INDEPENDENCE — The Cavaliers are going to win a championship and LeBron James is going to be around to help them do it.
That was the message from owner Dan Gilbert, who held a conference call with local media members Tuesday afternoon.
“We have no reason to doubt LeBron James or any player in their commitment to be with the Cleveland Cavaliers based on the organization we’ve built and are building,” Gilbert said. “That’s something I don’t worry about because we do the right things. We’re trying to build a top-notch franchise in every way.”
Gilbert went on to say he doesn’t think it’s extremely important to get James, who is under contract through the 2009-10 season and has a player option for 2010-11, a “sidekick” like Michael Jordan had in Scottie Pippen, like Kobe Bryant now has in Pau Gasol, or like Tim Duncan has in Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.
“There’s a lot of ways to win a championship in this league,” he said. “We’re going to find a way, that’s for sure.”
Though the Cavaliers reached the NBA Finals in 2007 with Larry Hughes and Drew Gooden, Gilbert said he believes the team is closer to that goal after the blockbuster trade that brought Wally Szczerbiak, Ben Wallace, Delonte West and Joe Smith to Cleveland.
“All things being equal, I do think we’re closer,” he said. “You get one or two little things to go differently, you’re in the Eastern Conference finals. Anything could happen from there.”
In a 45-win regular season that featured two exhibition games in China, holdouts by Anderson Varejao and Sasha Pavlovic, numerous injuries and the big trade, Gilbert praised the work of general manager Danny Ferry, coach Mike Brown and the Cleveland players.
“I’m pretty positive with how the coaching staff and front office and everyone fought through it all and never gave up and was willing to take some chances,” he said.
“Overall, I’m very happy we’ve got guys who don’t give up,” he added. “Everyone in the organization is willing to fight. These guys kept fighting. We got to the finish line and got inched out.”
Gilbert was referring to Cleveland’s five-point Game 7 loss to Boston in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
“I really believed we were going to win that game,” he said. “I think everybody did, but that’s the way it goes in basketball.”
Because of all that went on prior to the playoffs, Gilbert said 2007-08 “was a very interesting season.”
“Of our three years (of ownership), this was clearly the one that had the most fireworks,” he said.
Among other topics Gilbert touched on:
*Though he reserves the right to give his opinion from time to time, he will leave basketball decisions to Ferry and Brown.
“We’re going to allow them to judge,” Gilbert said. “If you’re not going to allow them to judge, you shouldn’t pay them.”
*He doesn’t agree with NBA commissioner David Stern’s view that building noise and pyrotechnics have become too extreme, especially as it applies to Quicken Loans Arena.
“The NBA itself awarded us one of the top awards for game presentation and game operations,” Gilbert said.
*The Cavaliers, who turned a small profit in 2007-08 despite a team payroll that was slightly more than $81 million, will always look for ways to get better.
“I don’t think there’s any time there’s not room for improvement,” Gilbert said.
*A better regular-season record and home-court advantage in the playoffs would go a long way toward helping the Cavaliers reach their goal of an NBA championship.
“We’ve done what we needed to do over the last few years to put ourselves in a position to knock on the door a few times,” Gilbert said. “Clearly, we’ve got more work to do, so we’re going to do it.”
Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rickn@ohio.net. 

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