LEBRON KEY TO ENDING PAIN.

Byline: JOE STEVENS NBA 

No town knows sports pain better than Cleveland.

As a native of the city, I have experienced firsthand the suffering and get a kick when Boston fans, or Chicago Cubs fans, or other disgruntled fans try to tell me that they understand the pain of Cleveland.

The city hasn't won a championship since 1964, when the Browns won the NFL title game. That was a heck of a long time ago -- before the Super Bowl existed and four years before Gloria James, LeBron James' mother, was born.

Cleveland yearns for a winner, and with the Browns an absolute disaster in the ``new Browns'' era and the Indians finishing 18 games back in the American League Central last season, LeBron and the Cavaliers have become the city's only hope.

This year probably is still too early for the Cavs, but at least they have a chance at winning the Eastern Conference. They have the best record in the East, and there may be no other player better suited to delivering the city a championship than James.

LeBron sounds as if he knows all of this, and when asked what could possibly stop the perpetual sports pain in Cleveland, he responded, ``A championship. That's the only way it's going to stop.

``You go through a lot of teams, a lot of Cleveland pro teams, that haven't done so well in the past few years. So it helped that we were able to go out there and win a first-round series and go seven games in the second round.''

James still is young. He turned 22 last month, but he's already in his fourth season and has numerous personal accomplishments. He already is the seventh all-time scorer in Cavaliers history, and the franchise has been around only 37 years.

He is so young that he hasn't necessarily had a lengthy taste of sports pain, even though he grew up in nearby Akron, about 30 miles from Cleveland.

Was he ever a Cleveland sports fan?

``No, not at all,'' he said. ``It was all about the Cowboys and the Bulls in the '90s for me.''

While Michael Jordan and the Bulls repeatedly were breaking Cavs fans' hearts, James was soaking it in, and it's obvious that he, like Kobe Bryant, wants to be the latest version of Jordan.

Right now, Bryant is much closer to His Airness. He's already got threechampionships, and, like Jordan, has the ability to take over games in the fourth quarter and will the Lakers to victory.

Bryant is the best closer in the game, but James and his Cavs are improving. And that's part of the reason why they're taking a big step this season.

``I just think pressure doesn't affect us when it gets late into the game or the fourth quarter,'' James said. ``If we're up or even if we're down, we hopefully try to find a way to win ball games. I'm more comfortable in the fourth quarter, and I think that's what's helped our team.''

That is true, but every so often, he still gets lost in the fourth quarter and can be far from willing the Cavs to wins.

Like Bryant, James has a supporting cast that is improving, but far from championship caliber. But one question is if Jordan really ever had a ``championship-caliber'' supporting cast.

That brings us back to our painful city of Cleveland and the prevailing thought about the Cavs right now, and it's this: ``LeBron can't win a championship by himself.''

I'm sorry to say to my brethren from Lake Erie that he's going to have to.

The prevailing thought does makes sense, especially considering how often James gets his teammates wide-open shots and how often they miss and miss badly.

The Cavs really have no point guard, with 33-year-old Eric Snow nearing the end of his career. The Cavs' shooters are streaky at best.

But Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Drew Gooden and the frequently injured Larry Hughes are solid players who help give James a competent supporting cast.

Think back to Jordan and the Bulls' six championships. Although the Cavs do not have anyone comparable to Scottie Pippen, the Bulls' titles were never about Pippen or Bill Cartwright or B.J. Armstrong.

The Bulls were all about Jordan. The Cavs are now all about LeBron, and if they win a championship it won't be about Ilgauskas, Gooden or Hughes.

The Cavs are on the right path. Like the Clippers, they made it to within one game of the conference finals last season. Unlike the Clippers, though, they have not digressed and are showing some championship qualities.

``The thing I'd like to do is be consistent, as consistent as possible over long stretches of time,'' Cavs coach Mike Brown said. ``When you go from good to great, it's that word `consistency' that plays a big part in it, not just with your record, your wins and losses, but your play, too.''

For James to go from great to champion, he has to become the best closer in the game.

All ``no college'' team: Certainly, James is among the great players in the NBA to go straight from high school to the pros, something that is no longer possible thanks to the league's recently imposed minimum age of 19.

An All-Star team of American-born players who skipped college would include guards James and Bryant, forwards Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Garnett and center Dwight Howard.

Yes, James is a small forward, but there really is no elite college-skipping point guard. Plus, it's hard to leave any of those five off the list, although Anthony is one of the most overrated players in the league.

Forget the positions: Today is the last day of fan voting for the All-Star game, and the NBA is using a system of selecting reserves that is in desperate need of a makeover.

NBA head coaches will vote for two guards, two forwards, a center and two at-large choices. On the surface, that may seem like a perfectly fine way to go about picking all-stars.

The problem is that this is the era of center-less teams, and two players listed as centers, maybe Ben Wallace and Amare Stoudemire, will make the West squad, even though they don't deserve it.

A simple way to get true All-Stars into the game is to have the coaches pick their seven reserves, regardless of position. If it so happens that the West would choose something wild, like two additional forwards and fiveguards, well, that could contribute to a more interesting game.

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CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 6 boxes

Photo:

(1) If the Cavaliers are to win Cleveland's first pro championship since 1964, then superstar LeBron James will have to become the NBA's best closer of games.

Garrett W. Ellwood/Getty Images

(2) Ross Siler thinks Dwight Howard should start for the East in the All- Star game.

John Raoux/Associated Press

Box:

(1) DAILY NEWS CBS 2/KCAL 9 SPORTS CENTRAL POWER

- Ross Siler

(2) THEY SAID IT

(3) NEW START

(4) NOTABLE RETURN

(5) REMATCH TIME

(6) THIS WEEK'S BEST BET