Ushering In a New Era Can Get a Bit Dicey

Et tu, LeBron?

The NBA is always awaiting its next savior in swaddling clothes, so even when a prodigy shows he’s not quite ready for the grown-up world, there’s another one coming who’s too good to be true, who everyone hopes will never change.

But there was never anyone like LeBron James, whose hype dwarfed all others’ and who lived up to it, becoming an MVP candidate at 20, looking wise beyond his years and serene as a Buddha.

Or maybe he wasn’t really a golden child, just a great young player who knew how to act in public. There was another

LeBron, as his coach, Paul Silas, noted a few weeks ago.

“I shot a commercial with him,” Silas said. “He was a star then and he let everybody know at that time. ‘I’m a star.’ But that was in that commercial. When he’s around the team, he doesn’t take on that star role....

“He came in, ‘Where’s my meal? Where’s this? Where’s that? Where’s my video stuff?’ And everyone [was] running around, taking care of the star.”

Silas can still be seen in the commercial, standing on the sideline while James makes length-of-the-court shots, but is no longer on the Cleveland Cavaliers’ sideline. Silas was fired last week after two seasons of surpassing all expectations, in which the Cavaliers went from 17-65 to No. 6 in the East.

James said he had nothing to do with it. Proving he really was innocent, his agent, Aaron Goodwin, came winging in from the West Coast -- to ask the Cavaliers why they weren’t consulted.

Does this mean interim Coach Brendan Malone wasn’t LeBron’s first choice?

James is just one of the over-entitled young millionaires in this. The other is Dan Gilbert, who’s 43. He had owned the team for 20 days when he fired Silas and is expected to axe General Manager Jim Paxson.

Gilbert made a fortune with Quicken Loans. Like a lot of fast movers, he equates his success with Einstein’s theory of relativity and thinks his philosophy applies to his new team.

The Detroit Free Press reprinted an e-mail he sent employees, informing them, “Let me make it perfectly clear to those who think they can work here, get paid by this company, and in essence destroy our reputation and jobs by deciding you just ‘don’t care’: You cannot and will not work here anymore. Period. There are many other uncaring and low-level mortgage junkyards who will be ready, willing and able to take you in. This is not one of them!!!

“I will find you. I will personally ‘root you out.’ ”

The Cavaliers were actually lucky to get him, since Gilbert was bidding on every team on the market. Showing how badly he wanted a team, any team, he tried to buy the Milwaukee Brewers in 2003.

So far, Gilbert’s dynamic plans for the Cavaliers involve bringing in the rapper Usher as a minority owner and hanging out with James.

On Gilbert’s first day as owner, he took James to dinner, reporting, “He’s mature beyond his years. He’s a great guy who just wants to win. He’s a highly competitive person, and that made me feel real good.”

Gilbert also announced he would re-sign Zydrunas Ilgauskas, whom James had been campaigning for. Hopefully, someone will tell Gilbert to see if Ilgauskas will take a $6-million cut, or the Cavaliers won’t have a full $9-million slot to offer Milwaukee’s Michael Redd, the sharp-shooting Ohio native they have their hearts set on.

LeBron’s new clout, which was even greater than his old clout, wasn’t good news for Silas. Despite their 18-game improvement last season, an item in the Cleveland Plain Dealer said unnamed players were already unhappy with Silas and his son, Stephen, one of his assistants.

James reportedly cursed at Silas in a recent argument. Sure enough, when Silas was fired, Stephen went too.

Silas, seeing it coming, precipitated his firing, coming down hard on his players to the end and blasting Paxson after he was terminated. With $8 million coming for his two remaining seasons, Silas didn’t seem unhappy to go at all.

Paxson and Silas actually did a good job. The problem was the change of owners and the damaging loss of Carlos Boozer, who double-crossed the Cavaliers, letting them release him to offer him a bigger contract, then going to Utah.

New minority owner David Katzman took his teenage daughter into the locker room to meet James. Usher, sitting courtside with his pal, Jermaine Dupri, led cheers and guaranteed a win as they walloped Orlando, and exchanged cell numbers with LeBron afterward.

“I’m going to turn this thing up a notch,” said Usher, who lives in Atlanta. “I look for Cleveland to be my home away from home. It’s cold, but hopefully I can heat it up.”

Gilbert is a Piston fan from the Detroit suburbs who had been musing all over town about rooting out Silas and Paxson. Piston General Manager John Hammond is a candidate to succeed Paxson, and the hot names in the coaching derby are Larry Brown and Detroit Shock Coach Bill Laimbeer.

Things are sure to be exciting. Everyone is so obsessed about James’ impending free agency -- in 2008 -- fans were upset when he was seen recently wearing a Yankee cap.

It might not be easy. The Plain Dealer reported fans sitting behind Usher were upset that he stays seated during the national anthem but stands during games wearing elaborate headgear and blocks their view.

Stay tuned to see if they can heat up Cleveland in time to keep the Chosen One. They have three seasons after this one, so it might be close.

Faces and Figures

Speaking of dynamic leadership, Dallas owner Mark Cuban lost his coach, Don Nelson, who retired when Cuban guaranteed next season’s $5-million salary. “I got out before it got ugly,” Nelson said. “I had a chance to get out and I did.” ... Cuban and Nelson fenced for years, but when Nelson took the Mavericks to the 2003 West finals as his contract ran out, Cuban had to give him three years at $15 million to keep him. When they struggled the next season, there was so much speculation Nelson wouldn’t mind being fired, taking his money and returning to his Maui home, that Cuban announced, “I’m not going to let Nellie sit in Hawaii and play golf and get a suntan if I can’t get one.” ... For his part, Nelson groomed Avery Johnson as his replacement and said recently that when Cuban let Steve Nash go last summer, “a part of me died.” ... Johnson says he’ll try to make the Mavericks better on defense. To see how easy it is to return to conventional basketball with a Nelson team, check out the Golden State Warriors’ progress since Nelson left in 1995.

Orlando General Manager John Weisbrod on trading temperamental Tracy McGrady for temperamental Steve Francis: “[Francis] still has some growing to do. One of the sidebar issues of the [Cuttino] Mobley trade was for Steve’s growth. Even though it made him unhappy, uncomfortable and it’s not fun to have your security blanket and best friend taken out of town, a lot of the thinking behind that was that it would be in Steve’s long-term interest to get him where we want him to be.” ... Since Weisbrod traded Mobley to Sacramento for Doug Christie, Orlando is 14-22.

More from the ongoing negotiations between the 76ers: Chris Webber told the Philadelphia Daily News’ Phil Jasner, “I’ve done a lot in the past to make people question my character. I’ve grown up in front of everybody, in the toughest times of life in front of the camera. But my work has always been my work. I’ve always put 100% into it. If you brought me here for the reasons you brought me here for, then put me in an environment that allows me to do it.” ... Webber also said he can play with Allen Iverson, noting: “If it wasn’t for him convincing me to be here, it would have been a lot more difficult.”