I was impressed by Cleveland’s hatred. That city loathes Lebron James. In the words of Susan from Survivor: if Lebron was sitting there dying of thirst, Cleveland would let the vultures take him. The city showered him with boos, chants, and homemade posters, all designed to make Lebron feel some sort of pain.

The Cavs, on the other hand? I wasn’t so impressed with them. Not in the least. They joked with Lebron, smiled as he stood in front of their bench jawing. They showed no competitive fire, no spine. If I had to choose one word to describe the Cavs last night, it would rhyme with wussies. Lebron jetted in for fast break layups, and nobody put him on his ass. He mocked the bench and nobody, save for an assistant coach, told him to shove it.

Why should the players want to beat Lebron as badly as the fans did, you ask? Because when he left, he effectively told his former supporting cast they weren’t good enough. He couldn’t win with those chumps, is what Lebron’s departure meant. He wanted to go elsewhere, where he could surround himself with talented teammates, where he could finally win his first title. Lebron leaving Cleveland was a direct slap in his former teammates’ faces. He thought it was their fault he went ringless during his first seven seasons.

THAT’S why the players should resent Lebron, or at least want to beat his ass on the court. Not because he made The Decision such a public debacle. Not because he showed no remorse to the city that had loved him for so long. Not just because he left. But because when he left, he showed no respect to the Cavaliers. “I feel like it’s going to give me the best opportunity to win,” LeBron said after The Decision. He added, “I want to be able to win championships. And I feel like I can compete down there.”

In other words, “Mo Williams, Anderson Varejao, Antawn Jamison and Anderson Varejao suck.”

Still, the Cavs showed no spine. Chris Webber called them “as soft as wet toilet paper.” Then he added, “in a puddle.”

Meanwhile, Lebron used the crowd’s hatred as fuel. Finally, in this season where Lebron is the most despised man in basketball, he embraced the role of villain.

I wrote my latest piece for SLAM Online on Lebron’s vindictive spirit in last night’s game.

The only problem was, LeBron James didn’t stop tormenting Clevelanders in July. He came back at their throats last night, like he, not they, had been wronged. There was a different bounce in his step, a bounce Cleveland had seen on occasion. No taunts were going to distract LeBron James in this game. He was a man with a singular mission, to take the crowd’s hatred and silence it. All season long, we have wondered how the public’s disdain would change LeBron James. Would he use it as fuel, or would it affect him more negatively? On this night, clearly galvanized by his role as enemy, LeBron played the villain perfectly. By the end of the third quarter, when LeBron had already set a season high with 38 points, the crowd’s jeers — so damning and violent at the game’s start — had become nothing more than a form of entertainment to make a blowout more exciting. [...]

These Miami Heat have all too often played uneven, uninspired basketball. But if LeBron James can be such a vindictive S.O.B. each night, the toughest, most determined man in the gym will also be its most devastating talent. He will continue to quiet crowds and leave haters defeated, and he will accomplish all that with a knowing smile on his face.

Click here to read the rest of my piece.

I’m pretty sure the NBA scheduled tonight’s game as a practical joke. Here’s a scene that probably happened the day the schedule was made:

“Ha! The Celtics play the Heat in the first game, right? So if they play the Cavs the next day, it will show everyone how badly it sucks to be from Cleveland!”

“Brilliant! The 500 credentialed media members will be down to double digits, the crowd will have one tenth the frenzy, and nobody outside of Boston or Cleveland will even care about the game. And that’s assuming that Clevelanders still care about the Cavs.”

“Even better, Mo Williams is a game-time decision. Everyone outside of Cleveland laughs because a Cav was mentioned in the same sentence as the word Decision, while all the Clevelanders cry silently into their pillows and try to talk themselves into the J.J. Hickson era.”

“You mean the Anderson Varejao era?”

“No, the J.J. Hickson era.”

“Either way, that sucks, huh? From Lebron to Anderson Varejao, the torch has been passed.”

“You mean from Lebron to J.J. Hickson.”

“Whatever. At least Clevelanders can say they live in a beautiful city.”

(Awkward pause.)

“Just kidding! Ha!”

“Phew. You had me there for a second. I thought you were insane.”

“But hey, you can’t be entirely down on Cleveland’s future. I mean, Dan Gilbert promised a title BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE.”

“Yeah, and then Gilbert’s most important acquisition this summer was signing Ramon Sessions. You know, unless you’re really high on Manny Harris or Samardo Samuels.”

“Yeah. Maybe Gilbert’s promise was an empty one.”

“Yup. Which is why it will be even funnier when we schedule the Cavs to play the Celtics right after the Heat do. Bwahahaha!”

On a more serious note

Tonight’s game could tell us a lot about the Celtics’ mind state at this stage of the season. After coming down from such an emotional high, playing Cleveland halfway across the country the next day isn’t like playing a basketball game: it’s like having to complete a chore, or get your tooth pulled, or… well, you get the point.

I think about what last year’s team (at least the team we saw during the second half of the regular season) would have done with tonight’s game, and I’m pretty sure they would have mailed it in, lost by 10 points or so, and in the process caused me to smash my television set into a million pieces. Then again, they never would have beaten the Heat (or any team?) at home.

We already know this year’s Celtics are deep, and we know they can perform when the stakes are high. But can they win the trap games this year? Games like tonight’s could be the difference between the third seed and the first seed.

The season is approaching (but not quickly enough), so that means it’s NBA preview time. Starting with the league’s worst team and working our way to the top, we’ll preview one team per day.

Mo Williams has Mo' problems this year.

Cleveland Cavaliers

Last year’s record: 61-21
Head Coach: Byron Scott
Projected Starters: Mo Williams, Anthony Parker, Jamario Moon, Antawn Jamison, Anderson Varejao

Outlook:

My cousin played basketball at Boston University a few years ago, and opposing fan bases had a great chant whenever they played his team. “Sucks to B.U.! Sucks to B.U.!” Get it? Well, that chant applies to all Cleveland fans. It really, beyond belief, sucks to B.U.

Suckers.

X-Factor:

I’ve got a real “Decision” to make here. I could choose Leon Powe, who averaged a whopping 4.0 points and 3.0 rebounds last year but should be better after a season of recovery; Mo Williams, who barely decided not to retire (how admirable of him!) after Lebron James bolted, but should now be the team’s star; Daniel Gibson, who stands to see more playing time in the post-Lebron stage; Jamario Moon, who could be the starting small forward by default; Antawn Jamison, who loves compiling impressive stats on bad teams; or Anderson Varejao, who should have started last year but had to wait for Shaq to depart. Whoever I pick, I doubt it will bring comfort to Cavs fans. Lebron James is not walking through that door.

Biggest Question Mark:

It sounds almost cruel to say it, but who will be the Cavs’ starting small forward: Joey Graham or Jamario Moon? Either way, they’re in great hands.

Just kidding.

Most important newcomer:

Ramon Sessions. I’ll be honest, though: he didn’t have very much competition, and I don’t know how he’ll fit in with Mo Williams. The other most important newcomer? Joey Graham. Let’s just say Joey probably won’t completely fill the shoes of his predecessor.

Key loss:

Duh. Lebron. Who did you think I was going to say, Sebastian Telfair?

Most compelling storyline:

Dan Gilbert’s comical guarantee. “I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE.” Clock’s ticking, Dan. I’ve got a feeling you’ll be proven a liar.

Player to watch:

J.J. Hickson. The one Cavalier to truly get excited about, Hickson’s the player the Cavs refused to part with in a potential trade for Amare Stoudemire. Hickson’s also the player who has never averaged more than 8.5 points or 4.9 rebounds per game and posted only 3.5 ppg and 0.8 ppg in last year’s playoffs. Is he ready to take the keys to the franchise? Nope. But, at least for now, Byron Scott doesn’t really have a choice. God knows Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison can’t lead a team to the promised land.

Descriptive movie quote:

“You know, in the ten years that I coached, I never met anybody who wanted to win as badly as I did. I’d do anything I had to do to increase my advantage. Anybody who tried to block the pursuit of that advantage, I’d just push ‘em out of the way. Didn’t matter who they were, or what they were doing. But that was then. You have special talent, a gift. Not the school’s, not the townspeople, not the team’s, not Myra Fleener’s, not mine. It’s yours, to do with what you choose. Because that’s what I believe, I can tell you this: I don’t care if you play on the team or not.” – Norman Dale, Hoosiers

I’m pretty sure that Norman Dale line isn’t what Byron Scott said to Lebron James. But you can imagine what it would have been like if it was.

Projected record: 27-55. In his letter to fans after The Decision, Dan Gilbert wrote, “Tomorrow is a new and much brighter day.” Too bad tomorrow, tomorrow, is always a day away.

Steve Aschburner, one of my all-time favorite NBA writers, chided Shaq for Shaq’s comments regarding Mo Williams. (Read the original comments HERE) (NBA.com)

Convenient, isn’t it, how O’Neal can switch so fluidly in his pronouns. When things go wrong, it’s all “they,” “he” and “me.” When he can strain to stay linked to current difference-maker like James, this former difference-maker breaks out the “we.”

Look, Shaq’s candor in general is great, and he gets the entertainment component of pro sports better than any athlete of his generation (maybe overgets it, given his distracting side ventures). But at 38, with a veteran’s minimum contract, having played for more franchises that didn’t win titles with him than those that did, he needs to adjust. O’Neal is at the Robert Parish-in-Chicago, Glenn Robinson-in-San Antonio, John Salley-in-L.A. stage of his impact and career. He needs to sound like it.

Come to think of it, maybe Shaq’s diminishing stature makes it easier for him to find targets his own size after all.

Look, I’ll be the first to admit it: Shaq can be a bit of a jerk sometimes. Our faithful reader James believes Shaq’s rudeness reveals itself because Shaq refuses to be fake, but being “real” isn’t an excuse for being a jackass. As my third-grade teacher once told me when I wrote “BOOBLESS” on my calculator (press 5-5-3-7-8-0-0-8, then turn it upside down) to describe my female classmates, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Not exactly a motto Shaq has lived by over the years.

Then I read that Delonte West called Shaq “an amazing person, someone I can’t even begin to describe,” and I re-read Rick Reilly’s feature on Shaq from 2000. Reilly gushed about O’Neal’s graciousness, thanked him for his generosity and lawfulness, and wrote this about O’Neal’s father: “It’s true: Good men raise good men.”

I just have to accept the fact that it’s not easy to describe Shaq’s character. And me? I’m not even going to try.

I’m shocked – shocked! – that Shaq took a shot at Mo Williams yesterday. I’m not so stunned that he took a shot at Mo as I am that he waited until yesterday. The over/under on Shaq firing an unceremonious shot at one of his former teammates was a week after signing somewhere else. It took him a full month. If I were a betting man, I would have lost a fair amount of money. (Wait, I AM a betting man? I DID lose a fair amount of money? Here comes the computer toss…)

Anyway, here’s what Shaq had to say about his former teammate. (New Orleans Times Picayune)

O’Neal said what sold him on the Celtics is the unselfish play of the veteran group.

“I like that they play together and nobody really worries about shots, ” O’Neal said. “When I was with Cleveland, guys who couldn’t even play were worried about shots. Why was Mo (Williams) taking 15 shots, and I’m only taking four? If LeBron takes 20 shots, that’s cool.

“So I said, let me get with a good team for the last two years. I don’t mind people calling me a journeyman. I’ve been programmed to move around every three years.”

As for Mo, still stuck in Lebron-less Cleveland? Mo’ losses, mo’ problems. But mo’ shots, too.

Click the jump for Shaq quotes about himself and the Celtics.

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Let’s face it, Lebron thought rings would come easy.

In 2007, he exploded against the Pistons and found himself in the NBA Finals against the Spurs. He knew he had no supporting cast as he lost to the Spurs 4-0. Getting to the Finals that year was the worse thing that ever happened to him. I believe he really thought, “if I could get that far with no supporting cast, just think how far I would get if Cleveland got me help. ”

Does LeBron want to be a business man, or a basketball player?

Well guess what? Cleveland did get him help!

While it’s easy to sit back now after the Cavs have been eliminated in each of the three years since their title run and say they never got him help, you must think about this: Cleveland put together a team that was good enough to win 66 and 62 games the last two seasons– a league-best both years. Then, suddenly, they crap out in the play-offs and it’s everyone’s fault but Lebron’s. We used to blame the best player for losing, but now we cover for him.

I seem to remember the Celtics putting together a great team around Paul Peirce in 2008. That team won 66 games– the same as Lebron’s team in 2009. That Celtic team looked awful at times in the playoffs, as did Lebron’s teams of 2009 and 2010. In 2008, when the Celtics looked like they wouldn’t get past round two (by the way, against Cleveland) Paul Pierce turned into the best player on the planet and refused to let his team lose. He also went on to win the Finals MVP that year.

This past season the Celtics were done; they had only won 50 games and had no chance facing Cleveland in round 2, especially with Lebron and company having home court advantage. Some experts picked Cleveland in 5. Then the Celtic defense made Lebron look like a D-League player at times. It was so bad we heard excuses ranging from his sore elbow to his mother having affairs with teammates. Hate to bring that up about his mom, but that’s how ugly it got on the floor for Lebron. The Celtics won in 6, including a Game 5 win in Cleveland by 32 points. He was so awful in that game that if his mother suited up for that game it may have been closer.

Now all of a sudden, he has no chance to win in Cleveland because of their roster? Give me a break ,Lebron, you took the easy way out. Instead of teaming up with D-Wade and Bosh, why don’t you do what Kobe did last summer and work on a post up game?

I watched you time after time try to drive on a Celtics defense that had three or four guys waiting for you in the paint. I’ve seen you turn it over or force bad jump shots in a way that was awful for the league MVP. At 6’8″, I can’t believe you didn’t try posting up once the entire series. Man, Lebron, it’s simple: Post up Pierce– you have the size advantage over him or any other small forward in the league. Back him down! Shoot over the top of him, or wait for the double team to come and find the open man. It could be your greatest strength, but for some reason you won’t do it, or won’t practice it. Could it be that maybe you’re not good enough for that yet?

The truth is, Lebron James hasn’t improved his game much since the 2007 Finals. Has anyone seen anything new from him since then? A jump hook, a turn around?? Besides maybe getting bigger and stronger, what’s different in his game?? What has he learned to do better? I don’t mean numbers wise, I mean a move or something. What as he added to his repertoire? Does he even have a repertoire???

Does Lebron think just because he got the Finals in 2007 he must be good enough to get there every year, but he needs some help? I think he does believe that. Look, I’m no fool…I know Cleveland didn’t have the greatest team of all-time, or even the decade for that matter. But let’s be real, he had enough talent around him to beat Orlando last year and an older Celtics team this year. He didn’t get it done. Plain and simple, he didn’t get back to the Finals and that’s on him. Not Jamison or Williams…it’s on the KING!!

Dwyane Wade gets a little help in Miami

So, instead of going back home this summer and thinking of nothing but the gym and a new move or a new shot, he paraded around deciding where to go.  Lebron ended up being the HELP Dwayne Wade needed to win his 2nd ring. Wade had a decent team once, and he rose to the occasion and made Shaq his helper and he won that ring. Now he has Lebron and Bosh as his helpers for the next three years or more.

As a Celtics fan, Lebron beating the Celtics never worried me.I knew that wasn’t happening as long as our big three were here, even at age 40!!! What worries me is now D-Wade has a good SUPPORTING cast!!  Lebron is not going out in the world and making his own legacy. As far as I’m concerned, his legacy ended in Cleveland. Seven seasons, one empty trip to the finals. Very Good Player!! Good addition for Miami along with Bosh. A few more pieces and D-Wade has a good shot at another title.

One final note, did anyone see how well and hard D-Wade played against Boston in the playoffs?

If Cleveland had Wade instead of Lebron, don’t you think they would have been far more difficult to defeat?