Rep. Steve Israel (D - New York) thought he was going to get the chance to discuss Republican House Speaker John Boehner's lawsuit against President Barack Obama on MSNBC Friday. However, while Israel was speaking about the suit, host Luke Russert cut him off to discuss the breaking news about basketball star LeBron James leaving the Miami Heat. Israel shared his thoughts about being bumped for basketball in a phone call with Business Insider.

"I thought they were about to cut in and announce a ceasefire in Gaza and then I found out that they're announcing that LeBron is going to Cleveland," Israel said.

Israel said this wasn't his first experience being bumped from a cable news appearance.

"Early on in the war in Iraq I was about to do a segment on Fox News and the producer gave me the thirty second warning," recounted Israel. "I was looking at the monitor watching Iraqis tie a rope around a statue of Saddam Hussein and pull it down and I said to the producer, 'I'm not going on am I?' And he said, 'No, you're not."

Israel said the Saddam story was "a little more newsworthy" than James' move, but he noticed a similarity between his two experiences getting kicked off the air. 

"One was a tyrant, Saddam Hussein, the other was King James. I don't know what it is about royalty," said the congressman.

After being bumped by James, Israel said he wants to challenge the NBA star to a one-on-one game of hoops.

"If he can challenge me on my turf, television, then I want to challenge him on his the basketball court," Israel said. "I think I'll be humiliated though."

Business Insider reached out to Russert to ask about the decision to end Israel's interview early. Russert referred us to a spokeswoman for the network who did not respond. For his part, Israel said he's not holding a grudge against the channel. 

"No hard feelings at all," said Israel. "I will remind them, however, that in this interview, you actually let me finish my sentence."

Watch Israel's aborted MSNBC appearance below.  

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One of the most anticipated days in recent American sports history came on Friday when LeBron James announced that he was going to sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers after four years at his "college" in Miami.

There was plenty of talk and debate and analysis about the move.

But at the end of the day, all that mattered was LeBron was going home.

The New York Times "Sports Saturday" section captured that perfectly with their front page. If it is difficult to see, that is just their transaction section all alone, with "CLEVELAND CAVALIERS — Signed F LeBron James" highlighted.

Biggest story in sports today, LeBron back to Cavs, displayed this way on cover of @NYTSports print edition: pic.twitter.com/OVfALkDjYJ

— NYT Sports (@NYTSports) July 12, 2014

Here is a closer view.

OK, this is cool, @nytimespic.twitter.com/I22TZAUoZp

— Caitlin Kelly (@atotalmonet) July 12, 2014

Perfect.

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LeBron James says he is "coming home" to Cleveland on a mission to bring an NBA championship to his home state and because he wants to raise his family in his hometown of Akron and to show kids in Northeast Ohio that there's no better place to grow up.

The reasons cited in his Sports Illustrated announcement make him sound like a saint or at least like a man with (this time around) a good understanding of public relations, and they seem legitimate, too. But they're not the only reasons why James is leaving the Miami Heat for Cleveland Cavaliers.

It also comes down to basketball, how James did not want to get stuck on a Miami team with aging superstars who provided less help each year and a bench that wasn't getting much better, how he would rather join a talented young Cavaliers team with (through absurd draft shenanigans) players like 2011 No. 1 draft pick Kyrie Irving, 2014 No. 1 draft pick Andrew Wiggins, and 2013 No. 1 draft pick Anthony Bennet who may be traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves for the excellent Kevin Love.

James did not mention the appeal of having new teammates, but its importance is obvious.

"I think LeBron would have stayed in Miami — for at least one or two more years — if he truly believed he had a chance to keep winning there,"Bill Simmons speculates in a extensive column at ESPN's Grantland.

But since Miami was in decline and Cleveland had potential, it became a lot easier to come home now.

Here's Simmons' take on what James was thinking but couldn't say in SI:

I am a genius. That genius has a shelf life. I already feel my body wearing down a little. Over the last 11 years, including the playoffs, I played 1,000 of a possible 1,044 games, averaged nearly 40 minutes per game and logged 39,993 minutes in all. Only Wilt and Russell reached 40,000 minutes faster than I will. I want to be part of something that’s greater than me. I am tired of carrying teams for nine months a year. I thought Wade and Bosh would help me, and they did for a while, but now Wade is breaking down and Bosh is past his prime.

The more I thought about it, I loved the idea of playing with a younger, more athletic and more malleable supporting cast. I loved the idea of being able to play four positions again. I loved the thought of being occasionally carried by young legs instead of always doing the carrying. I want to play point forward. I want to play with my back to the basket. I want to run the wing on fast breaks again — something I couldn’t do in Miami anymore. I want to use all of my skills. I am Magic and Larry and Barkley and Malone in the same body. I am an artist. That’s what I am.

The Cavaliers are already the favorite to win next year's championship.

Looking back it seems so obvious that James was going to Cleveland, for both basketball reasons and, yes, the opportunity to return home after four years in Miami helped him become "a better player and a better man."

SEE ALSO: 14 examples of LeBron James' incredible work ethic

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Once again, an NBA player has come "home" and that means Diddy and Skylar Grey's song "Coming Home" is being played everywhere across radio and TV.

LeBron James has announced he's going to become a Cleveland Cavalier once again, and Skylar Grey decided yesterday was a perfect time to give her popular hit a new version.

She hopped on YouTube yesterday to perform the song with new lyrics to reflect LeBron's return to Ohio.

In this version she says "I know that Cleveland awaits, and they've forgiven my mistakes." Given the enormous debacle of "the decision," most NBA fans and Cleveland sports fans would probably agree with this sentiment. It perfectly describes what this moment is all about for Cavs fans.

This is not the first time this song has been featured prominently in a huge NBA move. When Carmelo Anthony was traded to the New York Knicks a few years ago, MSG Network decided to use the same song to welcome the superstar and drum up some hype.

Here's the commercial they aired for Carmelo:

SEE ALSO: LeBron James Didn't Mention A Major Factor In His Decision To Return To Cleveland

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LeBron James is going home, but it won't come without a big cost.

James' contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers is expected to be worth $88 million over four years, considerably less than the five-year, $127.7 million deal he turned down from the Miami Heat.

Meanwhile, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports is reporting that Chris Bosh did the exact opposite, turning down an $88 million contract with the Houston Rockets and has agreed to a five-year, $118 million deal to stay with the Heat.

These different offers are designed to discourage players from leaving their current teams. But what ends up happening is situations like this where one of the greatest players of all times will make less in his first 15 seasons than Chris Bosh, a player who also started his career in 2003.

Bosh is a very good NBA player. But he is not in the same class as James and there is something wrong with a league where players like Bosh make more than players like LeBron.

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Four years—the length of LeBron James’s absence from the Cleveland Cavaliers, give or take a day—is a long time. It’s the duration of a presidential term, or a non-Van Wilder trip to college.

And judging by the choices James made during his 2010 and 2014 free-agent experiences, it was enough time for basketball’s best player to grow up off the court.

James’s first-person essay on Sports Illustrated’s website, announcing that he will return to the Cavs, feels in many ways like the antithesis of his notorious announcement in July 2010. 

The Decision, the ESPN on-air spectacle during which he said he would join the Miami Heat, was almost universally viewed as a catastrophe even as it was happening. He spent 45 minutes of live TV before answering the simplest of questions (“Where are you playing next season?), and his representatives informed Cleveland management of the NBA star’s choice with a brusque phone call five minutes before the broadcast.

It was tacky. Tone-deaf. Immature. Like a self-centered bro breaking up with his longtime girlfriend over the phone from a bar with his friends yelling “let’s do shots to FREEDOM!” in the background. And it understandably led to a vicious backlash from Cleveland fans, who burned his jersey in the streets and wrote screeds like Scott Raab’s The Whore of Akron. Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert responded to The Decision with his infamous Comic Sans rant, in which he called James a coward and mocked his “Chosen One” nickname. Overall, it was viewed as an indictment of James’s character and integrity, especially after his gaudy introduction to the Heat with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh a few days later.

Contrast that with the route James took this time around. Before his announcement Friday, he made no public statements of any kind about the free-agency process, ignoring the prognosticators who did everything from tracking the movements of Gilbert’s private plane to consulting a psychic clam. Then, without any self-generated fanfare, he published a thoughtful, incisive piece of writing that touched on his initial decision to leave Cleveland, his time in Miami, and his reasons for returning home.

Cynics will say that the article was corporate public relations at its best, every word vetted by James’s team and every sentiment tailored to improve his image.

Part of that is true—every word was most certainly reviewed on multiple levels (James notably did not mention Cleveland’s No. 1 draft pick Andrew Wiggins in the announcement, potentially because he could now be dealt to Minnesota in a trade for Kevin Love).

But James went out of his way to address thorny issues like The Decision, about which he said, “If I had to do it all over again, I’d obviously do things differently, but I’d still have left.”

Fans in Cleveland may not want to hear this, but four years ago James couldn’t have shown the level of forthrightness he's showing now. He just didn't have it in him then. But there's new perspective present throughout his announcement essay, never more so than when he addresses getting over Gilbert’s Comic Sans screed and the hatred from jilted Cleveland fans:

It was easy to say, “OK, I don’t want to deal with these people ever again.” But then you think about the other side. What if I were a kid who looked up to an athlete, and that athlete made me want to do better in my own life, and then he left? How would I react? I’ve met with Dan, face-to-face, man-to-man. We’ve talked it out. Everybody makes mistakes. I’ve made mistakes as well. Who am I to hold a grudge?

James didn’t promise a championship to the Cleveland fans, unlike when he arrogantly claimed that he, Wade, and Bosh would bring “not three… not four… not five…” titles to Miami. He promised the most than any athlete can realistically promise fans: hard work, patience, and slavish devotion to the cause—in this case, that cause being ending the Cleveland pro-sports championship drought that will be 50 years long in December.

And he explained his intimate relationship with the land of his childhood in a way he couldn’t have done when he left four years ago. “My relationship with Northeast Ohio is bigger than basketball," James said. "I didn’t realize that four years ago. I do now."

The basketball implications of James’s return to Cleveland will become clearer in the coming days, with Bosh likely headed to the Houston Rockets and Love expressing interest in playing alongside James in Cleveland. But one thing is very clear: The man who left Cleveland in a way that Gilbert said sent “the exact opposite lesson of what we would want our children to learn” came back in a way that demonstrated how much he’s grown up.

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The details of LeBron James' contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers are out, and they're pretty interesting.

LeBron signed a two-year, $42.1-million deal, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN. The second year is a player option, meaning he can opt out after the 2014-15 season and become a free agent again. 

The contract is unique among current NBA players. It gives LeBron the most power he could have gotten in the short term and the most money he could have gotten in the long term.

Here's why it's so smart:

1. He set himself up to cash in when the league's new TV deals go into effect.

Because of the league's new TV deals, a maximum contract signed in July of 2016 is going to be more valuable than a maximum contract signed in July of 2014.

LeBron could have signed a four-year, $88-million max contract with the Cavaliers that would have ended after the 2017-18 season.

Under the collective bargaining agreement, the value of a max contracts is roughly 35% of the salary cap (as long as the player has been in the league for 10 years). Right now, the salary cap is at $63.2 million. So if LeBron signed a four-year deal with the Cavaliers now, his salary in all four years would be based on that 2014-15 cap number of $63.2 million, even if the cap number jumped significantly over the life of the contract.

The cap number is about to jump significantly in two years — which, conveniently, is when LeBron will be a free agent.

The NBA salary cap is directly tied to "basketball-related income" (BRI), which TV rights are a big part of. The league currently makes ~$930 million per year from its TV deals with ESPN and Turner.

Those deals expire after the 2015-16 season. With the market for TV rights exploding, it stands to reason that the league is going to see a significant BRI jump with its new TV deals. MLB doubled its national TV rights deal in 2012, while the NFL's TV rights jumped 60% in value in its latest negotiation in 2011.

Everyone expects the NBA to see similar increases. Those increases are going to boost the salary cap starting in 2016-17, which will, in turn, raise the value of maximum contracts starting in the summer of 2016.

2. He gave himself leverage, because he can threaten to leave at any time.

NBA free agents have all sorts of leverage. But the minute they sign their long-term contracts, that leverage disappears. They have to play for that team no matter what. They can huff and puff, but at the end of the day they can't dictate the direction of the franchise.

LeBron's deal gives him that power. He can leave after 2014-15 and 2015-16. Or, he can at least threaten to leave — which is just as important. 

Don't like the coach? Want the owner to go over the luxury tax line? Want the team to go after Player X at the trade deadline? LeBron's opinion will always legitimately matter within the organization because it comes with the implicit add on of, "..., or else."

These last two weeks have taught us that LeBron has more power than any other American athlete.

He shut down the entire NBA for 10 days while he made his free agency decision. Instead of handing over that power to the Cavaliers by binding himself to the team for four years, he held on to that power by giving himself a year-by-year deal.

SEE ALSO: How LeBron Makes And Spends His Money

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New Cleveland Cavalier LeBron James is at the World Cup final in Rio promoting Nike.

When a guy ran onto the field in the second half, ESPN cut to scenic shots of the stadium and didn't even mention it to viewers. 

LeBron, though, fired up his cellphone and captured the guy getting tackled in an Instagram video.

"Hahaha!! We're going streaking! Everyone's doing it. Man that was hilarious. #WorldCupFinal #Brazil" he wrote.

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LeBron James is returning to Cleveland in one of the most dramatic free agency moves in NBA history.

It's a smart move all around. The Cavs are now the betting favorites to win the 2015 NBA Championship, with James surrounded by a core of young talent. The Sports Illustrated essay that LeBron used to announce the move is a love letter to northeast Ohio, and it should all but erase the stain of 2010's "The Decision." In addition, the structure of the deal — two years, $42.1 million — is a stroke of genius from a financial point of view.

But little is known about the man who orchestrated the return, LeBron's 33-year-old agent Rich Paul.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, Paul had been pushing for LeBron's return to Cleveland for years, calling it "something of a mission." After James opted out of the final year of his contract with Miami, Paul encouraged the Cavs to "offer no restraint in the recruitment of James." Cleveland responded by immediately making a trade to clear enough cap space to sign LeBron. 

While LeBron was on a trip with his family during the early stages of free agency, it was Paul who held meetings with a handful of NBA suitors.

Just moments before James made his announcement public, Paul was the one who called Cavs owner Dan Gilbert to tell him, "Dan, congratulations. LeBron's coming home,"Wojnarowski reports.

Paul is also from northeast Ohio. He met James at an airport, of all places, before most people had ever heard the name LeBron James.

Chris Broussard told the whole story in his ESPN The Magazine profile on Paul back in 2012.

James was 17 and Paul was 21 when they met. LeBron, on his way to Atlanta to watch the NCAA Final Four when he spotted a man, Paul, wearing a powder blue Warren Moon Houston Oilers throwback jersey.

From Broussard:

"Tiny and thin but with swag twice his size, the then-21-year-old Paul strolled toward the gate in his authentic Warren Moon, complemented by white Air Force 1's with the red sole and red swoosh. James and his friends did double takes. Finally James approached the little man and asked where he got his jersey. Turns out Paul, a Cleveland native, sold them from the trunk of his car."

They've been friends ever since.

After James was drafted, he signed Paul to King James Inc., not knowing what position Paul would serve, only that he wanted to grow with him. 

Paul eventually helped form LRMR, James' management and marketing group, along with LeBron's childhood friends Maverick Carter and Randy Mims (the acronym LRMR stands for LeBron, Rich, Maverick, and Randy). Despite not attending college, Paul landed a job with Leon Rose and Creative Artists Agency (CAA) when James switched agents and signed with CAA in 2009.

Then, in 2012, Paul left CAA to start Klutch Sports Group, signing James as his first client. Klutch Sports now represents several other NBA players, including Eric Bledsoe and James' new teammate, Tristan Thompson.

In four short years, LeBron James has gone from hero, to villain, to hero again. People are singing James' praises for his homecoming, but they really ought to be singing Paul's, too, because without him, LeBron's talents would probably be somewhere other than Cleveland.

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Snapchat is in the midst of a transition.

The app first gained traction as a place to send photos and messages that would disappear after 10 seconds or less. 

Then, it allowed users to share stories with a select group of friends for 24 hours at a time in a feature called "My Story".

Now, it's starting to let people create group stories centered on big events in a feature it calls "Our Story." At a selected event, a user will have to enable the location services on their phone, and then add the snap to "Our Story" the same way one would add to "My Story."

The initial event the feature was made available for was the Electric Daisy Carnival, an electronic music festival in Las Vegas.

However, the first massive event the feature was put to use for was yesterday's World Cup Final between Argentina and Germany, and roughly five minutes worth of snapchats were submitted to the story.

Some of the best snapchats from the story included fan sightings of new Cleveland Cavaliers' forward LeBron James and actor Gerard Butler, and video of Argentinian forward Lionel Messi as he was exiting the pitch following the soul-crushing defeat.

Here are some of the best:

Somehow, this fan had better seats than LeBron, who can be seen sporting a pair of Beats headphones. Many media outlets were reporting that LeBron was heading to Rio for the World Cup Final after signing with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Another fan found famous Scottish actor Gerard Butler sitting in a luxury box above the stands.

Star Argentinian forward Lionel Messi leaves the pitch dejected, with his head held low as he passes through security. He would later have to re-enter the field to accept the Golden Ball award as the tournament's top player.

An Argentina fan sports what is very likely the best face paint from the match.

Lastly, here's one American fan who still believes that we will win.

SEE ALSO: Snapchat Announces A New Feature That Lets Users Share Their Photos And Videos With Anyone Publicly From Events

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The Houston Rockets had a bad week.

They thought they got exactly what they needed to become the NBA's next super team when LeBron James broke up the Miami Big-3 and signed with Cleveland.

But then the floor fell out from under them, and they are now worse off than they were when the offseason began.

Here's how the dominoes fell for the Rockets in all the wrong ways.

1. The Rockets let Chandler Parsons become a restricted free agent.

The Rockets declined the 2014-15 team option on Parsons's contract. Picking up the option would have brought Parsons back to Houston for just $964,750, but it also would have allowed him to become an unrestricted free agent next summer.

Instead, the Rockets were hoping to sign Parsons to a long-term deal at a cheaper price than what he would have commanded next summer, and felt they would have been able to match any offer Parsons received from another team.

2. The Rockets thought they had a commitment from Chris Bosh if LeBron left Miami.

With the possibility of James leaving the Heat seemingly growing by the day, Bosh began negotiations with the Rockets as a back-up plan. It was made clear that Bosh still wanted to return to Miami, and sacrifice as much as $30 million, but only if James returned too.

If James signed with the Cavs, it was reported that Bosh was committed to signing a 4-year, $88 million contract with the Rockets, joining Dwight Howard, James Harden, and Chandler Parsons as "The Big 4."

3. The Dallas Mavericks offered Chandler Parsons a huge contract.

In the NBA it is great to be a restricted free agent because if a team really wants you, they have to overpay to get you. That's what happened when the Mavericks offered Parsons a three-year contract worth $46 million.

It was the worst-case scenario for the Rockets. The Rockets could still land Parsons and Bosh, but for salary cap reasons they needed to sign Bosh first and then match the Parsons offer. Under NBA rules, Houston had just 72 hours to match Dallas's offer or Parsons was gone.

Meanwhile, James had still not made his decision.

4. LeBron signed with Cleveland, so Houston traded Jeremy Lin to create cap space.

Once LeBron announced his decision, the Rockets pulled the trigger on a trade to clear cap space so they could sign Bosh, sending Jeremy Lin and two draft picks to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Rockets general manager Daryl Morey explained that they had to make the move before a 100% commitment from Bosh because the Lakers did not want to wait. As a result, the Rockets lost Lin and two draft picks (including a first-round pick next year) for cap space they didn't end up using.

5. Bosh re-signed with the Heat.

When James made his decision to join the Cavs, that finally opened the door for Bosh to sign the reported $88-million contract with Houston.

Instead, Bosh negotiated a five-year, $118 million deal to stay with the Heat.

It was a huge shocker.

In the end, the Rockets may not have anticipated that the Heat would get desperate and offer Bosh a five-year max contract that they couldn't match.

6. The Rockets lost Parsons to Dallas.

Once Bosh was out of the picture, the Rockets decided the price for Parsons would kill their ability to land a third superstar in the future. They declined to match the Dallas offer, attempts to negotiate a sign-and-trade with the Mavs failed.

Instead of having Parsons on the team with a salary of less than $1 million (which they could have done by picking up his team option), the Rockets lost one of their best players to a division rival and got nothing in return.

In less than a week, the Rockets went from a strong belief that they were going to keep Parsons, add Bosh, and be the NBA's next super team to a team that lost Bosh, Parsons, Lin, and a first-round pick, and received almost nothing in return.

That's a bad week.

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The Cleveland Cavaliers would be willing to include Andrew Wiggins in a trade for Kevin Love, Bob Finnan of the News-Herald and Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today report.

It was previously thought that the Cavs wouldn't trade Wiggins, the No. 1 pick in the 2014 NBA Draft.

There are still a few obstacles here.

Love's contract expires at the end of the 2014-15 season. If Cleveland trades for him, they'll need assurances that he's willing to sign there for multiple years. They don't want to trade a prospect as good as Wiggins for a one-year rental.

According to ESPN's Marc Stein, Love is willing to stay in Cleveland for the long term as long as LeBron James is there. But the specifics of LeBron's deal — he has a two-year contract with a player option after the first year — mean that Love would have to commit to the team without knowing for sure LeBron will be there for the long term.

Cleveland also faces competition for Love from Golden State.

The Warriors have refused to include Klay Thompson in a trade for Love. If the Cavaliers offering Wiggins motivates Golden State to include Thompson in a deal, Minnesota might go that route.

SEE ALSO: Where Are They Now? The Players From The Legendary 2003 NBA Draft

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Momentum seems to be building for a blockbuster trade that would send Kevin Love to Cleveland.

The Cavaliers are now willing to include No. 1 pick Andrew Wiggins in a trade, according to widespread reports. LeBron James even called Love to tell him he wanted to play together.

A trio of LeBron, Love, and Kyrie Irving would be a younger, more offensively dynamic version of the Miami Heat's Big-3. But as great as it would be to see Love play next to James, the trade comes with risks.

It's not true that the only risk for Cleveland is that Wiggins goes on to become a superstar. The real issue here is that trading for Love severely limits their options going forward. 

The trade would eat up Cleveland's cap space for the foreseeable future. The Cavaliers would be locked into LeBron-Love-Kyrie. That's their team. They could make smaller moves to put a supporting cast around them, but if you trade Wiggins for Love, you're setting your core in stone before we've even seen one game of the second LeBron era.

Assuming Love gets a maximum contract starting around $19 million, Cleveland would have ~$56.4 million committed to the new Big-3 alone in 2015-16. Even if you traded/declined to bring back Anthony Bennett, Tristian Thompson, and Dion Waiters, the most cap room Cleveland would have next summer is $6.6 million.

Here's the team's general cap situation for 2015-16 in each scenario.

Trade for Love:

• LeBron James: $21.6 million
• Kevin Love: ~$19 million
• Kyrie Irving: $15.9 million
• Anthony Bennett/Tristian Thompson/Dion Waiters (team options/qualifying offers): $17.7 million
• Maximum possible cap space: $6.6 million

Keep Wiggins:

• LeBron James: $21.6 million
• Kyrie Irving: $15.9 million
• Andrew Wiggins: $4.8 million
• Anthony Bennett/Tristian Thompson/Dion Waiters (team options/qualifying offers): $17.7 million
• Maximum possible cap space: $19.7 million

Cleveland has the ability to create maximum cap room next summer. It'd be tricky They would have to trade/decline to pick up options on Bennett, Thompson, and Waiters, but they can do it.

At that point their options are open.

Marc Gasol and LaMarcus Aldridge will be a free agents — maybe they think one of those guys will be a better fit than the offensive-minded Love. Even if they don't, there's an off-chance that they can sign Love as a free agent in the summer of 2015.

If the Cavs don't want to go the free agency route, they can re-sign all their young guys and try to build a championship-caliber team organically.

By that time they'll have a better idea of what type of players Wiggins and Bennett will become, and will be able to make a better-informed decision.

It's also not a certainty that Love immediately makes Cleveland the best team in the NBA. He and Kyrie Irving are both below-average defenders. To get some rim protection on the floor, you'd probably have to play a center next to Love, meaning you have to shift LeBron to small forward and lose the inherent advantage that playing LeBron as a stretch-4 gives you.

The Cavaliers have a roster right now that can be shaped in any number of ways. Pulling the trigger on a Love trade limits your options to one — namely, trying to surround LeBron-Love-Kyrie with enough veterans and role players to win a title.

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In the days after LeBron James returned to Cleveland, NBA fans and basketball writers have been conducting an interesting thought experiment: What would happen if every NBA player signed with his hometown team?

Using a fantastic database of NBA player hometowns compiled by Deadspin's Reuben Fischer-Baum last summer, we went through all 482 players who played at least one minute in the NBA in 2013-14 and made "hometown rosters" for all 30 teams.

We used "hometown," not "birthplace" to determine team affiliation. Kevin Love was born in Los Angeles but he grew up in Oregon, so he goes on the Portland Trail Blazers, not the Los Angeles Lakers, for example.

Here are all 30 teams. We ranked them from best to worst (check out more on our methodology below):

Some notes:

• We gave smaller markets that don't produce a ton of NBA players more leeway than big markets. We allowed players from most of Ohio to play for the Cavaliers, for example. A lot of small markets would have trouble fielding a team, so we had to be generous. In general, a two-hour drive was the maximum limit, though.
• How we sorted out the New York: The Brooklyn Net got all players from Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and Long Island. The New York Knicks got all players from Manhattan, the Bronx, and northern New Jersey.
• How we sorted out Los Angeles: The Lakers got all the players whose hometowns were listed as simply "Los Angeles" or "Compton." The Clippers got all players from other neighborhoods.
• After some deliberation, we decided that players from Baltimore (like Carmelo Anthony) can be on the Washington Wizards.
• Charlotte didn't get players from Raleigh. We're sorry, Charlotte, the two cities are just too far away. But if we did give them Raleigh, they'd have John Wall.
• We gave the Lopez brothers to Sacramento even though they grew up in Fresno. It's probably the biggest reach on the entire list, but it helps them fill out the roster.
• The biggest surprise: Indianapolis! We knew the Hoosier state was a high school basketball hot bed, but we didn't realize just how good they'd be. They're above Philly, Brooklyn, Houston, and Miami.
• The biggest disappointment: Miami. What the heck, Miami? How is Udonis Haslem your best big man?
• Observation: The NBA would be much worse in this dream scenario because all the foreign players wouldn't have teams.
• Poor Seattle. They have have had Jamal Crawford, Isaiah Thomas, Martell Webster, Avery Bradley, and Marvin Williams.
• Team St. Louis would be pretty good: Ben McLemore, Bradley Beal, Anthony Tolliver, Alec Burks, and David Lee.

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LeBron James might have an "eidetic memory"— the closest thing to a photographic memory — according to ESPN's Brian Windhorst. 

It's assumed that LeBron is so good because of his once-in-a-generation athleticism, combined with a good work ethic. Windhorst reports that there's a third contributing factor: LeBron's freakishly good memory.

The article, which you should really read in its entirety, is full of examples of LeBron remembering things with unusual precision on and off the court. While experts agree that "photographic memory" doesn't exist, eidetic memory is a known phenomenon where people can vividly recall visual images.

Some of the examples:

• One of LeBron's childhood friends says that when you play the Madden videogame against LeBron, you can't be the same team twice because he'll remember which plays you ran.
• In February of 2014, after making a game-winning shot in Golden State, he recalled a game-winning shot he made against the Warriors in 2009, noting small differences: "That one was probably about six feet closer to the baseline and inside the 3-point arc. It was over Ronny Turiaf, I stepped back on him but I crossed him over first and got him on his heels. I'm sure of it. It was down the sideline a few feet. It was a side out-of-bounds play; this one we brought up."
• During a game against the Pacers, he suggested that they run a certain play "like we did in Game 3 against Dallas"— a three-year-old game.
• He remembers the jersey number Kevin Ollie wore for the Cavaliers in 2003-04.

It's easy to see how a good memory could make someone a significantly better player. Reading defenses, recognizing plays, noting tendencies — all of these things are a matter of memory.

In "The Sports Gene," the great book about athleticism and genetics, David Epstein writes about the importance of perceptive ability in sports like baseball and tennis. Baseball hitters don't have faster muscle reaction times than normal people, but they generally have exceptionally strong eye sight that lets them recognize the type of pitch and its speed earlier than normal people would. It's the ability to perceive quickly that differentiates these athletes, not necessary the ability to react quickly.

Memory is a major component of a person's perceptive ability.

When LeBron jumps a passing line that no one else sees, steals the ball, and dunks, we view that as a result of his physical athleticism. In reality, it might be that his brain — with its reserve tank of memories — has recognized the pass before anyone else would.

LeBron told Windhorst that he has a "photographic memory." Windhorst explains what what might actually be going on:

"The evidence appears strong that his memory banks are loaded up like Fort Knox. Rather, what James might be describing appears more likely to be a version of 'eidetic memory,' which is, essentially, the medical term for crazy, crazy freakish recall. And although eidetic memory appears to take many forms — some claim to be able to 'read' pages in their mind, others to 'replay' their memories as if pressing play on streaming video — those who claim the ability often share one trait: They are as cursed by it as they are blessed by it."

This should also help LeBron maintain his level of play as he ages. As his physical skills deteriorate, his memory should persist.

SEE ALSO: How LeBron Makes And Spends His Money

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LeBron James' "Coming Home" letter in Sports Illustrated was widely praised for how well it was written and for being the best way to announce his return to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Many called the letter "perfect." But impressionist Frank Caliendo somehow made the letter even better when he was a guest on ESPN Radio and gave the letter a dramatic reading in the voice of actor Morgan Freeman set to the music from the movie "The Shawshank Redemption."

SEE ALSO: Lebron James: How The Best Basketball Player Alive Spends His Millions

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LeBron James is taking his talents home and most Cleveland fans just want a championship. But he may also bring an annual $500 million boost to the local economy.

The number is based on calculations performed by the Cuyahoga County Fiscal Office and were presented by County Executive Ed FitzGerald according to Mark Niquette of Bloomberg.com.

LeBron's economic impact will be felt directly by increase in attendance for Cavaliers games and the subsequent increase in demand at local restaurants, hotels, and convention centers.

In addition, the study speculates that the increase in demand for Cavs games will lead to an additional 500 jobs supported by the Cavaliers.

An economist came to a similar conclusion, telling Time.com that James will be worth $495 million annually to the area in direct spending at games, increased demand at local businesses, and additional revenue generated during the playoffs, assuming the Cavs make the playoffs.

Another Cuyahoga County executive painted a much more conservative picture, estimating $50 million annually in new economic activity.

ESPN recently estimated that James was worth slightly more than $50 million per year to the local Miami economy.

Whatever the real number is, you can be certain it is a lot more than the $20.6 million the Cavs will pay James this season.

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Once the Cleveland Cavaliers signed LeBron James, they immediately turned their attention to trading for Kevin Love and now that a deal is reportedly in place.

Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor said that it is "likely" that Love will be traded and told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that a deal is expected August 23 or 24.

The dates suggest that the Timberwolves have agreed to trade Love to the Cavaliers in a deal that would include Andrew Wiggins, the top pick of the 2014 NBA Draft.

Wiggins signed his rookie contract with the Cavaliers on July 24 and cannot be traded in the first 30 days of the contract.

They were originally reluctant to include Wiggins in a deal but reportedly changed their minds just prior to signing the rookie to his contract.

If Love ends up with the Cavs as expected, he will join James and Kyrie Irving to form the NBA's newest super team and will immediately be the favorites to win the Eastern Conference.

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LeBron James on Monday posted a photo to Instagram in which he looks skinnier than usual.

One poorly lit photo is not exactly firm evidence that an athlete has or has not lost weight. But there seems to be something to this.

Brian Windhorst of ESPN said on Twitter that LeBron had lost "significant weight" since he reduced his carbohydrate intake earlier this summer. Windhorst has been covering LeBron since high school, and he probably has more access to the Cavs star than any other reporter in the world.

LeBron was listed at 250 pounds last season. He confirmed that he was on diet in a different Instagram photo.

Here's skinny LeBron (Aug. 4):

And here's LeBron during Game 1 of the NBA Finals (June 14):

LeBron is still only 29, but we could be watching him prepare for his post-prime years. Kobe Bryant transformed his body as he entered his 30s as well, and it has significantly extended his career.

SEE ALSO: How LeBron Spends His Millions

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