LeBron James needs a new Ferry Godmother.

Danny Ferry might even be a worse GM than he was a player. Danny Ferry honestly needs a clue. At the end of the 2004 NBA season the Cavaliers offered Ferry the opportunity to become the NBA's youngest general manager and build a winning team -- with the NBA's would-be king, LeBron James (who happened to be from Akron, Ohio, just outside Cleveland) , and $28 million in salary cap space. He had the opportunity to build around the best prospect since Kobe Bryant and have absolute control of the rest of the roster. Instead of capitalizing on this, he gave Lebron little to nothing to work with, and he will be extremely fortunate if Jay-Z doesn’t snag LeBron during free agency in 2010 and bring him to Brooklyn to star for his soon to be Brooklyn Nets.

Since becoming the GM of the Cavs, Ferry has signed Larry Hughes to a $12,000,000 contract, Zydrunas Illgauskas to a $10,000,000 and Drew Gooden to a $6,500,000 contract, and let promising center DeSegana Diop go to Dallas for nothing in return. He wasted draft picks Shannon Brown and Luke Jackson and then traded his two of his biggest signee’s Gooden and Hughes along with Brown in order to Acquire forwards-centers Ben Wallace and Joe Smith and a 2009 second-round pick from the Chicago Bulls and guard-forward Wally Szczerbiak and guard Delonte West from the Seattle SuperSonics in a three-team trade.

Lets look back at that trade: The centerpiece: the corpse of Ben Wallace. At this point he is a destitute man’s version of Anderson Varajeo. Wallace has nothing left, except of course 3 YEARS and $16,000,000 on his contract. I kid you not, the former 3 time defensive player of the year averaged 3 points, 7 rebounds, and 1 block in the post season this year. Wait, what did Kwame Brown average for the Lakers in the series versus Phoenix last year you ask? Yup, a slightly better 9 points, 6 rebounds, and 1 block. OUCH!! Maybe Memphis's Chris Wallace isnt the worst gm in the NBA.

The second major piece of the trade was the shell of Wally Szczerbiak. If his postseason averages of 12 points, with 2 rebounds and 2 assists aren’t bad enough, that’s cause I haven’t yet said that he shot 38% from the field and 33% from downtown. Wait, didn’t they already have Sasha Pavlovic who is younger, a better shooter, passer, and defender? You got me. I guesss Ferry liked his abs.

The last two parts of the trade, Joe Smith and Delonte West, gave the Cavs at least a little bit more bang for the buck, but unfortunately for Ferry these two are clearly not gonna get Lebron over the top. The King scored 45 points in game 7 on the road against Boston, but the rest of the team could only manage 47. I feel your pain Lebron.

And to make matters worse they also have Eric Snow on the books for 2 years at 7 million a year, and Damon Jones for another 2 years at 4 million. I know, they make a combined 10 million a season, and they managed a total of 1 point per game, COMBINED in the postseason. Once again, all you can say is OUCH.

While neither Gooden or Hughes is a star, they at least combined to score 23 points a game last playoffs and give 12 rebounds. With no major relief coming in the form of draft picks (they have this years 19th pick) or cap space, James will be forced to sit and wait as Big Ben’s fro turns grey and Szczerbiak continues to decline. Its not fair what Ferry is doing to Lebron. Lebron has single handedly gotten his team to the NBA Finals and has done the most with the least talent i have ever seen. But I will tell you this much. Teams would be smart to start clearing cap space for the 2010 offseason. Lebron might be too big and too good for the state of Ohio.

King Lame

To start, off I just want to say: this is all the media's fault. Had they treated Lebron like a normal incoming player out of high school, like a Josh Smith, and not like the second coming, I would go easier on the guy. Why do so many people speak so highly of this boy? Laybrin is Shawn Kemp 2.0. He is Kemp with a little better court vision. Kemp got to the finals too. He just never won. Kemp at least showed the world his skills in a dunk contest, Lebron, N/A. ESPN has been stroking this guy for way too long. If you get told something long enough of course you start to believe. Ever read Orwell, 2+2=5? Come on, end it, there are some of us out here who can look past the hype. Lebron has like 10 game winners in his life, right? Less? I dunno. He's not clutch, he turns the ball over more than any star that I can remember and doubles that nightly with missed shots. You always see the craziest play he does all night in the highlights and then we are supposed to look at this guy like he's basketball Jesus. Fuck that! It's got to end. Homeboy shot 19% over the last two games against the C's. Come on! I've just had enough. Nike is to blame too. Witness? Witness what? A lot of missed shots? A lot of blah blah blah by sports anchors defending his poor performances. Trust me if I started a franchise right now, keeping age in mind, I'd still take Kobe over him at 30. I'd take CP3 over him and Dwight Howard. I'd even consider Chris Bosh, Josh Smith or Deron Williams. I'm not trying to sell jerseys on my team, I just want W's, that's why I'd take those guys. Lebron I'll admit this, you are a great host for TV. SNL, great, so was the ESPYs. Maybe you should join the view, or the male view with Mario Lopez, whatever that show is called. Enjoy the sweep, I hate the Celtics but at least by them winning it's one step closer to Lakers v. Celtics. That's good for me, that's good for David stern, that's good for ratings and that's good for the public. We can finally watch two perfectly assembled, storied franchises battle it out for basketball supremacy. No Lebron in the finals, he does not equal rating, because he does not equal talent.

Kobe is the only unanimous selection for All NBA First team

All NBA First Team

Kobe Bryant, the league's MVP, led the voting for the NBA's first team. Other selections were MVP runner up and N.O. Hornets point guard Chris Paul; the oft-over hyped and one man gang, Mr. Trple-Double (Points, shots missed, turnovers) Lebron James; the Boston savior who fell into a cushy spot, never won anything, just like his teammates, Kevin Garnett; and the future of big men, the man that Supermanned that rim, Dwight "Superman" Howard. This team sounds about right. You always have to consider Tim duncan and if Pau was on the Lakers all year, no matter what kind of staggering numbers Howard put up, I think he had a chance at center.
Credit: ESPN News