Finally, the regular season is next!!! LeBron is among the many who look at the pre season as a necessary evil...but now is the time the guys will start to lock in at both ends, especially defensively, because that is where the Cavs live...Boston showed with how physical they played, they know it too, that defense is what is going to carry the eventual kings of the East to the NBA finals...That's why Tuesday will be a beaut..
 
Columbus will always be special to LBJ for obvious reasons...and now, one more...He was made an honorary Buckeye by Thad Matta and the OSU program...LeBron was given a #23 framed jersey, which he says is quite an honor...
 
And to show how he's a Buckeye at heart, he and Terrelle Pryor revealed they have struck up a special relationship over the past few months...call it mentoring, which LeBron loves doing...right now, giving advise on how to handle the bright light spotlight, and making sure Pryor handles the adversity he is going through right now on the heels of the loss to Purdue...LBJ talked about advising the Buckeye QB on dealing with so many high expectations and moving forward....It's got to be comforting for a 20 year old to have that kind of role model to have on speed dial...and LBJ doesn't take that lightly...

On to Dallas now as Mike says he'll rest some of his key guys on this back to back. LeBron says he's feeling much better, but stamina wise is still not where he needs to be, admitting he's about 80% of the way back. The flu bug knocked him back a bit, as it has with Darnell, J.J. and some others. The medical staff is doing a great job trying to keep this bug at bay for all us in the traveling party. 

Mike let Michael Malone run the team in the 2nd half at San Antonio, something coach and Danny Ferry have talked about doing. Delonte kidded coach Malone about calling so many timeouts, but it gave Michael a chance to draw up some late game plays with the guys on the floor, to see how they would react in such situations.

Shaq felt he missed some shots around the rim he'll normally make. Rebounding was not a problem for the big man, who also played Tim Duncan pretty well during the times the two were matched up against each other.

It will always be a big deal when Shaq comes to San Antonio since he only lost one game in high school in the Alamo City in his HS career. Shaq was a well known commodity in the state of Texas at that time, but other premier players around the country had not heard much about him, like Toledo's Jimmy Jackson, because high schoolers in the Longhorn state were barred from playing in a lot of the national summer camps. Once the big fella made his splash in the McDonalds All-Star game, it was on, and the rest of the basketball world would find out how good he was once he went to LSU.

Hey Fanatics! Be sure to check it out tonight as the Cavs go against Olympiakos, a team with 8 Greek born players (guys who play for the Greek National team) three Americans, and four other foreign born players.

LeBron has a history with these guys, since Greece upset the USA in the FIBA Worlds, two summers ago in Japan. As a result, Greece won the silver medal and the Americans got the bronze that year, but we know what happened with the Red, White and Blue since.

It will be fun to watch Shaq go against the one they call, "Baby Shaq", 310 pound center, Sofoklis Schortsanitis, the big Greek center had numerous dunks against the US in that contest in '07.

A lot of the Olympiakos players have either been drafted by NBA teams, or have had squads over here, consider taking them. So, the visitors have plenty of talent.

You know Josh Childress, Von Wafer and Linas Kleiza because of their NBA experience. Patrick Beverly is a guy who played for Arkansas, and was drafted this past summer by the Lakers.

For Anthony Parker, this will be fun, since he played with two of the guys for Olympiakos, when they were together winning titles with Maccabi, during AP's 5 year run in Israel.

See you tonight at 7...

This is the first road shootaround for the Cavs as they get set to meet the Charlotte Bobcats, who beat the Hornets the other night…so they come in 1-1..

Today’s practice was held at the College of Charleston, where former Georgia Tech coach, Bobby Cremins now resides…Cremins and some of his team came to watch the end of practice, asking LeBron to shot a turnaround 3 at his own bucke

t…LB missed…so, to make amends, from the same spot, heaved one to the other end of the floor, about 70 feet…and of course he drilled it…the eyes of the players fell out of their heads…

Moments later, Cremins sent his best 3 point shooter on the floor to receive some passes from the King…and each one clanked off the rim….LeBron said, “cmon, you make these”…but each one misfired…eventually the young man went to the short corner, and coach Brown fed him a pass, and he drained it…Maybe a little star struck, taking a toss from the MVP…

Danny Green was a big interview request from the local media since of course he and the Tar Heels took care of business against the Gam****...we have our own one on one here on the site..(he gave us his best answers!!!)

Join us for the radio broadcast on the Cavs Radio network ...

We're in the charming city of Charleston, SC, about 200 miles south of Charlotte, as the Cavs will look at the Bobcats for the 2nd time this week.
 
A lot of history here of course, including The Citadel, which is a 3-iron away from our hotel (For Austin, probably a 6 iron!).
 
Jamario Moon did not make the trip, instead getting a couple of wisdom teeth extracted.  I'm amazed he was able to do his part in the Flashes of Hope Big Shots and Little Stars event last night at The Q.  Jamario, along with Boobie, Mo, D-Block, AP, Leon, JJ, and Danny strolled down the runway in a fashion show.  Jamario was able to flash that big grin of his, wearing a fur coat...smiling right now is a little bit of a chore as he recovers.
 
The biggest auction item by the way was a pair of trips on the team plane for some lucky Cavs fans...the trips alone raised nearly ,000 for Flashes of Hope and the Children's Tumor Foundation.  It was a spectacular night a the Q...check out the story on Cavs.com.
 
On a separate, note, how about a salute to Joe Tait, who will go into the Monmouth College (IL) Hall of Fame tomorrow...way to go Joe! The Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield can't be too far behind...hopefully soon.