By: Bill Ingram HOOPSWORD.COM
Last Updated: 4/25/08 8:25 AM ET
Todd (who asked that we not use his last name) had had enough. The Cleveland native was sick and tired of watching LeBron James play with what he considered to be mediocre talent, so he decided to do something about it. He started a website (nycforlebron.net) and with it a movement around which fans – New York Knicks fans – could work together to try and lure LeBron away from the Cavs . . .and to the Big Apple.
The result?
"I can't tell you the amount of hate mail I get every day," intimates Todd. "Death threats – I mean, I'm a big sports fan, but in all reality it's just a basketball player. Someone actually went out and bought the domain name for my own name and linked it to Wikipedia under 'Treason.' Who does that?!?"
Needless to say, Cavaliers fans may have gone a little overboard to show their displeasure at the idea of LeBron leaving town. Todd argues, though, that it would be best for the budding NBA star.
"This is my problem," he explains. "I love LeBron James and I love Cleveland. The point of the website wasn't to get LeBron out of Cleveland, the bigger issue is Cavaliers management. I've been a Cavs fan forever and Danny Ferry (now GM) represents everything that's wrong with the organization. When we traded Ron Harper for him in the 80's it caused the team to dissolve. Harper was a 20-points-per-game scorer; Ferry had been playing in Italy and came back. We gave him a huge contract, which screwed up our salary cap for seven or eight years, and he stunk. He went on to be a good role player with the Spurs, but he stunk in Cleveland. Granted he came into a pretty screwed up situation as GM, but he signed Larry Hughes to a huge contract. They needed a guy who could shoot the ball next to LeBron, and Hughes couldn't shoot the ball. Then they made that big trade and limped through the rest of this season. I'm a frustrated fan. I love LeBron, I love watching him play. People are saying I'm a traitor, but I've just become so frustrated with Ferry's moves that I expect the guy to leave as a free agent."
So what does a big Cavs fan do when he feels the team isn't doing enough to utilize the talents of one of the top young players in the NBA? You start a campaign to move him to another team – a team that knows what they're doing when it comes to building around top-notch talent and putting championship-level basketball on the court every year. You organize a campaign to move LeBron to New York . . .(?)
To that end, Todd and his partners started trying to raise money through their website to offer LeBron a package including a Ferrari, Yankees season tickets, and a variety of other incentives. Of course, the NBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement would expressly forbid LeBron from accepting any such offer and would investigate those making it. That seems to have effectively slammed the door on Todd's original plan.
"We're still trying to find our niche. We've decided to stay away from that for now, which is why the website is under construction. The CBA wouldn't allow us to give anything to LeBron – we'd have to give it to Gloria James (his mother), and that's not what we want to do."
Through it all, Todd and his partners remain convinced that the hiring of Donnie Walsh will usher in a new era of Knicks basketball, and that LeBron should be the centerpiece.
"Donnie Walsh was probably a good hire for the Knicks. They'll start trying to put together a team that can complement him. Obviously they'll want to make a push for LeBron James. Walsh has made some questionable moves, but he's a real decent GM. I know he locked Tinsley into a bad contract and Jermaine O'Neal gets hampered with injuries a lot, but he's 20 and 10 when he's healthy. Looking at the move to bring in Walsh I think the Knicks are making a statement like they'll go after LeBron. They're going to put a real GM in place, they'll hire a real head coach, and I think this will be the start of their pitch for LeBron."
Cavaliers fans want no part of Todd's logic.
"These people are crazy," he says of the onslaught of hate mail. "They want to kill me – they want me dead. People are exposing me – going out and looking up my personal information and then snagging my last name, getting my email address, and sending me death threats. Then this guy goes out and buys my name as a web domain – I tried to find out who it is, but it's private from somewhere in Pennsylvania. People are demanding that I take it down. I don't want to be the Benedict Arnold of Cleveland. I'm a big Cleveland fan. I love the Browns, the Indians, and the Cavs are third fiddle, but I still love them. People are telling me I can never root for a Cleveland team again. They're telling me they've sent my picture to airport security so I can't get on a flight. This is what I've been dealing with for the last two weeks."
It seems that being an NBA fan is a full-contact sport these days. Fans in Seattle are fighting and demonstrating in a last-ditch effort to keep their team, and fans in Cleveland are engaged in an all-out war against one man who suggested LeBron might be better off somewhere else.
It seems the world of Fantasy Hoops is taking on a life of its own.
Last Updated: 4/25/08 8:25 AM ET
Todd (who asked that we not use his last name) had had enough. The Cleveland native was sick and tired of watching LeBron James play with what he considered to be mediocre talent, so he decided to do something about it. He started a website (nycforlebron.net) and with it a movement around which fans – New York Knicks fans – could work together to try and lure LeBron away from the Cavs . . .and to the Big Apple.
The result?
"I can't tell you the amount of hate mail I get every day," intimates Todd. "Death threats – I mean, I'm a big sports fan, but in all reality it's just a basketball player. Someone actually went out and bought the domain name for my own name and linked it to Wikipedia under 'Treason.' Who does that?!?"
Needless to say, Cavaliers fans may have gone a little overboard to show their displeasure at the idea of LeBron leaving town. Todd argues, though, that it would be best for the budding NBA star.
"This is my problem," he explains. "I love LeBron James and I love Cleveland. The point of the website wasn't to get LeBron out of Cleveland, the bigger issue is Cavaliers management. I've been a Cavs fan forever and Danny Ferry (now GM) represents everything that's wrong with the organization. When we traded Ron Harper for him in the 80's it caused the team to dissolve. Harper was a 20-points-per-game scorer; Ferry had been playing in Italy and came back. We gave him a huge contract, which screwed up our salary cap for seven or eight years, and he stunk. He went on to be a good role player with the Spurs, but he stunk in Cleveland. Granted he came into a pretty screwed up situation as GM, but he signed Larry Hughes to a huge contract. They needed a guy who could shoot the ball next to LeBron, and Hughes couldn't shoot the ball. Then they made that big trade and limped through the rest of this season. I'm a frustrated fan. I love LeBron, I love watching him play. People are saying I'm a traitor, but I've just become so frustrated with Ferry's moves that I expect the guy to leave as a free agent."
So what does a big Cavs fan do when he feels the team isn't doing enough to utilize the talents of one of the top young players in the NBA? You start a campaign to move him to another team – a team that knows what they're doing when it comes to building around top-notch talent and putting championship-level basketball on the court every year. You organize a campaign to move LeBron to New York . . .(?)
To that end, Todd and his partners started trying to raise money through their website to offer LeBron a package including a Ferrari, Yankees season tickets, and a variety of other incentives. Of course, the NBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement would expressly forbid LeBron from accepting any such offer and would investigate those making it. That seems to have effectively slammed the door on Todd's original plan.
"We're still trying to find our niche. We've decided to stay away from that for now, which is why the website is under construction. The CBA wouldn't allow us to give anything to LeBron – we'd have to give it to Gloria James (his mother), and that's not what we want to do."
Through it all, Todd and his partners remain convinced that the hiring of Donnie Walsh will usher in a new era of Knicks basketball, and that LeBron should be the centerpiece.
"Donnie Walsh was probably a good hire for the Knicks. They'll start trying to put together a team that can complement him. Obviously they'll want to make a push for LeBron James. Walsh has made some questionable moves, but he's a real decent GM. I know he locked Tinsley into a bad contract and Jermaine O'Neal gets hampered with injuries a lot, but he's 20 and 10 when he's healthy. Looking at the move to bring in Walsh I think the Knicks are making a statement like they'll go after LeBron. They're going to put a real GM in place, they'll hire a real head coach, and I think this will be the start of their pitch for LeBron."
Cavaliers fans want no part of Todd's logic.
"These people are crazy," he says of the onslaught of hate mail. "They want to kill me – they want me dead. People are exposing me – going out and looking up my personal information and then snagging my last name, getting my email address, and sending me death threats. Then this guy goes out and buys my name as a web domain – I tried to find out who it is, but it's private from somewhere in Pennsylvania. People are demanding that I take it down. I don't want to be the Benedict Arnold of Cleveland. I'm a big Cleveland fan. I love the Browns, the Indians, and the Cavs are third fiddle, but I still love them. People are telling me I can never root for a Cleveland team again. They're telling me they've sent my picture to airport security so I can't get on a flight. This is what I've been dealing with for the last two weeks."
It seems that being an NBA fan is a full-contact sport these days. Fans in Seattle are fighting and demonstrating in a last-ditch effort to keep their team, and fans in Cleveland are engaged in an all-out war against one man who suggested LeBron might be better off somewhere else.
It seems the world of Fantasy Hoops is taking on a life of its own.