By waiting a few weeks for James to make his first visit back to Cleveland, the NBA might create even more build-up.
The Cavaliers and their fans will host James, Wade and Bosh for the first time on Dec. 2.Given that LeBron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers to be with his buddies on the Miami Heat, many NBA fans felt a nationally-televised Miami-at-Cleveland season-opener would be a fitting and, certainly, intriguing event.
Apparently, the NBA had other thoughts. The Oct. 26 Opening Night twinbill on TNT will feature Miami at the Boston Celtics, followed by the Houston Rockets in Los Angeles against the defending champion Lakers.
Cleveland will open its season the next night, Oct. 27, at home against Boston.
The Cavaliers will host James and Miami on Dec. 2 and March 29, and take their talents to South Beach to meet the Heat on Dec. 15 and Jan. 31.
Marc Stein of ESPN.com thinks the NBA got it right with its early schedule, writing:
Word is LeBron won't make his first trip back to Ohio with the Heaters until Dec. 2 -- on the second night of a back-to-back for Miami -- which means the drama will build for a good month-plus.
Seeing LeBron at The Q in someone else's uniform before we even get to Halloween? Way too soon to me. You generally want to work up to the most anticipated game on the regular-season schedule, not lead off with it.
Plain Dealer Cavaliers beat writer Brian Windhorst reports on the Cavaliers and NBA's early-season schedule. The full-season schedule will be released next week.
Cavaliers vs. James
Sean Deveney writes about the first couple days of the 2010-11 season, too, for CBSSports.com:
It might be one of the most eagerly anticipated games the NBA has known. Just don't ask Cavaliers coach Byron Scott about what it might be like when a house packed with spurned Cleveland fans greets star Miami forward -- for seven years, the Cavaliers' star forward -- LeBron James.
"No, we are not going to get into that, we are not circling any games or going for revenge," Scott told Sporting News. "There are 82 games on the schedule and we're not going to go out of our way to worry about that one."
Apparently, neither is the NBA. The league released the highlights of its schedule on Tuesday (the rest will come out next week), and one of the most notable aspects of the big-game slate is that it does not include the Heat visiting Cleveland. Commissioner David Stern has admitted to being a bit put off by the assembling of the Heat's new James-Dwyane Wade-Chris Bosh superteam, and apparently, he doesn't want to showcase James' jilting of the Cavaliers by giving Miami at Cleveland a prime spot on the calendar.
Ryan Hollins' perseverance
Newly-acquired Cavaliers center Ryan Hollins hosts a basketball camp near where he grew up in California. As a youth, Hollins learned to presevere, having been cut from his high school's freshman team.
Miguel Melendez writes about Hollins and the Ryan Hollins Basketball Skills Camp for the Pasadena Star-News:
Also among the coaches was Chino Hills boys basketball coach Don Grant, the same coach who cut Hollins his freshman year.
"We cut him because you weren't sure which direction he was going to go," Grant said. "He went in the positive direction, and immediately after we cut him he asked what are three things he could do to make the team in spring. He set his eyes on the next tryout instead of bad-mouthing or pointing fingers. That's when we knew he was special."
Hollins, a second-round (50th overall) selection in 2006 by the Charlotte Bobcats, used that example when talking to the kids, many of whom tippy- toed as if to try looking at Hollins in the eye.
"Getting cut, kids take it as a bad thing," Hollins said. "But that made me work even harder. When I talk to these kids, I can talk to the worst kid and the best kid because I was the worst kid once who sat at the end of the bench, and then the kid who was starting. So I can relate."
Through the hoop
The Cavaliers are in a rebuilding mode, writes Bob Finnan for the News Herald and Lorain Morning News.
Rick Noland of the Medina County Gazette and Elyria Chronicle-Telegram looks ahead to the Dec. 2 Miami at Cleveland game.
An offseason Cavaliers quiz on nba.com/cavaliers.
The Cavaliers own a bundle of draft picks over the next few years. NBADraft.net projects the players to be drafted, from No. 1 through No. 60, next June. (Pay no attention to the teams' drafting order. That was the order of this June's draft) The Cavaliers still have their first- and second-round picks for 2011, and will get Oklahoma City's second-rounder if the pick is not in the top 40. RealGM.com explains how the Cavaliers are in line for the pick, and lists the picks owed and acquired by all teams for the next several years.