Quote: Gilbert's son is actually 14. He suffers from some sort medical problem. He had a great one liner. I'll let someone else tell you about it.
Yeah just read up about him - neat kid... he actually has Neurofibromatosis which can be a pretty nasty little disease... it basically is a nerve sheath disorder that causes tumors to grow throughout your body... sounds like the kid has been through the ringer but has raised a good amount of money for the pediatric cancer society... he still looked funny being up there to me, but after reading his story I think that was pretty neat... I gotta respect Gilbert tonight getting the Browns players together and representing Cleveland well tonight
it was great touch by Dan. I love that he had Haden, Cribbs, and Bernie there. It was a world class move.
No other town has all the athletes from all the local teams have a sense of camaraderie like Cleveland does. These guys all show a ton of support, and not just at playoff games. For crying out loud Joe Haden showed up to a bunch of games when the Cavs were 300 games under .500 in January.
I think the other thing is, assuming we stay at 4, or even if we made a big move, like Rudy Gay, we'd have 2 guys who could come up together, and not have a repeat of what we went through for the last 7 years.
i know it won't be Durant/Westbrook, but that kinda idea.
Quote: do you think that 4 and our first pick in rd 2 would be enough? maybe work in the exception somehow by taking on a contract?
I would say so.
Minny still gets who they want at #4 (or trades that pick away) and they dump a salary they don't want.
Pretty much a no brainer for them in my opinion.
Will be interesting to see how much Cleveland likes Williams though. They may just be content to hope Kanter slides.
This draft honestly could not have fallen better. With Utah jumping to #3, it kept Kanter in play at #4. Maybe they still take him but they really need a PG. Knight would seem to be the logical pick at #3 but who knows.
One other thing, we don't have to worry about Byron Scott leaving or having his mind on leaving for a better gig, I think he got his guy, and I think he realizes what he has at hand right now.
Just wanted to chime in tonight... great night to be a Cavs fan! As others have said, it was awesome to see the "Cleveland presence" in the crowd and excellent job out of Nick Gilbert.
"Don't call it a comeback!"
"If it weren't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college" GO ROCKETS
It is especially satisfying to get the 1st overall pick with the Clippers pick.
The funny thing is that we would have been lamenting the fact that we dropped out of the top 3 with our pick if we hadn't made that trade.
There has been a lot of talk that Philly desperately wants to move Iguadola and his salary. Grab a quality PG and then the best available guy at 4 ..... trade for Igualola ... and suddenly we have a pretty solid team at every spot.
Indians have the best record in the AL, the Cavaliers and Browns look like they're both on the way up ...... looks like a good time to be a Cleveland fan.
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
Quote: There has been a lot of talk that Philly desperately wants to move Iguadola and his salary. Grab a quality PG and then the best available guy at 4 ..... trade for Igualola ... and suddenly we have a pretty solid team at every spot.
Do we still have that Exemption???
Jamison's expiring will be tasty to teams also...Then Davis next year...
Loved Gilbert's reaction...He'll have us a Top 3 team again in 2 years...
if you're a cavs fan, get ready for a wild 2 months because it's gonna be crazy.
#1 pick
#4 pick which could go several ways. still could get a really good player, pick could be traded as well.
the clock on the trade exemption is ticking, i don't think the cavs acquired that for nothing. they will do what they can to find a way to work that thing.
and the minute this season ends, antawn jamison and his contract become very very tradeable.
outside of #1 being Irving, i have no idea what is going to happen but i can't wait, the cavs are about to be a hell of a lot better come november.
Irving Williams Knight (Utah replaces Williams) Kanter!!!!!!!!!!!!
well, that couldn't have gone much better. I completely agree with that mock.
we get to pick Irving. Derrick Williams will be gone (perfect fit in Minny), but Utah is one of the few teams I can see gambling on a PG (Knight) over taking Enes Kanter. So, we may end up with 2 of the top3 guys in this class. Sure, it's not a great class, but they should be solid to very good NBA players and that's how you start building a team.
I just hope that getting Irving and Kanter doesn't make people all of a sudden believe we are a contender. We need another down year to get another lotto pick. We should get just that too.
Let us just hope that the Jazz are truely enamoured with Knight. If they go PG at #3, that means either Enes or Williams falls to us at #4, and I would be estatic with either outcome.
Cavaliers can move past LeBron with Irving Adrian Wojnarowski
By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports 6 hours, 34 minutes ago
CHICAGO – Oh, the uneasiness and irony would’ve been thick had Kyrie Irving been seduced so easily and let LeBron James’(notes) inner circle represent him. From LeBron to Maverick Carter to the industry muscle of the Creative Arts Agency, they relentlessly recruited the Duke star. They wanted to do his contracts, his endorsements, everything. As it turns out, they would’ve marched right back into the life of Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, with his next fresh-faced franchise star.
Together, James and his associates had lured Irving’s favorite player, Chris Paul(notes), to the agency, and had James hard on the recruiting trail. No one should underestimate the power of James’ tweets toward a hot, young college and high school star, or a well-time phone call or text here and there. More From Adrian Wojnarowski
Bulls corral LeBron, win Game 1 May 16, 2011 Celtics' Ainge hiring son May 13, 2011
Duke's Kyrie Irving is expected to be the first pick of this year's NBA draft. (Getty Images)
For parts of Irving’s freshman season at Duke, rival agents believed LeBron’s camp would sign him. “They came very hard for Kyrie,” says an ex-Duke basketball player who spent time on campus this season. “… All over him.”
Yes, the Cavs won the No. 1 overall pick in the draft lottery on Tuesday night, and Irving is the clear choice for them. Privately, Cavaliers officials gushed over Irving this season and prayed they’d get a chance to draft him. As much as ever, the NBA’s a point guard league and contenders are born of great playmakers.
Had Irving been swayed to the flashy, aggressive pitch by CAA and LeBron’s marketing company, there could’ve been some salacious showdown. Lucky for Gilbert, the pitch fell flat on the Irving family, and substance over sizzle ruled the day. Irving chose an agent, Jeff Wechsler, who hadn’t bothered to recruit Irving at all. Lucky for Gilbert, Irving isn’t entangled in an awkward web of the Cavaliers’ yesterday and tomorrow.
To say there’s nothing but ill-will and downright loathing between Gilbert and LeBron’s associates doesn’t begin to cover the territory. Yet now, Kyrie Irving walks into the Cavaliers with no baggage, no connection to the heartbreak of LeBron James’ departure.
“It’s been a slow, long and painful haul to get through it, and maybe this will be the final straw in getting over the hump and getting to the other side,” Gilbert said.
Irving won’t transform Cleveland overnight, but paired with a frontcourt player with the No. 4 pick and the Cavs can make a rapid ascent to relevance again. There’s no replacing LeBron James, but there is pushing past him and Irving has the talent, the character, to wash away the residue of King James’ departure. This should end Gilbert’s tweeting career on James, and that’ll be beneficial to the city of Cleveland and his organization.
Irving isn’t a savior, but he can be a worthy heir to the generation of Russell Westbrooks and Rajon Rondos. Perhaps Cleveland truly hit the lottery and found itself an MVP, a Derrick Rose(notes), a Chris Paul. For now, Irving’s body of work is too limited to prematurely cast him in those molds, but make no mistake: He’s a godsend in a draft with so few difference makers.
The Cavaliers need to be careful that they don’t overplay him as a savior to sell tickets and create unrealistic expectations. He’s his own man, though. An agent who recruited Irving marveled to his family that they could’ve made a lot of money in the college recruiting and agent processes, but never let it happen. Every big-time college coach and agent you talk to made something clear: Unlike many elite prospects and those surrounding them, the Irvings couldn’t be bought.
A friend of a friend recommended Wechsler, and he sold the Irving family on two themes: Being shrewd with Kyrie’s career earnings, and becoming a beacon of community service and charity. When Wechsler had a chance to make a formal presentation, his pitch wasn’t centered on Irving’s sneaker deals, endorsements and the agent’s role as a 24-7 errand boy. He had Anthony Kennedy Shriver, founder of the globally renowned Best Buddies program, tell Kyrie about the power of charity and giving back.
In the end, the Cavaliers could walk out of the June draft with Irving and an elite power player with the fourth overall pick. GM Chris Grant grabbed the Los Angeles Clippers’ unprotected pick and Baron Davis’(notes) contract for Mo Williams(notes) in February, and the Clippers must be mortified to see it turn into the No. 1 overall. Irving and Blake Griffin(notes) could’ve been a Westbrook-Kevin Durant(notes) partnership, but that’s how it goes with the Clips.
Now, Irving gets the benefit of a coach, Byron Scott, whose inventory of knowledge includes a Showtime Lakers career as Magic Johnson’s running mate and a coaching run that includes Jason Kidd(notes) and Chris Paul under his watch.
Irving will find a city dying to embrace him, and he’ll make it easy. And once they hear that his family took a pass on LeBron and his wooing partners, they’ll be even more impressed. For everyone’s sake, it probably works out that Maverick Carter, Rich Paul and the rest of LeBron’s Akron buddies don’t come marching back into Quicken Loans Arena arm and arm with the future of the Cavaliers’ franchise. It would’ve been a wild scene full of acrimony and tension, but Kyrie Irving made it easy for everyone, and yes, that’s what great point guards are supposed to do.
The exemption is good for one year from the date James signed with Miami IIRC.
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
Minnesota Timberwolves president David Kahn apparently insinuates that the NBA Draft Lottery is rigged.
For years -- no, decades -- basketball observers have had suspicions about the NBA Draft Lottery. The process is hidden, ping pong balls involved, and there are a bunch of hurt feelings because 13 of the teams present go home without the No. 1 pick.
Speculation about the lottery being rigged has always been a favorite custom of fans, but it's not something you ever hear spoken, or even implied, by NBA executives. Until now.
Minnesota Timberwolves president David Kahn apparently implied in an interview with the Associated Press that the NBA's lottery process is not totally on the up and up.
Kahn's comments came after he joined Utah Jazz GM Kevin O'Connor and Nick Gilbert, the son of Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, as the three finalists for the No. 1 pick. Nick Gibert suffers from a nerve disorder and eventually secured the No. 1 pick for the Cavaliers.
"This league has a habit, and I am just going to say habit, of producing some pretty incredible story lines," Kahn said. "Last year it was Abe Pollin's widow and this year it was a 14-year-old boy and the only thing we have in common is we have both been bar mitzvahed. We were done. I told Kevin: 'We're toast.' This is not happening for us and I was right." A "habit" of producing incredible storylines implies that it's not intentional or manipulated but simply the product of a track record. But the disclaimer "I am just going to say habit" screams "I am really, really bitter because this was totally fixed so that the kid would win."
Either this was the clumsiest language of all time or a crystal clear implication. I don't see any other interpretations. Surely, a clarification is coming. (Not to mention an apology for referring to a child with a nerve disorder and a widow as "storylines".)
Even the implication of impropriety is sure to rub NBA commissioner David Stern the wrong way and this isn't Kahn's first time getting on Stern's bad side. Kahn was fined $50,000 last July for comments made regarding Timberwolves forward Michael Beasley's marijuana use. A fine here wouldn't be out of the question considering what's at stake for the league: its reputation.
I suppose Kahn shouldn't plan on taking that Hawaiin vacation in the coming weeks. He'll be writing a hefty check to the Angel of Stern instead. Stupid.
“...Iguodala to Curry, back to Iguodala, up for the layup! Oh! Blocked by James! LeBron James with the rejection!”
Well ... the Cavaliers slogan is "All for 1" (4-1) ... and we got picks 4 and 1 .........
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
wanted to note that this seems harminous with the Cavs history as well as Byron Scotts. the one thing the Cavs seemed to always have was good PG play. From Bagley to Price/KJ/Battle to Brandon to Andre Miller we had a run of really good PGs. Heck, even Steve Kerr and Brevin Knight mixed in were good role players at PG.
then, we got away from that and had an incredible run of 7 years but could never solve the PG spot. glad to see us get back to our roots on this one.
Price was one of my favorite Cavaliers ever. Man, he could do it all .....
If Irving is anywhere near Price, he'll be a great pick.
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
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