needs a change of scenery. Both options will have Clevelanders throwing up in their mouths. One way or another, the spotlight, pressure and microscope are focused solely on LBJ on thursday night, and it's time to see if he can finally pass that test, show some heart and accept the baton; to see if the King finally can earn his monicker and his crown. The world will be watching. LeBron, We're Waiting...

OHHHHH YEEAAAAHHHH...let me know who ya got going to the Final Four? I got Kansas,Kansas State,Nova, and Kentucky....and I got Kentucky winning it all against Kansas State

Congrats to the New Orleans Saints on the win! WHO DAT!!!!

Kobe Bryant has passed Laker great, Jerry West as the all time leading scorer. Kobe scored 44 points in a losing effort against the Memphis Grizzlies to become the Lakers all time scoring leader with 25,208 points. Congrats!