The View From Here

Everyone's treating tonight like it's the last chance for Cleveland to be anything. The Browns, while possibly on the right track, are light years behind even the third-place team in their division. The Indians haven't been this bad since Rick Taylor retired. And everyone in town is convinced the last guy who would leave the Cavs is all but gone if they drop Game 6 to the Celtics tonight.

We've got Drew Carey on ESPN pleading for LeBron James to stay. Bill Simmons drafted up a diary of The Death of Cleveland Basketball, which was more of an article about Boston than anything. If you think about it, LeBron leaving Cleveland basically means the team should just fold. If you can't keep a hometown guy, you can't keep anyone.

But I'm going to take an opposite stance: I think LeBron losing is the best chance for him to stay.

We all know LeBron wants to be a Global Icon, which you can't do on Lake Erie. No one in Al Qaeda knows what Cleveland is. If you have any chance at all of staying in Cleveland, as opposed to going to New York, Chicago or Los Angeles, it's until you win a championship. If the Cavs won the title this year, there would be no reason to stay; he'd brought glory to Cleveland and could leave in good conscience. There's still going to be unfinished business there, which will make the exodus a little harder to swallow. Not saying he's going to automatically stay now, just saying there's a possibility. Also, he won't be the only megastar to get bounced this offseason: The two biggest tickets in the NHL - Sid The Kid and Alex The Great - are both done too. The NHL stands for National Hockey League. It's a sport with sticks played on ice. They run it on the bull-riding channel. Sigh ...

Now about the supporting cast. Yes, they brought in a leaky Shaq and Antawn Jamison and took a big run at it. But how about the New York Knicks' ability to 'bring in help?' They would have made the same mistakes, if not worse. Maybe they could wheel out Raef LaFrentz or Antoine Walker. The key piece in the Superteam is LeBron. Who's to say the Cavs can't keep LeBron and then bring in D-Wade and Chris Bosh? What if that loaded Knick team is actually a loaded Cleveland team? Yeah, it costs a lot of money and obviously New York has deeper pockets that the Cavs. But it's a zero sum game: your franchise is either WORTHLESS or it becomes the New Bulls. A Big Three of LeBron-Wade-Bosh will win multiple championships no matter how bad the coach is. And don't give me that "Nike wants their guys in New York" argument; Nike breaks even if every Cavs game becomes a three-part commercial for Air Jordans.

On to the coach. Mike Brown's gotta go. He's officially the Brad Childress of the NBA. Again, let's say you can construct the Superteam. Guess what that means? Lure Phil Jackson away from Los Angeles to add to his ridiculous ring total. Make an offer to John Calipari or a Godfather Offer to Mike Krzyzewski. With that team, you could almost just make LeBron Reggie Dunlop and let the inmates run the asylum.

There isn't a city in the country more desperate for a winner than The Mistake By The Lake. If it can keep LeBron, it has a shot at being one. But if they win it this year, they'll be a Jeopardy Question: "The team LeBron won his first title with before the eleven he won in Los Angeles."

At least Drew Carey can still watch him.