CLEVELAND — Two years of painful cap-cutting and dreaming comes down to one meeting today in a downtown Cleveland boardroom.
Jetlagged and road-weary but full of adrenaline, owner James Dolan and his Knicks recruiting team will take their home-run swing when they sit down with LeBron James and his advisors at 1 p.m. — the franchise’s future hanging in the balance.
The meeting will take place at the LRMR offices of James’ manager Maverick Carter.
The Knicks’ traveling party of Dolan, Mike D’Antoni and Allan Houston, the assistant to the team president, will have flown all night from Los Angeles, where they were to open the free-agency period with a midnight meetings in Santa Monica with Joe Johnson and Washington sharpshooter Mike Miller, according to a league source. The Knicks will then speak on the phone to Amar’e Stoudemire, who is planning to visit New York over the holiday weekend, according to a source.
NETS READY TO COME OUT WITH BIG GUNS BLAZIN’
The Knicks feel best that they can get a commitment immediately from Stoudemire, which they could bring to James today.
Team president Donnie Walsh, rehabbing from neck surgery and in a wheelchair, will join the recruiting team in Ohio with MSG president Scott O’Neill.
After meeting with James, the corporate jet will then take off for Chicago, where they will meet tomorrow with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade.
But today, really, is all that matters if the Knicks’ championship drought of 37 years is to be broken soon.
“We’ve had to live through some tough times in order to get where you think you start rebuilding the franchise,” Walsh said. “We have that opportunity now. How well, how fast we can rebuild the team can be shortcut by getting great players.”
At 9:30 last night, James drove away from his Akron mansion in a black SUV and honked at fans who were holding signs urging him to stay in Cleveland.
Cleveland, Chicago, Miami, and even the Nets have been cast as having better odds. There’s also a chance of the club being shut out entirely from the Super Six free agents.
But the Knicks brass has been told by LeBron’s people to ignore the chattering — James has an open mind and loves New York. Will he love the Knicks?
The pitch is solid. The Knicks will tell James that if he hooks up with either Johnson, Stoudemire or Chris Bosh, and they can pull off one trade for a decent player during the season (center Tyson Chandler and free-agents-to-be Tony Parker and Carmelo Anthony are on the block), they can be a contender for the Eastern Conference title.
D’Antoni will talk up his speedball offense, that James will improve his efficiency more in one year than he ever has, that Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler are his perfect complements.
But it won’t be all basketball. Houston wants to discuss with James what the experience really is like to win in New York.
Dolan wants to look King James in the eye and detail his background as an owner willing to spend whatever it takes, and take him through a $800 million “transformation” of the Garden with a video display.
There will be talk of James having his own television show for MSG Network — a no-brainer if interested. According to a source, the pitch will include a montage videotape of the Knicks’ bank of celebrities and former players Willis Reed, Earl Monroe, Walt Frazier and Bill Bradley raving about the Big Apple and playing for the championship Knicks teams.
James, a big Sopranos fan, may also see a James Gandolfini testimonial.
The Knicks never figured they had to go to Ohio to make this presentation, but adjusted after James’ manager/longtime Akron friend Maverick Carter cancelled James’ recruiting tour last week, and invited five teams to town. The good sign is James visited New York last weekend, even looking at a Greenwich Village brownstone.
The more Carter calls the shots and the less involvement of William Wesley, the stronger the chance James stays in Cleveland and spurns the Bulls, Knicks and Nets. Wesley was not invited to the LeBron meetings amidst a power struggle with Carter, concerned about Broadway’s bright lights being too glaring.
Wesley has looked to steer LeBron to Chicago, where his new client Tom Thibodeau just became coach. But the Knicks also like Wesley because he is a longtime friend of Houston and Eddy Curry.
But things can turn bleak in a hurry. Johnson is favored to stay in Atlanta, which reportedly will offer him the max — or $30M more than the Knicks can. Miami and Toronto have had serious talks about a sign-and-trade that would allow Bosh to join Wade in Miami. That leaves Stoudemire as the ace left in the elite deck.
marc.berman@nypost.com