The Morning According to Us

If LeBron leaves Cleveland, it won't be because he wasn't loved.

Getty Images

"Did you know true oysters don't make pearls? This has to stop. I'm pretty sure I'm speaking metaphorically."

If Lebron James does end up deciding to bolt Cleveland in the summer of '10, it won't be because he didn't get the support he needed locally. We already detailed the feelings here, but take it a step further.

This year, according to the Sports Business Journal, LeBron helped boost rating across all the regional sports networks that carry NBA games pretty much every other night across the NBA landscape by 8%. That's a big jump, considering these carriers have all been in place for years, whether the carrier is Comcast, FoxSportsNet, or YES.

"Even more stunning," they write, "is the fact that an average of 134,000 Cleveland-area homes (not people, but homes) tuned in for each of the Cavs games." If you say that doesn't seem like a lot, consider that Cleveland is a medium market on the NBA landscape -- Doesn't LeBron's crew remind you of that enough? -- and that total viewership is actually second across the entire NBA to only the Lakers. Again, this for the 17th-largest market.

While to us it seems less and less likely that LeBron will leave because of a confluence of market climate in the league giving the Cavs a huge advantage during negotiations and the fact that TCO SpeedWagon (The Chosen One and his biz posse) should know more than ever at this point his star doesn't need a bigger media universe to rise in, we should also just make it clear, the man IS Ohio right now.

At least we know he ain't movin' to Oklahoma City. The Thunder averaged just 8,000 homes, pathetic for a first-year franchise. Sent there by some twist of cruel fate, the media maven LeBron that he is, LeBron might be better off pulling his Jordan baseball exodus now. Maybe the Pirates?

Elsewhere…

Chinese men and their high-heeled running. Repressed much?

The Florida HS kid gets stuck on four no-hitters. Well, there goes his future.

Frisbee season gets nuked when people get naked. Circle of life stuff here.

Print Article . Email Article. Subscribe to The Magazine