I wanted to be "above" all of this circus and not watch ESPN's "The Decision", but as much as I couldn't stand the media monster that had been created over the past seven days, I just couldn't look away as it all came to an ugly head. We had been hearing all day that LeBron was headed to Miami, but part of me just couldn't believe that it was true. I was really hoping that we'd be treated to the "right" ending.  I wanted to believe that we, as a nation, could collectively get behind the biggest and now "most loyal" athlete in the world and cheer him and the Cavaliers on as the took on the Lakers in the Finals. After all, LeBron staying in Cleveland had to be the only logical outcome of this press conference, right? I mean, if you're going to leave the team that drafted you, the fans you spent seven years playing for, the city and state you grew up in, you don't hold a national press conference! Nobody in their right mind, especially somebody with a "team" specifically built to uphold his image, would do something that cruel in front of millions of people, right?

Wrong.

Last night, LeBron James effectively went on national TV, dropped his drawers, and defecated on the city of Cleveland.

To make matters worse, he went and chose the one location that was, in my opinion, inexcusable. Had he gone to the Clippers, he would've caught everyone off guard.  We may have thought he was crazy, but you have to admit that there's something semi-heroic about stepping into Kobe Bryant and the defending champions' backyard and trying to turn the entire city of LA into Clipper fans.

The Nets would have been another intriguing option.  Again, like the Clippers, it might've been questionable from a talent standpoint, but the Jay-Z connection, the Russian owner's global connections, and the "legacy" of building a team from scratch in Brooklyn does make the team somewhat enticing.

The Knicks would've been his biggest challenge, his moment to shine in the biggest city in the world.  He would've been a savior in New York, even moreso than he would've been in Cleveland.  Leaving a small midwestern city for the Big Apple might not have sat well with some, but still, it wouldn't have been like he was walking into a "perfect" situation.  New York would have been a major project. It would have been intriguing to see if he could have really saved the day.

The Bulls were, in my opinion, the perfect fit.  You couldn't for a better supporting cast to surround LeBron.  In Chicago, he truly could have become the "next" Jordan.  He also would have undoubtedly won multiple titles there.  If he really questioned Cleveland's ability to win it all, you couldn't fault him for going to the Bulls.

Any one of those four cities wouldn't have been Cleveland, but they still would've allowed me to pull for LeBron next season.  On the other hand, if the Heat do end up playing the Lakers in the 2011 Finals, I'll be doing the unthinkable and rooting for Kobe.  At least Kobe had the cojones to run Shaq out of town and try to build "his" team.  He didn't cower under the pressure and try to hitch his wagon to other stars to make things easy and "ensure" that he didn't retire without winning another ring.

Jordan, Magic, Bird, Duncan, Shaq, Kobe, Garnett... None of those guys won their titles by themselves.  They each had their fellow all-stars to help push them to the top . However, none of them pulled the stunt we just saw from Wade, Bosh, and LeTurdster.  None of those guys willingly jumped ship to ride another player's coat tails.  They didn't hold a "summit".  They didn't parade around like a bunch of attention whores for an entire week.  On the rare occasions where they did switch teams, they did so without disrespecting the team and fans they left behind.

LeBron had the world on a string.  He could've been Heir Jordan.  He could've been the Chosen One.  Instead, he'll always have one less ring than Dwane Wade.  He'll never be the alpha dog on a title team.  He'll always be the chump who wussed out during the summer when he could've made his bravest decision ever. He'll never have my respect, or the respect of millions of fans who finally saw him for who he truly was last night.

On the bright side, thanks to all these shenanigans, the Wolves landed THIS GUY!!!!

He may be completely out of his mind, but the man can ball!  In terms of straightening himself out, I think Minneapolis is definitely a better location than South Beach for the big fella.  Plus, in retrospect, this almost vindicates Kahn for passing on DMC for Wes Johnson, as Cousins + The Beas almost assuredly equals disaster.

Now if we can successfully trade Big Al for something nice...  (Houston still needs a big man.  We still need a SG).  Your 2011-12 Wolves, barring a lockout, could look something like this!

PG: Rubio/Flynn
SG: Kevin Martin/Webster
SF: Johnson/Brewer
PF: Love/Beasley
C: Darko/Pekovic

It's not a title contender, but it's a start.  It's a fun team to watch.  It's a team with pieces that could actually go somewhere with a few more moves...

I can't believe I'm saying this, but LeBron James may have just saved David Kahn's career!

ESPN.com sources: Miami has agree to a trade with Minnesota that will send Michael Beasley to the Wolves. Link forthcoming

Wolves-Heat deal, sources say, calls for 'Sota to absorb Beasley into cap space and send its 2011 second-round pick to Miami to seal deal

Wolves/Heat also agree to unspecified swap of future first-round picks. Heat turned to 'Sota after four-way trade w/TOR, HOU, CHA dissolved

I have to post this before David Stern forces it to come down.  I swear I'm not making this up.  This is currently the lead article on Cavs.com...

Dear Cleveland, All Of Northeast Ohio and Cleveland Cavaliers Supporters Wherever You May Be Tonight;

As you now know, our former hero, who grew up in the very region that he deserted this evening, is no longer a Cleveland Cavalier.

This was announced with a several day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his "decision" unlike anything ever "witnessed" in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment.

Clearly, this is bitterly disappointing to all of us.

The good news is that the ownership team and the rest of the hard-working, loyal, and driven staff over here at your hometown Cavaliers have not betrayed you nor NEVER will betray you.

There is so much more to tell you about the events of the recent past and our more than exciting future. Over the next several days and weeks, we will be communicating much of that to you.

You simply don't deserve this kind of cowardly betrayal.

You have given so much and deserve so much more.

In the meantime, I want to make one statement to you tonight:

"I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE"

You can take it to the bank.

If you thought we were motivated before tonight to bring the hardware to Cleveland, I can tell you that this shameful display of selfishness and betrayal by one of our very own has shifted our "motivation" to previously unknown and previously never experienced levels.

Some people think they should go to heaven but NOT have to die to get there.

Sorry, but that's simply not how it works.

This shocking act of disloyalty from our home grown "chosen one" sends the exact opposite lesson of what we would want our children to learn. And "who" we would want them to grow-up to become.

But the good news is that this heartless and callous action can only serve as the antidote to the so-called "curse" on Cleveland, Ohio.

The self-declared former "King" will be taking the "curse" with him down south. And until he does "right" by Cleveland and Ohio, James (and the town where he plays) will unfortunately own this dreaded spell and bad karma.

Just watch.

Sleep well, Cleveland.

Tomorrow is a new and much brighter day....

I PROMISE you that our energy, focus, capital, knowledge and experience will be directed at one thing and one thing only:

DELIVERING YOU the championship you have long deserved and is long overdue....

Dan Gilbert
Majority Owner
Cleveland Cavaliers

WOW.  He had to be drunk when he posted that, right?  Guaranteeing that his now 15-win Cavs will win the title before the Heat?  Openly spewing bile on the team's website about a former player???  Comic Sans MS font?????? Unreal...

This whole thing just gets wackier and wackier.  NBA Free Agency 2010 has just become this next generation's OJ Simpson Ford Bronco chase!

Speaking of things that make sense, and speaking of vomit creeping towards my uvula, the Wolves are wining and dining Caucasian free agent point guard Luke "Frodo" Ridnour. One would think this MUST mean we are trading Sessions in a deal, but my gut tells me it's Kahn adding another guard to the mix and no deal is in place. It just seems to be how he rolls. Might as well give him a few million of our cap space too. Wouldn't hurt, right?

Happy Hump Day!

In lieu of us all getting depressed at what in god's name Kahn is up to this offseason ("you just wait, he has a plan!!!!"...right.), I almost forgot about the mock draft contest from a few weeks back.

When one develops an overcomplicated scoring system, it simply takes a little longer than normal to score. Add that to the hint of apathy creeping into my bloodstream as we slowly transform into the the first all-Caucasian team since the 1950's when we add David Lee and now apparently Luke Ridnour to the roster and, well, I just need a few extra days. Shoot me.

To be honest, most people who submitted an entry failed miserably. And that's okay. Based on the scoring, the people who tried to get cute in the top 4, and those who picked Udoh in the 7-10 range were out of contention immediately. Corect picks after 8 were few and far between, so that was not pivitol to the results. There were two standouts, Alex from Minneapolis, and our own College Wolf. The winner of this years contest is ALEX from Minneapolis with a score of 19 points, edging CW by 2. Alex nailed it by guessing the first 8 picks correctly, as well as Babbitt at 16. Good work! Congratulations on winning the free tickets!

'Til next year, when we can dream up Luke Ridnour trade scenarios on draft night...

Running a blog network with 150 sites has its peaks and valleys.  One of the things you constantly struggle with is how to promote your writers and get their work in front of as many people as possible.  There are a myriad of ways to help get new posts out there like Twitter, Facebook, BallHype, and our Bloguin.com portal, to name a few.  However, one of the most difficult promotional tools to get our blogs involved with is Google News.

Google News prides itself on being different than your typical search engine results, in that it returns relevant news results for your searches.  If you typed "lebron james" into the regular Google search, the first thing that would be returned is likely his Wikipedia page.  That's all well and good if you want to know about King James' background or stats, but completely worthless if you want to find out what's happening right now with his pending free-agency decision.  Here's where Google News steps in.  Supposedly, if you type "lebron james" into Google News, you'd get a list of up-to-the-minute news stories from legitimate sources.  The problem is, when you actually do type in "lebron james", you, instead, get this...

Breaking News: LeBron James Signs with the Minnesota Vikings

It's pretty frustrating when you see good blogger after good blogger on our network get rejected by Google News, yet any Bleacher Report writer, regardless of his reputation or tenure with the company, gets blanket approval to have his work featured prominently in the results.  I'm not ragging on Bleacher Report, per se, as there are plenty of good writers on the site who produce quality articles.  However, by nature, the Bleacher Report is structured so that anyone can sign up for an account and start posting.  By that logic, anyone can also get their work featured on Google News, regardless of its validity or quality.  Some may claim that allowing that level of unbridled access is "irresponsible" as it taints what's supposed to be "trustworthy" news.  My take is that it's just plain stupid for Google to allow unfiltered Bleacher Report content into their results, because if I search for "lebron james" in Google News and see results like the one above, I'm frankly going to be doing my searching elsewhere.

And just an FYI, TWolves Blog is included in Google News, so it's not sour grapes from this site.

Here's some other takes on BR/Google News from some of our Bloguin bloggers:
Brett Solesky at Midway Illustrated
Don Landrigan at With Malice...

Not much else going on with the Wolves at the moment, but ESPN.com did break this tidbit...

Carmelo Anthony will be a member of the Denver Nuggets next season -- whether he accepts the team's offer of a contract extension or not.

With speculation that Denver may trade their All-Star forward growing over the past week, a high-ranking Nuggets official said the club has no intentions of moving its best player.

"There is no way we are trading Carmelo Anthony," the official said. "We're 100 percent certain of that."

Can't say I'm shocked by that news.  Unless somebody made Denver a Godfather offer, they'd be stupid to deal Anthony before next season's trade deadline.  There's always the chance his supposed ill-will towards Denver could fade as the season progresses and they are offering him significantly more money then he'd be able to make anywhere else.  You simply don't trade a player of his caliber unless you absolutely have no other choice.

Looks like our dreams of Melo have been shattered.  So who do Wolves fans turn to next?  A sign-and-trade deal with Toronto for Chris Bosh?  Gulp...  David Lee?

So that's all the "news" I was able to scrounge up at the moment.  Thanks Google...   If stuff breaks throughout the day, I'll do some updates.

Next year your Minnesota Timberwolves may not win many games, but by golly we will be one big happy, smiley team!  No one can ever take that away from us!  We will most certainly lead the league in smiles.  In fact, I'm sure of it.

To wit:
(Click the links for tons and tons of happy smiles!)

Corey Brewer/Jonny Flynn/Wayne Ellington - All very, very smiley players.  Amongst the league leaders in Smiles.

Wesley Johnson - Easily one of the most smiley college players in recent college basketball history.  Thank GOD the TWolves passed on DeMarcus Cousins at #4.  Cousins would absolutely kill our Smiles-Per-48-Minutes ratio.

Al Jefferson - Smiling because he's about to be traded away from here.

Kevin Love - Smiling because he'll be starting soon.

Ricky Rubio - Smiling because he's still a rock star in Spain.

Darko Milicic - Smiling because we gave him $20 million dollars, when no other teams wanted him for free.

Nikola Pekovic - Smiling because we now have fellow countryman Darko to keep him company.

Martell Webster - Smiling because he'll actually play now. Smiling because some team (desperately) wanted him.  Seems like a smiley guy in the Brewer/Flynn/Ellington/Johnson mold.

Ryan Hollins - Smiling because he can jump high.  Also smiling because he has a guaranteed contract but should not actually be in the league.  As you can see in the picture, needs a little help with his Smiling.

Lazar Hayward - Smiling because someone actually drafted him.

Paulo Prestes - See above.

Nemanja Bjelica - See above.

Greg Stiemsma - Smiling because he's listed on the official roster.

David Kahn - Smiling because he's potentially crazy.

Kurt Rambis - Smiling because he has to.

Glen Taylor - Smiling because he thinks he knows what he's doing.

Crunch - Smiling because the mascot costume has no other choice.

Ramon Sessions - Only guy not smiling.

P.S. Joakim Noah - Needs help Smiling

The NBA’s largest mobile basketball playground, NBA Nation presented by T-Mobile USA & Kia Motors rolls into St. Paul, Minnesota for the seventh stop on its summertime tour on Friday, July 2 through Monday, July 5, 2010, at a "Taste of Minnesota."

NBA Nation special guests appearing in St. Paul include*:

• NBA Legend and NBA Nation Ambassador Darryl Dawkins – appearing on Friday, July 2nd from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., Saturday, July 3rd from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., and Sunday, July 4th from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
• NBA Player Corey Brewer – appearing on the Kia Performance Court on Sunday, July 4th from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
• NBA Player Kris Humphries at the Kia Performance Court on Saturday, July 3rd at 2 p.m.

The Minnesota Timberwolves' dancers will make an appearance on Friday, July 2nd from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Mascott Crunch will be visiting with fans throughout the Holiday weekend. On-site rocking the NBA Nation crowd will be DJ Mad Mardigan.

NBA Nation is a customized 18-wheel truck that expands into a 20,000-square-foot basketball playground for fans of all ages to participate in a variety of activities. The NBA Nation action is non-stop including competitions, basketball games, contests, and prizes.

NBA Nation offers a variety of activities for fans including...

Check out the entire Official Press Release HERE!

Also of note, the Sprite Slam Dunk Showdown will be hosted in St. Paul this coming Saturday as well at the Taste of Minnesota. Specifically, the competition will start at 4PM at the Harriet Island Regional Park.

A quick synopsis of the program: The Sprite Slam Dunk Showdown is all about finding the best amateur dunkers in 8 major US cities and pitting them against each other in a nationwide competition.

For Dunkers/Fans

Dunkers can compete in the Sprite Slam Dunk Showdown either by attending one of the Showdown events or by submitting videos online at NBA.com/dunk. Fans also have an opportunity to participate at the event as the judges of the final round through text-in voting (just like the Saturday night competition at NBA All-Star). Fans also have the chance to vote on their favorite dunkers of the ten that are chosen as semi-finals (8 from the events, 2 from the online competition, which is judged by LeBron James, Darryl Dawkins and the All-Stars)

The Sprite Slam Dunk Showdown Champion in Minnesota will win $1000 and a chance to compete at NBA All-Star in February of 2011.

You can find more details about the Sprite Slam Dunk Showdown, upcoming events and how to register for a competition on the Facebook page, Twitter account or at http://www.nba.com/dunk.