DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Cavs Offseason Continued

As soon as he announced the decsion, the first thing I thought was, "well the cavaliers are freaking done." I don't expect them to contend for a couple more years down the road, and how many people are actually going to buy tickets to see them now?

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I don't think lebron realized what the reaction would be to him leaving.

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Could anyone really be that stupid and far removed from reality? Really?

I also feel bad for his mom if she stays in the area. She's going to take a lot of unwarranted crap from a lot of hurt people.

I hope Delonte does his mom again.

I went to games when they were starting Bob Sura and Tyrone Hill and Vitaly Potapenko. I'm certainly not going to stop watching them now.

I said after the Celtics series that I didn't really care if he stayed or went, because he didn't accomplish squat in Cleveland. I'm not about to change my stance on that.

The way in which he went about it, however, is a very different story, and the source of any animosity that I have.

A 25-year-old with a bloated sense of self-importance?
Yeah he might not get it, Ytown.
Just sayin'.

I hope to God the Heat don't win the Championship next year. It'd be awful looking at LeBron hoisting the trophy.

I think it would be fitting if the Gund was empty every time the Heat came to town.

I hope they win a total of 25 games next year ... with each and every one of their "trio" healthy all season long.

guess i picked a bad week to spring for that LBJ jersey....just kidding.
I saw this coming weeks ago, and I'm not a bit surprised. His last ditch effort to stay in C-town failed when Bosch refused to join him here, and as of then the writing was on the wall.
I'd like to wish him well and a pile of trophies to go with his numerous mvp's, but I just can't be the better man...
I hope he comes up short every season and I also hope that he quits on his team when they need him the most just like he did to Cleveland. As of tonight, he's dead to me.

I will never watch him play basketball again. Even against the cavs.

By the way Lebron ... you walked against the Wizards.

Lebron probably never wanted to be here. He grew up in Akron not Cleveland. He grew up a Bulls, Yankee, Cowboys fan not a Cavs, Indians Browns fan. He was drafted, he didn't sign here. He signed the extension a few years ago probably with the belief he was good enough to win one on his own with a few role players. He didn't, so now he is scared that if in 6 years he still havn't won one he may never will.

He is taking the Kobe route. Team up with a superstar (Kobe and Shaq) win a few and then do in on your own. Yes I know they have guys like Bynym, Gasol and Artest but it is look at as Kobe's team.

Yes Kobe stayed with the team that drafted him but the fact is Cleveland can't get many free agents to come here. Bosh flat out said anywhere but Cleveland. Maybe that was orchestrated, maybe it wasn't.

I can't fault Lebron for wanting to go else where if he feels he can win. But I can fault him for being a classless jerk in doing so. He did slap Cleveland in the face on national tv. Period, no if ands or buts about it.

I don't wish him any bodly harm in fact I hope he is 100% healthy every year, but I hope the next few years the Miami Heat fail to even reach the finals, well at least I will be rooting for that outcome.

Lebron......Miami just won a few years ago and they can't even sell out a playoff game this last year. Had you won a championship in Cleveland the Q would have sold out every year while you were still on the roster. You could have been revered here, instead you chose to go to a fan base that is fair weather as Bengal Nation. Contradulations to you.

Yeah, I agree.

So ..... "Lebum"?

"The Jester"?

LeBackstabber

I am kind of partial to "The Jester".

Well, that will teach me to ever support an athlete playing in Cleveland again, they always leave.

Been sayin' all along,...

Hockey, here I come.

I can't be mad at the guy for wanting to win a championship.

The only problem I had the entire show was when he was asked would there be a difference if he won a ring in Cleveland compared to Miami. And Lebron said no....

I just read Chris Grant's statement on the Cavs website (which didn't mention LeBron in any way) and it made me realize that now is when the Cavs need fan support more than ever.

one last thing....if I owned that building with the giant LeBron mural painted on it, I promise it would be painted over before tomorrow's sun could shine on it.

May you have many more MVP's. And may Patrick Ewing and Lebron be uttered in the same breath for years to come.

Just clicking ....

Frankly, I think that every TV in Cleveland should turn off ESPN for the rest of eternity. (Well, unless the Browns are playing)

does anyone feel more duped than Byron Scott right now? bet he'd like a do-over.

Lebron actually said that he's going to continue to live in Akron? Really? Good luck with that.

http://www.cleveland.com/livingston/index.ssf/2010/07/whatever_his_voiced_reasons_it.html

By rejecting his hometown team, LeBron James earns his slot on the Modell list of shame: Bill Livingston
Published: Thursday, July 08, 2010, 10:12 PM Updated: Thursday, July 08, 2010, 10:20 PM

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Chosen One left the money and ran.

Until 9:28 Thursday night, there was still the thought in Cleveland that reports LeBron James would go to Miami as a free agent were a vast smoke screen, like the volcano in Iceland. But they were not.

Defecting players usually say sports are a business. But while James' decision certainly crushes businesses around The Q, for Cleveland, this was personal. How could it possibly be business when the Cavaliers could pay $30 million more over a long-term contract than any of his suitors?

James is the local legend who severed his ties with the area and now becomes as reviled as any sports figure other than Art Modell. He is the great player who left unfinished business after quitting on his team on the court and left unanswered questions by quitting on his city off it.

The medium for the bad news was ESPN, which figured. The network represents much of what is loud, obnoxious and empty in sports today.

The smiley face that Miami will put on this will be that James placed a chance to solidify one of the NBA's potentially great teams ahead of his ego. But as the dog-and-pony show of James' free agency shows, it was always all about him.

There is no doubt, however, that Cleveland enabled him with the huge billboard-sized banner across from The Q; with the "Witness" signs, as if he were able to perform miracles; with the sing-along by city and state officials, pleading for him to stay. There was a clear indication from the moment he wore a Yankees cap to a New York-Indians playoff game in what was then called Jacobs Field that he felt he could do anything he pleased. No one in the Cavaliers' organization would ever tell him no.

What a surprise that he became monstrously self-centered.

In the end, he proved not good enough to win it all, even with a good supporting cast.

By waiting to leave until after his high-profile basketball camp in his hometown of Akron, by surrounding himself there with current and former Cavs teammates, and by scheduling a one-hour national cable "event" just to exploit this city's suffering, he hit the trifecta in deplorable behavior.

He had before invoked all the connotations of home, only to leave it. He had before summoned an image of family, only to reject it. He had before cherished loyalty, only to betray it. He wears "Family" and "Loyalty" tattoos on his torso. Dermabrasion, please. The sooner, the better.

By contrast, Tim Duncan could have left the Spurs for Orlando, almost did, then stayed and won three of his four championships afterward. Kobe Bryant almost forced his way out of Los Angeles, then stayed and won two championships among his five overall, in just the last two years.

With James, there was always a childish, self-aggrandizing aspect to his game and a divided focus on the importance of winning. He was caught up in hosting the ESPYs and "Saturday Night Live" or making a proposed movie. Such perks once followed winning, but in his case, they preceded it.

He always wanted everyone to look at him. He valued trick shots, attempting looping, underhanded efforts from halfcourt before the game. He indulged in showy, copycat gestures like the pre-game powder throw. (Kevin Garnett did it first). He was not the winner we thought, not by a long shot in the Boston series. He was the fabulous curiosity, the bearded lady, the dancing bear.

He rubbed it in, dancing and preening, when the Cavs won and, at least twice, against Boston in 2008 and Orlando in 2009, he left without shaking hands after they lost. By joining the stocked-with-superstars Miami Heat, he becomes on the court what his rooting interests in the New York Yankees and Dallas Cowboys made him off it -- a front-runner.

As far as the "multiple" championships go that the abdicated "King" thinks will ratify greatness, is that really so? Until the rise of Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson in the 1980s and '90s, Jerry West and Oscar Robertson were commonly considered the best guards in NBA history. They won two championships between them. Years of excellence established their reputations, despite the obstacles the Bill Russell dynasty presented.

James will be compared to Modell, although NBA basketball, of sorts, will continue here, and NFL football, the biggest thing in town by far, did not for three years. Of course Modell should have sold to a local buyer, but he was down to his last resort in order to stay in the game when he moved the Browns to ease his financial burdens. James had plenty of time, at age 25, to redeem his feeble efforts against Boston. Garnett, for example, stayed a decade in a less competitive situation in Minnesota and left more honorably.

Modell's move meant he sacrificed his chance for his sport's Hall of Fame.

James -- despite the problems he and Dwyane Wade will have in sharing the ball, despite the need to keep the third mercenary, Chris Bosh, happy too -- probably thinks he has won the world.

Everywhere but home, although he said he will still live in Akron.

Because home is gone. Because it's personal here too.

It's funny how fast you so called fans can turn on a home town hero. Lebron did what was best for Lebron and his happiness.

He wants to win championships and you know as well as he knew it was not very likely to happen in Cleveland.

Now I feel happy for Lebron and Brady Quinn to have a chance to better themselves by getting away from what kept them from being all they can be.You may ask what that can be? It's Cleveland and the fans!

Good luck Lebron.

Oh please. That's about the most classless thing since Lebron's self-serving "Special" promoting his "brand".

Go be a Broncos and Heat fan. Have a nice life.

If Scott didn't at least factor it in, then he was stupid.

He doesn't strike me as a stupid man.

PWNAGE by Livingston! lol

j/c

Browns were one of the worst teams in football yet the games sold out consistently.

It'll be interesting to see how the Cavs do now that LeBron is gone.

I for one, as I've stated before, am glad that Cleveland can become a football town again and not a Lebron/basketball town.

http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/news/grant_statement_100708.html

Thursday, July 8th, 2010
Cavaliers GM Chris Grant Statement

“We believe in this team, this organization, this community, and what we will do to compete at the highest level. We believe in the new coach and leader we have in Byron Scott, and the world class basketball organization and positive and strong culture we've established. Dan Gilbert and our ownership group are firmly committed to reaching our goals and succeeding on the court and in the community, at the highest level.”

“Our fans stepped up and showed their support, to a degree unlike anywhere else. We are fortunate to have the support of the best fans in the NBA. That passion and dedication will be rewarded. We will work relentlessly to continue to build a team that will contend. A team that will win championships. We are all competitors and our one goal is to win, that and Dan Gilbert and our ownership team’s commitment and investment in this organization and community are constants that will not change."

I won't be watching espn for a long time, just because I can't watch him in another jersey. I dvr college football live and NFL live, that's it.