4. Dwight Howard will get suspended for the game in Orlando by committing another technical foul.

3. Mo Williams will realize the basket is the thing with the orange rim and the net.

2. David Stern wants them to.

1. LeBron James

photo: Tim Black, BlackandWhiteServices.org

5. 7′0 rich German NBA players can’t get hot young chicks.

4. He needed someone to teach him how to steal.

3. Mark Cuban told him he could.

2. He admires President Obama’s willingness to bail people out.

1. She had him by the Nuggets!

photo: AP

LeBron James just secured his first MVP trophy in his 6th season as a player in the NBA. LeBron is hoping to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to their  first NBA title in 2008-09. He may have to go through Kobe Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers to win the championship.

How long did it take Kobe to win the MVP?

Kobe in fact had no MVP trophys on his mantle in his first 6 seasons. He received the honor for the first time 12 years into his NBA career in 2007-08.

How many titles did he have his first 6 years?

Kobe had 3 rings by the end of his 6th season, but he had a little more help in teammate Shaquille O’Neal.

Shaq took home MVP honors in 1999-2000, the first year he and Kobe led the team to an NBA Championship. In fact, many would argue the team had more weapons than just Shaq and Kobe.

Both LeBron and Kobe came straight from high school to the NBA, so this is truly an apples to apples look at the numbers!

Here is a statistical comparison of LeBron vs. Kobe in their first 6 years in the NBA.

LeBron James 6-8, 250 lbs

GAMES    STARTED    FG%    FT%    REBS    ASST    TO    ST    BK    PPG

472              471             47.1    73.8      7.0        6.7        3.2   1.8    .80    27.5

Kobe Bryant 6-6, 205 lbs

GAMES    STARTED    FG%    FT%    REBS    ASST    TO    ST    BK    PPG

414              267             45.8    82.5      4.6        3.8        2.5   1.3    .61    19.8

Source of Statistics: www.NBA.com

photo: AP

photo by Tim Black www.BlackandWhiteServices.org

Marty Rice owns two small businesses in Mansfield, Ohio and owning a successful company in 2009 is much more difficult than it was even a few short years ago. His corrugated box company, Mr. Box Plus, has seen a dip in sales of about 11% to start the year after posting solid numbers in 2008. Most companies are experiencing similar results as America is faced with one of the toughest economic downturns in history.

Marty owns season tickets to the Cleveland Indians and Cleveland Cavaliers. With the tough economic times, one would think Marty has stopped attending games and sold his tickets to make up for the loss of income.

Or has he?

Marty splits a dugout suite Progressive Field with 6 other guys. He says that everyone of them is back for the 2009 season.  At a cost of $248,000 this year, Marty’s portion of the package is over $41,000. That doesn’t even include food and beverages on game day. No one especially wants to miss the dessert cart. I have personally been in the suite and win or lose; the dessert cart is a highlight of the location! The seats are so close to the field you can even spit on the on deck hitter. I know my kid tried two years ago!

Marty hasn’t given up his Cavs seats either. In fact, Marty or his clients attended all 41 Cavaliers home games in 2008-09. According to ESPN.Go.Com, the Cavaliers averaged 20,010 fans per night this season, slightly down from their 2007-08 showing of 20,465 per night. Marty says he noticed a great turnout at every Cavs game he attended, “the place was pretty much full every time,” he stated.

So, if Marty feels this way, how about the rest of America? Are fans no longer attending events because they can’t afford it? Not according to Harmon Howe, whose job it is to manage ticket partners for the world’s largest secondary market exchange, TicketNetwork Exchange™. “What’s happened is the average price of a transaction has dropped from last year by about 15%,” stated Howe, “the number of transactions has gone up substantially, about 75%.”

“Instead of going to Disney World for a week, parents are taking their children to a kid’s concert,” said Howe. Although, he really feels economic pressure has pushed down the price of a seat, he offered this, “fans don’t want to miss the opportunity to see an artist or musical group that may not tour for several years or never again.” U2 and Aerosmith are two very popular groups that fit this category and have been very profitable in the secondary market.

Carol-Ann Rudy of www.TicketNews.com supports Howe in her article written for the website on April 22, 2009. Rudy cites Broadway sales are up over $26 million versus last year at this time. Wicked continues to hold the top spot in all of secondary market ticket sales. According to the sites ranking system, the popular musical has more market share than the four shows ranked directly below the show combined!

A USA Today poll launched in March asked, “How will the economic downturn affect your sports consumption?” As of April 28th, 48% of responders say they will, “attend fewer events and watch more TV” and 36% of pollsters say the economy will have no effect at all!

So, despite an almost bare economy where company revenue is down, Marty Rice will jump into his 2005 Chrysler 300M, head up I-71 to Quicken Loans Arena and follow the Cavaliers throughout the rest of their playoff run. LeBron James is the favorite to win the MVP award and his team had the best regular season record at home this year in the NBA. According to Marty, it’s worth the money he will spend to sit in Club Section 124. Yep, Marty thinks it would be “bull” to sell his playoff tickets or any other ticket he owns at this point. He feels, “the excitement of the playoffs has overridden the economy.”

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