Is LeBron James setting himself up to be linked to Art Modell? Poll

If LeBron James bails on Cleveland, how will Northeast Ohio sports fans feel about him?

View full sizeChuck Crow,
The Plain DealerLeBron James and his publicist, Keith Estabrook, confer at James' skills camp on Tuesday.

Cleveland, Ohio -- We find out at 9 p.m. Thursday (probably closer to 9:59 p.m. Thursday) on ESPN where LeBron James will spend the next stage of his NBA career. If he stays in Cleveland, which honestly seems unlikely, he will cement his status as one of the most beloved sports figures ever to grace the North Coast shores.

Oh, but if he leaves! Well, if that happens -- and he uses a national television forum to announce it -- he will become that "other" category, right there alongside Art Modell, the man who gets the blame for firing Paul Brown AND slinking out of the city with the Browns.


It's not a win anyone wants, but we wonder, if LeBron leaves, who will be the most hated figure in Cleveland sports? So we thought we'd ask the people who bleed wine and gold, orange and brown, red, white and blue: the Cleveland sports fan.

View full sizeAP FileArt Modell poses with the trophy he won with Ravens in 2001, five years after moving the Browns franchise to Baltimore.