There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning. --Louis L'Amour

The end of an era has come and at the end of the Free Agency Summer of 2010 the NBA will look very different than it does today. For the Cavs - coach Brown is as good as gone (deservedly so), Shaq and Ilgauskas are free agents, and of course nobody knows what LeBron will be doing next year. For the rest of the NBA - LeBron, Wade, Bosh, Joe Johnson, Ray Allen, Amare are just a few of the names that are weighing their options and rumored to be on the move this summer. The competitive balance will change unlike any time since Gasol revived the Lakers and the "Big Three" teamed up in Boston.

For me - I am a LeBron fan first so I could care less about "loyalty" to Cleveland. What does that mean anyways? Basketball is his profession...do you and I "owe" it to our hometowns to stay in Cupertino, San Diego, or wherever you hail from.... No.
So I say go wherever you have the best chance to WIN. Whether that is in New York where they have enough cap room to sign to Max players (but terrible recent track record in terms of performance and front office management) or Chicago, where he could join a rising star in Derrick Rose and a solid player, as much as I hate to admit it, in Joakim Noah.

As a LeBron fan, his early exit from the playoffs against the Celtics this series was devastating, but there is a silver lining ("we can build on this!!").  All my fears and unease about the Cavaliers over the past few years surfaced in this series.  It took a resurgent Celtics team that appeared to have filled their Gatorade coolers at the fountain of youth to expose the fact that despite the roster changes this Cavaliers team has not been able to win without LeBron at a 100% every game.

BREAKING UPDATE: Brown out! http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5189101

Just look at the performances in this series of some of the "key players" that were supposed to help LeBron win a championship:

Mo Wiliams (reg. season/playoffs vs. celtics):
fg%: .442/.409
3p%: .429/.211
pts: 15.8/13.3

Antawn Jamison:
fg%: .461/.422
3p%: .344/.188
pts: 18.7/11.8

Anderson Varejao: (not his fault, Mr.Potatohead Brown decided not to give him more than 20min a game)

fg%: .572/.458
reb: 7.6/5.8
pts: 8.6/6.2
min: 28.5/21.5

J.J. Hickson: (another victim of Potatohead despite being one of the most effective players against the Celtics during the season)

fg%: .554/.647
reb: 4.9/1.2
pts: 8.5/4.8
min: 20.9/9.3

anyways, the point is that LeBron doesn't show up for 2 games in a series and you get a "LeBacle". Contrary to popular belief even the best players in the world have "off" games. Look at this list of kobe's high profile "off" games taken from Bill Simmon's article on ESPN.com

THE LIST OF KOBE NO-SHOWS

• Game 6 of the 2003 Spurs series: Lakers eliminated in a 32-point blowout (Kobe scores 20, commits seven turnovers).

• Game 3, Game 4 and Game 5 of the 2004 Finals: Kobe went 4-for-13, 8-for-25 and 7-for-21 as the Pistons finished off L.A.

• Game 7 of the 2006 Suns series: Lakers lose by 32, Kobe mysteriously stops shooting in the second half in a rarely seen Eff You To My Teammates performance.

• Game 4 of the 2008 Finals: Boston rallies back from 25 down to win in L.A. Kobe finishes 6-for-19.

• Game 6 of the 2008 Finals: Boston wins the title with a 39-point blowout, Kobe goes 7-for-22. 

It's bound to happen due to great defence, injuries, whatever...

But when nobody else steps up you are NOT going to win an NBA championship. Teams in the NBA are too good. LeBron may be the best, but he is not better than Pierce and Ray and Garnett and now Rondo. Hell, he's probably not even better than two or three of those players by himself. THAT is the difference. Pierce can not show up for the 4 out of 6 games this series (13ppg, .345 fg%) and the Celtics are still on their way to the ECF.  Kobe can not show up for 4 out of 6 games against the Thunder in the first round (23.5ppg .408 fg% 4rpg 4apg) and still the Lakers win in six.

LeBron goes for 26.8ppg 9.3rpg 7.2apg 2.17steals and 1.3 blocks .447 fg% and the Cavs get convincingly beat in six games...

It doesn't seem fair, but that's how it works out sometimes.

LeBron has definitely been prematurely crowned "king" of the NBA. I completely agree that he needs that ring to legitimize his career.

He's still young at 25 though, and just as quickly as people were to crown him, they are just as quick to dismiss him as a fraud after he fell short this week.

All the cliches about it being "darkest before the storm"...."every end is a new beginning"..."When one door closes another door opens"... they all apply here and I still believe LeBron is the best in the NBA. What jersey he is wearing come November reamins to be seen, and he may or may not be on the cover of SI or maintains his season pass to a place on ESPN's top play's of the night, but I am sure that we haven't seen the Last of LeBron....just the beginning.