A man who spent a month in Cleveland ended up with Mike Brown's old cell phone number, and lives to rue the day.
Mike Brown calls for a time out. The guy who got the cell number Brown used to have probably also would like to call a timeout.Cleveland, Ohio -- A New Delhi, India, native who lived in Cleveland for a month in 2008 got a cell phone while he was here. Rajesh Kumar, who now lives in New York, still has the number.
Which, by the way, belonged to fired Cavs coach Mike Brown in 2007-2008, according to Chris Tomasson, writing for nba.fanhouse.com.
"I have gotten over 150 phone calls since (Monday),'' Kumar said Tuesday afternoon in an interview with FanHouse from New York. "I took a nap and I woke up and I had 37 voice mail messages. I thought Mike Brown must have lost a big match.'' (Kumar is a cricket fan, so he's not really up on basketball vernacular.)
After Kumar first got his number and started getting a few phone calls for Brown, he Googled his name and figured out who he is. Kumar would get calls from time to time for Brown and text messages after games, but it wasn't too much of a distraction.
Kumar doesn't know who most of the callers have been since he simply tells them they have the wrong number. As for the messages left on Kumar's voice mail, which has an automated recording rather than his voice or name, he has deleted them immediately.
But Kumar did say he got a call asking for Brown from somebody identified as being from the office of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The call ended after Kumar said it no longer is Brown's number.
So why would Bloomberg's office be calling Brown? Well, Bloomberg did speak on his weekly Friday show on WOR Radio on May 14 about believing Cleveland star guard LeBron James, who had played for Brown, would want to sign with New York or New Jersey when he can become a free agent this summer.
... But, considering all the recent distractions, one wonders if Kumar has any plans to get a different number.
"No,'' he said. "It will die down.''
Starting Blocks isn't sure that's true, at least not as long as the Brown/Where's LeBron saga continues.
But it's, ahem, your call.