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The Franchise: Lebron James and the Remaking of the Cleveland Cavaliers | 
 enlarge | Authors: Brian Windhorst, Terry Pluto
Publisher: Gray & Co., Publishers
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $12.46
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Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 38167
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.6 x 1
ISBN: 1598510282
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.323092
EAN: 9781598510287
ASIN: 1598510282
Publication Date: December 6, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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Product Description
Award-winning sports journalists Terry Pluto and Brian Windhorst give us an in-depth look at how a team and a city are being rebuilt around superstar LeBron James. When the Cleveland Cavaliers won the top pick in the 2003 NBA draft, an entire city buzzed with excitement. How often does a LeBron James come along? Especially for Cleveland, a midmarket rustbelt city without a sports championship in fifty years, and for the Cavaliers, a team that had never reached the NBA finals. Now, everyone has a stake in LeBron. From billionaire team owner Dan Gilbert down to the popcorn vendors, everyone has something riding on this one guy. Chock full of facts and analysis.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Disappointing... July 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I agree with the other reviewer who stated that this book could have been a gem -- it's an inherently interesting read. However, the book is riddled with typos (including one on the very first page -- "white power" where it should read "white powder"), and it's extremely difficult to trust the accuracy of the authors' research and the veracity of what's being written, etc. when it's so painfully obvious that no one even bothered to give the book a hard proof. In the end, the book lacks credibility and falls far short of expectations.
 It takes more than one player -- July 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It used to be a game. Not any more. Once the players pass the age of about six or so, basketball (and probably every other major league sport, as well) becomes BIG Business, married without redemption to Entertainment. It's best not to forget that fact while you rejoice in the wonder that is LeBron James. HE certainly gets it! Apparently, he enjoys it all immensely, while never losing his head over it all. He seems to have been born to be a celebrity, as well as one of the greatest athletes who ever lived. And he's barely twenty-three, which coincidentally, is the number on his uniform!
This book by Cleveland sportswriter Terry Pluto and Akron's Brian Windhorst analyzes the Cleveland Cavaliers in every way imaginable throughout the team's 38-year-old history, with very special attention paid to the last seven years. If you have ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes in a major league team office, here's your guide. You will learn some amazing things, such as how to tear apart a team that's just slightly started on the slippery slope downward, in order to build up a hopefully better one that will be capable of pursuing championships in a legitimate way. It makes for fascinating reading.
And to think, it's all happening right here-in Cleveland!
Chapter Ten, which describes in minute detail the events of the Lottery evening in New Jersey, could not be more tense or suspense-laden if it were an Alfred Hitchcock movie! And if you remember that evening, you'll rejoice all over again, as Cleveland-finally!-got the grand prize.
There's an entire chapter devoted to Carlos Boozer. You can judge for yourself who was honorable and who wasn't as a result of that debacle. If you've followed the team during these last years (and who locally hasn't?) you'll find all the familiar players and coaches, as well as some maybe not-quite-so-familiar names. It's truly fascinating, if for no other reason than the intimate looks at the many behind-the-scenes episodes related here, to which most of us peons can never get close.
Don't be too misled by the photo of LeBron on the cover, however. This is not just a book about LeBron. The title is, after all 'The Franchise' and that's the thrust of this volume. Certainly, LeBron is (and will hopefully continue to be) a major part of the franchise, but basically, there's much to be learned about the former owner Gordon Gund and the current one, Dan Gilbert. He REALLY wants a championship, and seems willing to do whatever it takes to bring one here. I hope there will soon be a book of Gilbert's 'isms' - that would be an instant best-seller!
Maybe next year will be OUR year!
Missing an Easy Lay-up July 11, 2008
Sports writers will generally reserve their heaviest criticism for athletes who they feel are going through the motions in games. But the reverse should be the case when sports writers tackle a different media with the same old story.
Authors Terry Pluto and Brian Windhorst inexplicably rehash vast amounts of material found in their columns in this exploration into the rebirth of the Cleveland Cavaliers through northeast Ohio superstar LeBron James.
Pluto is a columnist for The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer and a best-selling author of a number of sports books, while Windhorst is the NBA beat reporter/columnist for the Akron Beacon Journal. Pluto worked for the ABJ during the years that James was emerging as a young local talent in Akron and prep star in hoops & football.
Both writers obviously have solid backgrounds on their subjects because they have been covering various angles to the story for years. But newspaper columns are not necessarily the real history and with no follow-up interview with James for the book, the authors do a disservice to a reader who has followed this emerging story through the two papers.
If Pluto and Windhorst tackled their research as hard as James plays for the Cavs, the book would have been a gem. Instead, it is a lackadaisical drive to the basket, only to miss an easy lay-up.
A superstar player like Lebron James doesn't come along too often May 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A superstar player like Lebron James doesn't come along too often in the world of the National Basketball Association, "The Franchise: Lebron James and the remaking of the Cleveland Cavaliers" is the tale of who is viewed as the second coming of Michael Jordan and how he is changing the NBA everyday he plays. Award winning team of sports writers in Terry Pluto and Brian Windhorst write this story of how James brought the struggling basketball Franchise from obscurity to prominence and how Lebron James is doing more than carrying the Cleveland Cavaliers - how he is carrying the entire NBA on his shoulders. "The Franchise: Lebron James and the Remaking of the Cleveland Cavaliers" is highly recommended to sports fans and analysts who want a wide ranging look at today's NBA.
 Good Book, Good Insight. April 1, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book was great at providing background information on the Cavaliers in the pre-James era. It also gave great insight into the courting of James by shoe companies. It didn't give enough information in the years since acquiring James and it was poorly written with dozens of typos. Other than that, if you enjoy Lebron or are interested in learning just how much he has revolutionized a franchise, it is a worthy reading.
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