Cleveland owner’s prediction about LeBron James appears royally off the mark

Dan Gilbert might want to reconsider.…

Last summer, after LeBron James famously announced that he was taking his talents to South Beach, the Cleveland Cavaliers owner guaranteed his team would win an NBA championship “before the self-titled former king wins one.” …

His comments are more laughable now than they were then, if that’s possible, with the Cavaliers lugging the NBA’s worst record into Tuesday night’s game against the Lakers.…

As for James and the Miami Heat, they might have a more difficult time dispatching Blake Griffin and the young Clippers on Wednesday night than they did the Lakers last month. …

All due respect to Carson Palmer, Matt Cassel and Mark Sanchez, but the NFL’s No. 1 former Pacific 10 Conference quarterback is Aaron Rodgers.…

The former Cal star has made it easy for Green Bay Packers fans to switch loyalties from Brett Favre.…

Favre helped too, of course.…

Cassel’s inexperience showed in his playoff debut.…

Kobe Bryant, sporting a Michael Vick jersey after Sunday’s game, obviously pays no mind to political commentator Tucker Carlson, who said recently that Vick should be “executed.” …

Carlson later apologized, but that didn’t stop Charles Barkley from dismissing the talking head as a “nobody.” …

Speaking of execution, if Vick had put a little more air under his final pass Sunday, the Philadelphia Eagles might have survived the opening round of the playoffs.…

At the exact time that Marshawn Lynch of the Seattle Seahawks completed his epic, tackle-breaking touchdown run Saturday against the New Orleans Saints, a seismic network station recorded a small tremor in downtown Seattle.…

Drew Brees and the Saints are not the first defending Super Bowl champions to get bounced early, nor will they be the last, but none ever lost a playoff game to a sub-.500 team.…

Pete Carroll, still exuding the energy and enthusiasm of a teenager, is the NFL’s second-oldest coach.…

He’ll turn 60 this year.…

Tom Coughlin is 64.…

Saturday night, while the New York Jets were ushering Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts out of the playoffs, Tom Brady capped his bye week by settling in to watch “Lombardi” on Broadway with his supermodel wife, Gisele Bundchen.…

Sanchez against Brady at New England: Seven interceptions, one fumble, two blowout losses.…

Former Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti, on Nike co-founder Phil Knight’s importance to the Ducks’ high-flying football program: “How important is the sun to life on Earth?” …

Knight, known as Buck when he was an Oregon distance runner in the late 1950s, might now be called Megabuck.…

Thanks to Nikola Vucevic and Alex Stepheson, USC’s victory over UCLA on Sunday was an inside job.…

If local baseball fans had their druthers, Joe Torre would continue trying to put together an ownership group to buy the Dodgers rather than take another job.…

ESPN’s Buster Olney reports that the Angels guaranteed Adrian Beltre $77 million in their final offer, $3 million less than the All-Star third baseman got from the Texas Rangers.…

It’s no wonder the Kings are high on forward prospect Brayden Schenn, the most valuable player and leading scorer in the world junior championships despite playing in Team Canada’s last two-plus games with a separated shoulder.…

Jonas Hiller seems determined to lead the Ducks back to the Stanley Cup playoffs after a one-year absence.…

Kelly Austin, transferring from Virginia to join USC’s nascent women’s lacrosse team, has impressive bloodlines: aunt Tracy Austin is a former No. 1-ranked tennis player; mother Denise Austin is an internationally known fitness expert; and father Jeff Austin is a former pro tennis player.…

Hall of Fame former Lakers coach Bill Sharman and Olympian/World War II POW Louis Zamperini will be honored for “outstanding career achievement” Jan. 25 in Toluca Lake by the Southern California Sports Broadcasters.…

Four consecutive victories over UCLA might tempt USC to run an ad featuring Coach Kevin O’Neill under the words, “The basketball monopoly in Los Angeles is officially over.”

jerome.crowe@latimes.com