Cleveland Cavaliers

For all of its recent pain and humiliation -- the hoopla surrounding the protracted departure of basketball star LeBron James, and the deaths of native sons Harvey Pekar and George Steinbrenner -- Cleveland is poised to emerge unbent, unbroken and stronger than ever.

When someone recently asked basketball great Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest player in NBA history, whom he thought was better -- LeBron James or Kobe Bryant -- he blurted out "Kobe." Based on what people pay for their sports memorabilia, it appears collectors would tend to agree.

NBA Commissioner David Stern fined Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert $100,000 on Monday for the scathing letter he published after former Cavs star LeBron James announced he was heading to the Miami Heat next season. Stern also chastised James and Jackson.

ESPN's controversial special featuring basketball superstar LeBron James revealing where he would play next season garnered an overnight Nielsen rating of 7.3, according to the Walt Disney-owned cable channel.

Madison Square Garden shares were bouncing like a basketball this week amid speculation that NBA superstar LeBron James might join the New York Knicks, and they could still be active Friday in the wake of his announcement that he was leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to join the Miami Heat.

There were a million reasons for LeBron James to join the Miami Heat: Pat Riley has a track record of winning; the combination of James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh is thought to be unstoppable and South Beach is just the kind of scene that James feels he deserves. But what about those millions of...

Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team LeBron James left to join the Miami Heat, has released a scathing open letter attacking the NBA star. The letter seems to put a curse on LeBron, as angry Cleveland fans burn his jersey.

LeBron James' decision to sign with the Miami Heat means the owners of the New Jersey Nets will miss out on a huge jump in team value that would have likely occurred had the basketball star chosen to move to the Garden State. And one of the Nets' owners is LeBron's pal, Jay-Z. The hip-hop mogul could be missing out on a potential gain of over $5 million.

In addition to the potential to make any team a contender, the fervent courting of basketball superstar LeBron James also has a less emotional, more pragmatic reason: He's sure to bring his new home city plenty of cold, hard cash.