National Basketball Association

James: Coach should have played Ilgauskas

Published Nov. 30, 2009 10:34 p.m. ET

foxsports

The Cavaliers concluded practice on Monday with a lighthearted game of football. The one player missing was the same one missing Saturday night - Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

Ilgauskas was set to become Cleveland's franchise leader in games played Saturday against Dallas, but coach Mike Brown elected not to play him. It's a decision that has upset Ilgauskas and LeBron James.

"I definitely thought he should've played," James said. "As a friend of his, I was very upset and I know he was, also."

Ilgauskas shares the record, currently at 723 games, with the team's general manager, Danny Ferry.

He is typically one of the last players to leave Cleveland's locker room after games. On Saturday, he was the first. He also declined to participate in the team's pickup football game on Monday, instead choosing to shoot at a basket with an assistant coach for a few minutes before leaving the court without speaking to reporters.

"I'm not trying to stir up anything with coach or whatever is going on with the organization, but sometimes one game is the smaller things," James said. "What was on the line was something way bigger than us playing the Mavericks. That was 'Z' breaking the record."

Coach Mike Brown said he intended on Ilgauskas playing his usual allotment of about 25 minutes, but the game's tempo prevented it from happening. Brown stuck with a smaller lineup that included playing James at center for a short stretch in what was arguably Cleveland's finest game of the season.