MySports Today

Lebron James was in New York City Tuesday as his Cavaliers took on, and easily dismantled, the “new-look” New York Knicks 119-101. The Cavs led the Knicks 34-22 after 12 minutes, and then poured it on in the 2nd quarter with 33 points while holding the Knicks to only 14 points. The halftime result – Cavs 67, Knicks 36. Ouch.

In 3 quarters, Lebron made a big impact and statement – he scored 26 points and grabbed 4 rebounds in 30 minutes of play. The rest of his team did the rest, as the Cavaliers had 7 different players score in double-digits. Zydrunas Ilgauskas led the team with 10 rebounds, while Mo Williams grabbed 6 boards, dished out 6 assists and had 3 steals on defense.

The bigger story was what the Knicks did at the end of last week in order to get ready for the Free Agent Class of 2010 – headed by Lebron himself. The Knicks traded away 3 players last week, including their top 2 scorers Zach Randolph and Jamal Crawford, in order to acquire players whose contracts are expiring before the 2010 class hits the free agent market. The Knicks hope to lure Lebron from his midwest home in Cleveland to the big apple spotlight at the world’s most famous venue – Madison Square Garden. The Garden fans cheered his name loudly during pre-game warm-ups, even starting a chant of “Two More Years”. Music mogul Jay-Z, a good friend of Lebron’s and part-owner of the tri-state rival New Jersey Nets was also in attendance at the Garden. Knicks management and fans hope that they will be able to out-maneuver Jay-Z so that he doesn’t end up with the Nets in 2 years. And while James continues to say that he wants to play for an NBA Champion, where he ends up will likely come down to dollars. Asked if he would take less than a “max-NBA contract” to make sure he was surrounded with good players on his next team, he quickly answered “Now, I never said that.” So get your purse strings ready – some team is going to be showing Lebron the money very soon.

As for the Knicks – David Lee put in another solid night with 12 points and 13 rebounds; Stephon Marbury still refuses to play and was inactive; Al Harrington scored 13 points and grabbed 9 rebounds in his Knicks debut; Tim Thomas scored 16 points and grabbed 6 rebounds in his Knicks debut; newly acquired Cuttino Mobley did not play for the Knicks because medical issues.