The Decision, Part II

At first, I compared the Kevin Durant to the Golden State Warriors move to LeBron James' move to the Miami Heat in 2010. Upon further review, I think the Durant move is far worse.

The only thing that would have made it even worse was to go to a Boys and Girls Club in Connecticut with ESPN cameras in tow and reveal to the national audience he was breaking OKC's heart by "taking his talents to the Bay Area."

When LeBron joined the Heat, they were decent, but not great. They had Dwayne Wade and nothing else. When Chris Bosh decided he wanted no part of Cleveland and chose Miami, it opened the door for the "SuperFriends" to align together. And, it worked -- four straight NBA Finals, two championships sandwiched in between, a couple of colossal chokes to start and finish.

When LeBron decided to "come home" to Cleveland, the Cavs were in far worse shape than Miami was 4 years ago. But thanks to some "lucky" (wink-wink) ping-pong balls, the team was armed with some up-and-coming players and some great assets that allowed LeBron and the Cavs to remake the franchise literally overnight. In one season, they were in the NBA Finals, coming two wins away from that elusive championship. In two seasons, they were champions.

Kevin Durant has none of this. He's joining a team that's already "loaded" that has one NBA championship under its belt and had just choked away a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals after a record-setting 73-win season. He's just another spoke in the wheel. He's not off to transform anything. He's just trying to shortcut his way to a championship, and that's sad.

Durant weathered a move from Seattle to help turn the Thunder into one of the NBA's most respected franchises. They built from the ground up, and Durant was the biggest piece of that puzzle. they reached the NBA Finals once (choked away to the Heat), but that was it. And let's not forget that choke job this year, blowing a 3-1 lead to the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals.

If you can't beat em, join em.

After LeBron left in 2010, I felt that Durant would be the next superstar to leave a small market for a bigger one. So, I'm not entirely surprised he left OKC. However, the move to the Warriors just reeks. Fans of the NBA have a right to be upset. It's the return of the "SuperTeam," and the league is stacking the deck for a few markets. Surprisingly, Cleveland is one of them (and I'm not complaining about that).

Remember when the NBA Lockout was all about preventing teams from "stacking the deck?" How's that working out, Adam Silver? Not so good. The salary cap is a giant joke, with so many loopholes and exceptions to allow teams to go over. The Cavs benefited from this system greatly, and now have to pay a $54 million luxury tax to the NBA (and I'm sure Dan Gilbert is writing that check while staring into that Larry O'Brien Trophy in his office, knowing that it was so worth it). However, now they are hamstrung into keeping what they have without being able to add any quality assets. Hence, why they weren't involved in the Durant sweepstakes.

Fans have a right to be pissed. Sure, we're a little unhappy in Cleveland, because it's a blatant move to stick it up our asses as the Cavs try to repeat as NBA champions. But it's not just here -- it's league-wide. If you don't live in Oakland or San Francisco or San Jose or anywhere in Northern California (or aren't a front-runner), you're not happy about this! Why, because it's NO FUN!

We might as well fast forward to next June already for Cavs-Warriors III in the NBA Finals, because -- barring serious injury or stunning upset or a page torn out of the script -- this will happen again. The NBA made a ton of money on this year's postseason, and the Cavs winning was the feel-good story that captured the nation's heart (well, most of it). The rubber match, part three of the triumverate, will shatter TV records.

It's just a shame that it's effectively made every other team irrelevant. Sure, the Knicks and Celtics made some moves, as did the Hawks, but does anyone really think those will be enough to take down the Cavs? Demar DeRozen decided to stay in Toronto -- good for him, but does anyone think the Raptors can take down the Cavs?

Kevin Durant was once known as one of the best up-and-coming talents in the NBA. Today, he's just another guy and showed his true colors.

I hope the Cavs kick their ass one more time! Don't sing it, bring it!

Until next time, remember that Cleveland not only Rocks, but are also Champions!

The End

I'm exhausted. I'm emotionally spent. My eyes are red from crying on and off for the past 15 hours or so.

But to say that today isn't a day that Joe Cleveland has been dreaming about for his entire life would be a lie. Today, Joe Cleveland is on top of the world!

After 52 long years, Cleveland finally has won a major sports championship, courtesy of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers! And, it feels good. It feels DAMN GOOD!

If you would have asked me 20 years ago which team would have been the first to snap this drought, the Cavs would have been last on my list.  Even the Browns, which technically didn't exist 20 years ago, would have been ahead on my list over the Cavs. That's because, by and large, the Cavs have been a mess as an organization.

The Browns have been a mess since they've come back in 1999, no denying that. The Cavs have been a mess for most of their 46 years of existence.

The ghosts of Ted Stepien, Bill Musselman, Gary Suiter, Randy Wittman, Trajan Langdon, Mel Turpin, Shawn Kemp, Paul Mokeski, John Lucas, Mike Brown, Byron Scott, Anthony Bennett, Dion Waiters, and so on, are exorcised. The specter of The Decision -- a decision that tore Cleveland to its core and had most of us turn on one of our area's finest exports -- is gone.

Dan Gilbert -- Forgiven!

LeBron James -- Forgiven!

The firing of David Blatt -- Forgiven!

The signing of Tristan Thompson -- Forgiven!

The trade for Kevin Love -- Forgiven!

Tyrann Lue -- Forgiven!

Kyrie Irving and his injury issues -- Forgiven!

J.R. Smith -- Forgiven!

I'm sure there are many other things that can be brought up, but if it's about the Cavs, it is truly, 100 percent, forgiven by myself and the majority of other Clevelanders today.

We're CHAMPIONS, Cleveland! And nobody can take that away from us! NOBODY!

Not the ESPNs and the Stephen A. Smiths of the world. They can try to piss on our Cheerios with speculation about LeBron leaving again -- and that's all that is, is speculation -- but it doesn't matter. Just a month after ESPN aired its brutal 30-for-30 special on Cleveland called Believeland, the Cavs went out and made sure that special is null-and-void.

I was one of LeBron James' harshest critics when he left and even when he decided to come back. I vowed that I would not "fall in love with him" all over again. If he was screwing up, I was going to hold him accountable. And my social media took a beating every now and again as a result, but I owned it. I gave him credit when credit was due, and the way he carried a shell of that team in 2015 to a Game 6 of the NBA Finals deserved a lot of credit.

However, the way he stepped up and led the Cavs to an unfathomable three consecutive wins -- two on the road -- against a Golden State team that won an NBA record 73 wins in the regular season trumps all of that. LeBron James was not to be denied in this postseason, and Kyrie Irving stepped up and went right along with him -- as did the rest of the team.

Kevin Love struggled in the NBA Finals, but in Game 7, his role as a rebounder was a huge factor in the win. The much-maligned Love pulled down 14 boards to lead the Cavs Sunday night.

Tristan Thompson, who signed a ridiculous $82 million contract prior to the regular season, showed during the postseason he was worth every penny. In the Finals, especially, he looked like the third-best player on the floor in a Cleveland uniform. He even knocked down some clutch free throws and played tough defense against the Warriors.

Nobody gave them a chance after losing Game 4 in Cleveland to go down 3-1. I certainly didn't. I almost didn't watch Game 5 because I figured it would be a formality that the Cavs would lose. To my amazement -- and the amazement of just about everybody else -- they routed the Warriors on their home floor to force a Game 6 at home. Draymond Green was suspended for Game 5 because LeBron baited him into an altercation at the end of Game 4 that may have tilted the series in Cleveland's favor in the long run.

Once again, the Cavs stepped up and denied the Warriors a chance to celebrate in their locker room, running out to a huge lead in the first quarter and never letting up. Stephen Curry lost his cool and got ejected. Green also battled foul trouble. Andre Igoudala injured his back, and Andrew Bogut injured his knee.

But still, Golden State had never lost 3 games in a row this season. They had lost 8 games in the postseason after losing 9 in 82 regular season games. They only dropped a handful of games at home. Even though the Cavs had the momentum, it was a tall order.

To both teams' credit, they played like they both wanted it. Every trip down the floor was huge. Every run was answered. Even though Golden State led by 7 at halftime (prompting ESPN to proclaim that the game was over), the Cavs were never truly out of it.

LeBron, in his essay announcing his return to Cleveland two years ago, said that "nothing in Northeast Ohio is given. Everything is earned." And this Cavs team truly earned it in every sense of the word.

I'll stop right there because I have been one of the people harping on the theory that the NBA is rigged or fixed, that the NBA officiating dictates the result of games and that the league office has a hand in how things play out. So, I'm sure people are saying, "How can the Cavs earn something that's rigged?" Fair question.

They earned it because they have the best player in the game. They earned it because they have the best point guard in the game. They earned it because they rose above the one-sided officiating (especially in Game 5) and forced the NBA to rethink some things.

Game 7 was the highest rated NBA game in many years, if not ever. The league isn't stupid. It also loves to milk storylines. And this series had two very good storylines.

I'll give the NBA credit for stepping out of the way and letting the two teams play in Game 7. But the storyline of the team, with the superstar who came home for one last run, overcoming the insurmountable deficit and dethroning the Goliath that is Golden State is too good to not get behind. If it is scripted, give the NBA a lot of props for coming up with the perfect scenario for Cleveland to end its title drought.

Even if it is fixed, it's high time something was fixed in our favor. I'll take it and I'll run with it all the way to the bank, as I'm sure just about everyone else will.

I think about watching Game 7 of the 1997 World Series at Cleveland State and watching Jose Mesa blow that save. I remember how hurt I was and how hurt a lot of my family and friends were as a result. I think that hurt, along with the Indians choking away the 2007 American League Championship Series, made me almost resent the Indians for many years. Today, that resentment is gone.

I think about being a kid -- a young teenager -- and watching the Browns come up short in three AFC Championship Games to the Denver Broncos. One on an improbable length of the field drive that forced overtime, another after a furious comeback that made up for a horrible first half ended when a classy running back was stripped of the ball just a few feet away from scoring the tying touchdown. Somehow, the Browns became my team and continued to be my team throughout those early heartbreaks. But man, did my parents and family members take it hard.

About 8 months ago, my grandfather passed away in his mid-80s. I joked, at his funeral, that he was one of the few people I knew who witnessed several Cleveland championships, and he really had (and he loved talking about them). I thought about him after this game, and how excited he would have been to see this. My love of Cleveland sports came from my grandfather, and I'm sure, wherever he is, he's so thrilled that I can experience this for myself.

My mom has been dead for almost 14 years. She was as diehard as they come when it came to rooting for Cleveland teams. I thought about her too, and how -- if she was still here -- I would have likely been watching Game 7 with her. I'm sure, wherever she is, she's thrilled I can experience this highest of highs.

Both of them were with me in spirit last night, and I get emotional thinking about it. This is what this championship means to me!

Today, with pride, I can puff out my chest and say to the world, "You're damn right I'm a Cleveland sports fan! What are you gonna do about it?" And, the haters are gonna hate, but they're a little quieter now, aren't they? And, it feels good ... it feels DAMN GOOD!

One championship is great. And if it's the only one I ever experience, so be it. At least I can point my finger back at the Pittsburgh fans and say, "Oh yeah, I know what it's like." But, I've seen what one championship can do to a community and how it lifts the civic pride of the people, how it can change the landscape of the entire sporting landscape.

Pittsburgh wasn't a great sports town until Franco Harris made an "Immaculate Reception" in the 1972 playoffs. Two years later, that Steelers franchise that was an NFL doormat for years won the Super Bowl and wound up with six. The 70s saw championships by both the Steelers and Pirates and extended in the 80s and 90s (and even this year) to the NHL's Penguins. The whole thing changed.

Boston was a town known for a baseball franchise cursed by a decision to sell off the greatest baseball player of the 20th Century -- Babe Ruth -- to the hated Yankees. That is, until the 2000s, when the Patriots stunned everyone with a Super Bowl upset and became the current benchmark franchise of the NFL, the Red Sox made up an insurmountable deficit to win its first World Series in 86 years and wind up winning 2 more, and even the Celtics and Bruins added championships. That loser mentality is gone.

The Browns' Joe Haden already has caught the fever. He penned an article for Sports Illustrated talking about how much he enjoyed this championship and how it's fired him up to do the same with the Browns. Tribe manager Terry Francona, a big Cavs fan and the manager of those miracle Red Sox winners, is I'm sure singing a similar tune to his Indians.

The Cavaliers are NBA Champions. The Lake Erie Monsters, just last week, won the second-oldest North American championship trophy in the American Hockey League's Calder Cup -- the 10th one for Cleveland, but (ironically) first one since 1964. Stipe Miocic won the UFC heavyweight championship just one month before that.

Today, sports fans will look and see the Indians are in first place in the AL Central Division. They'll see a Browns team that is starting generate a lot of excitement due to a new head coach, a former hotshot quarterback in Robert Griffin III, and a solid draft class. They'll see a Cavs team built for a possible repeat if they retain everyone and can make a few more moves (with Richard Jefferson retiring, they'll need that solid veteran to fill that key role, that "heartbeat" role). And even though Ohio's NHL team is in Columbus, it's the Monsters that are the Blue Jackets' top farm club and a lot of those players will likely get the call up within the next year or so and show if they can win championships at that level.

Today is a good day to be a Cleveland Sports Fan. We partied like it was 1964 last night and into today. We didn't burn the city down, like most people were afraid that we would. The fact that a lot of us really didn't know how to react to this sort of thing may have played into our favor. All we did was dance in the streets and cheer.

All we did was massively sing the National Anthem before every single game we hosted, which made an impression on the national audience. All we did was be true to ourselves.

God bless you, Cleveland! I love this town so damn much, it hurts! I love the Browns, Cavs and Indians so damn much, it hurts! And today, with all of you, we can call ourselves champions!

I'm exhausted. I'm emotionally spent. I've cried a few more times while I've written this piece -- a piece I've waited my entire life to write. And I'm sure it could have been better. But here it is. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I've enjoyed writing it.

Time for a nap. Congratulations, Cavs, and Go Browns and Go Tribe! And, even better, GO CLEVELAND!

The Cleveland Sports Curse is over! THE END!

Until next time, remember -- ALWAYS REMEMBER -- that Cleveland Rocks!

Homecoming King

"Before anyone ever cared where I would play basketball, I was a kid from Northeast Ohio. It’s where I walked. It’s where I ran. It’s where I cried. It’s where I bled. It holds a special place in my heart. People there have seen me grow up. I sometimes feel like I’m their son. Their passion can be overwhelming. But it drives me. I want to give them hope when I can. I want to inspire them when I can. My relationship with Northeast Ohio is bigger than basketball. I didn't realize that four years ago. I do now."

-- LeBron James, the lead to his exclusive Sports Illustrated revelation that he was returning to the Cavaliers

Joe Cleveland's alarm went off at 1 p.m. and he woke up, oblivious to the fact that his hometown was in the process of losing its collective mind.

He turned on his cell phone, and it immediately buzzed with activity. Two voice mails, and both from the former Mrs. Joe Cleveland.

You know it's big (and positive) news when your ex-wife is calling you excitedly and encouraging you to jump on your computer.

As I'm listening to these voice mails and clearing the cobwebs from my head, the text message and Twitter feeds from my phone were scrolling across messages. One read, "Bron-Bron is coming home."

Most people who know me know I haven't exactly been shy about my disdain for LeBron James. Ever since he "decided" to leave the Cavaliers four years ago to take his "talents to South Beach" and play for the Heat, I've been one of his harshest critics.

When his Heat lost to Dallas that first year, I celebrated like the Cavs won the NBA championship. When the Heat won the NBA championship in the second year, I harped on the fact that the NBA season was shortened by 16 games and that it should have an asterisk next to it. When they beat the San Antonio Spurs the next year, I talked about how it was 8-on-5 due to the shady NBA officiating in Game 6.

But, this year, as the Spurs manhandled the Heat, I didn't seem to care one way or the other. Sure, I was rooting for San Antonio, but it wouldn't have depressed me if Miami won this time. By that point, I had washed my hands of the NBA. I didn't care about the league. I didn't care about the Cavs. I just didn't care.

Even as speculation grew that LeBron James would opt out of his contract following the 2014 season, I dismissed any notion that he would return to the Cavs. The wounds were still too fresh. Dan Gilbert still owned the team, and his infamous open letter to the "so-called King" was still up on the Cavaliers' Web page. I figured Gilbert would agree to bring him back -- he is a businessman, after all -- but I didn't think LeBron would want to play for him.

Cleveland fans jeered his successes and cheered for his failures. But that's what we do -- we root for the name on the front of the jersey. Sure, the name on the back may have belonged to the player who is, for all intents and purposes, the biggest star in the NBA, but he left us, damnit! Clips of a few fans burning his jersey were replayed by ESPN all the time, even Friday as he announced that he was returning.

So, I came out from the start of the year thinking one way and kept the same refrain going until the time I went to bed Thursday night/early Friday morning:

He's not coming back!

I shouted it from the rooftops. I put it on my Facebook page. I posted it to others' Facebook pages. I told that to people on the street when they asked my opinion. And, I will own it because that's what I believed.

I feared that all the Cleveland fans who were ready to jump back on the LeBron bandwagon were setting themselves up for more heartbreak when he decided to re-sign with the Heat or even sign with a team like the Rockets or Bulls or Clippers.

He's the best player in the NBA. There's NO WAY he's coming to play for the lowly Cavaliers.

The Cavs have been a mess since LeBron left. Sure, the NBA has tried to help by awarding the franchise three No. 1 overall picks in the last four years, five picks in the top four and seven first rounders as a whole. Other than Kyrie Irving, who hasn't been a pillar of health during his basketball career, none of those picks have really panned out. Dion Waiters has shown flashes, but his clashing with Irving last year derailed the 2013-14 season from really ever having success.

The Cavs fired Mike Brown and Danny Ferry in the wake of LeBron's first absence, then hired and fired Byron Scott as head coach and Chris Grant as GM and then re-hired and re-fired Brown as head coach. They had just promoted David Griffin to GM, a largely unknown commodity around the NBA, and went overseas to find David Blatt to be the new head coach. Blatt was known as the "Phil Jackson of Europe," but he's never coached stateside in his career.

The people who were claiming that LeBron James would come here to this, I thought, were on drugs. People were allowing their optimism to run rampant. People were quoting sources linked to sources on Twitter, and any little LeBron thing was re-Tweeted to the masses.

It was hysteria around Northeast Ohio this week, and I wasn't going to get caught up in it.

But, I did. With every public denial, privately, I began to find myself believing he could come back. I just didn't want to be taken for a ride like I did four years ago, when I was convinced that he'd never leave Cleveland.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

To paraphrase George W. Bush, I was not about to get fooled again. Miami could have him. He was going to re-up with his boys Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh and try to win more championship rings in Miami. Trying to bring a championship ring to Cleveland, where he'd be the top dog trying to cultivate all of this young talent, would be too much work for LeBron James.

I think that's what made Friday seem so, dare I say it, fun. Because I allowed myself to be surprised, to be shocked, to be stunned. I didn't believe it until I heard it from the horse's mouth, and there it was, published to Sports Illustrated's Web site, "I'm Coming Home," by LeBron James.

After watching my phone go into seizures spewing out all of this social media news, I glanced out my front window. I expected to see either the apocalypse happening or a mass orgy in the streets. I saw neither, but Facebook and Twitter appeared to be engaging in both all day.

Sports talkers locally broke down and cried on air, crying tears of joy. Callers to those shows broke down.

Never before has a superstar in any sport signed with a Cleveland team in free agency. OK, maybe Roberto Alomar when he signed with the Indians, but his career was starting to go on the downside. LeCharles Bentley was a Pro Bowl center and Ohio State star (and Cleveland native) when he signed with the Browns, but he was A CENTER! Plus, he got injured in his first practice and never played a down in the NFL after that.

Andrew Bynum was an All-Star in the past with the Lakers before signing with the Cavs, but he came in as damaged goods and left as damaged goods, not even playing a full season in Cleveland.

If LeBron James wasn't from Akron, Cleveland would have never even been in the running. That's a fact. It would have been like Atlanta, Milwaukee or Sacramento, decent teams, but LeBron never gave those teams the time of day. And, it's a fact that LeBron mentions over and over during what some fans are calling The Essay.

"When I left Cleveland, I was on a mission. I was seeking championships, and we won two. But Miami already knew that feeling. Our city hasn’t had that feeling in a long, long, long time. My goal is still to win as many titles as possible, no question. But what’s most important for me is bringing one trophy back to Northeast Ohio.

"I always believed that I’d return to Cleveland and finish my career there. I just didn’t know when. After the season, free agency wasn’t even a thought. But I have two boys and my wife, Savannah, is pregnant with a girl. I started thinking about what it would be like to raise my family in my hometown. I looked at other teams, but I wasn’t going to leave Miami for anywhere except Cleveland. The more time passed, the more it felt right. This is what makes me happy.

"To make the move I needed the support of my wife and my mom, who can be very tough. The letter from Dan Gilbert, the booing of the Cleveland fans, the jerseys being burned -- seeing all that was hard for them. My emotions were more mixed. It was easy to say, “OK, I don’t want to deal with these people ever again.” But then you think about the other side. What if I were a kid who looked up to an athlete, and that athlete made me want to do better in my own life, and then he left? How would I react? I’ve met with Dan, face-to-face, man-to-man. We’ve talked it out. Everybody makes mistakes. I’ve made mistakes as well. Who am I to hold a grudge?"

Apparently, the much-publicized plane ride to South Florida by Gilbert on Sunday did happen, and Gilbert sat down with James, his agent, Rich Paul, and his business adviser Maverick Carter. The two men aired their grievances, apologized to each other, and sought to start anew.

LeBron wanted to come back to Cleveland. Gilbert wanted LeBron James on his team. It was just a matter of these two stubborn individuals seeing if they could let bygones be bygones and start over with a fresh slate.

Once that question was answered, LeBron met with Pat Riley in Las Vegas on Wednesday. Some wonder if he was giving Riley one last chance to sway him. Others think that it was LeBron's way of saying good-bye. Either way, that Wednesday meeting came and went, and there was no word of whether he was signing with the Cavs or staying with the Heat.

To LeBron's credit, he's not making bold statements about "Not 1, not 2, not 3 ..." championships. In fact, he doesn't even guarantee one, although Vegas immediately made the Cavs the favorites to win next year's NBA title at 3-1.

"I’m not promising a championship. I know how hard that is to deliver. We’re not ready right now. No way. Of course, I want to win next year, but I’m realistic. It will be a long process, much longer than it was in 2010. My patience will get tested. I know that. I’m going into a situation with a young team and a new coach. I will be the old head. But I get a thrill out of bringing a group together and helping them reach a place they didn’t know they could go. I see myself as a mentor now and I’m excited to lead some of these talented young guys. I think I can help Kyrie Irving become one of the best point guards in our league. I think I can help elevate Tristan Thompson and Dion Waiters. And I can’t wait to reunite with Anderson Varejao, one of my favorite teammates.

"But this is not about the roster or the organization. I feel my calling here goes above basketball. I have a responsibility to lead, in more ways than one, and I take that very seriously. My presence can make a difference in Miami, but I think it can mean more where I’m from. I want kids in Northeast Ohio, like the hundreds of Akron third-graders I sponsor through my foundation, to realize that there’s no better place to grow up. Maybe some of them will come home after college and start a family or open a business. That would make me smile. Our community, which has struggled so much, needs all the talent it can get.

"In Northeast Ohio, nothing is given. Everything is earned. You work for what you have.

"I’m ready to accept the challenge. I’m coming home."

Anyone who has lived or does live in Northeast Ohio know that second-to-last paragraph is true. Only a person who lived here would understand that. LeBron, in leaving, appears to have discovered that.

The one thing that us, as Cleveland fans, cannot do is turn a blind eye to LeBron James if he screws up. We have to hold him accountable. We cannot coddle him like we did the last time. We were so paranoid that he was going to leave no one wanted to criticize him And, when he did leave, the three years of criticisms that never got aired came flowing all out of us at once, and didn't stop for roughly four years.

Cleveland wasn't shy about criticizing Irving when he messed up, to the point where some people were afraid that he wouldn't sign his max extension. But he did, which was the first piece of the puzzle. Ironically, because of the NBA's rules, Irving is poised to earn more money than James over the course of their respective deals.

We have to let James know that, if he's not giving forth the effort, we're not going to stand for it. While he didn't promise a championship, we all know he wants one as bad as we do. 

Winning one championship in Cleveland would make those two he won in Miami almost irrelevant. Part of it, as LeBron said, is because Miami has won championships recently -- Cleveland hasn't won one in 50 years! Another part of it is the circumstances. LeBron won't have his buddies Wade and Bosh to take the slack off him this time. Now, it's an unproven, but intriguing, cast of young characters like Irving, Waiters, Thompson and Andrew Wiggins, if the Cavs hold on to all of them.

As James put it, coming back is about a lot more than basketball. It's about a lot more than sports. It's about civic pride. It's about the economy. Having James in a Cavs uniform the next five winters (at least) will make Downtown Cleveland a happening place during the cold months, like they were the seven years before he left. Bars and restaurants will do more business. Vendors will make money.

Perhaps free agents may want to come to Cleveland. There are already rumors that Kevin Love could be joining the Cavs, perhaps as soon as this year. Former Miami teammates Ray Allen and Mike Miller, while both aging, have expressed an interest in joining James with the Cavs, and their shooting abilities and mere veteran presences will be assets to this young bunch.

Cleveland already landed the Republican National Convention, which will be huge for this city. Revenue will be coming in like mad, and politicians and the national media will descend upon Cleveland to see a city revitalized. The Browns already seem to be benefiting from a resurgence due to some shrewd moves, but also because of the presence of Johnny Manziel (who may or may not start as a rookie, but is affiliated with LeBron's management group). The Indians have won three out of their last four games and began Friday night's game with a big welcome home message to James on their giant scoreboard.

Whether you are a LeBron James fan or not (and, even with the goodwill, put me in the not category at the moment), you can't argue the good feelings generated for this city. ESPN is suddenly forced to care about Cleveland sports again. With Manziel on the Browns and James on the Cavs, that's two franchises the four-letter network has kicked while they've been down for many years that will dominate the headlines for the foreseeable future. 

Cleveland fans have always been "real fans." Sure, we can be fickle and we can be critical about our teams (just look at the Indians), but deep down, we always root for them. We wear Browns, Indians and Cavs gear with pride, almost like an act of defiance. "Yeah, I'm a Browns fan, what are you gonna do about it?" It's easy to root for a team that's won six Super Bowls. To be a Browns fan or an Indians fan or a Cavs fan, you've got to be tough.

Now, we've gotten the last laugh. There is a genuine sense of optimism about our teams. Fans aren't wondering IF the Cavs will win an NBA title, they're wondering WHEN. Fans are starting to believe in the Browns again after this offseason and are, deep down, hoping the Indians can make them believe they can follow up last year's wild-card berth.

Part of me will feel like we made a deal with the devil if the Cavs wind up winning a championship first. It won't feel as true because it took LeBron James -- a guy most of us hated for the last four years -- coming back to bring it here. But I'm going to root for the Cavs, like I always do, and I'm going to root for a championship.

I hope LeBron makes Cleveland fans forget about those four years in Miami. He was another in a long, long list of people who left Cleveland to win championships -- Art "Judas" Modell, Bill Belichick, Bernie Kosar, Earnest Byner, Bill Laimbeer, Chuck Daly, Bill Cowher, CC Sabathia, Graig Nettles, Roger Maris, Tommy Agee, Paul Warfield, Dennis Eckersley, just to name a few. A few on this list eventually came back, but none came back and won a championship. James is the first one to come back, in the prime of his career, with a legitimate chance to win that championship.

Will he do it? I'll say this -- anything less than one, and I will continue to be critical of LeBron James. However, the wounds have healed, because this time, he handled it the right way.

Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!

Great Scott?

Add the Cleveland Cavaliers to the list of Cleveland sports franchises in 2012-13 who decided their current head coach wasn't getting the job done and decided to make a change.

After Manny Acta (Indians) and Pat Shurmur (Browns) were each shown the door by their respective teams, the Cavs have followed suit today by dismissing head coach Byron Scott after three years on the job.

I think what surprises me more than anything, especially in this town, is that most people believe that Scott should have gotten another year.

To be honest, I really don't have an opinion one way or another. I've never been a big fan of the NBA, and my interest in the Cavs has waned, especially this year. All I know is, Scott had three big factors working against him in his bid for an elusive fourth year:

1. His average of 22 wins per season. Sure, the Cavs were in rebuilding mode after LeBron James decided to take his talents south, but I can't think of any head coach whose winning percentage was just .278 being allowed to coach a team longer than 3 years. It's a bottom-line wins, and wins are the bottom line. The Cavs were 64-146 under Scott, and Scott's wins and win percentage rank last among all full-time head coaches that have been with the team longer than one season.

2. His teams being among the worst in the NBA in overall defense. The Cavs finished last in the league in defensive field goal percentage, allowing teams to shoot better than 47 percent. During Scott's three years in charge, opponents shot .475, .467 and .476 this season. They never ranked higher than 27th in the league defensively -- a stark contrast to the LeBron James-Mike Brown-era Cavs, who annually ranked in the top five teams defensively.

3. The team's performance this season. What should have been a season of continued growth and potential contention for a playoff berth turned into a miserable season. Sure, star point guard Kyrie Irving, forward Anderson Varejao and last summer's fourth-overall pick Dion Waiters each missed significant time with injuries this season. However, the Cavs blew four second-half leads of 20 points or more this season -- the only team in the NBA to do so and the first team in the last 15 years to do so, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The Cavs blew leads of 27 points (at home to LeBron and his Heat) and 26 points (at home to Phoenix), which are the two largest leads blown team history and the two largest leads blown in the NBA this year. The Cavs also lost 16 of their last 18 games and looked listless at times, with some players questioning Scott's coaching decisions to the Akron Beacon Journal.

Sure, you can say that Scott played against a stacked deck from the beginning. Scott was hired after Michigan State coach Tom Izzo turned down a substantial offer from Dan Gilbert to be the new head coach. Scott was an All-Star point guard with the Showtime Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980s and had success in two other coaching stops in New Jersey (an NBA Finals berth) and New Orleans (helped develop Chris Paul into the best point guard in the NBA).

Scott was also hired just days before LeBron James went on ESPN and embarassed the city and the organization by announcing that he was signing with the Miami Heat. I'm sure Scott believed that he was coming here to help coach James and get him over the playoff hump. Instead, he inherited a listless group that lacked direction and missed their superstar teammate. That team slumped to a 19-63 record and lost an NBA-record 26 straight games. That team also disappeared with the world watching on Dec, 8, 2010, when  Cleveland came out to voice their displeasure against LeBron James and saw a team that buddied up to him all game, didn't hardly guard him, let alone foul him, and lost by 30 points.

The second season, shortened to 66 games due to the lockout, had promise due to No. 1 overall pick Kyrie Irving and fourth-overall pick Tristan Thompson joining the fold. However, Irving battled injuries (as did Varejao) and the Cavs only won 21 games, landing another spot in the NBA lottery.

This season began with the fourth- (Dion Waiters) and 17th- (Tyler Zeller) overall draft choices joining the fold, and the team showed some promise at times. However, another Varejao season-ending injury pushed up the timetable on Zeller and forced veteran Luke Walton to play a lot more minutes than the team hoped. And, after a steller showing at All-Star weekend put Irving on the NBA map, he suffered yet another injury and missed a good chunk of the second half.

Irving, when he did come back, seemed to sulk both on and off the court. His final home appearance was marred when former Cleveland State standout Norris Cole made him look foolish on an attempted game-winning shot against the LeBron-less Heat, and then compounded when he walked off the court without taking part in the Fan Appreciation postgame ceremonies. While Irving has said all the right things today, it looked to most observers that Scott has lost the ear of his superstar point guard.

With the Cavs believed to be interested in luring James back to town next summer, when LeBron opts out of his contract with the Miami Heat, the time to make a splash is now. Perhaps LeBron never wanted to play for Byron Scott, and his hiring may have been his final push in Miami's direction (probably not, but it's an interesting theory). However, if the Cavs want to be considered a serious player in the LeBron sweepstakes, they need to show immediate improvement next season. That means not playing for ping-pong balls in hoppers and instead playing for playoff berths.

The Cavs enter this offseason with yet another high choice in the NBA lottery, where they could pick as high as first or as low as sixth (or stay put at third). Irving and Thompson will enter their third years as professionals, while Waiters and Zeller will become second-year pros. Young guys such as Shawn Livingston, Mareece Speights and Wayne Ellington could be counted on to add depth, and the team could be an active player in the free agent market for the first time since you-know-who left. The clock is ticking.

Several names have popped up in the early going in the search for the new head coach. The most intriguing is former Lakers coach Phil Jackson, but I don't think he comes here unless he's almost assured LeBron James returns for the 2014-15 season and beyond. Another intriguing name is Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who has rebuffed many chances to jump to the NBA but could want to be paired up with his former point guard Irving (and, of course, LeBron loves playing for him).

More realistic names include Pacers assistant Bryan Shaw (who always seems to be linked to head coaching jobs, but hasn't landed one), Warriors assistant Mike Malone (a former Cavs assistant under Mike Brown), Miami assistant David Fizdale, former Pistons head coach Flip Saunders (a Cuyahoga Heights native), former Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy and current ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy.

There are some who think that Gilbert may make another overture to Izzo. Also, ex-Cavs coach Mike Brown, who was run out of Los Angeles just one week into this season, has already let it be known that he'd love to come back and coach the Cavs.

Joe Cleveland will go on record and say that, if the Cavs decide to re-hire Mike Brown, he will be officially done with Cavs. So, you basically are admitting that the last three years were a mistake. It also makes Gilbert (who fired Brown over the objections of GM Danny Ferry, who subsequently quit) look even more foolish than the national perception already is. And, when so many believed that LeBron was behind the firing of Brown (by quitting on him during the Celtics series and talking about wanting to play for a guy who at least had a track record of playing and coaching), why would those of you who think that LeBron would return next summer believe that he'd want to come back playing for Mike Brown?

It just doesn't make sense. But then again, nothing about the NBA makes any sense to me.

At the very least, the NBA planets aligned (wink-wink) and the Lakers backed into the playoffs, even without Kobe Bryant. That means the Cavs can get the Lakers' No. 1 overall pick this year instead of the Miami Heat's last pick in the first round. So, the Cavs should have two more first rounders in the top 16, which is a good thing.

A very precarious fan base hangs in the balance with this head coaching hire and what the team does this offseason. The Indians won back many disgruntled fans when they landed the big fish in Terry Francona and shown a willingness to spend money in free agency that they lacked recently. The Browns didn't land their so-called "big fish" in either Chip Kelly or Nick Saban, and a fan base waits with baited breath to see how new coach Rob Chudzinski and coordinators Norv Turner and Ray Horton mesh together with the new group of players. New owner Jimmy Haslam's problems with the feds stemming from Pilot Flying J, along with distrust of returning GM Mike Lombardi, have only added to the fan base's anxiety of the upcoming season.

The Cavs were a solid No. 2 (not counting Ohio State football) behind the Browns locally until this season. What they do between now and August will say a lot about if they can regain that spot among the locals, or if they will fade into more apathy and obscurity.

***

By the way, you may have noticed that I've written Joe Cleveland under my real identity. It was time. As it is, most of the people who read this blog already know who I am anyway. When I decided to bring back Off The Turnbuckle (theoriginalott.blogspot.com), I had to change my Blogger profile. That included Joe Cleveland. So, from now on, you will know that Dan Gilles is the guy writing Joe Cleveland.

Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!

Great week for Cleveland

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Today caps a fantastic week for Cleveland sports.

And the Browns snapping their 11-game losing streak just like they snapped their last 11-game skid -- with a home win over the Bengals -- was only part of it.

You can start with the Indians decision to fire Manny Acta and give Sandy Alomar the interim job for the last week of the regular season. He went 3-3 and his teams showed some fight that had been missing since ... well, arguably, since May.

Give the Indians credit for acting fast when it came to a new manager. They targeted two candidates -- Alomar and former Red Sox manager and Indians player/front office member Terry Francona -- interviewed them, made their decision, and hired who they feel is the best man for the job.

That man was Francona, who comes to town with two World Series rings on his fingers from his time with the Red Sox. One of those rings (2007) came at the expense of the Indians. Both of those ended a long streak of no championships for a town that lives and dies with their baseball team. The so-called "Curse of the Bambino," if you will, is no more.

With his seat getting hotter and hotter, Pat Shurmur (now easily third on the depth chart of professional coaches in this town behind Byron Scott and Francona) coached his beleagured Browns to a much-needed victory in their most complete performance since Shurmur took over. 34-24, and it honestly wasn't that close. A garbage TD pass by the Bengals cut the Browns lead from 17 to 10, and a cluch sack/forced fumble by Emmanuel Stephens with the Bengals in the red zone, which was recovered and returned 40 yards by Billy Wynn, thwarted any nonsense about a fourth-quarter meltdown.

The defense picked off three Andy "Ginger" Dalton passes. One of which was by the returning Joe Haden, whose impact was immediately felt in the defense. Another was a pick-six from veteran Sheldon Brown that cemented the Browns' victory.

Brandon Weeden, who you either love or hate (depending on which type of Browns fan you are), shut up a lot of his dectractors with a solid two-touchdown, 290-yard performance. His only interception came off a tipped ball at the line of scrimmage on the Browns' first offensive possession. He clearly outplayed Dalton Sunday.

Montario Hardesty, who many Browns fans were wondering why he even still had a job after not getting any playing time in the four previous games, had to spell an injured Trent Richardson and responded with 54 huge second-half yards and his first pro touchdown. Hardesty played his butt off.

The win has sent Cleveland fans riding a wave of euphoria not seen in a while, and that wave was only extended today when Jimmy Haslam III (see the above video) was unanimously approved as the new owner of the Cleveland Browns.

You can't help but love this guy. He's the first owner this team has had that truly "gets it" since Mickey McBride sold the team in the 1950s to David Jones. Say what you will about the Dead Judas, but I can't recall ever hearing him refer to the Cleveland Browns as "YOUR Cleveland Browns." His selfish move to the land of crabcakes proves that point.

Haslam has been a fixture at Browns headquarters since he first agreed in principle to buy the team from the Lerner Family in early August. He's been at every game. He's been in the locker room. He's been talking to everybody -- the media, the out-of-town media, the coaches, the front office, other NFL owners, you name it. You can probably count on one hand how many times Randy Lerner was spotted at Browns headquarters last year.

This is nothing about Randy Lerner, who I believe is a huge Browns fan and truly cared about the team. He just didn't want to be a team owner and didn't deal with the pressures of that, especially in a city and region such as this one that lives and dies with every Browns snap.

Simply throwing money at people to try to fix it became tiring. His lastest splurge -- five years and $40 million to Mike Holmgren -- will wind up being a wasted purchase.

Holmgren may have brought in some pieces, such as general manager Tom Heckert, to overhaul the Browns roster and add more talent and playmakers. However, his handling of the head coaching position -- from leaving Eric Mangini around for the first year when it was clear to everyone their philosophies would not mesh to hiring the untested Pat Shurmur and letting him twist in the wind for two miserable seasons -- will be his downfall here in town.

Holmgren's ego wouldn't allow him to bring in a head coach with cred. But yet, he didn't want to coach the team himself. Instead of helping out Shurmur, who clearly wasn't ready to be an NFL head coach, he disappeared to Seattle and was rarely around. He was more hands-on with Mangini was the head coach than he was his second year.

Holmgren essentially owned an NFL team without every having to purchase one. Hell, he was given $40 million to own a team. He had carte-blanche to do as he pleased because he didn't have any accountability. He was working for an absentee owner who didn't want to be bothered.

That changed when Lerner finally found a buyer in Jimmy Haslam. Haslam didn't need someone to go to the owners meetings for him or run the franchise for him. He plans on doing that himself.

Suddenly, Holmgren became expendable. Haslam's been around more than Holmgren has this year, and Haslam didn't officially own the team until today.

So, his retirement, which Haslam announced within the first minute of his introductary press conference, wasn't much of a surprise. He'll finish off the year working with the new CEO, Joe Banner, and helping Banner and Haslam transition to their positions of power. Then, he'll ride his Harley off into the sunset, or somewhere near the Puget Sound.

Regardless of what Haslam and Banner decide to do with Heckert and Shurmur in the offseason, it's apparent Haslam wants to turn the Browns into a consistant winning franchise. If he sees enough growth in Shurmur this year, he'll retain him. If not, he'll let him go.

If Haslam and Banner believe they can get a better general manager to be responsible for the makeup of this roster, they'll hire him and fire Heckert. If not, they'll retain him.

Heckert, of the three, has made more of a case to be retained by the new regime. But even then, what jaw-dropping maneuvers or signings has he made? His big splashes were the trade down the the Falcons for multiple draft picks (passing on wide receiver Julio Jones, who has done well with the Falcons) and the trade up with the Vikings to select Trent Richardson. The Weeden first-round draft pick has been scrutinized because of his age and because the Browns were in line to have the No. 1 overall pick (and their choice of either West Virginia's Geno Smith or USC's Matt Barkley) and because of his early-season struggles.

Joe Cleveland has thrown his trust behind Butch Davis, behind Phil Savage and behind Holmgren when they all came aboard. My trust has been crushed by all three of these individuals.

But, I trust Haslam. He's saying and doing all the right things. His presense has been a breath of fresh air in a town that has had it's share of terrible sports owners, including Lerner and Indians owners Larry and Paul Dolan. Dan Gilbert has enjoyed the top spot in Cleveland sports owner hirarchy since he rode into town from Detroit. However, he may have to vacate that spot for Haslam.

And, suddenly, the Browns schedule doesn't look so daunting. The Indianapolis Colts, with rookie Andrew Luck, look beatable, as does the underachieving San Diego Chargers, the Baltimore Ravens (who the Browns nearly beat a few weeks ago in Baltimore and are getting decimated on defense), the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Oakland Raiders, the Kansas City Chiefs, the RGIII-led Washington Redskins ... heck, even the underachieving Dallas Cowboys look beatable at this point.

There is room for the Browns to salvage this season and for Pat Shurmur to salvage his job for at least one season. Holmgren's gone -- Shurmur and Heckert are fresh out of friends. They will be held accountable for their jobs, and the No. 1 judge for that is how this team performs (and wins) on the field.

***

As far as the Indians go, Francona was a smart hire. He was by far the top managerial candidate available, and he wanted to come here. When a guy with his credentials wants to come to town, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to screw it up.

Although, you can't put anything past Paul and Larry Dolan.

One thing that concerns me is the out-clause he put in his four-year contract that gives him the right to leave if the Indians decide to fire president Mark Shapiro and/or GM Chris Antonetti. Both of these guys are on shaky ground at the moment based on their mismanaging of the Indians' talent, draft and minor league system.

You want Shapiro and Antonetti to be more accountable for their jobs. But now, it seems that they have a four-year pass because they are married to Francona.

Do the Dolans want to lose Francona before that four-year contract is up? Or does player personnel decisions make it a gamble worth taking?

I can only hope that the money the Dolans forked over to bring in Francona (he certainly wasn't cheap) signals at least some type of hope that they invest some of those $30 million profits into bettering this roster. I'm not saying they need a $200 million payroll like the Red Sox. However, this $40 million payroll crap just ain't gonna cut it anymore.

If the Dolans weren't going to invest in their roster, it made more sense to hire the cost-effective Alomar. Alomar would have come cheaper than Francona and the fans would have given Alomar a longer leash than they gave Acta or Eric Wedge. The Indians could have sucked a few more years and the fans may have put up with it because of who the manager was.

While Francona is a credible name, he also comes in with high expectations from this fan base. They want to see results. That puts pressure on Shapiro and Antonetti to make sure those results happen, whether they want to believe it or not.

Yes, the Browns will always been No. 1 in this town. However, history has shown that this town can be a baseball town when the product is at least watchable. The anger and vitriol directed to the Dolans and Shapiro isn't because people don't like the Indians; on the contrary, it's because they still passionately care about the Indians and are tired of seeing this franchise that dominated the 1990s like no one has seen being drug through the mud based on terrible personnel decisions and horrrible decisions from an ownership group that is (fair or not) perceived as cheap.

Hopefully, the Francona hire signals a change in the mentality from the Tribe brass. Perhaps they do care about wins and losses instead of just about the bottom line. The funny part is, if you care more about wins and losses, the bottom line takes care of itself.

Joe Cleveland will keep a curious eye on the Indians this offseason to see what exactly they do. He'll also be keeping an eye on what happens with the Browns for the next two months and beyond.

Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!

Raising the roof

So, the Cleveland media and the local sports-talkers were all abuzz the last few days over an observation made by incoming Browns owner Jimmy Haslam III when he met with members of Cleveland's City Council.

Haslam spoke about making improvements to Cleveland Browns Stadium and making better use out of it than it is currently. One councilman asked if those improvements factor in a dome or retractable roof. Haslam did not answer it directly, but did say that he will have three well-known archtect firms take a look at the stadium to see what improvements can be done in the future.

Suddenly, everyone in this town got Dome-Fever all of a sudden. There was no happy medium -- you either are for a roof on the stadium, or you are against it.

Joe Cleveland can only chuckle about this latest prospect of a dome on Cleveland Browns Stadium.

I can remember growing up in the 1980s and seeing signs posted in Downtown Cleveland proclaiming it to be the "future home of a domed stadium" that would have housed both the Browns and Indians. As we all know, that plan never came to fruition.

Eventually, Cuyahoga County taxpayers approved the Sin Tax to help build the Gateway facilities -- Jacobs (now Progressive) Field and Gund (now Quicken Loans) Arena. They also voted for an extension in 1995 that helped build Cleveland Browns Stadium.

Neither of the two stadiums were built with a dome or roof of some kind.

Back when the NFL came to their settlement agreement with the cities of Cleveland and Baltimore that paved the way for the dead Judas to relocate his football franchise while forcing him to leave behind the name, tradition, history and colors of the Cleveland Browns, part of the agreement was that Cleveland build the new team -- one that would be relocated or an expansion team -- a new football stadium. The NFL kicked in some of the costs and controlled the courtship over which teams could potentially move to Cleveland or if there would wind up being an expansion team (which the latter happened).

When Cleveland set to build the new stadium, the subject of a dome came up. A good portion of the fan base who were very angry about the move were dead set against a roof of any kind being put over the stadium. Browns Football was about the elements, damnit! It's not Cleveland Browns football without games being played on grass, outdoors in December and January, with low temperatures and swirling snow coming in off Lake Erie.

This is the Browns Football our parents and grandparents remember.

But, Cleveland went to the NFL and asked if it was feasible to put a roof over the new stadium. And, if they did, would the NFL consider staging the Super Bowl at the domed facility in Cleveland?

The NFL, at the time, was reeling from a PR-nightmare that was a Super Bowl in Minneapolis. Players and league executives complained about the outside temperatures and how it prevented them from doing fun things away from the game itself. So, they told Cleveland officials that there was "no chance" that a Super Bowl would be staged in ANY cold weather city, much less Cleveland.

Cleveland officials, satisfied with that answer, went ahead with the plan to build an open-air stadium.

The Browns situation paved the way for new stadiums to be built in Tampa, Indianapolis, Chicago, New England, Detroit, Seattle, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Houston, and led to extended talks in both San Francisco and Minneapolis. The Bucs, Colts, Bengals, Lions, 49ers, Bears and Vikings all flirted with moving to Cleveland before an expansion team was awarded in 1998. Pittsburgh, seeing what happened to Cleveland and having it hit close to home, wouldn't let the Rooneys make a similar decision with the Steelers and built Heinz Field, which opened in 2001.

Shortly after the Browns began playing in 1999, Detroit built a domed stadium in Downtown near a new baseball park and a new casino. The NFL promised Detroit a Super Bowl if they built the new domed stadium, and they delievered on their promise. Since then, the NFL has awarded Super Bowls to other cities with cold-weather climates, such as Indianapolis and New Jersey.

Now, Cleveland and Browns fans were a little angry. If these cities can get a Super Bowl, why can't Cleveland? And, it harkens back to the dome.

Now, everyone wants be a revisionist. Now, everyone looks at the "Crystal Palace" (as Jim Donovan calls it) and sees a "Factory of Sadness" (as Mike Polk Jr. calls it) that is only used 10 Sundays a year with a handful of other dates sprinked in for high school football, Ohio State football and the annual Black College game, and wonders why this beautiful facilty is festering away on the lakefront.

People think putting a dome, or at the very least, a retractable roof, over the place would rectify these things.

Joe Cleveland is saying to slow down for just a second.

You may build it, but they still may not come.

If Cleveland can get the NFL to promise (IN WRITING) that they will bring a Super Bowl here if the city puts a roof over the stadium, than I may be on board. However, the NFL is not going to do that.

The main thing seperating Cleveland from Detroit and Indianapolis is hotel space. Cleveland has some nice hotels in town and in the suburbs. However, the lodging would be inadequate for a huge event like the Super Bowl.

OK, then, what about things like the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four, or the Big Ten Championship Game, or even the MAC Championship Game, or the Big Ten Basketball Tournament. Wouldn't a domed facility be attractive to hold those types of events?

Sure they would, but why would the NCAA and the Big Ten come to Cleveland? They can get a dome anywhere.

Once again, it comes down to hotels. Indianapolis, Chicago, San Antonio, Detroit and New Orleans have it. Cleveland does not.

Well, as a buddy of mine argued, don't you think that more hotels would come to town if a domed facility came to fruition?

Possibily, but let's point out one big giant fact here.

When the casino bill passed statewide, Cleveland was one of the locations. The plan was for a hotel and casino and restaurant to be built. However, all the other hotel and restaurant owners in Cleveland complained that it would hurt their businesses.

So, the city made Dan Gilbert build the casino without a hotel. He had to buy the neighboring Ritz-Carlton just to secure the hotel rooms for the Horseshoe Casino.

There was a golden opportunity to add to the hotel space in Cleveland, and Cleveland wouldn't do it. What makes you think that any other hotel operator would come here under these particular guidelines?

If Dan Gilbert, the golden goose of Cleveland, couldn't get a hotel built, what makes you think that anyone else would?

So, in the end, we'd be left with a giant albatross of a facility that would only bs used as much as it currently is.

And, who's going to pay for this upgrade, if it's even feasible? Do you think Haslam, after shelling out $1 billion to buy the franchise, would pony up for it?

Nope.

Will Cleveland pay for it? Hell no!

So, it would be on you and me, the taxpayers of Cuyahoga County, to furnish the money to build this roof that, quite honestly, we really don't need.

Ticket prices would skyrocket for Browns games to help fund this roof, retractable or not. You think fans would willingly shell out $120 for tickets that already cost $60? I doubt it, especially if the team doesn't start winning.

Honestly, it would be in Jimmy Haslam's best interest to try to get the Browns to PLAY in a Super Bowl and WIN a Super Bowl and not worry about HOSTING a Super Bowl.

You want more revenue? Schedule some summer concerts at the stadium. The old Cleveland Stadium played host to numerous memorable concerts -- Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, The Jacksons, The Who, the World Series of Rock, the Concert for the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, the list goes on and on and on.

This past summer, Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw staged a concert at Cleveland Browns Stadium. I don't know how well it drew, but that should just be the tip of the iceberg.

If the "Big 4" of Metal (Metallica/Slayer/Megadeth/Anthrax) want to do a stadium tour, bring it to Cleveland Browns Stadium!

If Springsteen wants to play the stadium again, bring him back to Cleveland Browns Stadium!

The Who, the Rolling Stones, Van Halen, etc. Heck, go the country route again. Cleveland has a big country music fan base.

One thing the dead Judas did (and did well) was allow concert promoter Jules Belkin free reign to stage events around downtime that the Browns and Indians weren't playing. Cleveland Stadium truly rocked back in the 1970s, 80s and even the 90s before it got knocked down.

For whatever reason, the Lerner family never went that route.

You don't need a roof to stage a rock or country concert at the stadium!

Does Billy Graham want to stage a revival? Let him rent out the stadium! Does he need a roof over his head to do it? Isn't the whole point of a Christian revival to allow God in on the proceedings? Wouldn't an open-air stadium be perfect for that?

There's plenty of ways to use the facility without putting a roof over it, if it could even happen.

Joe Cleveland just isn't feeling the whole Dome-Hysteria, and it's not just because I'm a football purist at heart. Yes, I want my football played in the elements.

But, I think everyone believes that a domed facility would be the answer to all of our prayers and be able to stage all of these fantastic events, and I think those people are wrong.

It just reeks of Cleveland being late to the party and trying to cash in. If they really wanted a dome, they should have built one in the first place instead of trying to finagle some way to put one on the existing stadium.

In the end, I think Cleveland will lose more than they'll win. They'll lose without the additional revenue. They'll lose with higher taxes. They'll lose with higher ticket prices. And, if that's the case, they may end up losing their team ... again.

Stop worrying about the stadium and start worrying about the product that uses that stadium. If you build a winner, they will come.

Do you hear Pittsburgh, Baltimore or Cincinnati complaining that they didn't put a roof on their stadiums when they built them? I don't hear anything.

Do you hear New York and New Jersey complaining that they didn't put a roof on their brand-new stadium? I haven't heard anything.

Do you hear Boston and New England complaining that they didn't put a roof on Gilette Stadium? I can't say that I have.

Only in Cleveland do you hear these complaints.

To be honest, if the Browns were winning, you wouldn't hear any complaints. It would be like the good-ol' days of Paul Brown and the Kardiac Kids and Bernie Kosar all over again, games that were won and lost in the snow and freezing temperatures of old Cleveland Stadium while loons in the Dawg Pound barked without shirts on.

Winning cures everything. I'd rather have a winning team play on a parking lot than a losing team play under a dome.

If that means I "don't get it," than I guess I never will. But, you won't hear Joe Cleveland ever clamor for a domed stadium in Cleveland.

Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!

Dawn of a new day

It's a new day, Cleveland sports fans -- especially Cleveland Browns fans.

Hard to believe that just 10 years ago, the three Cleveland sports teams were owned by Randy Lerner (Browns), Larry Dolan (Indians) and Gordon Gund (Cavaliers). All three were pretty weak owners.

Today, only one of that "vaunted" triumverate is left, and it's the worst one of the three. But we'll discuss that later.

Earlier this week, Lerner -- who inherited the Browns from his father, Al, during the 2002 season -- sold controlling interest in the Browns to truck stop magnate Jimmy Haslam III for a price close to $1 billion. Lerner will retain a 30-percent interest in the Browns for the next four years before Haslam has the option to buy him out (which he likely will).

Haslam, a native of Knoxville, Tenn. and the CEO of the Pilot Flying J franchises of filling stations and truck stops, had been a minority owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2008. While owning his minor shares, he described himself as a "1,000-percent Steeler fan."

Sorry to the four-letter "Worldwide Leader," but Haslam buried that statement within seconds of his first press conference as the Browns owner.

He referred to the Steelers as "that team from the other state" numerous times. He acknowledged the class of the Rooney family and what he took away from them, but also made it perfectly clear that, other than Pilot Flying J, the Browns are now Numero Uno in his heart.

If he was a 1,000-percent Steeler fan, he's now a 1 billion-percent Browns fan.

Of the three owners I referenced, I liked Lerner the best. Lerner was everything that Art "Judas" Modell wasn't -- a billionaire owner who liked to be in the background. Lerner grew up a Browns fan and would do anything to help the Browns. Unfortunately, he was ill suited to be the Browns owner, and it hurt the franchise.

Sure, it didn't hurt them in the pocketbook, but it hurt them on the field.

Lerner constantly threw his millions on people he believed would fix the Browns fortunes for the better. Butch Davis, John Collins, Phil Savage, Eric Mangini and (most recently) Mike Holmgren were given a lot of money to help the Browns start winning more games. Only recently has there been a sign of progression. But, starting from the team's lone playoff berth in 2002, it's been a forgettable tenure for Lerner.

First, Carmen Policy was bought out by Lerner, and Policy subsequently retired following the 2003 season. Policy was Al Lerner's closest confidant with the expansion Browns, but the younger Lerner knew Policy's rhetoric was turning off members of the media and fans.

Following the 2003 season, Lerner gave Davis a four-year contract extension. Davis was gone with five games remaining in the 2004 season.

Collins, who had been an executive with the NFL for 15 years, was given Policy's job as team president in 2004. Collins hired Phil Savage from the Baltimore Ravens as the new general manager and Romeo Crennel as the new head coach. However, Collins and Savage clashed from the get-go and Collins wanted Savage fired by the end of the 2005 season. Lerner sided with his GM, instead firing Collins. Collins has since done pretty well for himself, serving as the NHL's Chief Operating Officer since 2008.

Savage, meanwhile, struggled in the personnel department and was an absantee GM for most of his tenure while he was out on scouting missions. Finally, after just one winning season and a drop from 10-6 in 2007 to 4-12, Lerner fired both Savage and Crennel following the 2008 season.

Lerner ignored the advice of many within the NFL when he quickly hired Eric Mangini to be the head coach in 2009 without hiring his GM first (many GM candidates refused to work with Mangini and took other jobs, such as Scott Pioli). Mangini brought in his friend George Kokinis from the Ravens to be the GM, but Kokinis was run out midway through the 2009 season and Mangini was rumored to be fired by the end of that season after the Browns stumbled to a 1-11 start.

Lerner found Holmgren, fresh off his retirement as head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, and hired him to be the team's president and de-facto "face of the franchise" in 2009. The Browns reeled off four consectutive wins to end the 2009 season, which saved Mangini's job for another year (even though his philosophies clashed with Holmgren's and his hand-picked GM, Tom Heckert from the Eagles). After another 5-11 season, Holmgren fired Mangini and most of his coaches and started bringing in coaches who shared his vision of a West Coast offense and a 4-3 defense.

The first year of Holmgren, Heckert and Pat Shurmur was not good. The team struggled to a 4-12 season and looked miserable in the process. However, Heckert had been drafting very well during his three seasons, and his most recent draft had the fan base buzzing with the selections of running back Trent Richardson and quarterback Brandon Weeden in the first round.

This turned out to be Lerner's cue to sell. Supposedly, the NFL helped broker the sales talks between Lerner and Haslam, and the talks wound up going very smoothly. From the time Haslam met Lerner, it only took 31 days for the sale to be completed.

Lerner took criticism for owning the English soccer team Aston Villa, and supposedly "spending more time and resources" on them. He also took criticism for not being more visible for the fan base. They viewed his shyness being apathetic toward the Browns.

I don't think Lerner's heart was in the wrong place. In fact, I think it was in the right place. He really, really, really wanted the Browns to succeed, to make his late father proud. Unfortunately, he was ill-prepared to be an NFL owner and never really got it, or wanted to get it. He wanted to keep the team in his family for generations. But, in the end, he found a family with even more passion for the NFL and football, a family who would keep the Browns in Cleveland and use every available resource to turn the team into a winner both on and off the field.

If Lerner didn't care, he wouldn't have strove for the assurance (and gotten it in writing) that the team would not be moved by a new owner. If Lerner didn't care, he probably wouldn't have strongly suggested to Haslam that they don't put a logo on the iconic orange helmets.

Lerner cared, which is more than I can say for the other guys on that 2003 list. It appears he found a guy who cares just as much, but with much better resources, in Haslam.

And, that, my fellow Browns fans, is sweet, sweet music to our ears.

***

Haslam has hinted at changes. Such as, selling the naming rights to Cleveland Browns Stadium, which Al and Randy Lerner did not do (they sold naming rights to the four gates, though), and tweaking with the Browns uniforms.

How much tweaking, who knows. However, the Browns are one of the few NFL teams that have not changed their uniforms one iota. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to find a throwback Browns uniform, because they've, by and large, remained the same since 1946, although the helmet the first few seasons was white.

Sure, they've experimented over the years -- orange pants, brown pants, orange jerseys -- but the design has mostly remained the same.

Even the Steelers tweaked their uniforms a bit, changing the size of the numbers on the front of their uniforms to a more aero-dynamic font.

While I'm a very hardcore traditionalist when it comes to the Cleveland Browns, to be honest, if the team's winning, I don't care what they look like. Yes, I would prefer they keep the Brown and Orange colors (and I can't see why they wouldn't abandon them). But both the Indians and Cavaliers have undergone numerous uniform changes over the years. They don't have the same standing in this town as the Browns do, but you hear less sniping about the uniforms if the team plays well than if they stink.

You listen to Haslam talk, and you can't help but be won over by the guy. By the end of his press conference, I found myself nodding my head and clapping my hands. I was ready to run through a wall for the guy, and I just met him.

Imagine the impact that will have on a team of football players.

Haslam is a "hand's on" guy, but he won't be as intrusive as Modell was. He has way more money and resources than Modell ever did.

For now, he seems willing to let Holmgren, Heckert and Shurmur stay the course, but you can bet it's a must-win season for these three. Another step backward, and Haslam won't hesitate to clean house.

I can remember when Dan Gilbert bought the Cavs from Gund in 2005, and almost immediately, he fired coach Paul Silas and essentially fired GM Jim Paxson (although he let Paxson finish out the season). He sunk his own resources into refurbishing Gund Arena with new seats, a new scoreboard and more anemnities (and, a new name). The Cavs reached the playoffs in Gilbert's first full season of ownership and were in the NBA Finals his second.

Gilbert is widely recognized as the best sports owner in Cleveland, and he's the same guy who failed to re-sign LeBron James (although, the failure is not Gilbert's). Haslam's only been in town for a few days, and he's quickly vaulted up to No. 2 on the depth chart.

A new voice at the top may be just what this franchise needs. This town is a football-mad town with some of the most passionate fans in the world. Browns victories are a matter of civic pride around here.

Welcome to Cleveland, Jimmy Haslam. We're ready to welcome you with open arms.

***

This brings us to No. 3 on the depth chart, Larry Dolan.

The contract to purchase the Browns was barely dry when fans were already begging Haslam to look into buying the Indians. They had already been begging Dan Gilbert to buy the Indians for years.

Dolan may not be the worst owner in Indians history. He may not be the worst owner in Cleveland sports history -- Modell's got that space nailed down, and Ted Stepien is a close second. But, he's definitely not among the best.

If you look at the Indians history, they've been permeated by bad ownership. You had William R. Daley, who tried to move the Indians to Seattle in 1962. You had Vernon Stouffer, who quickly mismanaged his money, tried to play 30 home games at the New Orleans Superdome in 1972 (MLB quickly intervened) and then reneged on a handshake agreement to sell the team to a group headed by George Steinbrenner and instead sold it to Nick Mileti.

Mileti was a great owner for the Cavs and 1100-AM. He was not a good owner for the Indians, other than he saved the team from being moved.

In 1982, the Indians were owned by a dead guy. Seriously. Steve O'Neill, one of Steinbrenner's partners with the Yankees who bought the team in 1978, died. For four years, the Indians were owned by his trust and were in limbo.

When you factor in Modell was still in town in 1982 and Stepien owned the Cavs as well, that may have been the worst triumverate of Cleveland ownership EVER.

Heck, even the Indians' very first over, Charlie Somers, was so broke that he had to sell "Shoeless" Joe Jackson's contract to the Chicago White Sox and had to sell to Jim Dunn because of almost $2 million of debt (which was a lot of money back in 1916).

But Dolan deserves to be mentioned with all of those shady characters.

As the Indians continue to spiral downward -- remember when fans debated about whether Chris Perez had "a point" when the Indians were in first place in May -- pressure is on the Dolans to make some wholesale changes.

Manny Acta's lethargic managerial style is wearing thin on the fans, and it seems to be rubbing off on his lethargic players.

Chris Antonetti's moves (or lack thereof) show a big-league roster devoid of talent and a minor league system devoid of prospects.

Mark Shapiro, who proves that waste can flow upstream in the Cleveland Indians organization, continues to oversee an organization that is hemorraging money, not drawing fleas to Progressive Field and is getting the bejesus beat out of it on a nightly basis. He can see that the team only has two of its own first-round picks in their current minor league system and only has Michael Brantley to show for three trades that he pulled the trigger on -- the deals of CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez (with Justin Masterson's terrible performance over the last month or so, I no longer consider him a "bright spot" among those three trades).

Shapiro and Antonetti decided it was a good idea to spend $5 million on a player who was so injured, that he hasn't even played an inning this season -- Grady Sizemore.

They decided it was a good idea to pick up $5 million on a 39-year-old pitcher named Derek Lowe who led the NL in losses. He teased the fans and the brass with a good first two months, but then he pitched like the 39-year-old guy he really is and is now out of a job with two months remaining in the regular season.

Despite their need for a right-handed bat with some pop, they continue to keep Russ Canzler and Matt LaPorta mired in Columbus. How much worse can they be from the litany of Casey Kotchman, Jack Hannahan, Shelly Duncan, Aaron Cunningham, Johnny Damon, Vinny Rottino and Jose Lopez the Indians trot out with a straight face night in and night out.

Shapiro and Antonetti decided that they didn't have the assets to make a splash at the trading deadline, and were too gun-shy to turn into sellers and deal Shin-Soo Choo, Chris Perez and Justin Masterson, so they sat on their hands and did nothing. The Indians have lost nine straight games in disturbing fashion since the front office gave them this ringing endorsement.

If Dolan doesn't find a buyer for his team (which he should have done years ago), he needs to sack up and clean them all out, because they're taking his money for a ride. Shapiro's ship has sailed long ago, and Antonetti is nothing more than Shapiro's puppet. Acta will never be anything more than a mediocre major league manager, and you have a PR bonanza waiting in the wings as his bench coach, Sandy Alomar Jr.

I guarantee the Tribe could do very little in the offseason, but if Alomar gets named manager, they will sell a few thousand more season tickets. Cleveland is loyal to its own.

The Dolans turned a $30 million profit last season and did absolutely nothing with that money. They'll never turn a $30 million profit in Cleveland again unless they go to the World Series or spend absolutely nothing on the product you see on the field.

Sell the team, Paul and Larry. If you can't man up to the fact that your baseball people are inept, than it's time to sell to someone who knows what the hell they are doing.

Fans want wins more than the so-called "bottom line." Fans don't care about market sizes and baseball economics. Fans would be happy if the Indians had a team like the Royals, filled with promising young talent, rather than the jokers they have here.

If Larry Dolan is truly a fan of the Indians like he claims he is, he needs to take a page out of Randy Lerner's book and sell them. Because Larry Dolan the owner is letting down Larry Dolan the fan.

Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!