Cavs owner Dan Gilbert graciously gave a call on Friday to address these LeBron-James-to-Europe rumors and talk. The story is in Sunday's Beacon Journal, and online here. (In the same story, we discussed the scam that the NFL calls preseason football.)

But here are some of the highlights from Gilbert:

On the rumors, which state a team from Greece will pay LeBron $50 million per year for two years:

"The reason this thing is where it's at 'is that we've got a bunch of bored, East Coast sports writers who have nothing to do because the offseason is a few months away and the Olympics [hadn't] started yet."

On James being the main focus:

"The undertone to the whole thing that I wonder is, why him? Why not Dwyane Wade? Why not Chris Bosh? Why not whoever else is coming due? 'The only thing you can come up with is there are certain writers, or people who live on the East or West Coast, who think that Cleveland, Ohio, is not a good enough place for a superstar of LeBron's caliber to spend his career. Despite the quality of the franchise, the quality of life in the Midwest, the fans — it's a complete slap in the face from people who do not live in Cleveland, Ohio, to Cleveland, Ohio. That's probably my biggest problem with the whole thing."

Finally:

"I think people need to just leave him alone and let him focus on basketball and helping lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to a championship."

The rest is here at ohio.com.