GP1

What the Plain Dealer and ABJ have done is even worse than you describe. They buy, hook/line/sinker, everything the powers that be in Akron and Cleveland feed to them. If they want to build a white elephant, they agree with the Cities. Nobody ever says that Cleveland is becoming full of whitel elephants (Gund...there was nothing wrong with Richfield, Browns Stadium...taxpayers had to pay for a stadium for that nonsense?......Jacobs Field...OK, maybe they did need a baseball field, Rock & Roll hof...loses money, wait until they build the new Convention Center....disaster). The next thing you know Akron will want to build a Hall of Fame for Hall of Fames. I hope everyone stops buying the idea that stadiums and destination places will make cities that were NEVER destination cities a destination.

Never thought of it that way before... Another way to look at it is, the Heat could be taking tourism dollars from other Miami businesses....mom and pop type places that are not owned by millionaire NBA owners. Miami is already a tourist destination so the potential for fans was already there, people just decided to spend their money elsewhere. It isn't like you can fly to Miami for a week and take in a basketball game every night. You might get to go to one because the NBA doesn't play that often. What about the other 300+ days a year? You might also get to see the Heat play in your home town if you wanted in lieu of going to Miami. Even the cost of a ticket through a broker would probably cost less than a plane ticket, hotel, meals, rental car, etc on a trip to Miami. Would anyone still like to say LBJ leaving is going to destroy the City of Cleveland or have we all moved on to LBJ explaining the origins of the universe? The City of Cleveland will destroy itself long before any basketball player could (see video above). The universe will end before a basketball player could destroy the City of Cleveland.

Yes, I can honestly say that Lebron has NOT helped us land any recruits. He has never recruited any one, to say that a kid decides to attend the University of Akron because Lebron grew up in Akron is complete stretch and nowhere close to reality. Kids choose Akron over other MAC schools because we have been one of the top teams in the MAC. and getting LBJ's gear a chance to meet the guy have him come to your games and play under one of his coaches wouldn't help at all? I'm not saying it was a huge swing but I could see it being the final little push for a kid on the fence I want kids to come to UofA because they want to help the program carry on a winning tradition, not to wear LBJ stuff. Sure. Lets just forget about using every little advantage we might have to recruit kids. Especially when it involves a connection to a celebrity, or in this case, a two time NBA MVP. We don't need to do that. We're Akron. Kids are dying to play here for a lot of other different reasons. We already have an advantage. It's called winning.

Is Akron a soccer city? No Are there enough people who like soccer to fill a small stadium? Yes

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archiv...c-impact/59485/ Like I said........

I don't know if there is collusion or not, but it will blow over. The NBA has invested too much into a WWE type marketing scheme to allow this "storyline" to fall. David Stern will make certain this goes nowhere. ESPN will be running "there is nothing there" stories until this blows over. The NBA and ESPN are now one company just like TNT and the WWE are one.

Yes, I can honestly say that Lebron has NOT helped us land any recruits. He has never recruited any one, to say that a kid decides to attend the University of Akron because Lebron grew up in Akron is complete stretch and nowhere close to reality. Kids choose Akron over other MAC schools because we have been one of the top teams in the MAC. and getting LBJ's gear a chance to meet the guy have him come to your games and play under one of his coaches wouldn't help at all? I'm not saying it was a huge swing but I could see it being the final little push for a kid on the fence I want kids to come to UofA because they want to help the program carry on a winning tradition, not to wear LBJ stuff.

I don't disagree with the article. I don't like the way he did it. LBJ is becoming an unlikeable guy....quickly. He needs to stay off camera for a while.

UofA needs to move away from him asap. NEOhio is stuck in the idea that a "savior" is needed to do anything (please watch the video I posted on another thread). Our basketball team does not need a savior. The MBB program can win with or without LBJ, in Adidas or Nike. There is another idea floated on this board that they need LBJ for a new arena. First of all, they don't need a new arena, they WANT a new arena. The one they have now is fine. Just make the darn seats more comfortable. If they only way to get the arena is through that egomaniac, then we are screwed. There are many ways to get a new arena, let's explore other options. The backlash against LBJ isn't going away any time soon. I live out of state and everyone I talk to about it is disgusted by the guy. I can only imagine how bad it is in NE Ohio. We live in a time where the real unemployment rate is in excess of 15%. Nobody wants to watch obnoxious "look at me" displays the likes of which we say Thursday and Friday. Let's face it, the Friday show could be at best described as a WWE event. LBJ leaving Cleveland might actually be the best thing to ever happen to the region. Now everyone can look around and focus on real solutions to problems and not wait for the next "savior" to come along. More Hall of Fames, sports arenas, bars, star personalities, convention centers, etc are not solutions. LBJ leaving is not a problem. The idea that Cleveland/NE Ohio needed him IS a problem.

OK.....does anyone find any part of LBJ's behavior in the past two weeks something that UofA should associate themselves with? Our only point of contact with LBJ is our MBB coach. While KD career, the best way we can describe his association with this nonsense, was corrected by being LBJ's freshman and soph coach in HS. KD doesn't need LBJ at this point. He never did unless you count the days he was coaching STV before he was hired at UofA to fall in behing Hip with one foot on his ass. There are a lot of questions that are smart and will come out over time. One to me is, How did LBJ become such an egomaniac and who contributed to it? Let's just say there could be a UofA connection to this question. LBJ is not a humble person like everone wants to believe. He was surrounded by a bunch of userers since he was in eight grade. He drove a Hummer in high school paid for by "someone" and laughed at those who asked where it came from by driving a miniaturized version of the car on the BB floor of STV his sophomore year of HS. There is a UofA connection here. Would anyone like me to expand?

For those of you who think LBJ leaving Cleveland is going to destroy city, I beg you to please watch this video. It is 50 minutes and describes what is wrong with Cleveland; including around the 32 minute mark, the idea that "building" things is an investment in the future of a city. Watch the whole thing though if you want your thought process challenged. Again, watch it with an open mind and think about the other cities they show and they success they are having if you allow your citizens the freedom to improve a city with their own ideas. The problem with Cleveland is the incompetents working for the City are telling everyone how they should live and what is good for them. Want to revive the city, build new sports arenas and the Rock N Roll HOF is what they told eveyone. The truth is, none of the promises came true. The idea that LBJ leaving Cleveland was such a myth and lie told to everyone. The "building" lies are told even today. Want to improve your city?....build light rail....bullshit....public transportation systems are welfare programs and lose money. Build light rail and we can catch up to Europe they tell us.....Thanks, when can we get to 15% unemployment as well. Build solar panels and you can reduce global warming they tell us........great, don't solar panels radiate at 160-180 degrees F while only turning 20% of the sun into electricity. Want to have a good football program at UofA, build a new football stadium and indoor practice arena the told us.....great, we sucked last year. The next time a government employee tells you building a building is going to solve problems, I would encourage you to fart in their general direction. Please watch this video when you have time.

Madden reposts. Not a big fan of LeBronukkah or LBJ. The best point is not that LBJ has become the A-Rod of Miami...not really the guy everyone likes.

Interesting concept. We are Akronites above all. Screw Cleveland. Screw Ohio. Screw the rest of the world except people from those areas we deem to be special. But why not take it further? There are good and bad areas of Akron, so let's gerrymander the bad areas out and only pull for people from the designated good areas. Of course MY neighborhood is the best, so put it at the top of the list. You don't think so? Screw you. Or how about further yet. Some of the people in my neighborhood are jerks, so exclude them. I'll make a list of people from acceptable properties, and screw the rest. Or we can get really extreme. Some of the people who live in my house are jerks, so we'll exclude them. I'll make a list of acceptable family members, and screw the rest. Sounds like the kind of elitist attitude that would make a great ESPN special on how to separate royalty from peasants. Or maybe we can outdo ESPN right here on ZN.O. Dave, I think you're on to something here. Starting tomorrow, all IP's from Cuyahoga Falls will be blocked, as those Black Tiger fans aren't worthy of joining the Zips discussions. Go Bulldogs. I think he is also. I remember living on the west side of Akron and thinking to myself, "Self, I don't want those people form Ellet coming over here to shop at West Side Market." As far as I was concerned, if you live anywhere where a catchy phrase to describe your area could be, "Ellet...you can smell it", I didn't want you where I lived.

I would agree with the 90%. The concussion could go as far back as JR high school, but at some point there were signs and the signs went unreported. What I remember the most was the first day of full contact almost immediately getting a low grade headache. I remember this as far back as high school. It wouldn't even take a hit to the head. Sometimes it just took a jarring hit for it to set in. They were never diagnosed as concussions as I never told anyone, but everyone got them. After a couple of days I would stop getting them for the remainder of they season. I don't know what it all means, but I know it happened to a lot of people. We had a coach that always said, "We want the big guys (interior linemen) blocking the big guys, the medium size guys (RBs, TEs, LBs) blocking the medium size guys and the little guys (WRs, DBs) blocking the little guys. I think there should be a study of former NFL players placed in these groups to test for concussion issues after NFL retirement. My guess is the medium size guys would show the most damage. Interior linemen, while big, don't get up much of a head of steam when they hit. The little guys don't get hit that often. The medium size guys get hit all the time and get a running start at each other. The size and speed of the medium sized guys creates an enormous force. This is a very serious issue.

No. God bless the MLB Network. As much as I like football, the MLB network is much better than the NFL Network.

A good conversation about LBJ.

Leitch hits the nail on the head as usual.

I've seen them and they are pathetic as well. LBJ isn't a young person in high school. He is a grown man making millions and is in the public spotlight. Last night, he used to public spotlight to make an ass out of himself on national television.

He can do whatever he wants. Everyone else can also call him out for being the jackass he is. Here is the thing. I can't find a single story on the internet today that gives a glowing review of that nonsense that happened between 9 and 10 last night. Everything about it was pathetic. I would have loved to not watch. The problem was every freaking TV in the bar I was in had this bullshit on. People were making fun of it while it was going on. Last night was a horrible night for LBJ. Now you can go back to sniffing LBJ's jock.

Deadspin has long been in the forefront of bashing ESPN (read the book God Save the Fan) posted this today.

The biggest problem is that his "team" at LRMR consists completely of people that are his exact same age and share his background. They're all 25 years old and from West Akron. They all think the same way. There's nobody there that has a different background or world view that can step up and say "hey, this isn't going to be a good idea" and has the experience to back it up. Good post. With that attitude comes the mentality that one is always right. LBJ needs immediate image repair after this disaster and he doesn't have anyone around him who thinks he did anything wrong. There is nobody around him who knows what to do. People on his staff should be fired.

Why wouldn't anyone support the Cavs over LBJ at this point? LBJ made an ass of himself the past few weeks. Why would anyone support an ass? Because he is from Akron? Is Akron so eager for some level of national acceptance the people should root for a-holes just because they are from Akron?

The only person made a fool of last night was LBJ.

Your Cleveland vs. Akron argument is pathetic. This isn't Akron vs. Cleveland. It is decent people all over the world vs. self absorbed a-holes. Whether or not LBJ leaves Cleveland isn't that big of a deal to me. I always thought more of LBJ and last night was sickening. LBJ should be ashamed of himself and should be planning to fire his PR staff.

Dan Gilbert called LeBron James "narcissistic". Isn't that like PT Barnum calling his tightrope walker "light-footed". Dan, I'm sorry when you took over, they didn't tell you you're paying a teenager a hundred million dollars to entertain your clients. This ain't the opera here Dan, it's much closer to WWE. Thought you would have gotten used to it by now. When Cleveland hosts Miami next year, I expect as many heat jerseys in the house as Cavs'. I hope everyone from Akron - unless they are diehard Cavs fans - would be wearing Heat jerseys. If not, then they've been duped by the Cleveland media and the Cavs marketing department. LeBron's our boy. Clevelanders can cry themselves to sleep again tonight. Since I'm from Akron I'm getting a Heat #6 LBJ jersey as soon as they're available. LBJ looked like a jackass last night. Why would anyone buy the jersey of a jackass?