Will The Cavaliers Win It All? It's Up to LeBron James…and Mike Brown

It’s been five days since the Cleveland Cavaliers obtained Antawn Jamison from the Washington Wizards.

In that time, LeBron James has scored 98 points, Jamison has had the worst offensive (or was it most offensive?) game of his career, and the Cavs have lost three straight.

The losing will end, and the Cavaliers will return to form. Will they win their first-ever NBA championship come summer?

That depends—on James, and his coach, Mike Brown.

ABC’s Jeff Van Gundy observed on Sunday that Cavs GM Danny Ferry has done everything within reason to build a championship team in Cleveland. He’s absolutely right.

Over the past three years, Ferry has obtained Mo Williams, Shaquille O’Neal, Anthony Parker, Jamario Moon, Leon Powe, and now Jamison. There’s some pretty good second-tier talent to go along with the star power on that list.

If LeBron wanted to know that the Cavs really do care, then may he feel properly courted.

He wanted a scorer, and he got one in Williams. He wanted size underneath, and he got that and more in Shaq. He wanted a wingman who could play Pippen to his Jordan, and he now has one in Jamison.

Be careful what you wish for, Mr. James, because…well, you just got it.

I’m a big admirer of LeBron and his talent. He is blessed with gifts that, quite arguably, no player before him has ever possessed.

That he is so roundly criticized by so many is puzzling, since he is also one of the most unselfish players the game has seen. To lead the league in scoring while ranking sixth in assists (flanked by nine point guards above and below him) is ample evidence.

I’m inclined to believe that most naysayers criticize him out of either an unnecessary form of jealousy (does it really matter if your guy is better than him, or vice versa?) or a desire to see him leave Cleveland. It’s a shame, because neither they, nor I, will have any impact on James’ decision.

So why not just enjoy his talent and be done with it?

That said, I agree with something Jamison said in an interview Sunday, also on ABC. He said, quite simply, that with the talent the Cavaliers now possess, nothing short of an NBA championship will be acceptable.

He’s right. It’s up to James to lead them there. That’s a lot of pressure, but that’s the way it is.

James is not alone, however. There’s another guest at this party, and it’s Brown.

He’s the reigning Coach of the Year. A student of the game who learned from one of the masters in San Antonio's Gregg Popovich, Brown dominated less and delegated more in leading the Cavs to 66 regular season wins in 2008-09.

He has won two-thirds of his games in Cleveland, while turning the Cavaliers into a hustling, trapping, tenacious defensive machine.

None of that will matter if the Cavs don’t win it all.
 
I don’t envy Brown or the lofty expectations now being placed on his shoulders. I can’t think of another example quite comparable to this one, where a midseason trade left a coach and his marquee star absolutely no wiggle room, no way out.

However, that is what Brown and James now face. Win 13 in a row, or lose three in a row; I don’t care so much about streaks. What will matter in June is who is left standing to hold aloft the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy.

Brown has had an immensely talented roster gift-wrapped and left at his doorstep. Yes, playing time will be a sticky wicket, particularly if Zydrunas Ilgauskas returns to crowd the lineup along with a healed Leon Powe.

Brown is already struggling to nail down his eight-man rotation, and the presence of one or both of them won’t make it any easier.

In saying these things, I do not discount the Orlando Magic, or the Boston Celtics. I don’t mean any disrespect to the Denver Nuggets or the Utah Jazz or, by any stretch, the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers.

They will all have something to say, and one of them may end up denying James and Brown their wish.

I’m simply saying that the time has come for James, Brown and the Cavaliers to put up or shut up.

Mind you, I think they're up to it. Before the season began, I picked them to win it all .

I did so not because it was rightfully their turn, or because James was a year older and better, or because they had obtained Shaq and the other supporting cast members.

I did it because I felt that the bitter taste of the loss to Orlando in last year’s Eastern Conference Finals would linger with James and the other returning Cavs—just as similar losses to Detroit in the late 1980s spurred Jordan and the Bulls to their eventual string of six titles in eight years.

I still believe it will take Cleveland to the title—or should.

It didn’t look that way in Sunday’s loss at Orlando. I suppose that should bother me, but James said afterward that the team will be fine.

OK, I’m buying.

Shaq said as much earlier this season, and he was right. I’ll take James at his word.

But it’s his word, and I hope he realizes that the hopes and dreams of a long-denied fan base rest on every single one of those.

“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” Shakespeare knew what he was talking about. Now that The King has his court, it’s time to step up and deliver.

Mr. Brown, that goes for you, too.

The two of you are the reigning MVP and Coach of the Year. May the term “reigning NBA champions” come next.

After all, the most miserable city in America (gee, thanks, Forbes ) turns its lonely eyes to you.