04/14 Morning Minute- Draft Contest, WFNY on tv and Cavs recap
April 14, 2008Indians Series Preview #5- Boston Red Sox
April 14, 2008
“Animals are reliable, many full of love, true in their affections, predictable in their actions, grateful and loyal. Difficult standards for people to live up to.”
–Alfred A. Montapert
Loyalty in sports is one of the blurriest fine lines in existence. The fragile relationships between fans, athletes, cities, franchises, and ownership all too often seem to hang by a fragile and delicate thread, just waiting for the other shoe to drop and the cord to be severed. But sometimes, in rare occasions, the bond can remain strong and a long term mutually beneficial relationship can sustain. As fans, we tend to think the players are the ones who break loyalty, but what happens when fans break their loyalty to the city, the team, and their fellow fans? And even more dangerous, what happens when former members of the front office break their loyalty to anyone and everyone?
These questions came to my mind as I read an alarming article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer this morning. In the article, Jodie Valade talks about a couple different websites that have popped up recently not only claiming their mission is to bring LeBron James to New York City, but one of the sites in particular is asking for donations to give to LeBron to help entice him. Suggested donations include things like luxury suite tickets to Yankee Stadium, expensive luxury cars, and courtside seats at the Garden for LeBron’s mom (I’m not sure why this one is neccessary….surely the Knicks would give LeBron’s mom any seat she wanted in the house…even Spike Lee’s, if she felt so inclined). As Jodie writes,
“Traitorous former Clevelanders appear to be behind two Web sites recently launched with the aim of enticing Cavaliers star LeBron James to play for the New York Knicks when James is a free agent in 2010.
The first, nycforlebron.com, appears to be founded by a former Cavaliers employee, though he denied involvement when reached by phone in New York.
The second, nycforlebron.net, is a blatant spin-off of the .com site. And the founders, which include a Beachwood native, hope for the same result as the original: drawing attention to how much the citizens of New York would embrace the Cavaliers’ all-time leading scorer if he, like numerous Cleveland athletes before him, bolted for greener pastures.
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NBA teams are limited by the salary cap on how much money they can offer James in a contract — with the Cavaliers holding an advantage to pay the most because he will have played for the team for seven seasons by 2010. Additional nonmonetary incentives are not allowed.
NBA spokesman Tim Frank said the league office would investigate any fan who followed through on plans to pay off a player to play for a particular team.
“We obviously would have to look at this type of fan very carefully,” Frank said. “We’re not prepared to say at this point whether we think it implicates any [collective bargaining agreement] rules. We would have to know more facts.”
Perhaps more troubling for nycforlebron.com is that Earl Patton, the Cavaliers director of basketball administration from 2001 to ’06, appears to be a part of the group that founded the site. He denied involvement when reached by phone last week.
“I have nothing to do with that,” said Patton, who now works in sports marketing at Sony.
However, his biography for a sports marketing conference last year says he is a partner in the parent company of everyteam.com . . . which also happens to “power” nycforlebron.com, with its logo prominently plastered along the bottom of the site. A story in the New York Post last month said the founders of everyteam.com launched the site, but a reporter spoke with someone named “William Patton.”
A Bank of America spokeswoman said the donation account listed on nycforlebron.com is registered to Sucker Punch Ventures. An Earl Patton profile on the networking site linkedin.com lists Patton as managing director of Sucker Punch Ventures.”
It is truly astounding to think that both of these sites have connections to Cleveland. A simple search of the contact information for the nycforlebron.net domain reveals Todd Lefkowitz as the contact. A google search then revealed that, sure enough, Todd was a graduate of Beachwood High School. How could something like this happen? I emailed Todd and asked him if he wanted to give his side of the story, and Todd was good enough to respond. His email response, in full, is as follows,
“I appreciate you giving me the chance to speak. First and foremost, let me just say that I’m a huge Browns and Indians fan. I haven’t stopped supporting Cleveland sports teams and, I in fact, hold them very beloved. I always will have a piece of this city in my heart.
In regards to the website, I have four partners (two which are from the east coast). When they came at me with the idea, I was hesitant to say the least. However, the more I began to think about it, the least (sic) reserved I became. Let me explain.
I am a LEBRON JAMES fan. I respect his game. With all that love, it is amazing to me how Cavaliers management has failed to place a team around such a prominent figure. The draft has over the years has been pitiful. Furthermore, when the find a hidden gem in the rough (i.e. Boozer, Kapono) they find a way to somehow mishandle the situation. Who would you rather have Boozer/Gooden,Varejo or WallyWorld or Kapono. In my opinion the pieces have been on the team at one time or another, but the Cleveland Cavaliers always find a way to botch the situation. As a result, LBJ has to carry the team on his back and lead the league in minutes. The team is wearing him out and even Terry Pluto would agree with me on this. I’m not even going to discuss our free agent signings (i.e. Hughes,Marshall) or the trade made in which the most impressive player is JOE SMITH.
I say New York Knicks, because the Lakers has Kobe and Pau and they are the best in the West. I would never wish anyone upon the Clippers (there management might be worse then the Cavs). In NYC, Donnie Walsh is now running the show. He has a proven record and, would most likely, be able to find the right combination. I respect LBJ and his skills as a PLAYER and that is what most concerns me. I want to see him win multiple champions. Walsh will figure a way to rid himself of the bad contracts and start all over. It’s a good time to move.
At the end of the day, LBJ as a Cavalier is a great thing. Unfortunately, managment’s (sic) inability to players around him will probably foreshadow a free agent move.
I apologize if you’re offended. I’m just a realist.
Please feel free to post this or respond…
Best,
Todd”
On some levels, it would be hard for any of us to argue with Todd. In fact, this site has pointed out the ineptitude of the Cavaliers front office time and time again. So in that respect, we can all understand Todd’s frustration with the front office. But how many of us would actually take the step of making a website with the intent of pushing this city’s biggest star to New York??? I cannot understand how anyone who grew up in Ohio and has experienced the mentality of this state and the city of Cleveland, in particular, could so callously turn their back on this city and active work on ridding the city of the best thing it has to offer. And that may be sad commentary on the city, if a professional athlete is the best it has to offer, but that’s the way it is. What will happen to Cleveland if LeBron leaves? Sure, life will go on, but in all reality, the city will probably never be quite the same. The Cavaliers, for sure, will crumble under the weight of having lost it’s icon and legend. And to be so Cavalier (no pun intended) with the vitality of the city one grew up in and proclaims to still have in his heart is a tough one to understand, for sure. We all know there’s a chance LeBron may leave. Accepting it is one thing….actively trying to help push him out the door is a totally different thing, though.
But even more alarming, is the possible involvement of a former Cavaliers employee in the original .com site. As quoted above, the Plain Dealer has pinpointed one of the key figures as Earl Patton, a former Cavaliers employee. If you click on the image to the left, you can view Patton’s bio as printed in the 2004 Cavaliers media guide. It is worth noting that Patton is listed as being a Brooklyn native. In October 2005, Patton was fired from the Cavaliers. What’s interesting, though, is that this is not the last time Patton was mentioned in a Cleveland newspaper. In the March 26, 2006 edition of the Plain Dealer, an article was written about shady business deals involving the entertainment district restaurants “Phil The Fire Downtown” and “The Waterhouse”. As it turns out, Patton was mentioned in connection with Atlanta hedge fund manager Kirk Wright, a man who at the time had a warrant out as the SEC was looking into him for claims of fraud. According to the article by Alison Grant,
“The 36-year-old Harvard-educated money manager had emerged on the Cleveland business scene in 2003 as the charismatic financier of Phil the Fire Down town. He teamed up on the Gateway restaurant with Phil Davis, who had popularized a chicken-and-waffles combo – the first Phil the Fire – two years earlier at a location on Shaker Square.
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Davis said he was introduced to Wright by Earl Patton, the Cavs’ director of player development. Patton was a regular customer at Phil the Fire on Shaker Square, sometimes arriving with Cavs players or a coach in tow. Davis loved it.
Excitement over the team in 2003 was intense because the Cavs had landed 18-year-old phenom LeBron James. Lots of people wanted a piece of the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft, who had just signed a $90 million sneaker endorsement deal.
Patton visited Phil the Fire with James’ mother not long after the Cavs drafted LeBron on June 26. They were big on the sweet-and-salty cuisine that Davis boasted was the best soul food in town.
The two men got talking about the restaurant business. Davis said he was looking to branch into downtown Cleveland. He had a place in mind.
“You need to talk to my buddy, Kirk Wright,” Davis recalled Patton saying. “He said, ‘One of my boys is looking to do the same thing. He wants to build part of his business in Cleveland.’ “
Patton, who left the Cavs at the end of the 2004-2005 season, declined comment. Davis said Patton told him he had grown up with Wright in New York City.”
It is somewhat scary to think that Patton, a possibly disgruntled former employee with connections to New York City and LeBron James’ family, could be behind a website offering to make additional payments in excess of his NBA contract to LeBron to get him to go to New York in 2010. This is of questionable ethical behavior no matter how you look at it. It’s like one giant circle of conflicts of interest and severed loyalties. While there’s nothing I’ve seen that would indicate Earl Patton of any wrong doing in connection with his old NYC buddy Kirk Wright, it should certainly raise an eyebrow or two when you realize that a man with such an intimate knowledge of the Cavaliers’ front office could be pulling the strings behind the scenes in an effort to get LeBron to leave Cleveland.
This whole business of websites sprouting up trying to get LeBron to leave Cleveland started as nothing more than a couple annoying nuisances that seemed to be of little real consequence. In the light of the connections behind these websites, though, perhaps this is more dangerous than we ever thought, particularly in the case of the involvement of Earl Patton. Assuming Patton has no connections with the Knicks, I don’t see this as a case of tampering on an NBA level, but I do hope that the NBA is serious about looking into these cases and making sure nothing shady is going on. Cleveland will have a hard enough time keeping LeBron in Cleveland as it is, the last thing the city needs is a couple traitorous hands pushing heavily on LeBron’s back.
23 Comments
As always a well done piece Rock…
I don’t understand the mentality that says woe is Cleveland they’ll never win, so might as well root for the guy to win somewhere else.
Do you really think the league wants LeBron in Cleveland. The NBA has one agenda, $$$$. LeBron in New York is David Stern’s wet dream.
I’ve lived in Ohio my whole life, so I’m clearly biased. However, I can’t fathom that thought process either.
If the cavs were playing well it would still be easy to laugh off such thoughts. As is stands, the wizard’s series is going to be very stressful if they can’t flip the switch.
At least we have next year…
@dc- r u actually a cleveland fan, or do u like to just comment on this blog for the hell of it? if lbj in nyc is david stern’s “wet dream”, he coulda made it happen when lebron was drafted. lebron has to be in the top 3 “money makers” in the nba even in this small market. so if it’s about the money as you say, he’s doing just fine in cleveland for the league.
oh yeah, and rock, great piece.
I honestly don’t think the league cares where LeBron is, as long as he is in the NBA. Who’s going to know about LeBron James if he’s in NYC that doesn’t know about him now? LeBron is global already.
The thing we need to worry about is the escalators in his endorsement contracts. It makes for an uneven playing field. That’s why sites like these don’t help matters any.
Wow heck of an investigative peice. I really don’t think it would be part of Stern’s agenda to get LeBron out of Cleveland. Yea I know he’s biased to NYC, but if LeBron goes there, there is no way basketball survives in C-town. Cleveland is 3rd in attendence and has been for quite some time now, so it is making the league plenty of $$$$$.
This is remarkable. I had no idea that any of this shady business was going on, thanks for turning me on to it.
If LeBron leaves, the franchise WILL move. Dan Gilbert’s investment of 350 million turns into sub 200 million overnight. He’d have no choice but to move and try to build the Cavs back up in a new city.
I’d hate to think that Dan Gilbert would be dumb enough to let something like this happen, but with these two website assholes, I guess anything is possible.
I 100% agree with you that the Cavs will move if Lebron leaves. Probably not right away, but eventually, because attendance would go back to the levels it was at before Lebron was drafted. If the front office can’t find a way to win with Lebron, they won’t be able to find a way to win with anybody. And if thats true, I don’t even know how I will be able to support a team that will never ever win. I would never be able to support the Nets or Knicks, so I for one might just shun the NBA all together, like I did when the Browns moved (until they came back that is). They would probably go to Seattle, I bet they would sure be happy to get a shitty franchise to replace their once decent one
How exactly could Stern have made it happen at draft time? Fix the lottery? My point is simply the league isn’t investigating some website for trying to entice LeBron to NY.
It’s not about money that LeBron can make, it’s about the league marketing the NBA. LeBron in NY, Chicago, or LA sells the NBA better than LeBron in Cleveland. LeBron is having a monster year, yet look at the latest ESPN poll on who deserves the MVP. LeBron is a distant 4th everywhere outside of Ohio. That wouldn’t be the case, if he had a NY jersey on. Regardless of team record. Cleveland teams and their players will always get looked over by the national media.
And yes, I’m a die hard Cleveland fan. I’ve suffered (consciously) for 30 years. I get a good perspective not being surrounded by Cleveland fans and media, so if it sounds like I’m a bit pessimistic it’s because I was forged in the crucible of Cleveland sports. I get enough homerism listening to the Redskins fans and media here in DC.
Wow. I have a few computer issues and come back to this! Very well done.
Many thanks to Todd for his response as well.
yeah kudos on the great piece.
but seriously, i dont understand how you can claim that you love the teams of your hometown yet simply switch allegiances because youre a “realist”. if anything thats counter to the core of being a cleveland sports fan. i mean heck, the name of this blog refers to the aggravation of being a cleveland sports fan, yet we all carry on with our support of our teams. so does this mean that guys like “todd” have simply just reached their boiling point? or are they swept up in living somewhere else?
and in regards to lebron’s MVP candidacy, lebron was indeed having a monster year, but the teams record and/or improvement also play a large part in who wins the award, regardless of what jersey theyre wearing. as we all know the cavs have been pretty shotty since the trade, and even though its not lebron’s fault it reflects on his chances (not to mention decreased minutes due to back spasms towards the end of the season). i mean if the lakers or hornets were having a losing season, do you think kobe or chris paul would still be in the top 3 for the MVP?
and let’s not be too hasty here folks, lebron isnt even close to packing his bags yet people are talking about dan gilbert moving the cavs?
im not trying to preach, im just throwing in my 2 cents, but i just think that sticking by your team through thick and thin makes you a real fan. to say that you love a team but then just say “oh well its not working out so the star player should just leave” is just silly. and to make/support a whole website dedicated to getting that player to go to another city is flat out ridiculous (i should note that i live in new york city so im confronted with this stuff on a regular basis).
have fun on your bandwagon todd.
Thanks buu- you are right that LeBron not winning the MVP has absolutely NOTHING to do with him playing in Cleveland. The Cavs have been on national TV enough for ‘exposure’. The team hasn’t played well at all since the trade, and for whatever reason LeBron hasn’t been able to carry this team like he did before the trade.
i understand some of this guy’s point, but he (and many, many others) conveniently like to forget that it was not the danny ferry/dan gilbert group that has (1) botched draft picks, or (2) let diamonds in the rough get away. ferry is 1 for 2 in draft picks. name me one diamond in the rough that ferry has let get away. paxson is the one who let boozer go, made awful draft picks, turned players like like andre miller into jeff mcinnes (i.e., miller for miles, miles for mcinnes), let kapono go, or traded away future draft picks (like last year’s first rounder for jiri welsch or this year’s second rounder for milt palacio). has danny ferry drafted well? its hard to judge since in the past 3 seasons he has had a total of 1 first round pick (shannon brown – bad pick) and 1 second round pick (daniel gibson – great pick). so in 4 off-seasons (including this upcoming one, in which we have one pick), ferry will have had a TOTAL of 3 draft picks (unless of course he makes another move to pick up a pick). gee, thanks alot paxson. so at the end of the day, although the cavs havent done a great job of putting a solid team around lebron, the hole to begin with was gigantic thanks to paxson and ferry has a decent job imo of making something decent out of absolutely nothing. at the end of the day, i think lebron will leave in large part due to the train wreck created by paxson. its not the current team that is inept, according to this guy. its the former paxson/gund group which was totally inept and we are still feeling the repercussions of that ineptitude.
and by the way, if lebron leaves, it WONT be because of some idiotic websites. there is nothing they can supposedly provide him that he wont be able to get already no matter what. these websites are the least of anyone’s concern.
another thing – this guy Todd calls himself a cleveland fan, but has clearly been influenced by the national media. Todd needs to start coming up with his own opinions and think on his own rather than just repeating the usual nonsense that the national media likes to spew. he needs to just get his facts straight.
Great piece. I find the potential involvement of Earl Patton alarming, but how much could they actually raise? Worst case scenario is what, $10,000? I dont think that an athlete who makes millions would be concerned with such a paltry amount.
We have 2 seasons before Lebron hits free agency right? How much talent can we stack around Lebron in that time? (That wouldnt hurt availability of money for Lebrons resigning)
Thanks Sam. I don’t see it as being so much an issue of the money as it is an issue of access. The fact that Patton has frequently been to dinner with LeBron’s mom and worked 4 years within the organization and knows it closely, to turn around and make this website is just shocking to me.
[…] Waiting for Next Year – A must-read essay on LeBron and the twisted loyalties in sports. – The Biz of Basketball – To my […]
http://www.toddlefkowitz.com
says it all..
i am still really annoyed with this guy Todd. 1. all the reasons he lists as to why the cavaliers’ management is inept are linked to the paxson/gund years, not the current ferry/gilbert regimen. 2. he has poor grammar (“there management might be worse then the Cavs”). come on. basic English! 3. he wrote: “In NYC, Donnie Walsh is now running the show. He has a proven record and, would most likely, be able to find the right combination.” how does he have a proven record? what has he accomplished? he has not won anything. in fact, he has not won a thing since the end of reggie miller’s career. this guy will get the “right combination”? based on what? He was part of the braintrust that overpaid for Jermaine O’Neal, Al Harrington, Austin Croshere and Jamaal Tinsley; traded FOR the reprehensible contracts of Mike Dunleavy Jr. and Troy Murphy just to get Ike Diogu (huh????) and dump Stephen Jackson; turned Antonio Davis (a valuable big man at the time) into Jonathan Bender; turned Ron Artest into three months of Peja Stojakovic; HIRED ISIAH THOMAS as a coach and handed over the 2002 draft to him (leading to Isiah overruling his scouts and drafting Fred Jones over Tayshaun Prince); and on top of that, it’s not like he was knocking draft picks out of the park (check out Indiana’s picks since 1990 and tell me if you love any of them other than the no-brainer pick of Danny Granger in ’05, unless you have a fetish for white guys who were drafted 15 picks too high). Could Larry Bird share some of the blame for those moves? Absolutely. But it’s bizarre to me that anyone would consider Walsh a potential savior of anything or have a proven track record. But this is what you get when someone like Todd fails to think for himself, does not know his facts, and just regurgitates information from the national media. i guess Donnie Walsh must be a genius if NY wants him, right?
Forget Donnie Walsh…
Pardon my french… but who the f*ck is Danny Ferry. This is a guy we traded away our superstar guard (Ron Harper) for, gave a max contract which screwed the team for seven years, plucked from the San Antonio Spurs organization who had given him no real legitimate power, and allow him to spend beyond the point of breaking the luxury tax.
What do we have to show? Nothing. He’s a disease to this organization now and has been since his rookie season in the NBA.
At one what point does a dedicated fan become bitter towards his embattled team? At one point does the frustration level reach such a threshold that you know the incomptence levels conquer at the end of the day?
These are the points I’m addressing. These are the points which will translate into Lebron leaving Cleveland.
Jodie didn’t tackle that issue in the Plain Dealer in regards to the website and these are the plain and simple points I’m trying to articulate.
You have to understand that…
todd – what in the world are you talking about? so you’re basing your reasons for declaring the current cavaliers organization inept and worthy of lebron because of the danny ferry trade 20 something years ago? thats the most inane thing ive ever heard. if those are your reasons, then by all means, please move on. we do not need “fans” like that.
any by the way, ron harper a superstar guard?! not quite. Michael jordan? dominque wilkins? reggie lewis? all superstars. ron harper? a very good/solid shooting guard – but hardly a superstar.
you want to discuss a diseased organization? take a look at the knicks or the nets. what has either accomplished lately? nothing! they are both awful, with terrible trades, bad draft picks, bad contracts – all the things you are criticizing about the cavaliers, but none of which truly apply to the current state of the team. those two organization are much worse off and “diseased” than the cavaliers. that LA smog must have gone to your head!