Friday, December 04, 2009

Wow, he sure is good at reading body language

Bill Simmons:
32. Cleveland
First, the Cavs choke in the 2009 playoffs. Second, the best two starters on the 2008 Indians start Game 1 of the 2009 World Series for two teams not named "Cleveland." Third, the Browns clean house and hire Eric Mangini, who takes that same house and sets it on fire with a flame thrower. Fourth, what could end up being LeBron's final Cavs season is distinguished early by Shaq looking like a bald Aretha Franklin and LeBron's body language occasionally lapsing into "I can't wait to find a new team; I am tired of playing with crap teammates" mode. And fifth, there are two nights of star-studded concerts to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame -- located in Cleveland, as you know -- and those concerts happen at Madison Square Garden.

Here's my question, God: What did Cleveland do to you?
He's not totally wrong (hasn't been a good stretch for Cleveland sports)... but I'm not as down on Shaq as he seems to be. Right now the Cavs are 13-5 and last season they were 15-3... everything is OK. I'm pretty sure this team has a higher ceiling. (For what it's worth, I'm enjoying Simmons' book and I'm almost finished. I'll post a full review when I'm done. He has some nice shout outs to the 90s Cavs).

I guess there's one (kinda/sorta/not really) bright spot:
The year-old New York City annex to Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum will shut down Jan. 3.

A news release issued Thursday by S2BN Entertainment, a partner in the venture, gave no reason for the closing.

Rock hall CEO Terry Stewart tells The Plain Dealer newspaper in Cleveland the decision was made by corporate partners who had backed the $10 million annex in downtown Manhattan.
So it looks like the Rock Hall won't be moving anytime soon (the NYC annex felt like a trial balloon to move it out of Cleveland). It's really stupid that all the 'real' rock hall ceremonies aren't held in Cleveland.

2 comments:

Geoff said...

Shaq's main responsibility is to match up against Dwight Howard, and maybe possibly Tim Duncan. Anything else he does for this team is just gravy if you ask me, cuz we have a career starter backing him up with Z.

Erik said...

Well, really Howard and the Lakers' bigs. Those were the two matchups that really vexed the Cavs last year. They handled Duncan, who is starting to slow down.

Having some size to deal with Perkins, KG and Sheed in a potential Cavs-Celtics playoff series won't hurt either.

Ben, you might want to think about turning on comment moderation. You're getting hit with spam comments fairly regularly now.