The Associated Press

CLEVELAND - Gund Arena was under siege, LeBron James was to blame and nobody was complaining.

Office phones rang off their hooks. TV news trucks were parked bumper to bumper on the streets. Fans waited in the lobby studying season-ticket brochures, hoping good seats were available.

In less than 24 hours, James transformed the normally serene Gund - one of the NBA's emptiest and quietest arenas - into the hottest spot in town.

One day after hitting the NBA lottery jackpot and winning the rights to draft James with the No. 1 overall pick in the June 26 draft, the Cavaliers got their first taste of what life will be like once the Akron high school superstar is wearing one of their uniforms.

Everything, it seems, has changed overnight.

"The reaction of the city has been unbelievable," said Cavaliers general manager Jim Paxson. "It still hasn't sunk in yet."

It has for hundreds of Cavaliers fans. The team had 25 sales representatives answering phones and taking ticket orders from the moment Cleveland learned it had won the lottery Thursday night.

By 5 p.m. Friday, Cavaliers spokesman Tad Carper said the club had sold hundreds of season-ticket packages on what he described as the best sales day since the Gund opened in 1994.

Cleveland's season-ticket base dropped as low as 3,000, and the club was last in the league in attendance this season with fewer than 11,000 fans per game.

"Put it this way," Carper said. "This is a salesman's nirvana."

With the 2003-04 opener more than five months away, if sales remain brisk, it's possible the Cavaliers could sell out all 41 home dates at the Gund before the season begins.

Team president Len Komoroski was reluctant to put a dollar figure on James' immediate financial impact.

"I don't know if there's anybody counting the money up to this point," he said. "We're selling tickets as fast as we can."

As for James, Friday was like any other for the 18-year-old. A spokesperson at St. Vincent-St. Mary said James attended his classes and had pizza for lunch.

James, who signed a $90 million endorsement deal with Nike on Thursday, will graduate June 7, 19 days before he begins his pro career with the Cavaliers.

As the No. 1 pick, James would receive a maximum three-year deal worth $12.96 million with the Cavs holding a fourth-year option.