Will he stay? Will he go?

How will Cleveland ever survive another two years of not knowing what needs to be known?

It's not fair, this idea that every postseason step — forward or backward — is a referendum on whether a 23-year-old local will choose to spend the balance of his career in a market as small (relatively) as a referee's whistle.

The Cavaliers deserve to keep James home for the core of his prime. They've already landed him in one NBA Finals. They've already honored their commitment to competing for a title by making the in-season deal for Ben Wallace, Joe Smith, Wally Szczerbiak, and Delonte West, taking payroll and luxury tax hits along the way.

But neither life nor the NBA pecking order is fair. So when the Celtics beat the Cavaliers by a 76-72 count in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semis, and beat them on a night when James could've used a Pippen to cover for his Jordan, the larger issue looms over the Cavs like the Boston banners above.

James will be a free agent in the summer of 2010, meaning the Cavs have this postseason and next to convince him that he can forge the same forever bond with Cleveland that Brett Favre shared with Green Bay. If management fails to make the sell by then, it might have to trade James in February, 2010, rather than run the risk of losing him that summer as a free agent without getting a superstar in return.

The Lakers took that free-agent gamble with Kobe Bryant, newly minted MVP, and it paid off; Bryant turned down a deal with the Clippers because he realized he couldn't wear the colors of second-class L.A. citizens.

James will face a far different choice. If the Lakers are all set with Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum as their contending cornerstones for the foreseeable future, the Knicks are among the franchises building business plans around the courtship of LeBron.

In fact, Donnie Walsh wouldn't have accepted the presidency of the Knicks if he didn't think it was feasible that the team could get far enough under the salary cap to wine and sign James.