After the game Wednesday Mike Brown was as fired up as I've seen him in a year and a half. Closest I can remember was in Dallas last season after the Cavs blew big leads to the Heat and Mavs on the same road trip. But that was understandable, those teams were the best in the league. Not the same with the Blazers. Anyway, Mike was going on about how the team ought to be embarrassed and ashamed and all that, it was good stuff. I went into the locker room a few minutes later and many Cavs were just laughing and carrying on. Guess they didn't feel the same way. So, they're not worrying about it, why should you, right?
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Um... not good
Windhorst:
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5 comments:
I wouldn't read too much into it, at least yet. If it was a team of kids, I'd say that, yeah, maybe they need a little bit of a reality check.
But the Cavs are mostly a veteran team. Veterans learn over the years that they need to take the season in stride or they'll go nuts. I mean, after you've had a bad day at work, what do you want to do? Go home and stare at the wall or go out, have a drink and take your mind off it?
Most locker rooms are basically the same during the regular season, win or loss. If you go into the Indians clubhouse after a 10-1 loss, the mood might be a little more subdued than after a 10-1 win, but you'd still see players laughing and joking and doing what they normally do.
I know fans like to hold up Michael Jordan as the gold standard for taking losses seriously, but MJ was also a competitve psycho. His attitude might have worked for him, but it probably wouldn't for a lot of players.
Erik, I know what you're trying to say there, but I disagree a little bit.
We can't compare the Cavs players to ordinary people with 9 to 5's.
True, it's a long season, and they need to keep their minds right, but a TRUE veteran team would realize that they can't act that way after a loss like that.
A TRUE veteran team would realize that the "normal" regular people - the one's who DO work "regular" jobs have the same stressed out days at work, and their method of winding down is to go home and see their team play well.
When they don't play well, then the fans get upset - and deservedly so.
So where I see what you are trying to do in comparing the Cavs players to "everyday working folks", it doesn't quite compare, because the "everyday working folks" use the Cavs to wind down...that's the difference.
The Cavs need to realize that and respect the fans and at least ACT like a loss like that bothered them....at least immediately after the game.
When the reporters and cameras are gone, then they can shrug it off and do what they do....but they need to respect the fans and relate to their disappointment.
That's how you win a city over as a sports team.
By them acting like it was meaningless to them doesn't resonate well with the "folks"...the fans are the ones paying $100 a night to watch them play....they need to remember that.
I understand, but I don't think winning the city over and showing respect to the fans is on their minds. I think it's unrealistic to expect that.
NBA players' lifestyles are far different than in the 9-to-5 world, but this is still their 9-to-5 job, and they're going to treat it, to a large extent, how we treat our jobs.
I think if you go into the locker rooms of standard-bearing veteran teams like the Spurs and Pistons after an embarrassing loss, you won't confuse it with a funeral parlor, either.
The players don't give a rip about what the fans think. Demanding that players feel and act the same way as fans after a loss is demanding something that is simply not going to happen.
well said.
and it's a shame that that is the case.
I'm not one of these people that complains about player salaries and ticket prices...but deep down I just wish that the players cared as much about the team they play for as much as I do...
It's not reality though, I'm aware of that.
Erik: I mostly agree, but they did just blow a game vs Seattle and get spanked by a bad Portland team.
They can't treat every game like life and death... but if my boss sees me laughing it up minutes after he chews my ass out after two lousy days at work... doesn't exactly reflect well.
LEH: When I want the Cavs to be a 'true veteran team' it's for their preparation and their play, not how their perceived by the fans. Magic Johnson was on TNT a few nights ago discussing how the Lakers would prepare when facing a sub-par team or a team with injuries (paraphrasing): "going into the game, the starters would tell each other that we need to be up 25 and on the bench mid-third quarter".
The Cavs don't think that way yet. They play down to their opponents and don't seem to take every game seriously.
Also, I'm hoping the Windhorst bit, the Simmons bit and Barkley's rants embarrass the team into playing harder.
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