By Tom Withers
The Associated Press

AKRON, Ohio - Cleveland, where professional sports misery is a way of life, finally won a big one.

A sports city cursed by heartbreak, near-misses, John Elway's drive, Willie Mays' catch and Michael Jordan's jumper, has something to celebrate.

At last.

LeBron James isn't going to Denver or Toronto or Memphis or New York or anywhere else. The high school star will begin his NBA career in his own back yard. Right up Interstate 77, in Cleveland, of all places. And with the Cavaliers, the team he has watched since he was a little boy.

"I'm a Cavalier," he said Thursday night after watching Cleveland win the NBA draft lottery over 12 other teams and earn the rights to select the 18-year-old player.

"I'm excited about wearing that wine and gold," he said. "I'm ready to roll. I'm ready to play."

And Cleveland has never been so ready for him. The Cavaliers, who have never made the NBA finals in their 33-year-history, are coming off a 17-65 season in which they changed coaches and had their best player shoot the ball at his own basket to improve his stats.

The franchise, which had been reduced to a national laughingstock, needed a jolt. The 6-foot-8 James will provide all the electricity.

The hometown kid will not only help the club fill 20,000-seat Gund Arena every night, but he'll put the spotlight on a town that hasn't had a world championship since the Browns won an NFL title in 1964.

"Thank God we got him," said Cavaliers owner Gordon Gund.

Cleveland has had some close calls. Painful ones. Remember, this is the city where sports fans have adopted names for their catastrophes. Mention "The Drive," "The Fumble" or "The Shot" to a Clevelander and watch what happens.

This time, the pingpong ball bounced Cleveland's way.

"I'm going out and buying season tickets," Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia said after Cleveland's 3-2 loss to Detroit. "I'm excited, really pumped. This is just great for the city. Let's hope a little of that good luck rubs off this way, and all the Cleveland teams start winning.

"Look at Anaheim. The Angels won the World Series and the Mighty Ducks are going for the Stanley Cup. Things work out funny sometimes."

Agent Aaron Goodwin, who negotiated a seven-year, $90 million deal for James with Nike, said his client and Cleveland are a perfect fit.

"He's going to have a huge impact," Goodwin said. "It's an excellent opportunity for him to help resurrect basketball. Kids have been following him in Ohio for years. It's a good story."

So is the one about James' first visit to Gund Arena: As a high school freshman, James got stuck with one of the worst seats in the house.

"They put me in the nosebleeds," James said. "I didn't like that too much."

James was so close to the ceiling he wasn't sure whom the Cavs played that night.

"I couldn't see them," he said. "I didn't know who I was watching. I think I fainted I was so far up."

There were plenty of Cavaliers fans feeling a little woozy when they realized that their team, the butt of jokes for years and a perennial NBA doormat, had won something big.

"I'm a Clevelander," said James' lawyer, Fred Nance, one of several dozen guests who watched the lottery at a downtown hotel. "Cleveland is entitled to a break in pro sports, and we finally got it. We got a great one."

James didn't promise to bring Cleveland a championship, but he did guarantee better days were ahead.

"I'm going to make Cleveland the way it was before Michael Jordan killed us all the time," he said. "I hope I can put a lot of smiles back on people's faces in Cleveland."

He already has.