The Cleveland Cavaliers announced today they have tendered qualifying offers to Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Varejao. The qualifying offers make each player a restricted free agent and also gives the Cavaliers the right of first refusal on re-signing each.

Pavlovic, a 6-foot-7, 239-pound guard/forward, averaged 9.0 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 67 games (28 starts) this season.

Varejao, a 6-foot-10, 240-pound forward/center, appeared in 81 games (six starts) and averaged 6.8 points and 6.7 rebounds.

LeBron James ended uncertainty about his status with the U.S. national team on Tuesday night by saying he will play in next month's FIBA America's Tournament, where the Americans will try to qualify for the 2008 Olympics.

"I'm going to play," James told The Associated Press. "I've had enough time off, and knowing my body more than anybody, I'm ready to play. I don't know how much I'm going to play or how extensively, but I'll be ready."

For several months, James had said he was "50-50" about playing for Team USA this summer.

With an impressive effort in willing the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals, what's LeBron James to do for an encore? Try co-hosting chores for ESPN's ESPY Awards, which will air at 9 p.m. July 15.

Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel will join James at the podium to recognize the nominees ESPN announced in an array of categories Monday morning with James being up for three -- Best Male Athlete, Best NBA Player and Best Championship Performance for his efforts in the NBA's Eastern Conference Finals.

According to team sources, General Manager Danny Ferry has permission from Cavs ownership to exceed the luxury-tax threshold for the first time in team history. Ferry has made it clear behind the scenes, however, that he does not want to hamstring himself with unmovable contracts.

In other words, restricted free agent Anderson Varejao is not untouchable, and the winds suggest the Cavs would let him walk rather than match a deal they consider unreasonable.

The Cavs have salary-cap issues and might be unable to re-sign Anderson Varejao and Sasha Pavlovic, two of their top six players. Don't be surprised to see them offering Drew Gooden, and he could end up with the Bulls, reuniting with college teammate Kirk Hinrich. Gooden, not Nick Collison, is the fellow former Kansas player more likely to join Hinrich.

Anderson Varejao and guard Sasha Pavlovic become restricted free agents this summer and the Cavaliers want them both back.

``We want both of them back,'' Ferry said in an interview with area media. ``We'll go through the process (negotiations can begin July 1), whatever that is with their agents, to see that happen.''

``I love the city. I love the fans and everything. When I first got here, I didn't speak any English,'' Varejao said. ``It was a different country for me, and they helped me. So I'm pretty comfortable in Cleveland. I love being here. I would love to come back.''

Pavlovic would like to return as well, but he looks at the situation with a touch of pragmatism.

``I would love to be here. You never know what's going to happen,'' he said. ``It's a business. It's nothing on me. I hope I'm going to get back here as a free agent.''

San Antonio's four-game sweep of Cleveland finished with a record-low 6.2 television rating and 11 share on ABC, Nielsen Media Research said Friday. That was down 27 percent from the 8.5/15 for Miami's six-game victory over Dallas last year and 5 percent under the previous low, a 6.5/12 for San Antonio's six-game win over New Jersey in 2003. The NBA finals averaged 9.3 million viewers this year.

San Antonio's series-winning 83-82 victory on Thursday night got a 6.5/12, down 17 percent from the 7.8/14 for Game 4 last year.

The Cleveland Cavaliers came up short in their first trip to the NBA Finals, bowing out in Game 4 Thursday night with an 83-82 loss to the San Antonio Spurs.

The sweep was a bitter disappointment for the Cavs, who have risen from the basement of the league to the top of the Eastern Conference in four years since making LeBron James the top pick in the 2003 draft.

With a few minor tweaks of their roster, it wouldn't be surprising for the Cavs to be back in the Finals next year and for years to come.

"I expect us to compete for the championship every year," James said. "That's the only way I look at it. You can't be satisfied with anything else."

LeBron James' girlfriend, Savannah Brinson, gave birth early Thursday to the couple's second son, Bryce Maximus James.

Keith Estabrook, a spokesman for the Cleveland Cavaliers star and his family, said Bryce weighed 8 pounds, 6 ounces and was 21 inches long. He was born at 12:51 a.m. at Cuyahoga Falls General Hospital, near his father's hometown of Akron.

"Savannah and the baby are healthy and doing well," Estabrook said.

The boy was born as the Cavaliers prepared to host the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4 of the NBA finals Thursday night. The Spurs are one win from a four-game sweep.

The 22-year-old James and his girlfriend had their first child, LeBron James Jr., in October 2004.

Commissioner David Stern responded to the record-low TV ratings for the NBA Finals by saying that they were a sign of the changing media times.

"What it means to us is that we had two very bad games, and you would expect bad ratings,'' Stern told SI.com during halftime of Game 3 Tuesday. "But what it also means is that we led the night in the key demographic on our network, and increasingly it's not about how you did last year. It's about how you did against your competition. And against our competition we're doing great.''

The 6.3 rating for Game 1 of the Cleveland Cavaliers against the San Antonio Spurs on ABC amounted to a 19 percent drop from last year, setting a record low for an NBA Finals opening game in prime time. They fell even further for Game 2, earning a 5.6 national rating and a 10 share on Sunday night -- plummeting 30 percent from the numbers of 8.0 and 14 drawn by the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks in the Finals last year.

An NBA official said that the ratings were affected by the competition in the East and Midwest against the finale of The Sopranos,' which was watched by an estimated 11.9 million people on HBO.