Welcome to New York, Lebron James.

Saturday, the man-child that is Dwight Howard all but ensured that Cleveland Cavaliers Guard-Forward Lebron James is going to New York for the 2010-2011 NBA season.  Speculation about Lebron leaving has been rampant for the past few years, in part because the Cavaliers have given James little in the way of a supporting cast and he seems to be on a quest to become a global athlete (or the most popular/well-known athlete in the world).

But why is Lebron leaving when Cleveland still has another year to turn it around?  When Cleveland can still pick up some free agents and Lebron is getting Chinese investors interested in purchasing a portion of the Cavs?

According to multiple sources within the Cavs, franchise majority owner Dan Gilbert has a tentative agreement in place to allow a group of Chinese investors to purchase a significant stake in the Cavaliers Operating Company, Brian Windhorst reported.

This deal could be vital to keeping Lebron by providing a huge tie-in with an economy James is eager to tap. At the same time, it might open the door to attracting other major stars to sign with the Cavaliers in free agency.

If the deal comes off, Chinese fans could start to feel a connection to James and it could expand his business interests by remaining with the Cavs past next season when his contract with the team expires.

Yes, China is interested in Lebron, and the Cavs still have a year to pick up quality surrounding players in order to ensure King James stays in his home state.  Why is it all but guaranteed that he leaves? Lets Review.

- Ben Wallace is retiring.  One of the four front court men who did a pretty sub-par job of covering Dwight Howard has hinted at retirement. Leaving a 34 year old Zydrunas Ilgauskas, free agent/old guy Joe Smith and free agent/flopper extraordinare Anderson Varejao as as the Cavs front court.  Varejao sat out most of last year over a contract dispute, and he will definitely be asking for a pretty penny this year, and will be using the Wallace retirment as leverage to squeeze out more money from the Cavs.  The problem is two-fold.  The Cavs front line needs to be upgraded, especially if they’re losing their most physical player, but Varejao is going to be sucking up a large(r) portion of the money which leaves less money to upgrade the front line.  See the problem? Also, if Lebron were to stay, a very large portion of the Cavs money would be going to pay James’  salary, leaving even less money for a front-line upgrade.

-Kobe Bryant has the most popular jersey in the NBA/Lakers are most popular team, jersey-wise. First things first. Lebron James wants to be the most popular athlete in the world.  Unfortunately for him, right now, he doesn’t even have the most popular basketball jersey in the United States.  His team also ranks 4th in total jersey sales behind the Lakers, Celtics, and the New York Knicks (interesting, no?).  How can you be considered the most popular athlete in the world when you can’t even tackle jersey sales in America?  Of course being in Cleveland, which is a middle to lower sized market, certainly doesn’t help.  If on the other hand Lebron was in New York, maybe those extra millions of jersey sales he’d get from all of those New Yorkers could help put him over the top?

- Lebron has a New York state of mind. Even though Lebron has strong ties to Cleveland, by way of Akron and everything, he wants to play in New York.  He obviously likes and has connections with New York sports (i.e. the Yankees fiasco of a few years ago) he’s friends with some guy who’s part owner of the soon to be Brooklyn Nets, half the Yankees team showed up for the Cavs’ playoff games, etc.  He’s already been noted in interviews about how he views Madison Square Garden as the mecca of basketball…so why not go there if the Cavs aren’t getting it done?  Even though the Cavs have Chinese investors interested in the team, you’d be hard-pressed to convince me that Lebron James coming to a New York team couldn’t garner some interest from foreign investors.

- Mike Brown is the 2008-2009 coach of the year. Worst news ever for Cleveland basketball fans.  Brown winning C-O-Y all but ensures that the Cavs aren’t getting rid of him any time soon.  Why is that bad?  Did you see any Cavs game this season?  The Cavs have no offense sets.  Mike Brown even said as much in his post game interviews.  The Cavs plays are 1. Isolation for Lebron at the top of the key 2. Screen/Roll for Lebron 3. A hybrid of plays 1 & 2 where there is a screen/roll which leads to a clear out.  And sure, maybe if Lebron had a strong supporting cast, these 3 offensive plays would work, because the person he threw the ball to, whenever the inevitable double team came, could make the shot.  But if these playoffs proved anything at all, they proved that Mike Brown’s offensive schemes fail in the face of…um, defense.

So, to recap.  Lebron James will be playing in New York in 2010 because the Cavs current front court can’t defend against the Magic or the Celtics, for that matter.  Furthermore, Lebron is looking to become the most popular athlete in the world, a feat that seemingly can’t be accomplished in a small market like Cleveland, where he currently can’t even tackle America.  Also, Lebron has ties to New York.  He already loves the city, loves the sports there, and has connections with pretty influential people (i.e. Jay-Z).  He also needs the larger market to help cement his quest to become the worlds most popular athlete.  And finally? Mike Brown. I could write more on that, but I assume you saw at least one game of the Eastern Conference Finals.  Lebron wants to win a championship, and I don’t see that happening as long as Mike Brown is his coach…regardless of the hardware in his trophy case.

Oh, and I won’t even get into the fact that Lebron has a chance to play with Devon Harris and Vince Carter if he’s with the Nets, or with the high powered D’Antoni offense and whatever high priced free agents the Knicks might/will sign.  Compare that to this year’s Delonte West/Mo Williams combo…who do you like better?

So, the big question now? Knicks or Nets?  I can almost hear David Stern/Nike/Vitamin Water laughing with glee as they dream about a New York-Los Angeles/Lebron-Kobe finals.  And you thought NBA ratings were doing extraordinarly well now…

Cavs News — Chinese investors have interest in the Cavs