Last night LeBron James led the Cleveland Cavaliers to a
119-101 victory over the Knicks last night in Madison Square
Garden.  As expected, none of the pre or postgame talk
was focused on the game itself – a laugher, with a final score that ended up
closer than the game – it was all about LeBron to NYC.

The AP report led with an anecdote about Spike Lee

Even Spike Lee, that noted Knicks superfan, was a LeBron James guy
Tuesday night.

And when New York
guard Nate
Robinson saw the producer had turned traitor and was wearing a pair of
the special red “Big Apple” sneakers James was debuting for this
game, he immediately began stepping on Lee’s foot.

“Stop!” Lee said. “He’s going to be your
teammate.”

And contained just one line about the game itself, a throwaway
“James scored 26 points in the Cavaliers’ 119-101 victory” in the sixth graf.
Everything else was about 2010.

ESPN followed their lead, fronting a discussion of the possibility of LeBron-to-the-Knicks. So did SI, and everyone else.

And that has some people pissed. J.E. Skeets of Ball Don’t Lie and The Basketball Jones has made it somewhat of a personal mission to prove how asinine these discussions are.  After all, there are two
NBA seasons to be played before he can even consider leaving Cleveland for NYC
and the two NBA championships that are going to be won there aren’t inherently less
valuable than the ones that will follow it.  NBA players are too focused on who they’re going to be playing tomorrow to think about where they’re going to end up 20 months from now.

I think that line of thinking is bullshit.  The Knicks, as a preeminent big market team, have the luxury of rebuilding through free agency as opposed to through conventional means.  When they traded Zach Randolph and Jamal Crawford for cap space, that was them rebuilding and New Yorkers fawning over the possibility of LeBron is the same as when Boston fans went to bed every night dreaming of Kevin Durant.  It’s the NBA, only a half a dozen teams (if that) have a real chance to win a championship this year.  If you want to exclusively follow those teams, fine, but keep that standard.  Saying “Derrick Rose and the Bulls are going to be sick in two years” is exactly the same as saying the same thing about LeBron and the Knicks.  We care about potential, and as long as the potential is there, LBJ-to-NYC is not just a fun discussion to have, it’s also a fair one.

“Every team hopes someday maybe to make a push at trying to get me in two years and we’ll see what happens.” – LBJ

Three lines on their world:

1. Loyola (MD) would rather shut out Stephen Curry than attempt to win a basketball game
   
2. Ball State ended the regular season unbeaten

3. and #8 Notre Dame knocked off #7 Texas 81-80

Three lines on ours:

1. Donovan McNabb celebrated his birthday with a press conference

2. Chase Utley’s surgery seemed to go as planned

3. and JoePa returned home after his

Phillies, Birds, Sixers, Flyers and what everybody is talking about, after the jump

EAGLES

Les Bowen says McNabb is returning to the same broken situation he left. SKIP

Ashley Fox looks at the deteriorating Reid/McNabb relationship. SKIP

Sam Donnellon wonders how McNabb can stay sane. SKIP

Les Bowen picks the Cards. SKIP

Paul Domowitch gives the scouting report and picks the Cardinals. READ

Les Bowen talks to people who know things, and they seem to be just as confused as everyone else. READ

John Gonzalez, Phil Sheridan, and Bill Lyon discuss what role Joe Banner and Jeffrey Lurie have with the Eagles, and what role they should have. Good stuff. READ

Bob Brookover’s notes focus on Lorenzo Booker’s time to shine, Dawk’s advice for McNabb, and more. SKIP

Les Bowen’s notes focus on Lorenzo Booker’s time to shine, and more. READ

Ed Barkowitz spends 5 minutes with Juqua Parker. SKIP

Paul Vigna catches up with Mark McMillen (!). READ

Say what you want about John Gonzalez, chances are he’ll run it online and make a snarky comment about it. READ

Reuben Frank compares Donovan to Kurt Warner. READ

SIXERS

Phil Jasner reports on the Sixers’ practice and talks to Coach Cheeks about what’s wrong with the team. Worth noting: Cheeks says point blank “I never understand when people say ‘playing down to the competition,’ particularly if you haven’t separated yourself at that point.” After Monday’s loss Willie Green said the team had played down to the Bobcats, and that quote is likely a response.  READ

Kate Fagan reports that the 76ers schedule is about to get a lot tougher. READ

Tom Moore tries to figure out what’s wrong with the Sixers. READ

PHILLIES

David Murphy discusses Chase Utley’s successful surgery and more. READ

Todd Zolecki looks the Moyer negotiations and Utley’s surgery. SKIP

FLYERS

Sam Carchidi looks at the Flyers’ penalty-kill success and says it all starts with Marty Biron. READ

Ed Moran says when to expect Randy Jones and Ryan Parent back. READ

TODAY and MORE

Last day of rounds for the week, but not the last day of posts.  Look for NFL picks and possibly Sixer/Eagles press conference thoughts on Friday. 

As for today, we’ll be comparing the Sixers and the Eagles, getting ready for the long weekend and heading to the Wachovia Center tonight.

As always, feel free
to email
with any questions, suggestions, comments or complaints.  

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 at 9:25 am and is filed under Morning Rounds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.