Cavaliers forward Newble is really one for the books
By Brian Windhorst, Beacon Journal staff writer

CLEVELAND - Standing 6-foot-7, his hair pulled into corn rows and hip-hop music leaking from his earphones, Ira Newble can easily blend into the NBA blur.

But Newble's outward image is just that -- outward.

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Get to know him, though, and you'll find Ira Newble the scholar, Ira Newble the philosopher, and even Ira Newble the semi-vegan.

It has been more than 11 years since Newble has had a morsel of beef or pork. There's never even been a leftover in his fridge at his homes in Cleveland and Atlanta. If he ever asks you out to dinner and you want a pork chop, be ready to pay for it yourself.

"It wasn't the hamburgers that were hard to stop; it was the steak that I thought about for a while," said Newble, who is about to begin his second year as a small forward with the Cavaliers and his fifth year in the NBA.

"I don't impose it on anybody, to each his own, but never in my house and I won't pay for pork, either."

After moving from his home in Southfield, Mich., to Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College, Newble found an entire new world in books he didn't even know existed in high school. His voracious reading habits and cerebral approach to life blossomed, and his outlook on just about everything started to change.

It was books like George Orwell's 1984 from which Newble says he learned about the power of knowledge, and the Koran that started shaping his character. Even now, he tries to keep his reading materials varied by picking up books like The Da Vinci Code.

"When I got to college, I started reading a lot and took time to get myself mentally focused," Newble said.

"They don't teach things that most African Americans should learn in high schools. You should learn on your own; you don't only have to know just what's taught to you. When I start my foundation that's one of the things I plan to incorporate."

Newble's studies of world religions, especially Islam, led to periods of spiritual fasting. His studies of books on health led to him abandoning all meat for a short period.

"I tried to become a straight vegan, but you have to be creative to do that and in college most of the time you have to eat what's there," Newble said. "But I fell in love with chicken and fish and that's mostly what I eat now. It was all part of broadening my scope."

There's no doubt Newble has a certain edge to him. He's shown it at various times during his career. When he was in high school, he got kicked off the basketball team. When he went to Miami University, he didn't see eye-to-eye with coach Herb Sendek during his junior season. And, of course, there was his much-publicized and public disagreement with Cavaliers coach Paul Silas after a game in Atlanta in November.

But Newble has always recovered and strengthened his relationship with his coaches. When he was a senior at Miami, he became very close to coach Charlie Coles. Since his dispute with Silas, he has earned the coach's respect, and the two now have a good relationship.

Newble is Silas' top defensive stopper off the bench, the role the team envisioned for him when he signed a five-year, $15 million deal in the summer of 2003. He was slowed much of last year by tendinitis in both knees and didn't fully recover until the last few months of the season.

Now healthy, Newble hopes he can play an important role on a playoff team.

"Defense is always going to be my focus. Each year I may get a little slower but I'm always going to try to shut guys down," Newble said.

"Right now my body feels good. I'm excited about the season and I'm impressed with how we've improved."

Messages for Brian Windhorst can be left at 330-996-3819 or [email protected]