INDEPENDENCE — Despite several reports to the contrary, Cavaliers coach Mike Brown has not been fired — yet.

A day after his team was eliminated by the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals, owner Dan Gilbert said Friday at Cleveland Clinic Courts that a decision on Brown’s future, as well as that of general manager …Read More

INDEPENDENCE — Cavaliers coach Mike Brown has not been fired — yet.

A day after his team was eliminated by the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals, owner Dan Gilbert said Friday at Cleveland Clinic Courts that a decision on Brown’s future, as well as that of general manager Danny Ferry, will be made in a week to 10 days.

“We are going to take a long, deep hard look at every key position in this franchise and make an evaluation,” Gilbert said. “It’s not going to be a long time. In a week to 10 days, we’ll have our evaluation done.”

Gilbert then added, “I don’t think it’s a secret head coaching will be one of the things we’ll be evaluating.”

Brown, who is 272-138 in the regular season and 42-29 in the playoffs in five years as head coach, has one year left on his contract. It will pay him $3.5 million.

As for Ferry, who is earning approximately $2 million this season in the final year of his deal, Gilbert said, “The ownership team is going to look at every single piece of this organization, as we would do every year, and make an evaluation and judgment.”

Gilbert was asked several times about the importance of re-signing superstar LeBron James, who is expected to opt out of the final year of his contract and become a free agent on July 1, and said he hasn’t “really thought about” what it might be like without the two-time league MVP.

“As great as LeBron James is, we don’t sit around and say, ‘How can we make him happy, how can we make any player happy?’” Gilbert said. “What we do is strategize and think of how we can make this team better.”

Gilbert added that posting a great regular-season record — the Cavaliers had the best mark in the league the last two years — is not nearly as important as building a team that can succeed in the playoffs.

“Having the best regular-season record two years in a row, it’s just not as relevant and confidence-building,” he said. “It is important? Sure, it’s important. You’d like to have home-court advantage, but it doesn’t guarantee success in any way.

“The playoffs are very, very different,” Gilbert added. “We’re going to figure out what that exact difference is and try to build our team (for that).”

The owner, who spoke for a little more than 20 minutes, talked most about the disappointment he felt for Cleveland fans.

“I thought about the kids in Cleveland, Ohio, waking up today and having to be disappointed,” he said. “I’m sorry for them. This isn’t about money, it’s about delivering to the fans.”

Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com.

PITTSFIELD TWP. — A fire caused by a lightning strike overnight has completely destroyed a massive, nearly 200-year-old barn and left two Pittsfield Township families with losses easily in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Rachel Park, 24, whose family owns the barn, on Webster Road just east of state Route 58, said lightning struck about 3:15 a.m. and by 4:30 a.m. the entire barn was engulfed in flames. Firefighters remain on the scene now, more than seven hours later.

“The barn literally exploded,” she said. “It went up like a huge mushroom cloud.”

More photos below.

Despite the massive loss, Park called her family “very lucky.”

What they described as the fast and efficient response of at least 10 fire departments and what firefighters described to them as “favorable wind conditions” spared their family home.

They’re also grateful for a passer-by who stopped by and banged on the door to wake up the family. Unfortunately, they didn’t catch his name.

“He stayed around for a while and tried to help us,” Park said. “But we were just in such a panic we didn’t think to ask.”

The barn had contained three vehicles, “tons of farm equipment,” a mower, a four-wheeler, two grills, a motorcycle, tools, and hay, feed and farm equipment belonging to the Breyley family, who run Bedebe Farms down the road and rent storage space. The only animals in the barn were “cats, birds and bats,” according to Park. She said all the cats managed to escape and had been accounted for.

The loss is more sentiment than anything, according to Mary Waite, Park’s grandmother, who owns the barn.

The barn, which was built in the 1830s had been bought by Park’s great-grandfather in the 1930s. Park’s 4-year-old son, Dylan, who was running around the scene in his fireman’s outfit, would have been the fifth generation to own the barn, the family remarked.

As the fire burned there were quite a few moments Park described as “nerve-wracking.” There were multiple explosions, she said. The smaller ones were vehicle tires blowing, and the larger ones were multiple propane tanks, gas cans and gas tanks in all the vehicles and mowers.

Insurance will cover much but not all of her family’s losses, according to Park, but she said the Breyley family will be in a tight spot having lost all their hay, animal feed and equipment.

“If any local farmers are able to help them out, I’m sure they could use the help,” she said.

Firefighters from at least 10 departments battled the fire. Park and her family listed Carlisle Township, Rochester Township, Wellington, Oberlin, Spencer, Camden Township, New London, Litchfield, Grafton and Wakeman.

Contact Rona Proudfoot at 329-7124 or rproudfoot@chroniclet.com.

The Clearview school board this morning picked Thomas Jama, the principal of Clearview High School, to replace Superintendent Rick Buckosh, who is retiring effective Aug. 1.

A release from the school board said Jama’s professional experience — as an elementary principal, middle school principal and high school principal — factored into the board’s decision, as did his intimate knowledge of Lorain County. A field of nearly 20 candidates was whittled to two before the decision this morning.

Read Saturday’s Chronicle for more on this story.