Stan van Gundy makes this point when he discusses LeBron James' idea to retire Michael Jordan's number: "It's a nice gesture, but he (Jordan) is not Jackie Robinson."

These plays are something … even when they happen to the local guy.

My first inclination when LeBron James said he wouldn't talk anymore about free agency was to think, good for him, he shouldn't. Especially if he meant what he said about not doing so for his team.

But then you get to thinking, and you realize that James has done nothing but talk about his impending free agency for some time. He talks about it in New York, he has conversations with Dwayne Wade about it, he talks about it in Cleveland … and he has Cavs fans wondering what will happen.

It's a little disingenuous to think it's not worth asking about, no? This is going to be the greatest glut of free agent talent in NBA history. Players could almost collude to make one team into a title team, be it in Cleveland or Miami (I don't think James and Wade would join Chris Bosh in Toronto) or elsewhere. James was asked at the team's media day how he would not let this be a distraction, and he basically said, "I just won't." Wednesday night he grew weary of questions about Wade and him and said "No mas."

Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski really took James to task.

"This has been a game to James, an exercise in self-love that finally transformed into sheer loathe at Amway Arena," he wrote. "'He can’t feed the monster, and then get pissed when the monster wants more,' a Western Conference executive said Wednesday night."

There are some pretty good points in this column, including: "Around the league, rival executives, coaches and players have considered James’ willingness to enthusiastically play out his free-agency scenarios in public as disrespectful, if not a distraction, to his Cavaliers. Around the Cavs, they mostly considered it the price of doing business with the game’s greatest young star."

And: "James’ balancing act between his coy and downright overt suggestions on a future elsewhere has been both a public and private embarrassment to the organization. But the Cavs never dared to tell James to stop with the 2010 talk. They don’t tell him anything."

Three thoughts about James:

—If he says he won't talk about it anymore, he won't talk about it. He'll be asked, for sure, and how he reacts will be interesting.

—It is understandable he'd grow weary of the questions. They come often and everywhere. But perhaps the best time to make this stance was prior  to the season. Just my opinion.

—James is going to do what he wants to do. I've kind of learned that all the guessing and speculation with him is nothing more than guessing and speculation. He's going to analyze the situation, make the decision is best for him and that will be that. In the offseason, I wrote a lot about James giving up money if he didn’t re-up with the Cavs, and that the cap might get lower … now I imagine him hearing those things and laughing. It doesn't mean squadoosh to him. He's going to do what he wants to do.

Well, for one night the Cavs changes all paid off handsomely. They looked like a championship-caliber team with depth in Wednesday's impressive win in Orlando. LeBron James was his usual self, Shaquille O'Neal got Dwight Howard in early foul trouble and played Howard well, and the entire team seemed into the game. The play of Mo Williams was vital. He was the polar opposite of the guy who struggled in the playoffs against the Magic. Orlando was without Rashard Lewis, but the Cavs treated this game with the importance it deserved.

Some other takes:

ESPN's John Hollinger: "While the Cavs used this game to show they may have overcome some of the early hurdles that plagued their offense, the Magic demonstrated that their early 5-1 start may be something of a mirage."

Interesting how James acted when the game ended.

Tim Povtak, a friend who wrote Shaq would be embarrassed against Howard before the game, had to change his tune after: "If Dwight Howard wants to keep that Superman moniker — if he wants to deliver on his promise to bring an NBA title to Orlando — he better turn his game up another notch real soon. Playing Shaquille O'Neal — who is well past his prime and 14 years older — to an uninspired standstill like he did Wednesday night won't get his team anywhere close to the Finals again."

Chris Tomasson of AOL hyped Mo Williams' big game.
 
Finally, prior to the game, SI.com's Chris Mannix wrote this of Shaq: "I spoke to an executive from one of O'Neal's former teams last week and he warned that if things stay status quo in Cleveland, Shaq will start to divide the locker room. 'It happened to us,' the executive said. 'It will happen to them.'"

"It" would be the upcoming NBA summer of free agency.

Last I checked there is a very big Cavs game tonight in Orlando. There we get our first glimpse to see how much of a difference the addition of Shaquille O'Neal will have on the Cavs.

Shaq has promised he will handle Dwight Howard man-to-man, but said the Magic will have to double him. He has been dismissive of Howard in the past, and has bristled at Howard's stealing his "Superman" mantra.

Tim Povtak of AOL thinks Howard will dominate, saying "there will be some sadness in seeing (O'Neal) get destroyed on his former home court Wednesday night by Dwight Howard." Yet 62 percent of those taking part in an online poll with the story think the Cavs will win (I voted once, and picked the Magic).

Me, I'm worried about Shaq — for a different reason. Tonight's game is one game, and the Cavs are more than candid about admitting that they are not playing at their peak at the moment. If they win, it would be great. If they don't, well they're not playing at their peak right now (Remind me I used this before if I'm still using it March).

I'm worried about Shaq because of off-the-court concerns. This week, his wife Va'Shaundya O'Neal (Shaunie) filed separation papers in a California court, with intent to divorce.

Your first thought in this is to extend a lot of thoughts to O'Neal. Because any time children are involved it's got to be painful. The O'Neals have four kids, who evidently were moved to LA the day before the legal proceedings were filed.
Clearly this is serious stuff. Potentially painful stuff. And if O'Neal has one thought on LA tonight and one in Orlando, well it would be understandable.

Just as clearly, what happens with his kids is prime importance. But divorces can be difficult — see Kosar, Bernie — and they can affect a player's mental well-being and ability to concentrate.

Shaq might have the experience and mental fortitude to plow right through it, but this might be a situation that stays with the Cavs as this season continues.

The Celtics' fast start has one person who follows them thinking history.

The best thing about the Cavs win over Washington Tuesday night was that Shaquille O'Neal played so well. The second-best thing was that LeBron James did not have to be spectacular in the win.

This game might have shown the strength of the combination of two superstars better than any since the season started a brief time ago.

James was excellent, but the Cavs took control of the game when they pounded the ball inside to Shaq, who made 7-of-9 shots, scored 21 points and had eight rebounds.

The Cavs basically took Shaq off that silly high pick-and-roll spot he had been in and permanently settled him on the low block, where he can be most effective. If teams single-cover him, he can score. If they double, he can pass.

It worked very well.

And as Mike Brown pointed out, O'Neal gets the other team into foul trouble, which gets the Cavs into the bonus quicker. Brendan Haywood fouled out of the game, and Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee both had four fouls.

"We had 12 fouls from the bigs alone (in the first half)," Haywood said. "You read in between the lines what you want to. It's not hard. The game is played a certain way until a certain point."

There were questionable calls, but no more than usual.

Too, does Haywood expect to get calls in the Q against O'Neal and James? What he did say that was accurate was the fouls took away the Wizards' aggressiveness. The Wizards had an 18-point lead in the first half that disappeared pretty quickly.

"What happened was that we had bigs setting good screens and doing things," Wizards coach Flip Saunders said. "And when the bigs got into foul trouble, it was tough to get some of those and they (the Cavs) put a little more emphasis and we didn't have as much of an inside presence at that point."

The key point: The Cavs had an option with O'Neal they've lacked in the past. If another team has foul trouble like Washington had, the Cavs can go to Shaq on the block.

Things pretty much worked the way they were supposed to work for the first time this season.

And it was nice to see.

Charles Barkley was on Letterman recently and offered this on the Cavs: "Rasheed Wallace going to Boston is really going to help them. And I just think Dwight Howard is the best big man in the game right now. … I just don’t think Cleveland is as good as those other two teams.” The guy is nothing if not honest.

Not a great opening night for the Cavs, who looked like a team still trying to find itself.

LeBron James called it a "transition period."

Coach Mike Brown said: "We will get better."

The cynic in me started to ask why Boson's transition seemed so much easier, but there is an easy reason. Boston's new guys — Rasheed Wallace and Marquis Daniels — are off-the-bench role players.

The Cavs' new guys, right now at least, are core starters. And one of them will be a secondary focal point of the offense. That would be Shaquille O'Neal, who looked a little uncertain at times.

It just wasn't all there. Not yet at least.

And the Cavs don't sound in the least concerned or worried about it.

As James said: "I don't want to look too much out of one game."

Random thoughts …

—There was a lot of hoopla about the game. Early pregame crowd. Lot of excitement. All that stuff. It carried over into the first quarter. But after that it was pretty much all Celtics. They are a bunch of pros, after all, and they understand how to play the game. The Cavs have shown an unnerving habit of racing to a fast start and then losing the lead and the game.

–Of course that happened against Orlando and Boston, two pretty good teams.

–There were still too many times when the offense devolved into the James-on-five game. He scored 38, but it's just not going to work every game. His late three off no movement or passes with the Cavs down 87-83 was simply not a good shot.

–Mo Williams looked uncomfortable being the third guy in the offense. Last season, he was No. 2. Now he has to pound the ball inside to O'Neal, or give it to James and let him do what he does. The Cavs need more from Williams, who looked more like the guy who struggled against Orlando than the guy who was so good in the 2008-09 regular season.

–Delonte West's absence is huge, because it screws up the guard system. Without West, Anthony Parker has to play 40 minutes, and he wasn't signed to play 40 minutes. Without West, Daniel Gibson becomes a backup point guard, and it's not his forte. Without West, the entire guard system is thrown off.

–This could be a concern all season.

–For a good part of the fourth quarter, Brown had Zyrdunas Ilgauskas and O'Neal on the floor together. Late in the game, he brought Anderson Varejao off the bench. I expected him to replace O'Neal and take Shaq's free throw shooting out of play, but he went in for Ilgauskas.

–Brown admits he's searching for the right substitutions and patterns. He admitted he didn't do a good job of working his lineups during the game.

–James had two more of those chase-down blocks that are becoming his signature.

–At one point, Ray Allen was guarding James. Could he not have done what Allen did when Allen saw Gibson guarding him and go to the low block?

–Said Shaq: "I've been around 17 years, won the first game, lose the first game … we've just got to get better. We're still a fairly new team. We're still learning each other."