The Franchise

For the last 18 months, Terry Pluto and I have been working on a book about LeBron James and the Cavs. The Franchise, LeBron James and the remaking of the Cleveland Cavaliers is now finished and will be in book stores very soon. The first excerpts of the book are available now on ESPN.com, a piece about LeBron's Nike deal and about the night the Cavs won the lottery and what was happening in New Jersey, Cleveland and Akron.
I am biased of course, but this is the most complete work ever written about LeBron and his career. It gives you all the background from what was going on within the Cavs and within LeBron and his family in the time leading up to him being a Cav and the wild and often wonderful first four seasons. From the gory details of the Shawn Kemp nightmare to the shoe companies starting to recruit LeBron when he was 16 to the strange and bumpy ownership transition, it is a detailed behind-the-scenes look at it all complete with in-depth interviews and perspective.
I'll be talking much about it more in the coming weeks, but I just wanted to let all of you know it was coming. If you want, you can get it quickest by ordering it now.
However, this a Cavs blog and not a book blog so we won't talk about it too much. But guess what, the book has its own blog. There will be lots of content there in coming weeks including Q & As with Terry and I, deleted sections of the book (not everything fit) and more.
Also now on ESPN is this cool interactive chart I helped with on how LeBron has developed his mind, body and leadership since his high school years and since he was a rookie. I spent some time talking with him and his current and former trainers for this piece.