At long last, there is enough of a slight gap in my other pursuits for me to weigh in on the whole LeBron James situation.  And by “other pursuits”, I mean my day job, P90X (I’m in Week #3) and writing some technical articles to help support my revenue-generating activities.

So, why did I wait so long?  There is certainly no lack of people giving their two cents on the subject, and almost all of them have better credentials than myself (note that I did not say that they are more qualified – anyone that has read my stuff before knows the deal).  So, you knew that it was coming (my two cents, that is), and you knew that it was probably going to be a slightly different take.

If you are used to the same old shit, sorry.  That is not what we do here.  Just like Brett Favre throwing the ball to the wrong team, Peyton Manning doing anything to avoid any physical contact whatsoever and costing his team dearly by doing so even when big games are on the line, Pau Gasol or any nimrod from Duke flopping around like Serie A soccer players instead of playing tough defense, the French surrendering, and politicians being crooked…we like to take a slightly different angle on the sports stories of the day.  It’s our signature move; it’s what we do.

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Dear Mr. James,

My name is Nathan, and I am 9 years old.  I live in Manhattan with my mom, dad and sister.  We all love the Knicks, but no one loves them more than my Dad.

Everyone around here is talking about where you are going to play basketball next season.  I am writing to tell you something that I think no other Knicks fan will ever tell you.  I think you should stay in Cleveland.

I do not fully understand exactly how difficult it is to do what you do on a nightly basis…I am just too young to get it.  Basically, I just know that you are better than all of the other players on the court, and you sometimes make them look so silly that my crazy dad gets up, runs around the room and does what my sister and I like to call “the LeBron dance”. We ask my dad why he gets so excited, and he tells us how difficult it is to do that against the guys you are doing it against.

My dad goes on to let us know how good those other players are, and how very difficult it is to even get the chance to play in the NBA.  “But LeBron plays at a different level,” he always says.  And without fail, he always ends every discussion about you with: “and he’s coming to the Knicks some day.”  Then, that changed to “and he’s coming to the Knicks next summer.” And last month, that became “and he’s coming to the Knicks next month.”

My dad, and most of his friends, have not slept for a few days now.  They are on the edge of their seats and will be devastated if you do not come to the Knicks.  Please, Mr. James, for the sake of myself and your young fans everywhere, stay in Cleveland.

Most of the points that I want to bring up have been told to you already.  Cleveland is your home.  Cleveland gave you your first chance.  Cleveland is the only place that will always love you, even if you never win an NBA Championship ring…and they will love you even more if you play your entire career there.  I was shocked when I found out that Cleveland is also the team that can pay you the most money.

Mr. James, I am going to love watching you over the remainder of your career.  I am going to love coming to appreciate your historically great skills on the basketball court more and more over time.  I am sure that I will be a great fan of basketball my whole life.  I am also sure that I will be a LeBron James fan my whole life.

If you come to play for the Knicks, I will probably love you even more.  If you stay in Cleveland, I will respect you forever, and I don’t think I need to tell you how much better respect is than love.  I will tell my grandchildren that I got to see the great LeBron James play basketball, and remind them, every time your name comes up, that you were one of the all-time greats, not just because you elevated your game and your league – there are lots of other players that can do that and HAVE done that and WILL do that – an even greater feat than that is to elevate your city.  You have already done that, and have a rare opportunity to continue doing it for your entire career, instead of chasing money and other less important things.

You have already had such a positive impact on Cleveland, perhaps giving thousands of children opportunities they never would have had without your influence.  Children like me.  Children my age, that will love you forever, just like I will.  But they are different – they are Cleveland’s children…and I think you know what they mean to you, and I also think you owe it to them, and all Cleveland fans, to finish what you started in your home town.

So Mr. James, I know you are busy this week, talking to all of these billionaires that want you to come play for them.  Please, don’t listen to any of them.  All they want to do is use your skills to make themselves more money.  Mr. Gilbert, while also running a business, represents all Cleveland fans, everything that was once not so good about your city, everything that you have already changed for the better, and everything that will continue to change as long as you stay there.  If you leave, no one is sure what will happen to your city and your team.  In fact, there are teams of accountants trying to calculate the potential negative financial impact if you leave.

I will continue to watch you and love you.  I hope that you make the right choice and do not go chasing something that is nowhere near as important as what you have done, are doing, and might do in Cleveland.  I hope that myself, and all the children, not only get to love you for your talent on the court, but also respect you for making the right decision for your team, your league and your city.  Please stay in Cleveland.

My dad will get over it.

Thank you,

Nathan

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After a week off to attend to some family matters, we are back on schedule with the weekly podcast.  We also have some slightly better quality, thanks to a new microphone, and some better production values.  If you are listening to the stream on the blog, make sure to comment on our weekly features (Dude/Douche, King for the Day, etc.) — let us know what you think of the ones we have, as well as suggest any new ones.

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Two of our regular contributors, myself and Rob, were having a chat on IM recently, and I figured that it was worthy of being out here on the blog. As far as sports IM conversations go, it has almost everything necessary to be mildly entertaining: an all-time list, fan narcissism, humor, you name it.

Plus, it was easy to turn it into a blog post. Just a little formatting and we are off and running.

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I am not trying to be provocative when I start a column like that, but what the hell else am I supposed to think when some buffoons didn’t vote for LeBron James this year?  I understand that there is a definite pecking order to these things.  If LeBron had been selected at the MVP in unanimous fashion, he would have been the first player to ever accomplish the feat, trumping Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, and everyone else.

Well so effing what?!?  In understand that some of the guys that have votes for these things have a vested interest in voting for “their guy” (more on that later), and there is inherently nothing wrong with that, especially in years where there is a bona fide competition for the MVP.

This year was not one of those years.  Anyone not voting for LeBron James this year is an absolute basketball moron, period.  The King put together a season this year that was one for the ages, and no one else was even close.   A voter not voting for LeBron opens himself up for justifiable criticism, but I would maintain that such criticism should approach professional censure, if not ostracism.

Here is the part that really gets me ticked off about these kind of things – everyone voting for this award (and just about all others in every major sport) works in and around the NBA, and should presumably know a little bit about the game. Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of the NBA and how things work over a long season should know that LeBron James was the MVP.  In fact, I would take that step further – anyone not voting for LeBron should have cast a huge doubt on his ability as a basketball person…or at the very least, some doubt about their ability to be objective.

Of the 7 first-place votes not garnered by LeBron: four went to Kevin Durant, a rising force that is possibly going to rewrite large sections of the record book before he is done, and is definitely going to win multiple MVP awards during his career, barring injury; and the other three votes went to Dwight Howard, a dominating force in the NBA right now, and the most dangerous big man since a young Shaq.  Durant and Howard cannot hold LeBron’s jock, in terms of being the Most Valuable Player in the league…not for one second combined.

Here is where it gets interesting – the three votes for Howard all came from the Orlando area.  Not surprising, I guess, but how about this – one of the guys (John Denton) works for orlandomagic.com, and another of them (David Steele) is an Orlando Magic team broadcaster.

If I was Richard DeVos or any of the other brass at the Magic, I would terminate those two nimrods with extreme prejudice.  They either know so little about basketball that they actually believe it the way they voted it, in which case they should be fired for gross incompetence – or they they are such homers that they cannot separate fact from fiction, in which case they should be fired for gross incompetence and locked up in a rubber room until they can differentiate between reality and fantasy.

What a shame that this kind of thing is allowed to happen.  I think it’s an indictment against the voting process itself that the guys that broadcast a team’s games and run a team’s web site have a vote at all, but if you are going to have that built into the process, you at least have to police these guys a little bit. 

Perhaps David Stern should step in and censure these two idiots.  Maybe in the future, folks would try to do their job the right way and vote for the most deserving player.

Then again, I still have a problem with Roberto Alomar having to wait an extra year to get into the baseball Hall of Fame, because (I guess) first-ballot Hall of Famers do not spit on umpires. 

When do you think one of these leagues is going to figure out how to have an awards voting process that doesn’t suck?  I am putting the over/under at “not in my lifetime”.

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Before you start digging that hole for the impending burial of the 2008-2009 Cleveland Cavaliers season, let me be the first to quote that great American philosopher, Yogi Berra – It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.  There are plenty of reasons why the Cavs are probably dead in the water…and plenty of reasons why Cavs fans should still have hope.  Let’s take a quick stroll through the options, shall we?

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