Time may not be on new-look Cleveland Cavaliers' side, but LeBron James is

A generation ago, Larry Nance, Sr., was a key part of a great Cleveland Cavaliers team -- one that Magic Johnson famously dubbed “The Team of the ’90s” in the late ’80s. Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls snuffed that out. Now, almost 30 years later, his son, Larry Nance, Jr., has the league’s and the team’s permission to take his father’s jersey out of the rafters, where it was retired in 1995, and wear it again.

This time, though, the odds are more in Cleveland’s favor. The Cavs have this generation’s Magic, and there’s no Jordan to be found. There are assorted Kevin Durants and Stephen Currys; James Hardens and Chris Pauls, to be sure. But the Cavaliers, after shocking the NBA world at the trade deadline two weeks ago with three major deals that blew up the old, tired roster and revitalized it in one morning, have the only thing that matters: an engaged LeBron James, again bouncing on his toes. No one else on earth can bring in anyone as impactful.

Nance, Jr., and Jordan Clarkson came from the Los Angeles Lakers. Rodney Hood came from the Utah Jazz. George Hill came from the Sacramento Kings. Out went Isaiah Thomas and Dwyane Wade; Jae Crowder and Iman Shumpert; Derrick Rose and Channing Frye. Three huge cuts for first-year general manager Koby Altman, who also held onto the unprotected first-round pick the Cavs got from Boston (via Brooklyn) in the Kyrie Irving deal last summer.

Hill is the only newcomer who was put in the starting lineup. The others have revitalized Cleveland’s bench, giving Korver more room to operate as defenses suddenly have to stay attached to Clarkson’s attacks -- he’s sixth in the league in bench scoring, behind Lou Williams, Tyreke Evans, Eric Gordon, Nikola Mirotic and Hood -- Hood’s spot-ups and Nance’s rim runs.

The small things that they don’t know -- the plays, the directions to practice (Clarkson got horribly lost the first day), where to live -- will have to be incorporated on the fly. There’s no time. There’s six weeks left in the regular season, and Kevin Love is still not back in the lineup, and there are some hungry teams right on Cleveland’s haunches in the East who’d love to surpass the Cavs for third in the conference.

Hill chased titles before in Indiana, against James’ Miami Heat teams, when the Pacers had a young Paul George and a tall Roy Hibbert and a tough David West and a crazy Lance Stephenson. Hood made the playoffs last year with the Jazz. But Nance and Clarkson were on Lakers teams with no expectations. Cleveland, of course, has the ultimate expectation, with James’ free agency looming.

LeBron James is youngest ever to join NBA's exclusive 30,000-point club

James became the seventh player with 30,000 career points when he hit a jumper with one second left in the first quarter of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ game against the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night.

James was recognized by the arena before the second quarter and got a standing ovation from Spurs fans. James patted his head and said “thank you so much.”

James needed seven points on Tuesday to get there. He missed his first two midrange jumpers before making two driving layups and a 20-footer. He hit the milestone jumper over Danny Green from 19 feet out.

The 33-year-old James joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387 points), Karl Malone (36,928), Kobe Bryant (33,643), Michael Jordan (32,292), Wilt Chamberlain (31,419) and Dirk Nowitzki (30,808) on the list.

At 33 years and 24 days, James is the youngest to reach the mark. Bryant was 34 years and 104 days when he got there. The 14-time All-Star has averaged 27.1 points since breaking into the league as an 18-year-old in 2003.

James’s achievement comes at a difficult time for the Cavaliers, with the team enduring a terrible run of form. They held an emotional pre-practice meeting on Monday in hopes of clearing the air.

We aired any grievances we had and we’re going to move forward,” said center Kevin Love, who is believed to have been the target of some of his team-mates’ ire after he left a game with an illness. “Hopefully we’ll be better for it, we have been in the past.”

Report: Derrick Rose and LeBron James were in contact during recruitment process

Amid the drama surrounding the Cavaliers following the revelation that Kyrie Irvinghas requested a trade, Cleveland Cavaliers has reportedly agreed to a one-year, $2.1M deal with Derrick Rose. 

And while LeBron James has said that he will stay out of the trade discussions, letting the front office and new general manager Koby Altman handle things, The King was reportedly in contact with Rose throughout the recruitment process. 

It's hard to really tell too much from this, but it at least seems from the outside that the move was co-signed by LeBron. 

He's not actually the GM, despite what the Twitter dot com jokes may say, but James holds immense power and influence and largely dictates the way the team will play. If he didn't think that Rose would be a helpful addition, it's unlikely the Cavs would have signed him, especially given Rose's decline in recent years. 

Why LeBron James is Nike's for life

LeBron James has said in the past that he is tired of being compared to Michael Jordan, but the new deal he signed on Monday means that he may well be seen as stepping into Jordan’s shoes, or more specifically, his Air Jordans.

James has just signed a lifetime deal with Nike, which will potentially earn the Cleveland Cavaliers superstar more than $60m (£40m) a year. Like Jordan, James has been working with the company since his youth, signing his first $90m deal with them when he was just out of high school after a bidding war between Nike, Adidas and Reebok.

“I’m just grateful that Nike and [Nike co-founder] Phil Knight and everyone over there just believed in a skinny 18-year-old kid from Akron, Ohio,” James told reporters on Monday.

So what does a contract for life involve and who gets them? Karl Lagerfeld is said to be so important to Chanel that he has one with the label. Ditto Annie Leibovitz, whose contract with Vanity Fair publisher Condé Nast is supposedly worth $5m a year. Jordan, who first signed a deal in 1984, has been working successfully with Nike for 12 years since his retirement. His Air Jordan line sold $2.5bn worth of shoes in 2012, and Jordan is thought to earn $100m a year thanks to the range. David Beckham, meanwhile, will make more than $160m from the lifetime contract with Adidas that he signed in 2003.

David Abrutyn, an executive vice president at the media marketing agency Bruin Sports Capital, says that the deal reflects James’s importance to the company. “They are very purposefully defining that they have done a lifetime deal with LeBron and I think that speaks volumes about what he means for their business,” he says. “I’m sure if you talked to the people at Nike they would tell you that of the thousands of athletes they represent, more than a few of them have asked for a lifetime deal.” He says that it is likely to be Nike’s biggest deal since its “de facto” lifetime contract with Jordan.

The world of sponsorship hasn’t always been plain sailing for Nike, whose shareholders were reported to have lost tens of millions of dollars after standing by Tiger Woods during his infidelity scandal. Lance Armstrong and Oscar Pistorius, who lost their Nike sponsorship in 2012 and 2013 respectively, have also caused headaches for the company.

Despite this, Abrutyn thinks that Nike envisages this deal being successful, perhaps even to the grave. “As with Jordan, what you’re seeing here is a reflection of the business that LeBron helped drive,” he says. In other words, nice work if you can get it.

Reports: LeBron James signs two-year contract with Cleveland Cavaliers

LeBron James was outstanding in the NBA finals but could not lead his team to the championship. Photograph: Kevin C Cox/Getty Images

LeBron James will saddle up again for the Cleveland Cavaliers after agreeing a two-year contract with the team, according to ESPN. The deal is understood to be worth up to $46.9m, with the second year a player option.

James had not talked to any other teams during free agency, and was never expected to leave his hometown team. Rather, any negotiations on James’s part are to maintain flexible contracts to take advantage of rising salary caps.

The move reaffirms James’s target of winning an NBA championship with the Cavaliers. He came agonizingly close last month, as the Cavs went down 4-2 to the Golden State Warriors in the NBA finals. The last two times James was a free agent he moved teams – from the Cavaliers to Miami Heat in 2010 before a return to Cleveland in 2014.

Another of the Cavaliers’ stars, Kevin Love, says his new five-year, $113.2m contract with the team is “inked and official”. Love said he had met with James before free agency to discuss the team’s future, with forward Tristan Thompson also expected to complete a deal in the coming days.
Kevin Love stays at Cleveland Cavaliers citing 'unfinished business'
Read more

“I expressed this to LeBron and he’d been through it a couple of times now — I can actually go wherever I want and pick the team I want to play for,” Love said on Thursday.

“But every time I went through the different scenarios I always came out at the same place, and that was to be in Cleveland and try to win championships. I would be able to really help this team win and going forward make a very big impact on this team and on this city, trying to bring a championship or championships.”

LeBron James confident of NBA finals comeback: 'I'm the best in the world'

The Cleveland Cavaliers need to win both remaining games to clinch the NBA title, but LeBron James is confident his team can do it. Why? Because he’s the best player in the world.
The Cavs lost 91-104 in Game 5 in Oakland on Sunday night, after the Golden State Warriors accelerated away from their opponents in the fourth quarter. Steph Curry scored 37 points and made seven three-pointers to put Golden State 3-2 up in the series – and just one win from a first NBA championship in 40 years.

But James, who produced another scintillating performance at the Oracle Arena, assisting in 70 of the Cavs’ 91 points, has backed his team to come back on Tuesday night in Cleveland. “I feel confident because I’m the best player in the world,” James said on Sunday night. “It’s that simple.”
James, a four-time MVP, had 40 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists in game five, becoming only the second player to record a 40-point triple-double in the championship finals after Jerry West in 1969. James, in this finals series, is averaging 36.6 points per game.
Cavs coach David Blatt was gushing in his praise of his main man: “LeBron has been tremendous - [that is] even an understatement for how he’s played in the series. Under the current set of circumstances, that’s what we’ve got to get, and he’s bringing it. You don’t see that every day, what he’s doing. You’ve got to take your hat off to him.”
The Warriors will try to win their first title since 1975 on Tuesday night in Cleveland at the Quicken Loans Arena. Game 7, if necessary, would be in Oakland on Friday night. But LeBron said his team weren’t thinking about Friday.
“We’re going home with a game six and we’ve got enough to win it,” James said. “We protect home, we come [back to Oakland]. We’ll worry about Tuesday first. But if we protect home like we’re capable of doing, we force a Game 7.”
Golden State coach Steve Kerr had only admiration for his star, Curry: “I thought from the very beginning when they went small, had their shooters out there, I thought: this is Steph’s night.
“This is going to be a big one for him because he has all that room. He took over the game down the stretch and was fantastic.”
“We didn’t turn it over, we were patient,” Warriors shooting guard Klay Thompson said. “And two words: Stephen Curry.”

Everyone calm down, LeBron James is not leaving Cleveland

The winter holidays are coming to an end.  Those nonstop college football bowls will soon no longer seem bottomless. The NFL is over in a lot of markets, with only the postseason teams remaining. This means that for a lot of casual fans, this is the start of the NBA season. We at 5 Things welcome you all, but if you had the Cleveland Cavaliers facing the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals the start of the season has not done you any favors.
No, LeBron is not leaving Cleveland. David Blatt however...
On Sunday, the lowly Detroit Pistons beat LeBron James, Kevin Love and the rest of the Cleveland Cavaliers 103-80. It was the latest, and most embarrassing, setback for a group of players refusing to coalesce into the superteam promised this offseason.
For the first few months of the James/Love/Kyrie Irving experiment, there was talk of patience and an acknowledgment that building a championship team in Cleveland would take some time. Almost every report on the Cavs’ early struggles was moderate and temperate when compared to the instant media reaction that accompanied every Miami Heat win and loss in the months that followed The Decision.
Apparently, in the last few days the statue of limitations against panicky hyperbolic declarations lapsed. It’s mostly baseless speculation time. James turned 30 this week. HE’S IN TERMINAL DECLINE!
When asked about reported tensions with head coach David Blatt, James replied with a not-entirely committal “He’s our coach. What other coach do we have?” LEBRON JAMES WANTS DAVID BLATT FIRED!
When asked about the state of his team after losing to the Pistons, one of the worst teams in the NBA, James correctly noted that “right now we’re just not very good in every aspect of the game that we need to be to compete every night.’’ Obviously that means LEBRON JAMES IS GOING TO LEAVE CLEVELAND!
Advertisement
No. No it doesn’t.
James is not leaving Cleveland any time soon. While his contract gives him the option to leave the Cavaliers at the end of this season, his “I’m Coming Home” letter was a statement to the fans, to the entire world really, that he was in Cleveland for the long run. Unless he’s working on the biggest heel turn in basketball history, it’s hard to see him screwing over his home state once again.
Yes, James might have already peaked – it’s not impossible given the sheer number of minutes he’s played in the regular season and playoffs. At the very least, he clearly isn’t fully healthy, as evidenced by the fact that he sat out Tuesday night’s game against the Atlanta Hawks with a sore knee. Right now though, he only looks bad in comparison to the James of two years ago. He has spoiled us.
Now, the rumour that Blatt’s days might be numbered if the Cavaliers don’t start going on a major winning streak? That may have some basis in reality.
The Cavaliers hired Blatt, in his first head coaching job in the NBA, before they knew they were getting James back. Given the amount of say that LeBron (rightfully) has in the organization, this is essentially a “GM inheriting a head coach he didn’t hire” situation.
Because of this, Blatt’s situation is more precarious than it otherwise might be. While fifth place in the Eastern Conference isn’t an awful result – the Kobe Bryant/Dwight Howard/Steve Nash Lakers could only dream of such a record – it’s an appropriately mediocre accomplishment for an equally mediocre team. Rightly or wrongly, it’s likely Blatt will be the fall guy if they don’t start making up lost ground.
“Meet Me In Temecula:” A Christmas Story
Ah Christmas Day, a day to gather around the Christmas tree, unwrap presents, spend time with loved ones and drive 35 minutes to fight someone because they’ve dissed your favorite athlete on the internet. At least, that’s what happened this Christmas.
Here’s the short version: On 25 December, two basketball fans got into a Twitter debate about whether or not Bryant has been hurting the Lakers while on the court. Just a standard Twitter sports argument, right? Well, things escalated.
How escalated? The Bryant supporter, @MyTweetsRealAF, expressing the kind of passion and keen judgment of an Eminem song protagonist, decided to drive to Temecula in California to fight the other, @SnottieDrippen, who was actually tweeting from Arizona the entire time. Needless to say, the trip was all for naught, but it did entertain the rest of the sports Twitter world. Or at least the percentage that were spending their Christmas evening on social media.
By the next day, the “meet me in Temecula” incident had already entered NBA lore. ESPN personalities were slyly referencing the incident. There were thinkpieces. It led to a Deadspin debate about whether or not there was any justification for any of this.
Bryant, funnily enough, wasn’t even playing during that night’s 113-93 loss to the Chicago Bulls. It was partly because Bryant was beat up physically but it was also partly because, and this was the point Drippen (let’s avoid calling him Snottie because ... EWWW) was trying to make here, the Lakers offense really had been running better without him.
At this point, even Bryant finally admitted that he could help his team by taking some games off.
    When asked if there was any particular injury hampering him, Bryant cited age and soreness.
    Old age. My knees are sore at this stage of the season,” he said. “My achilles are sore – both of them. My metatarsals are tight, back is tight. I just need to kind of hit the reset button.
Not that this means Bryant doesn’t appreciate that his fans are willing to go the extra mile (and then some) to defend him:
Josh Smith joins the Houston Rockets
The Houston Rockets were attempting to trade for Josh Smith during the offseason. Luckily for them, those plans fell through, because it turns out that they could get him for nothing but money a few months later, after the Pistons president, Stan Van Gundy, simply cut the unloved power forward last week.
Smith, apparently, had decided to go with a team that was willing to take the risk of offering him a starting role, which drastically reduced the number of suitors willing to take a chance on a player who might have been the worst shooter in the league. The Rockets, however, were OK with this provision and they rolled the dice.
It’s not an insane gamble, really. Theoretically, Howard and Smith are good friends, so there won’t be a huge locker room issue looming. Even if his presence in the starting lineup does cause some bumps, it’s not like that the Rockets really emphasize team chemistry. As commenter FunctionalAtheist pointed out last week, the addition of Josh Smith with a team led by the divisive duo of Dwight Howard and James Harden “fits into Houston’s all-annoying-team style”.
How has the Smith Experiment been going so far? Well, Smith was a key player in the Rockets’ 117-111 overtime win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday, scoring 21 points, eight rebounds and three assists in the contest.
...And then he went 3-for-13 in his next two games, with eight points to go along with eight turnovers. So, it’s still very much in flux in Houston. Luckily, with the way MVP candidate Harden has been scoring, not even this could be enough to sink these Rockets. And worst case scenario, the Rockets will just dispose of him before letting that happen.
We can’t count the San Antonio Spurs in
Some people tell us not to worry about the San Antonio Spurs. They’re probably right. Recent history backs them up. There have been, however, early warning signs that Gregg Popovich’s veteran team can’t take anything for granted this season.
The defending champions have been fighting just to hold on to the seventh seed in the brutal Western Conference. They were stuck in a 1-6 rut, including back-to-back losses in triple overtime, before Sunday’s 110-106 win over the Houston Rockets. Kawhi Leonard, the franchise’s future, is on the sidelines with a hand injury. Cory Joseph has been starting in place of Tony Parker. Patty Mills is still recovering from offseason surgery. The aging duo of Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili have already logged a lot of minutes. (Those triple-overtime games didn’t help.)
The Spurs aren’t dead, but it’s difficult to see them leapfrogging the frightening Golden State Warriors, the surprising Portland Trail Blazers, those pesky Rockets, the lumbering Memphis Grizzlies, the Rondo-infused Dallas Mavericks or the resurgent Los Angeles Clippers unless players like Parker and Leonard are at full-strength. Plus, the Spurs have to fend off the once-left-for-dead Oklahoma City Thunder and the always tenacious Phoenix Suns or risk falling out of the top eight. It’s basically life during wartime.
It’s absurd to think that we’ve hit that season where San Antonio will crumble before our eyes like Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis in Beetlejuice. We can never count the Spurs out, but this time around we also can’t just reflexively count them in either. Not with their competition this relentless.
Other things we’ve learned

• The Brooklyn Nets’ Kevin Garnett blows in the ear of the Indiana Pacers’ David West. Perhaps KG and Lance Stephenson were part of a wacky body swap comedy? (Note: Please somebody write this.)
David West’s “how is this acceptable” face says it all.
• The Memphis Grizzlies’ Tony Allen livetweets baby vomit. This image doubles as a birth control device.
    — Tony Allen (@aa000G9) December 28, 2014
    Kodak Moment , Got to Love em, 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/wtuOwdHs8e

• A defense of the Eastern Conference. No seriously. This is very much a “retweets don’t necessarily mean endorsements” thing, but Liam Boylan-Pett’s argument actually makes some sense. The East is no longer just the Miami Heat and a bunch of other teams, there’s actual competition now. So, thank you Kyle Lowry of the Toronto Raptors, John Wall of the Washington Wizards and Jimmy Butler of the Chicago Bulls for stepping up while LeBron’s latest team has struggled.
• Sspeaking of Wall: Here’s a 360 layup that you probably missed because they were playing against the Boston Celtics.