Twitter Explodes Between Cleveland and Adam Schefter Over LeBron

“I don’t think there is disappointment in the situation because I am still here with Phoneix and I think there is a great opportunity here to make a solid playoff push and try to take it a step further. There is really no disappointment, but being in Cleveland playing for a championship is definitely the ultimate goal, but I’m still not upset about the fact of me being here in Phoenix.” – Amare Stoudamire

Gee, I guess all those sycophants who were trying to say how bad Cleveland was and how unappealing it was for Amare were right too!

In short: don’t feed the trolls even if they are paid, high class trolls who write or report for a living! (Steps off soap box)

it was the culmination of several events on the interwebs.

1. simmons has been raking cleveland fans for not cheering louder at nuggets game;
2. frowns posts story on art modell gaining steam in HOF bid;
3. the seemingly national hue and cry that the cavs might get Z back (don’t recall any uproar when mcdyess signed for less to come back to pistons… many examples like this)
4. the gene w. article.

so schefter was a lightning rod for all this. i’m way too old to tilt at this windmil.. but did.

enh… whatever. let’s beat the loathsome celtics tonite. here’s hoping leon powe gets some minutes (he’ll get a great reception.).

ESPN is why casual fans have been coming up to me over the past 2 years, offering their condolences for Lebron’s last year in CLE. Full-heartedly. Because ESPN has made their opinion a fact by shoving it down everyone’s throats for years. Like the Richard Gere-Hamster thing. (which, BTW, wasn’t true, in the end)

My own boss finds the time to pester me “You counting down the last days of Lebron yet?”. He’s convinced. Now, there’s a debate I have to let go…

I have people who don’t even watch basketball telling me, “Oh well, LeBron’s leaving because he’s the only good player on the Cavs.” And then I reply, “If he’s the only good player on the team, how do the Cavs have the best record in the NBA?”, to which they reply, “Oh, I didn’t know that. Well, it’s all because of LeBron.”

That is a real conversation I had. Then they told me LeBron is going to Chicago.

#9 is right. Not only has ESPN perpetuated the LEBRON BEING A KNICK thing as mostly a foregone conclusion but they NEVER mention the fact that CLE, by rule, can still offer him more money and more years than any other team in the league. This has gone on for years. During this time the Cavaliers have only gotten better and the Knicks have gotten worse. Lebron and the Nets got a lot of hype last year but now that the Nets are the most pathetic team in the modern era and they are having trouble with their arena deal, that’s been shot down.

“And your employer is to blame”

i think that sums it up. cleveland fans should have to say no more than that.

i hate getting into it with people who are already sold on him being gone. the thing is most of these people aren’t educated on the nba and think it’ll be like mlb where new york will just offer more money. they don’t realize there are caps on what you can offer, and the team the player plays for can offer more.

the more i think about it, and lay the facts down, i really don’t think he’d leave. and i definitely don’t see him bosh and wade taking less money to play for the bricks.

The only way i see Lebron leaving is if the Cavs fall flat on their face in the playoffs… early exit style. I don’t see that happening.

Schefter was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

1) We’re already pissed off about the Forbes thing, hence #HappyInCLE
2) The Woj article fueled the fire.

He probably didn’t know what he was getting into. Still, bad move, Schefty.

not for nothing but:

what if the cavs win it all and lebron says, ‘mission accomplished. i’m off to scale another mountain in another city!’

just prepare for that angle of conjecture too folks.

/book_it

oh, and i meant lebron is from NE OH, not NE as in nebraska.

Add me to the list of those sickened by ESPN’s handle of this Lebron situation. I think the majority of the people in that company realize what Lebron means to the city of Cleveland and it’s fans. When we were in the cellar in every major professional sport we got Lebron and Dan Gilbert and they’ve given this city something to be proud of. I think it’s morally and professionally irresponsible the way they’ve handled this entire contract situation. The last straw for me was espn allowing fans to go to their site and see what Lebron would look like in their teams uniform DURING THE NY KNICKS V. CAVS game. There is a well defined line between reporting sports facts and forcing your opinion down viewers throats. The only person that could make this situation worse would be Sir Charles “I ate too many five buck box’s” Barkley…..don’t even get me started on that fat loser.

Rant over….

@ jimkanicki: That is an idea that my friends and I have discussed at great lenght. I can see that happening, along with Lebron leaving for NY. I can see any and all possibilities happening. I don’t believe in my heart that he’ll leave the Cavs. My head is having trouble being as convinced though. I’m on the fence right now. The only problem I see with him signing a 3 year extension is going to be the 3 years of “Summer 2013 Free Agency When Lebron Finally Leaves Cleveland” talk.

the fact that Cle, Tor and Miami can offer $30 million more than anyone else to lebron, bosh and wade seems to just get poo-pooed by EVERYONE in espn-nation. i have yet to hear any rational, logical statement as to why any of these players would just freely leave $30 million on the table go to play on another team (or why their agents would let them!). we constantly hear “NY/Chi/Clippers, etc. can offer max contract” but then they fail to state that Cle, Tor and Miami can offer a considerably bigger max contract. i guess it is assumed Wade is staying, but Bosh is “absolutely” leaving and lebron is “probably” leaving. the best explanation i hear on this is, “chicago is a better market than Cle/Tor” or they would take less “to play with derek rose.” huh? playing with Derek Rose in chicago is worth $30 million? try to wrap your head around that number. i have also heard “well, the money lebron leaves in Cle (turning down a 6 year deal) would get made up by signing contract 2 in year 6 after signing his 5-year deal in NY/Chi. since he will get contract 2 one year sooner, then he will make that money up.” huh? does signing a max contract in Cle preclude him from signing a second contract after this one? am i missing something? lets assume contract 2 is worth $60 million. it is safe to assume he will get that whether he takes a Cle-Max or NYC-max. so when you add up contract 1 and contract 2, these guys would STILL be $30 million short by leaving the money on the table. thats lost money never to be re-gained. plus, no guarantees that contract 2 would be that ludicrous given (1) uncertain CBA, (2) injury potential or (3) washed-up potential. ask Michael Redd if he is glad he took Milwaukee’s max 5 years ago, rather than Cleveland’s max for less money.

the money for who is in NYC? for espn? for lebron? i think its already been proven that the money for lebron can be had no matter what. i would also argue that the money for lebron is not in nyc, but is in china. guess who owns the cavs?

espn wants lebron in new york, because espn shows many nba games, including sunday afternoon slots after the nfl season has concluded. sunday afternoon spots are big money. most people are at home. they can make more money by demanding more from ad revenue becuase of the better ratings. if lbj played for the knicks the ratings would be much higher than a cavs sunday game on abc/espn. that’s why they want him there.

but what i really hate is that espn manipulates things to their liking. i think it was a year, maybe two years ago, brian windhorst put out a cavs story, and the last paragraph had lebron saying he hopes to sign a long contract and stay in cleveland for a long time. espn put that same article out on their site, and left out that last paragraph. no joke.

just last week lebron said he doesn’t think too much or get too caught up into teams clearing cap space. not a peep of that on espn, espn radio, or any of their other sources. not one word of it.

what happened earlier in the year when the cavs were in madison square garden was embarassing. you just can’t carry yourselves like that when you’re a major sports conglomerate. very, very unprofessional.

and let’s remember one big fact that everyone seems to forget.

if lebron wanted out, he could have been gone already. he did not have to sign that extension in 2006. if a big market was such a huge goal of his, he could be with the knicks or whomever right now. but he CHOSE to stick around. and with what dan gilbert has done since the day lbj signed that extension (make the finals, dump some horrible contracts/players, acquire shaq, win 66 games, own the best record 2 years in a row) why wouldn’t he extend again.

and sure, i’d love if lbj signed that 6 yr deal, but a 3 year deal is great too. keeps pressure on the team to make sure they are putting the best possible pieces in place.

@Bobby – lots of people wave their hand and come up with these amazing scenarios that allows crazy things to happen.

The speculation leads so many to “hope” for something that probably won’t happen.

There is a reason only 1 player (Shaq) has turned down a max offer from the team that drafted him in the last 20 some years, because it doesn’t make $ense. Everyone talks about players “taking less money” but how often does that happen? And in the rare cases where it does happen, these guys are still getting paid. Remember when Z took “less money” to the tune of over 10 mil a year? Talking about these players taking the minimum to do something different is about as feasible as Kobe playing for Olympiados or LeBron playing for the Clippers.

Interestingly, last year when all this fighting was going on all the counter-argument was “hey, we weren’t the ones who said Brooklyn was our favorite borough” And it was a fair point, LeBron was being pretty flirty with the NY media. But he sure hasn’t this year, yet the drums beat on.

In Cleveland we are always waiting for someone to pop our bubble. It’s not genetic, it’s our upbringing, but I think we need to look at everything logically and recognize that there is a world-class championship-caliber organization in our town and every time we acquire a player they are MORE THAN HAPPY TO BE HERE! In my opinion, LeBron and the Cavs have something special going on right now and it doesn’t make any sense for him to walk away from it, despite all the ny lusting.

Tsunami – if im not mistaken, Shaq was even before the current CBA so the rules then were different than now. i do believe no player has ever turned down a max offer from his bird rights team for less money elsewhere under the current CBA.

Bird rights only come after a three-year tenure. Said rights would not come along with a one-year deal.

Also, given the cap lowering and the CBA uncertainties, there is next to no way Jr signs a one-year deal with anyone.

Also, the main Schefter comment that made everyone go nuts was his reference to LeBron not wanting to play in Cleveland due to the fact that he hasn’t re-signed yet. Completely baseless reasoning, insuing the barrage of replies.

ESPN stopped being credible years ago. Here is an example. The Cavs defeat the Celtics 106-86 we just showed highlights but let’s go to a random guy to talk about it some more! And I could care less what that twerp Schefter says anyway.

Charlie thanks for that I had a good laugh!