By Andy Tabor
The Cleveland Cavaliers lost Thursday night 94-85 to the Boston Celtics. This loss already has could cost the city its biggest star; Lebron James.
What has been a tumultuous postseason with James’ elbow injury and harder than thought series against the Bulls, will now become an offseason of change for Cleveland. The Cav’s have been one of the most prosperous franchises in all of professional sports ever since James was drafted. Cleveland was the number one seed last season as well as this season and both have resulted in crippling losses.
The Celtics were deemed “too old” to compete with the youth and spunk of James’ Cavs, but after Rajon Rondo had his landmark fourth triple double of his postseason career in game four to tie the series, it was the Cavs that looked slow not the Celts. Boston will now go on to compete against the Orlando Magic, the last team to knock Lebron out, in the Conference Finals. The Kobe and Lebron puppet commercials will cease to be shown now that one puppet will be without the other in the Conference Finals let alone the NBA finals.
The only thing Cleveland has to look forward to is the offseason, and that isn’t something that most Cleveland fans will enjoy. There will be an opportunity for the Cavs to retain Lebron considering that a players old team has an option to pay the most while offering the most years to their player in free agency. Possible other teams that are landing zones for the King, is Chicago and New York.
Speculation says that the Knicks with the New York media and huge stage will draw Lebron, but the talented guard and post combo with Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah are also believed to be his best opportunity of success and a possible championship.
Wherever James will land it will be extremely entertaining and un-predictable offseason in which teams will be cheerful or demoralized for years to come.
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