The Blueprint : LeBron James, Cleveland's Deliverance, and the Making of the Modern NBA - Jason Lloyd

The Blueprint

LeBron James, Cleveland's Deliverance, and the Making of the Modern NBA

By: Jason Lloyd

Hardcover | 30 October 2017 | Edition Number 1

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In 2010, LeBron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers. That same year, Jason Lloyd began to cover the team for the Akron Beacon Journal, LeBron's hometown newspaper. The story he uncovered started as a tragedy but ended in incredible triumph.

Back in 2010, starting in the days, weeks, and months after LeBron left, the Cavs hatched a plan to get LeBron back. The plan was daring, audacious, and spectacularly successful. It incorporated several losing seasons, some highly risky draft picks, and an entirely new understanding of how championship teams are built and maintained.

And the best part of the plan is that it worked, culminating in the most exciting Finals series in NBA history. And, most important, the end of the Cleveland Curse. Jason Lloyd, a true Northeast Ohio (as in Cleveland and Akron) insider, tells the story of how the NBA really works, and how everyone—from the front office to the stars on the court to the new generations of coaches—works together to create a winning team. This will be an unputdownable, unforgettable, must-have book for every Cavs, NBA, and LeBron fan.

About the Author

Jason Lloyd is a lifelong resident of Northeast Ohio. He has covered the World Series, the NCAA Tournament, the BCS National Championship Game and the NBA Finals, and he has won several state and national awards for his work covering the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Cleveland Cavaliers. He has also worked for ESPN.com, Lindy's Sports Annuals, Cleveland Magazine, and CBSSports.com. He and his wife, Alessia, live in Avon Lake with their three children.
Industry Reviews
Praise for The Blueprint

"[An] energetic, detailed slice of basketball history... Lloyd's intoxicatingly thorough reporting allows readers to grasp the difficulty in assembling a team--even one featuring a legend."--Publishers Weekly

"[A] brilliant book, one that takes the reader back through the many momentous moments over the past several seasons in Cavaliers history...Lloyd masterfully tells a truly compelling story of the fall, and subsequent rise, of the Cavaliers."--Tim Bontemps, The Washington Post

"In the tradition of Michael Lewis' Moneyball (2003), journalist Lloyd traces how the Cleveland Cavaliers, after re-signing LeBron James, captured the NBA championship in 2015-16."--Booklist

"I couldn't put down The Blueprint...this book will interest anyone whose team has had a long championship drought."--Library Journal

"A very personal account of the return of LeBron James to Cleveland in 2014 and of the Cavaliers' NBA championship in 2016... [Lloyd] tells several interlocking stories: James' decision to leave the team, the four intervening years when the Cavs' front office began plotting to get him back, the arrival of key players (especially Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, and J.R. Smith)... and, of course, that championship that erased decades of frustration for Cleveland sports fans."--Kirkus Reviews

"This is a book about basketball, but also about hope and loss and redemption and what happens when the impossible somehow becomes real. Page after page, Lloyd expertly pulls back the curtain on all the private moments that coalesced to give Cleveland something more than a miracle: its first major championship in more than half a century."--Rachel Nichols, ESPN

"In 2011, Jason Lloyd told me LeBron was coming back to Cleveland. 2011! That's how deeply ingrained he is with this franchise, this athlete and this story, a modern epic he was hard-wired to tell."--Lee Jenkins, Sports Illustrated

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