10 months after the Cavs dealt Mo Williams to the Clippers in exchange for Baron Davis and their unprotected pick, it became the most lopsided trade in league history.  Because of the lockout—or rather, the mandated amnesty clause that ensued the lockout—the Cavs essentially traded Mo Williams for Kyrie Irving and $15 million worth of cap room.  It’s that $15 million in cap that differentiates it from the likes of all the other trade heists we’ve seen.  Ironically, this lopsided swap saved three separate and equally decrepit franchises from their own extinction.       

The Clippers, a franchise that could actually relate with the likes of the 1999-2011 Cleveland Browns, went out and acquired Chris Paul.  Five months later, he became the franchise savior as they finished the season with a 40-26 record—the franchises best single season ever (winning percentage-wise).  This would have never happened had David Stern not buckled to the pressure of the owners, vetoing the three-team trade that would have made Chris Paul a Laker.  And if that hadn’t of happened, the Cavs would have never traded Ramon Sessions to the Lakers for the 24th pick this year.  And throughout it all, New Orleans—the team that would have benefitted greatly from trading Paul to the Lakers—wouldn’t have been terrible enough to win the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft.

No one will ever blame the Hornets, Clips or Cavs of ruining the integrity of the game, that's for sure.

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LeBron James was right. The way he left was wrong, but his reasoning was right. He needed better teammates to win a title.

Not because Dwyane Wade is better than Mo Williams, or Chris Bosh is better than Zydrunas Ilgauskas. But because LeBron respects those guys in a way he didn't respect any of his teammates here. Because the Cavs never had a superstar-commanding presence like Pat Riley in the front office.

We thought LeBron signed a shortened contract extension in 2006 because he wanted to pressure the Cavs front office to remain aggressive in building a contender around him. Actually, he signed the shortened extension to give him an escape hatch, which he used two years ago.

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Danny Ferry agreed to be the general manager of the Atlanta Hawks on Monday.  The deal is reportedly for six years, which is longer than most people think the actual position will be held by Ferry.  The truth of the matter is that Danny Ferry is unable to escape his tenure in Cleveland.  His past failures shadow him wherever he goes.  By many, Danny Ferry is considered a bad first overall pick, a bad 10 year contract and an even worse GM.  The reason being is because the Cavs failed to even win a single finals game in LeBron James' tenure in Cleveland despite having an excess of cap space and a once in a generation player on the roster. 

Casual Cavs fans and outsiders look at the team's 40-108 (a 27% winning percentage) since James left Cleveland for the Heat and are quick to blame Danny Ferry for not constructing a roster worthy of James' talents.  With James, the Cavs won 60.8% of their games. 

What most people ignore is that Danny Ferry practically inherited a disaster.  He was hired on June 27th, 2005, which was twenty five days after Mike Brown was officially employed by the Cavs.  He came into a situation with a lot of cap space and a superstar with an impending free agency who was eager to make the playoffs.  Starting Ira Newble at shooting guard was not an option and Ferry had to put that cap space to good use.  As I outlined previously, Danny Ferry and the Cavs were destined to lose because of mistakes that previous ownership groups and general managers made. 

The LeBron James era in Cleveland is seen as a complete failure by most people who did not follow the team closely.  Pundits and fans mock Mo Williams and Anderson Varejao.  Unfavorable comparisons are made to Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.  Never mind that the Cavs could never outright sign a player of Wade's caliber like Pat Riley did.  That doesn't matter to the black and white world of 140 characters or less.  What matters is that Danny Ferry failed to bring a championship to Cleveland, was a failure to LeBron James and the Cavs deserve their destiny for failing to build a team around him.

Between 2008 and 2010, the Cavs won 77.4% of their games.  The last team to have a two year run like that was the Boston Celtics from 2007 through 2009.  Before that, it was the Dallas Mavericks from 2005 through 2007.  Previous to the Mavericks was the Chicago Bulls, who did it in 1996-1998.  All three of these teams have made it to the finals in addition to winning a lot of regular season games.  The fact that the Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal led Lakers never won 167 games in a two year span shows how difficult of a regular season accomplishment it is. 

In 2008-2009, the Cavs boasted a 4th best offense and a 3rd best defense in the league. No matter how much the Chris Broussards of the world want you to believe it, no one player can play 1-5 on offense and defense and accomplish an elite defense and offense.  In addition, the 2008-2009 Cavs had a ridiculous 8.9 PPG differential.  In other words, on average, they beat their opponents by almost 9 points per game.  Those Cavs teams were legitimately good despite never getting over the hump.  

With the way people discuss the Cavs teams, you would think that every single person in the world expected them to fail and that they were horrible.  This is a classic case of people using hindsight to affect their opinion of a team and pushing an agenda that so happens to be infuriating to Cavs fans who understand how good some of those teams actually were.  For example, ESPN had a poll during the 2009 playoffs asking its viewers who they thought would win the finals.  With over 150,000 votes, the overwhelming majority picked the Cleveland Cavaliers.

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There are those who say that LeBron James’ long-awaited NBA title is tainted.

They’ll say he didn’t earn it, didn’t deserve it, and still can’t be compared with the game’s all-time greats.

So even though he’s basking in the glow of his first title since narrowly avoiding an upset in the Ohio high school state championship to a massively undermanned, supremely less talented group of skinny white kids, no doubt LeBron is hurt by those who hesitate to fellate his supremacy.

Pay no attention to them, LeBron. Wear that Burger King crown proudly and hold your head up high. Never mind what the haters say. In case that golden trophy isn’t proof enough (assuming Pat Riley ever lets you touch it again), there are thousands of reasons to feel good about yourself.

But, in the spirit of letting bygones be bygones and to show that even Cleveland fans are happy for you, here are the top 23 (reflecting the number which, you may remember, once adorned your jersey at St. Bonaventure or St. Vincent DePaul or wherever it was you played before you took your talents to South Beach):

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