Sam Amico Just Got Famous

By the end of the day every major sports network, radio show, web forum, chat room, twitter, facebook, myspace and elderly person at the grocery store will be talking about Sam Amico's story about the Cavs front office being divided over whether to fire Mike Brown or not.

Who is Sam Amico? He's a beat writer who follows the Cavs, apparently. He's not a 15 year old kid writing a blog from his parents basement. Sam is well known to other members of the Cleveland media and it would be a surprise if he somehow fabricated this story or used bad sources.

In his column, Amico says that "sources close to the situation" have told him that Dan Gilbert is ready to upgrade the coaching staff while Danny Ferry is still in Mike Brown's corner. It's easy to understand the pressure being felt by the Cavs front office to make another run at the NBA championship in 2010 before LeBron James can become a free agent but this would sure be a strange way to go about it.

Another interesting development from Amico's column is the possibility of the Cavs prying Pat Riley away from the Heat to replace Mike Brown. This is the same Pat Riley who has possibly the best job in the world as president and final decision maker of the Miami Heat. Would Riley be willing to give up his job in South Beach to come to Cleveland to coach LeBron? It's not like he's starving for some star power in South Beach with Dwayne Wade on the roster through 2010. Why would any coach in his right mind agree to coach the Cavs when the possibility that LeBron James will leave after next season still very real?

Brian Windhorst was quick to respond to these rumors this morning with his take on Cleveland.com claiming that these rumors are based on "inaccuracies and flawed logic" and according to several of his sources within the organization these reports are false. Brian is the most wired and tuned-in media member in the world when it comes to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Any rumors that come from a source not named Brian Windhorst should be taken with a grain or two of salt, to say the least.

Frank Isola of the New York Daily News writes a column titled Knicks Nation and has already put the typical New York media spin on this story by pondering what effect it will have on LeBron's inevitable move to New York after next season. Isola claims that Pat Riley's arrival in Cleveland would hurt the Knicks' chances of signing LeBron James in 2010.

"How does Brown's job status impact the Knicks? If Cavs owner Dan Gilbert were to decide to make a big, bold coaching move, that would certainly enhance the club's chances of re-signing LeBron James."

Apparently this is the kind of stuff we can expect to come from the New York media machine for the next several months. Forget the fact that LeBron has finally bought in to Mike Brown's defensive philosophy and forget about the kind of message it would send to the league's MVP by firing the most successful coach in franchise history right after the most successful season in franchise history. Sure, Mike Brown was out coached by Stan Van Gundy in the ECF and didn't make the best adjustments but I'm not sure it would have mattered either way. Orlando's size and strengths created the worst possible matchups that the Cavs could have possibly gone up against. When you combine that with the fact that the Magic absolutely shot the lights out against us it's not hard to see why the Cavs are playing golf right now. We just didn't have enough firepower. Who's fault is that?

Not Mike Brown's.

Photo credit: Joshua Gunter, The Plain Dealer