Random Thoughts

New Year, New Blog

2011-01-05T11:43:00.000-05:00

Update your bookmarks and favorites, because I'm moving the blog over to wordpress. I bought a URL and everything!

From now on, if you want to read my brilliant insights, you'll have to go to:

www.benblog.net

The site design isn't close to final, but I'm workin on it. Thanks for reading!

You can have him, LeBron

2010-12-27T20:06:00.000-05:00

The Cavs waived Jawad Williams:

In a surprise move, the Cleveland Cavaliers today released forward Jawad Williams, who had nine points in 23 minutes in Sunday night's 98-97 loss to the Timberwolves at The Q.

This is both kind of shocking and not at all. Williams has been quite underwhelming this season, averaging just 4.0 points and 1.8 boards in 26 games (15 mpg). And it's not like he's putting up those gaudy numbers efficiently. Jawad's shooting just 32% from the field and 29% from beyond the arc. Yuck.

My biggest complaint with Williams this year wasn't that he was shooting horribly, but that he kept taking bad shots. At times this season, Jawad has seemed like a cross between Eric Snow and Larry Hughes. He has Hughes's willingness to hoist the ball whenever it touched his hands combined with Eric Snow's shooting prowess. Jawad never met a shot he didn't like and when you're shooting 30%, that's is not a good attribute to have.

I find it a bit interesting that the Cavs really didn't give a reason for Williams's release:

“We would like to wish Jawad and his family the best in the future and thank him for his contributions, not only on the court but in the community,” said Cavaliers General Manager Chris Grant in a release emailed to the media.

Maybe they have other moves in the works, like a trade where they take back multiple players or simply a free agent signing. Could be they got sick of Jawad's attitude (his body language looked horrible from what I've seen) or maybe they just don't think they need a small forward who doesn't let his crappy shooting hinder his willingness to chuck up shots at every opportunity. Who can tell, with Chris Grant's email.

I wouldn't be shocked if we see Jawad end up in Miami, since James was recruiting him this offseason (chances the Cavs resigned Jawad just to spite LeBron: 100%). I'm not sure how useful he'd be for the Heat (or anyone, given his play thus far) but I could see him playing with LeBron at some point.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T00:08:00.000-05:00

(if you want to hang out with the ghosts of Christmas past, check out the PD's interview with Ron Harper. Harp says they could've won multiple titles. Ugh).

Let Me Get This Straight

2010-12-23T19:02:00.004-05:00

These Ohio State players broke the rules. They sold personal items (which they quite literally earned with their blood and sweat) for money. They made money off their status as a NCAA athlete. Therefore, they will be punished.

Suspended for five games.

Starting next year.

The next game, the nationally televised BCS Sugar Bowl sponsored by All-State... they can play in that game.

Why?

Well, because they didn't know the rules. The same rules that they broke (which were so bad, it warrants a five game suspension). They didn't know about those rules.

And since they weren't aware of those rules, they're allowed play in the bowl game.

But they still get suspended for five games for breaking the rules that they weren't aware of.

Starting next year.

So now Ohio State players are aware that they aren't supposed to take free services or sell items related to their status as NCAA athletes and they'll still be able to participate in the Sugar Bowl and all that comes with it:

Michigan State had hoped to earn an at-large bid to the Sugar Bowl, but was beat out by Ohio State. What gifts are the Buckeyes receiving? Custom earphones, a watch and a cap. Participants also will attend a gift suite were they can order gifts up to a value predetermined by the Sugar Bowl, not to exceed the $500 limit.

Got it? No more than $500.

Ugh.

The whole business of big time college athletics just feels so skeevy to me.

What a system we have. This is a system where (mostly white) men in their 50s and 60s make millions of dollars off of the work that the (mostly poor, minority) kids put in. These kids literally sacrifice their bodies to play in these games in front of 100,000 people. Apparently the best of these players (Terrell Pryor, Boom Herron and DeVier Posey are all major contributors on Ohio State) feel the need to sell items that should be regarded as family heirlooms to get some quick cash.

Some players made as much as $2,500! Almost three-grand! How dare they taint this pure, innocent game.

Again we come to the whole "Should players be paid?" argument. I don't know how that would even work. A work-study program? A stipend for every athlete? Would football players get more than cross country runners? Hourly pay? There's not a lot of easy answers.

I know these kids receive scholarships worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. They earn a free education and that's not nothing. (Nevermind how many pro athletes end up broke, but that's another story).

Scholarships are all well and good, but getting free math classes doesn't buy you a dinner. Or allow you to purchase clothes. Or provide money for family emergencies. (Or buy booze or pot or whatever). It's not like these kids can really go out and get 9-5 jobs for some extra cash. (Lord knows how often their pestered by boosters, alumni or fans asking for favors as well. The opportunity is certainly there).

A lot of OSU folks are mad that they sold Big Ten Championship rings and the Gold Pants pins. For shame! Don't they know how special and memorable these items are? Well... no. These are 18, 19, 20 year old kids who need money (and have won the Big Ten and beaten Michigan every year), let alone the fact that it's their personal property.

I just can't get that upset with these guys, especially since they're all still eligble for the Sugar Bowl. I might feel like they actually did something, you know, wrong if they were actually forced to miss a BCS bowl.

But that can't happen, Ohio State has to be at full strength, right? If Terrell Pryor and company sat out that game, who would want to watch? Who would buy commercial air time? Who would place bets on the outcome? Who would tune in? Would Ohio State fans still travel to game? We need Pryor vs Ryan Mallet. Ohio State vs Arkansas! Big Ten vs SEC!

All-State paid good money to sponsor this game, we can't blow it by sitting out the star players.

But they still need to be punished. They broke a rule so egregious that they need to miss five whole games.

Just not the next one. That game is worth money. A lot of money.

Just not to the players.

The Streak is Over

2010-12-19T10:59:00.000-05:00

The Cavs beat the Knicks. On purpose. With overtime and everything. They won't go 0-December. *whew*

I gotta give the Cavs credit, I did not expect them to pull this game out. Don't get me wrong, they played the Knicks tough but while they were tied every now and then, most of the game they trailed consistently by 4-6 points. I figured that the Cavs would hang around but eventually the Knicks would pull away.

But Mo Williams and Anderson Varejao had different ideas.

I can't say enough about Andy. Varejao had 14 points and 17 boards (7 offensive!) and did a great job on Amare Stoudemire (Amare finished with 23 and 11, but committed dumb fouls, missed the game winning jumper and seemed really frustrated by Andy). (I know Amare is The Man on the Knicks, but they really should've had Cav-Killer Raymond Felton take the last shot. Felton finished with 23 points, 11 assists and 7 rebounds).

Mo Williams hit a game tying runner with 3 seconds left in regulation and then dominated (yes, dominated!) overtime with 6 points and 3 assists in the extra period. Mo and Varejao are starting to run the pick and roll pretty well, my only concern is Mo will jump in the air before Andy is open. The passes have worked out, because Varejao is always rolling to the rim (and he pass is so late, Andy is quite open) but I don't like Mo leaving his feet without really knowing what he's doing. Mo finished with 23 points, 14 assists and 5 boards.

All in all, great win by the Cavs. Not only did they stop their 10 game losing streak, but they beat a team with a winning record in the process.

The Cavs face the Jazz on Monday and then travel to Atlanta on Wednesday. For some reason, Cleveland isn't a part of the NBA's Christmas schedule this year. Weird.

Northern Lights

2010-12-19T10:32:00.001-05:00

These are something I've always wanted to see in person. Just seeing the pictures and videos is awe inspiring, I can't even imagine live.

NASA says 2012 should be a big year for the Norther Lights:

Since 2007 the aurora borealis has been growing in intensity and will peak during the year after next, according to Nasa scientists.

However, if the 2012 aurora are as big as expected, it could cause disruption to mobile phones, GPS and even the national grid.

The event will be caused by the Solar Maximum - a period when the sun's magnetic field on the solar equator rotates at a slightly faster pace than at the solar poles.

The solar cycle takes an average of around 11 years to go from one solar maximum to the next - varying between 9 to 14 years for any given solar cycle.

The last Solar Maximum was in 2000 and NASA scientists have predicted that the next one in 2012 will be the greatest since 1958, where the aurora stunned the people of Mexico by making an appearance on three occasions.

In 2012 scientists have stated that the 'Northern' lights should at least be visible as far south as Rome.

Watch this video and tell me that it isn't at least a little awesome.

Aurora Borealis timelapse HD - Tromsø 2010 from Tor Even Mathisen on Vimeo.

Frustrating

2010-12-16T03:03:00.000-05:00

On one hand, I give the Cavs a lot of credit for hanging with the Heat for four quarters. The Cavs, most notably Boobie Gibson (26 points) and Anderson Varejao (18 points, 15 boards), really made Miami work for their 101-95 victory.

On the other hand, they still lost. I hate these moral victories (whoo! We lost by less than normal!), but the Cavs really did play with of a lot of energy and effort. It's a positive sign after being blown out in just about every game over the past two weeks.

But it's frustrating. So you guys can hang with the Heat, in Miami (not that the crowd is really a factor), but get blown out by the Timberwolves, Pistons and Sixers? Really? As long as they stick to offensive plan (the ball movement was quite good, especially in the first half) and play with some defensive intensity (there was roughly a billion more hard fouls Wednesday night compared to December 2nd), Cleveland showed that they can compete with anyone. Despite the final outcome, there's some positives Coach Scott can point to.

However, all that being said, this really could've been much worse. While Cleveland's 40% FG percentage looks (and is) terrible, remember that that's including Gibson's sizzling 10-16 performance. Non-Boobie Cavaliers shot a putrid 35% (25-71) and if you take out Varejao's 6-10, it drops down to 31%.

So despite finishing in double figures, the rest of the starters were ice cold, Mo shot 6-20 (1-10 3pt), AP shot 4-10 (1-6 3pt) and Antawn Jamison finished 5-18 (but 3-9 from downtown! whoo!). And if you can believe it, somehow the bench was even worse. Three players contributed a grand total of 12 points, 7 boards and 4 assists (J.J. was a team worst -12 in his 20 minutes).

I don't think it's a coincidence that Boobie and Varejao performed well and kept the Cavs in this game. These guy were two of LeBron's most consistent Big Game teammates. Both Boobie and Andy play without fear and both have had big moments in the playoffs. Jamison, Mo, Parker? Not so much.

Even with the effort and the intensity and ball movement and big nights from Boobie and Varejao, the Cavs still lost in the end. Turns out, you really need to account for Dwyane Wade in transition. Who knew he's allowed to bring the ball up and just shoot a 3? Wade finished with 28 points (including 17 in the deciding 4th period), LeBron had 21-13-5) and Bosh pitched in 16 and 4. Miami didn't play extremely well, but they just had too much talent for Cleveland to deal with.

The Cavs can stop their 9 game losing streak at home on Friday when they face the 11-12 Pacers. If they fail to snap their skid, it won't get any easier any time soon; their next three games are against the Knicks, the Jazz and the Hawks Atlanta before returning home to face the Wolves the day after Christmas. Yikes.

Positive things happened. They still lost. Please don't go winless for the month of December.

This is stupid

2010-12-15T18:22:00.000-05:00

Yahoo's Eric Freeman, on LeBron's and Z's statements about the Cavs:

There are a few ways to spin this; perhaps LeBron is just being nice to engage in damage control. Plus, while Zydrunas' words might seem a little cold, at least he's willing to admit that basketball is a business in which rival teams fight to come out on top over all competition. At least he's being honest about his feelings, unlike the devious James.

Except, if we're to commend Ilgauskas for telling the truth, then we also must admit that the affection Cavs fans still feel for him is a bucket of lies, too. Zydrunas is ultimately playing basketball to win and make money. So while the Cavs fans can appreciate his time with the team, they shouldn't act as if he has a kind heart unmatched by anyone who's ever worn the uniform.

In the end, Ilgauskas could be just as cold-hearted as LeBron. There's no doubt that James handled his departure from Cleveland poorly, but the difference in the reactions towards him and Ilgauskas can probably be explained best by the gap between their respective abilities. When you get right down to it, fans hate on the best player who left, not the worst person.

This really isn't all that hard to understand. One player quit in the playoffs, made a spectacle of leaving and stabbed the city in the heart on national television. The other player worked his tail off, signed somewhere else like a normal free agent and placed an ad in the paper thanking fans for their years of support.

No one hates Z because they don't feel that he disrespected them at any point in time. Sure, talent has something to do with it (losing a past-his-prime center is easier to stomach compared to the two-time MVP) but if you ask any (sane) Cleveland fan, they'll tell you it's not that LeBron left, it's that he rubbed our faces in while doing it.

This isn't hard.

Paying attention, Chris Grant?

2010-12-15T12:31:00.000-05:00

This is exactly the type of trade the Cavs should be pursuing:

The New Jersey Nets traded Terrence Williams to the Houston Rockets in a three-way deal that will land them Los Angeles Lakers guard Sasha Vujacic and a pair of first-round draft picks, the Nets announced on Wednesday.

The Lakers will receive Nets veteran power forward Joe Smith, two second-round picks from New Jersey and the draft rights to Sergei Lishchuk from the Rockets.

Trade a talented, but troubled young player, pick up some crap and a couple of picks. Bingo.

It's my opinion that the Cavs have to be stockpiling draft picks. Trade whoever you want, just as long as you get a first round pick from someone. The Nets dumped Terrence Williams in a 3 team trade and got firsts from both teams.

Also, let's welcome Joe Smith to a new team, which I believe is his 12th. Well done, Joe. Let's hope the Lakers turn around and deal him at the deadline to team number 13.

Oh, by the way, the Heat are favored by just 17 over the Cavaliers tonight in Miami. Seems a bit low. 17 sounds right if the Cavs were still, you know, trying. The Heat sent the Cavs into this free fall (and haven't lost since) and I don't see the Cavs snapping out of it tonight.

As tempting as it may seem

2010-12-13T14:24:00.000-05:00

.... please don't follow Donald Sterling's example, Mr. Gilbert:

It’s not uncommon to hear Los Angeles Clippers fans heckle Baron Davis. Of late, however, the jeers directed at the team’s struggling point guard are coming from a far more surprising source: The man paying Davis, Clippers owner Donald Sterling.

Sterling has expressed his displeasure about Davis’ play by taunting him from his courtside seat at Clippers’ home games, several sources told Yahoo! Sports. Among Sterling’s verbal barbs:

– “Why are you in the game?”

– “Why did you take that shot?”

– “You’re out of shape!”

While Sterling has also taunted other Clippers players since the middle of last season, none have received it worse than Davis, the sources said. Davis has missed 14 of the team’s 25 games this season and is averaging 7.4 points while making a team-high $13 million. Including this season, Davis has three years and nearly $42 million left on his contract.

I can certainly imagine Gilbert at home yelling "Why are you on my team?!" at the TV every time Jawad Williams chucks up another jumper with 18 seconds left on the shot clock. The body language of this squad is beyond awful and at this point I'm just waiting for rock bottom. Was it last night when Harden dunked over Hickson? Was it the Heat game? The Minnesota game? Will it be Wednesday night in Miami?

For what it's worth, I'm finding it more and more fitting that this season's "Cavs Fanatic" alternate jerseys harken back to the Diop-era.

It fits, no?

Not J.J.'s Best Night

2010-12-13T11:57:00.000-05:00

This wasn't the only fastbreak dunk the Cavs allowed, but it was certainly the sickest:

Not only did Hickson get absolutely posterized, he had some choice words after the game:

”I have to find a combination of that second unit that’s going to come in and play the right way and do the right things,” Scott was quoted in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer after the game. “As soon as all five guys are off the floor, we’re getting slaughtered.”

Hickson, a former starter who had nine points in 24 minutes off the bench (and got crowned by James Harden) last night, couldn’t resist a snappy response when asked about it by reporters.

“Oh, so he’s blaming it on the bench?” Hickson asked. “If (Scott) feels that way, then that’s the way he feels. That’s his opinion.”

Yeah, that's Coach Scott's opinion, but there's some solid reasoning behind it, mostly the whole 19-1 run the bench gave up to end the third quarter.

The Cavs have too many of those types of runs. They'll play well for stretches and keep themselves in the game but they seem to have a 3-5 minute stretch every game where the bottom just drops out. There was the 16-0 Heat run that broke open the December 2nd game, they started down 10-0 to the Bulls, after being down 20, they got within 4 in Houston only to watch the Rockets go on a 17-4 spurt and hell, the entire Minnesota game was one giant run.

The Cavs aren't terrible, but they're playing terrible. They have too many dead stretches where nothing happens offensively and it affects their defense. Once the opponent grabs their big lead, they then have a tendency to hoist threes to try to get it back (ignoring the offense in the process). It's a big mess and I really don't know how they fix it.

The Cavs head to Miami and Wednesday and there's no way it won't be a blood bath.

This Scares Me

2010-12-11T23:12:00.001-05:00

I know that cap space isn't totally important to the Cavaliers (I mean, which marque free agent is moving to Cleveland?) but are they really looking to take on big salary?

As the trade deadline approaches, keep an eye on the Cleveland Cavaliers and Toronto Raptors. As one executive put it, those are the teams that will have first dibs if a marquee player becomes available because of their $14.5 million trade exceptions. Teams that are looking to get out of a contract will turn to Cleveland or Toronto, even over teams that have a sizeable ending contract to offer because they would still be forced to take on the expiring player's current salary this season. Both teams are looking to use their trade exceptions and will likely be players as February approaches.

I really don't think the Cavs should be adding a sizeable contract to this squad. Why? What are you building around?

By the way, the Cavs lost by 15 to the Rockets tonight. Sure, they kept the game close for about 2 and a half quarters, but eventually the whole "not playing defense" thing caught up with 'em. For whatever reason, they simply refuse to close out on three point shooters (Houston finished 12-26, but at one point was 12-23).

The offense looked OK and at one point they cut a 13 point third quarter deficit (75-62) down 4 (75-71) but never they made it any closer. Jamison had 24, 5 and 2 and Mo pitched in 18 and 9, but it wasn't nearly enough, as they let Kevin Martin dropped a 40 spot on 'em.

This is their 7th straight loss and they face Kevin Durant and LeBron in their next two games.

This season could be spiraling out of control.

Did you fine them for the Minnesota game too?

2010-12-11T09:34:00.000-05:00

Because no one showed up for that game either:

Scott said he wasn't allowing players to use a snowstorm as an excuse for arriving late to Wednesday's game at The Q. About half the team arrived only about 30 minutes before tipoff, and a few had to abandon cars and run the last few blocks to the arena. "Our players were late getting here, and it didn't excuse them," Scott said. "They're all still getting fined."

Um, good, I guess? Rule of law!

I dunno I can't really fault the players too much, I've been late for work a few times this week due to the weather (or dumb people driving in said weather). I guess it's good that the players are aware that they'll be held accountable for everything they do, be it getting to the arena on time or helping out on a weakside rotation.

Plus, it's not like Cleveland's winter is going to be getting better any time soon. These guys (like the rest of us) are going to have to learn to give themselves a little more time to get to work.

Also, Defense

2010-12-10T11:13:00.000-05:00

J.J. lost his starting job, he thinks he knows how to get it back:

Hickson had a brief conversation with his coach.

"He said for me to be professional about it and deal with it," he said.

He said he thinks he knows what it will take for him to get back in the coach's good graces.

"I guess rebounding and play harder, which I did (on Tuesday in Philadelphia)," Hickson said.

Ya, I guess.

Hickson has certainly been a disappointment lately (averaging 8 points and 3 boards in the month of December). The Cavs aren't very good (shocking!) and if they're going to win/make the playoffs, they need reliable production from Hickson on both ends of the court. On a team full of streaky shooters (Mo, Boobie, The Jumpshooter), J.J. has to give consistant production (and his 11 points and 5 boards ain't cutting it).

I'm not really sure what how the Cavs should handle this besides giving J.J. some tough love. He has the skills and the body to be a productive NBA starter for a long, long time.

Or he's Drew Gooden 2.0.

Various Stuff

2010-12-08T22:59:00.000-05:00

The Cavs had a one point lead with 26 seconds left and ended up losing by five to the Bulls. The Cavs' lack of a number one option hurt them down the stretch, as they had no one to trade baskets with Derek Rose (who is an absolute beast).

Coach Scott tried out a new starting five (Mo, Boobie, Parker, Jamison and Varejao) and while things were better (despite the 10-0 head start for the Bulls), the end result remained the same.

I also want to pass along a couple of Cavalier interviews floating around the net. Dime Magazine interviewed former Cavalier Brad Daugherty while HoopsHype interviewed Anderson Varejao. Nothing earth shattering here (though Andy says he "wouldn't mind" retiring as a Cavalier), but I found both of them interesting nonetheless.

Also, some Cavs fans have turned their eyes to Grizzlies' O.J. Mayo. He's had a rough year and he may end up being the odd man out in Memphis. I have no idea what the Grizzlies would want, but he's the type of guy the Cavs should be targeting (not Iguodala).

On Dan Gilbert

2010-12-07T20:54:00.001-05:00

ESPN's Howard Bryant takes owner Dan Gilbert to task at how he's handled the Cavaliers:

Successful organizations must adopt and believe in an institutional philosophy. The Cavaliers had won 66 and 61 games the previous two seasons, the two best win totals in franchise history.

Gilbert sent the message that he did not believe in his front office, firing coach Mike Brown two weeks before general manager Danny Ferry resigned as the possibility of losing James as well hung over the team.

The takeaway is that Gilbert is blaming everyone but himself.

But in preparation for a potential James departure, Gilbert stood pat, let James control the negotiation and then was left without a chair when the free agent music stopped. Judging from his actions and his words, Gilbert apparently believed that his team wasn't very good, that his star was a quitter and that his coach and general manager weren't good enough to win a championship -- harsh assessments for a team that crossed 60 wins in consecutive years. What is more likely is that Gilbert clearly did not know what he wanted after the tough playoff loss.

The result is a 2010-11 team without a compass and a fan base of season-ticket holders who thought they were going to be watching championship-level basketball paying to see a team that might not even make the playoffs.

The Cavaliers' payroll this season is $51.8 million, down from $80 million last year. Their highest-paid player is Antawn Jamison, whose $13.5 million salary represents more than a quarter of the team's total payroll -- and he doesn't even start. Nor is their fourth-highest paid player, Daniel Gibson, in the starting lineup.

This is why bad organizations remain bad.

I highly suggest you read the whole thing.

I have mixed feelings on Dan Gilbert. I love that he's willing to spend money on the Cavaliers. The new practice facility, the new locker rooms, changing the seat colors, taking on extra salary and paying the luxury tax and, of course, the post-Decision letter: awesome. However, I don't like the over the top game day celebrations (fire breathing score board!!), his appearances in the broadcast booth and his misguided determination to plow ahead with this team.

Since LeBron left, Cleveland fans have rallied around Gilbert. It makes sense. Gilbert is the face of this franchise, for better or worse (it sure as hell ain't anyone in uniform at the moment).

Yes, LeBron is a prick and his leaving completely messed up the franchise. But Gilbert is the head of that franchise. The Cavs made no major moves this offseason. They didn't choose a direction. Go young? Add a veteran All-Star? Nope. They kept most the team mostly intact and continued on their way.

I'm writing as the Cavs trail the Sixers by 20 points, headed for their fifth straight loss. It's time to blow this thing up. I really don't understand the point in gunning for the 8th seed with this group. Not after their peformance this past week. They look like a shell of a team.

There is no future with this group, that's what makes this season so brutal. It's one thing to bad but be young. At least you can watch and root for improvement and growth. But this team? Mo Williams is who he is. Antawn Jamison won't be getting any better. Anderson Varejao is the only one playing at full speed but he's a limited offensive player. The only young guy is J.J. Hickson and he's a space cadet.

Blow it up, Dan. Give the team some direction. Have a long term plan. Specifically, have a plan that doesn't involve paying money to Andre Iguodala. You're not going to build a starless championship team like the Pistons (not with this group, anyways).

LeBron leaving has given the Cavs franchise some breathing room. No one expects them to contend this year or anytime in the near future. The worst thing they could do is build an expensive, mediocre team (45-54 wins) and then drag it out before eventually having to rebuild anyways (like the Cavs from 95-2002). Just cut your losses and start fresh.

A 34 Point Loss

2010-12-05T03:08:00.001-05:00

To a four win team.

Impressive.

Excellent Read

2010-12-03T12:08:00.000-05:00

Great column by Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski.

That sure was fun

2010-12-03T11:21:00.002-05:00

In case you weren't reminded after the Derek Anderson/laughing controversy, the Cavs showed us last night that fans care more about these games than the players do. These past six months make the whole idea of following sports feel silly, doesn't it? This used to be fun.

I don't even know if there's any basketball analysis to be done. The Cavaliers showed no heart, no effort and absolutely zero toughness on Thursday night. They were absolutely terrible.

Does this game get added to the list? The Shot, the Fumble, The Drive, The Decision and The Return? Really, how much worse could it have been? The Cavs lost by 28 points!! Was this not the biggest game of the year?

The Heat players tried. They looked like they gave a shit. They looked like they didn't want to lose this game for LeBron (who played and conducted himself quite well). The Miami Heat played like this game mattered.

The Cavs players? Well, they lost by 28 points. The Heat got whatever they wanted offensively. Not one Cavalier offered any resistance. No hard fouls. No getting in anybody's face. No trash talking or chippiness. No one paid for going inside.

Nothing.

Bah. This sucks. Sports are supposed to be fun. The players are supposed to give a shit. Isn't that the trade off? We give you millions of dollars, you at least pretend to give a shit. Get off my lawn. Bah humbug.

I dunno. I'm feeling a bit jaded at the moment, but can you blame me? Dan Gilbert seems pissed off too, I wouldn't be surprised if he trades the whole team today, he tweets:

CavsFans: Words don't express my feelings so I won't even try. Know this:There's nothing U are feeling that I'm not. The best B-Ball player ever once said: "My pain was my motivation"....And so it will be with us...

But hey, look at the bright side, at least no one threw anything. The fans didn't embarrass the city.

The team did.

Merry Quitness

2010-12-02T11:39:00.000-05:00

Here's a whole bunch of LeBron vs Cavs articles to help get you through the day.

Cavaliers probing Tampering Charges.

LeBron James and his Kingdom of Ruin.

Cleveland, Don' Turn LeBron into a Sympathetic Victim.

Cleveland an Opportunity for the Heat to Show Heart.

Cavs Fans Have Payback on Their Minds.

Bud Shaw: A few well-chosen words from Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert can help set the tone for game with Miami Heat.

LeBron James returns and Cleveland Cavalier fans face their own Decision.

Jason Whitlock: Sorry, but LeBron's a Lost Cause.

Home is where the Hearts are for LeBron.

Jon Krolik: Can LeBron Learn from his old Playbook?

Brian Windhorst: A Different Homecoming for Ilgauaskas.

Greeting James: Jeers and... Laughter?

Some final thoughts before tonight's game...

I love the idea of the Cavs Chants and the Laugh at LeBron campaigns, but I have some issues. I feel like this a little too elaborate to actually work. And while I like the spirit of the chants (and that they used comic sans as their font (.pdf)), I don't actually care for the chants themselves.

For instance, chanting stuff like "NO-Ring-King" doesn't make sense to me. Cleveland doesn't have any rings either. Seems dumb to call him out on this. The "Akr-on Hates You clap clap clapclapclap" is meh to me and "Wit-ness No-Thing" seems a little too clever by half.

In their defense, they do have the "Side-Kick" and "Scot-ty Pip-pen" chants, which are my two favorites. I like the spirit and the idea, but singing some song to the tune of "My Country Tis of Thee" seems like asking A LOT of the crowd.

I go back and forth on how the crowd is going to be. On one hand, I feel like the vast majority will be well behaved, if a bit rowdy and loud. But I wouldn't be surprised in the least if someone (or someones) threw some shit. I've read the comment sections and have seen the tweets and Facebook posts, Clevelanders are pissed off. All of the anger over the Decision, the losing, the economy, the weather, and lord knows what else is being directed squarely at LeBron.

I hope people will behave (this is just sports) but I would not be surprised if some didn't.

As for the game itself (yes, there's an actual basketball game to be played), I have absolutely no idea what to expect. Bill Simmons, who has watched more of LeBron and the Heat than I have, believes that the Heat will wilt under the pressure. Skip Bayless tweeted the same thing, saying that LeBron won't be able to channel the negative energy into his play.

Maybe, maybe not. I could see the Cavs winning purely because of the crowd and I could also see LeBron drop 50 on us and add another chapter to the Book of Cleveland Sports Misery (the dude is the two time reigning MVP).

I have absolutely no idea what to expect out of the crowd, out of LeBron or out of the Cavs. Should be fun.

Let's Go Cavs!

Believeland

2010-12-01T14:17:00.000-05:00

I really can't recommend this article enough. Well done, Wright Thompson, well done.

Quick Cavs - Celtics thoughts

2010-12-01T00:12:00.000-05:00

- Possible the Cavs were looking ahead to Thursday? If you can look past a 12-4 team...

- Cavs defense was terrible. No one stopped any penetration, no stood their ground and no one made the Celtics work. Rondo got inside at will (not Mo's best game, to say the least) and Boston exploited matchups and mismatches inside (note: Big Baby vs Jamison is a terrible matchup for the Cavs).

- I like that Mo is being aggressive, but he can't be forcing things (like trying a thread the needle bounce pass between the entire Boston defense).

- The Celtics are good. They have a lot of guys who do a lot of different things well. They're filled with guys with unique builds (KG, Shaq, Rondo, Nate Robinson, Big Baby) and they can be both conventional and unconventional.

- J.J. had no room to operate inside but he seemed more than willing to settle for that jumper.

- Cleveland's small forward position is trash.

- Liked the effort I saw from Varejao. I still think he's the Cavs' best trade asset. Stay healthy!

- The refs were fairly shitty. Not that they caused the Cavs to lose or anything. But they certainly made things more difficult (Varejao was getting beat up).

- In the same vein, Boston didn't win the game because of their moving screens, but Jesus Christ do they get away with a ton moving screens. KG is especially bad.

Thoughts on December 2nd

2010-11-30T20:08:00.003-05:00

Many people in Cleveland are excited for Thursday's game against LeBron and the Heat. I am but I'm not, if that makes any sense. I'm anxious to see how the night unfolds but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have major concerns... both on and off the court.

First, the basketball worries:

It sure is Pile on LeBron Week, huh? Everyone seems to be hating on LeBron and the Heat. There's a coach bump controversy and planted stories. We got Bill Simmons calling the Heat weak and predicting that they'll get blown out on Thursday. And Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski simply takes LeBron to the woodshed in his latest column:

The fundamental problem for Spoelstra isn’t that James doesn’t respect coaches – he doesn’t respect people. Give LeBron this, though: He’s learned to live one way with the television light on, and another with it off. He treats everyone like a servant, because that’s what the system taught him as a teenage prodigy. To James, the coach isn’t there to mold him into the team dynamic. He’s there to serve him.

Wade was one of the Team USA players who’d watch incredulously as James would throw a bowl of fries back at a renowned chef and bark, “They’re cold!” Or throw his sweaty practice jersey across the court and command a team administrator to go pick it up. Everyone wants James to grow out of it, but he’s never showed much of an inclination for self-examination and improvement. And he’s never surrounded himself with people who’d push him to do so.

What’s more, the timing of this leak was no accident, because James and his business manager had to like the idea of someone else going on trial this week. When the public wanted to talk about James’ return to Cleveland, about the callous way with which he left, about the disjointed start in Miami, they thrust everything onto Spoelstra.

Yowza.

Oh and that's not all, for some reason we're caring if he throws his stupid chalk or not.

Maybe I'm crazy, but aren't the conditions perfect for LeBron to throw down an absolutely monster "Eff You" game on Thursday?

LeBron James is the reigning two-time MVP, is he not? The guy is a world class ass but I believe he's still a pretty damn good basketball player. One of the best. Ever.

(Or has the month of November in the 2010-11 NBA season changed all that?).

And you gotta figure LeBron is going to be a little motivated on Thursday, no? He's taken an absolute beating in the national press and he'll be facing most hostile non-Ron-Artest-fighting crowd of the last 20 years. He's suffered rumors about his mom. He's been called a quitter. The guy has every reason to be amped up and ready to bring it.

Let's not forget he'll be playing in an arena he's extremely familiar and comfortable with (at least with regards to sight lines and things like that) and he'll be going up against Jamario Moon and Anthony Parker, (who he faced in practice every day all last season). *gulp*

I know it's fun to hate on the Heat right now; they look petulant, childish and overwhelmed. It's great. HAHA IT'S NOT AS EASY AS YOU THOUGHT, YOU JACKASSES! 8 OR 9 TITLES? YOU SHOULD'VE STAYED IN CLEVELAND, AT LEAST THE CAVS TRY HARD AND PLAY D!

I totally get it. I love it too. Every time Miami loses I'm immediately put into a good mood. Karma and all that jazz.

But I can't get past the fact that we're just one month in to a six year experiment. The NBA has an absurdly long season (and postseason!) and due to injuries and Wade's divorce proceedings, Miami didn't get a lot of work during the preseason. This early stretch is basically their training camp and there's roughly 60 games until the playoffs. Yes, they're struggling, but they got time.

I really hope that the Cavs win on Thursday. This city and area needs a boost. But despite Miami's struggles, this is by no means a sure thing. Remember when Chris Bosh was taking some flack and the Heat fed him straight from the get go in a route over the Suns. What's to stop them from doing the same thing with LeBron? The Cavs counter with... Andy taking a charge? The big and powerful J.J. Hickson hammering LeBron near the rim? Antawn Jamison doing something useful? We're trusting Parker and Moon to check him? Awesome.

The Cavs, like most teams, don't have an answer for LeBron James. I don't care how bad Miami is playing, this scares me (I'm not saying he's gonna go off, LeBron could totally blink in the face of all this negativity. I really have no idea. But I certainly don't think it's out of the question that he has a big night).

The non-basketball worries:

I'm not so much concerned about the Cleveland crowd as I am about some knuckleheads in said crowd. All it takes is one jackass to throw something and the entire city is going to be smeared. After this past year (and counting), do you really think the national media isn't salivating at the chance to wag their finger at us unruly, uncouth, meat-head Cleveland fans? I mean, really?

I'm willing to bet that a lot of people aren't showing up to The Q to catch a basketball game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Miami Heat but rather to give LeBron a piece of their mind. I've seen the angry tweets and have heard the bar room bravado (search me all you want, I can still throw my AA batteries from my camera HAHAHA!). People are fucking pissed and they're going to let LeBron know about it (look at how we treat Braylon Edwards).

The other day, I was struck by something Dave Dameshek said during a podcast with Simmons, that sports matter so much to people in cold weather cities because good teams make the winters so much more bearable. I completely agree with this.

Cleveland was hit hard by the foreclosure crisis and is hemorrhaging jobs. The our local government is ineffectual and corrupt, our sports teams haven't won a title since the 60s and the weather sucks for six months a year. Having LeBron on the Cavs was a ray of sunshine during the bleak winter months. Being able to look forward to Cavs game on a random Tuesday night in January was really, really nice. Plus, there's nothing better than when the city gets behind a team during the playoffs.

(And conversely, winter is that much worse when our teams stink. Terrible weather combined with putrid sports does not a fun winter make).

So Cleveland fans care. A lot. Probably more than we should. That's one reason why we're so mad. LeBron didn't only only kick us in the nuts on national television, but he ended up going to a team that has to print flyers to remind fans to show up to games on time. "You left us for to play at a half empty arena?! Seriously?!?!"

So that's what worries me. We care too much. The weather is turning cold, the job market is bleak, our winter sports teams are struggling to play even .500 ball and Thursday presents the opportune time for a knucklehead to get drunk and take out his frustration on LeBron.

That's fine, just as long as that knucklehead isn't throwing things or turning into multiple knuckheads. This is just sports, if people start throwing things, someone could get seriously hurt. And as a city with 10 Cent Beer Night and Bottlegate on our permanent record, I'm not sure we've earned the benefit of the doubt in the "not throwing things" department. I've joked about this with friends, but I kinda want the Cavs to put up a net around the court, US vs Mexico in Mexico City style (still won't stop those bags of urine!).

Generally, I feel like the public is behind Cleveland fans at the moment (though some are growing tired with our bitching). The Heat are a perfectly hatable team and people are piling on LeBron. But a poor showing by Cleveland fans this Thursday will swing that public perception the other way. If the fans are too unruly and tasteless, LeBron ends up looking like, well, if not the Good Guy, at least someone who was justified in bolting town the way he did. The whole world will be watching this game, how will we act?

(I hope the crowd boo the hell out of him. I like the idea of chanting "Sidekick" or "Robin" whenever LeBron has the ball or "MVP" when Wade is shooting free throws. Also, I'm all for quitting, lying and backstabbing signs. Game 5 references are well within play. Just leave his family out of it, everything else is fair game).

So those are my concerns about Thursday. I'm concerned that LeBron could drop 60 points and completely eviscerate the Cavaliers... assuming the game even gets under way.

Various other Random Thoughts:

- I like the idea of both Cavs Chants and Laugh at LeBron, but I feel it's too little, too late. This is something that needed to be organized weeks ago and there's going to be too much going on to get anything coherent set up. There's also talk of everyone turning their back on him during the player announcements. I don't see how that'll get coordinated either. Just have 10-20 really loud dudes (in the lower bowl especially) get on the same page with a "sidekick" or "robin" chant, the rest of the arena should catch on.

- I have a hard time getting myself up for some of these Cavs games (especially if I work through the game). I've heard people tell me how much more fun these Cavs are to watch, on account of the ball movement and such. I agree, but only so much. I enjoy the ball movement and running style but you know what's really fun? Contending for a championship.

I love this teams resilience and that they're trying hard every night (for the most part). But to what end? What's the best case scenario for this season? Beating the Heat on the 2nd and then selling off parts for picks and young players? What does a 40-42 8th seed get them? It's a shame, because if this team had The Guy, they'd be pretty well constructed. But as it stands... where are they headed?

- I don't see the Heat firing Spoelstra. Pat Riley and his gelled hair may look impressive, but switching coaches won't magically make the Heat be able to guard point guards and centers. Yes, the offense needs work but they have structural roster problems that won't go away.

- That being said, are they not allowed to run Wade-James pick and rolls? Is that really too hard? That seems like it would be unstoppable.

- Here are some LeBron related videos going around the web: LeBron James is a Bitch, Michael Jordan's response to LeBron, LeBron flips out on Cleveland fans.

- I cannot believe that the Browns survived that game against Carolina. That had all the makings of a classic expansion Browns loss. They played well enough to win but were in a position to lose at the end. Good win, but man, Colt McCoy can't get healthy soon enough.

- Browns Fans :: Peyton Hillis | Germans :: David Hasselhoff

- Just caught up on Boardwalk Empire and Bored to Death. I highly recommend both of these HBO shows. Bored is quirky but really funny and I find Boardwalk captivating, even if they can be heavy handed with the metaphors and modern day allusions.

Give thanks

2010-11-22T22:00:00.002-05:00

(Note: If you feel like you've read this before, you did. Last year. I cleaned some things up and moved some stuff around, but the post itself is mostly unchanged.)

While it hasn't always been the case, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday; nothing else even comes close. How can you top a day full of football, family, friends and food? You can't. Other holidays have their perks but none are as close to perfect as Thanksgiving.

Fourth of July comes the closest and, like Thanksgiving, it's a holiday that I appreciate more now as an adult. So you're telling me I get a day off to drink outside and grill with friends and family? What's that? And we get to blow stuff up? Awesome. Fourth of July is great, but not better than Thanksgiving (I mean, how many cookouts do you go to over the summer? At least a few).

New Years Eve? When is the last time that a New Years Eve went the way you wanted it to go? Anyone? Maybe it's just me, I dunno.

Halloween? Don't get me wrong, Halloween kicks ass from ages 1-14 (trick or treating) and then from 18-26 (college girls). I like Halloween and all but at this point, I feel a bit goofy dressing up (there's only so many costumes that go with a full beard/mutton chops) and I can only get drunk in an uncomfortable costume so many times. It's not like Halloween is bad but better than Thanksgiving? No..

Finally, there's the big one: Christmas. Like Halloween, Christmas was awesome as a little kid (presents!!) but I've grown away from it as I've gotten older. There's just too much going on with Christmas; there's the pressure of buying the right gifts, dealing with the insanity of shopping, let alone the religious aspect that barely receives a passing mention. Hell, I'm not even religious and this offends me.

Simply put: there's just too much Christmas. It's gotten too big. It's a month long orgy of shopping malls, lame television specials, sugary treats and greed (with only a token nod to the Baby Jesus). Hell, with Black Friday, we're now letting Christmas attempt to ruin Thanksgiving weekend.

(Short aside: back in Christmas of 2004, I worked at the Barnes and Noble in Easton Town Center. At the time, I was getting emails calling me UnAmerican (I had a column in The Lantern, Ohio State's paper, and wasn't a fan of one George W. Bush) and the American news media still reported on the war in Iraq. Now, if you've never been to Easton, it's fairly ritzy shopping plaza and I can't even begin to tell you how elaborate the decorations were inside the actual mall. I swear to God, there entire place was drowned in silver and gold (ed. note: hyperbole) and meanwhile, I'm reading stories from Iraq like this. America: where there's enough money for two-story Santa villages made out of high-end German chocolate but not enough to properly armor the vehicles of our troops. Priorities).

But despite our best efforts, Thanksgiving is still somewhat pure. Yes, radio stations are now playing Christmas music the day after Halloween and Black Friday is threatening to spiral out of control but you can ignore it if you choose. Despite everything, the essence of Thanksgiving is still there. Thanks-giving. A day to give thanks.

It's so simple but yet so beautiful. A (uniquely American) day to reflect on all the things you're grateful for. How great is that? A day not to look at the negatives in life but to accentuate the positives. Be thankful for your friends and your family, your job and your health.

It's far and away my favorite day of the year.

Every Thanksgiving day since 1999, I've played in a pickup football game dubbed (very originally) Turkey Bowl with various friends from High School and a random assortment of their cousins, in-laws or friends-of-friends.

Is it cold and wet? Of course (it's Ohio in November). Are we all hung over and/or horribly out of shape? Yup. Do I hurt for 5 days after? Yes. Is it worth it? Abso-fucking-lutely.

This is the one time a year I see a lot of these guy. Some are home from college while others are simply back in town for a weekend before going back to Real Life. The games are somewhat competitive and there's usually at least one or two dumb/awesome laterals thrown in there for good fun. It's a couple hours of trash talk, laughing and hitting amongst old friends. What's not to love?

After I crawl home from football, there's the Thanksgiving meal with my extended family. Turkey, ham, potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce... Yes yes and yes. Seriously, sitting down for a giant meal with family members I rarely get to see is not a bad way to refuel after a couple hours cold-weather football. Plus after dinner, I can fall asleep on the couch watching even more (mediocre) football. Huzzah!

As you can tell, I adore Thanksgiving. Easily the day I look forward to the most each year. Too often we focus on what we don't have rather than what we do. Thanksgiving is a day set aside to correct this oversight. I'm thankful for my loving parents, my brother and sister and our extended family. I'm grateful for my pets and for all of my friends as well as my co-workers.

I'm also quite grateful to those of you reading this right now. I'm definitely not a big blog (or, heh, your most reliable blogger) but I know more than a few of you keep coming back. I'm still very much blown away that people who I've never met visit this place (or give me a forum) to read my incoherent ramblings on the Cavaliers and Cleveland sports.

Thank you.

I hope everyone has a happy and wonderful Thanksgiving.

Ray Davies (of the Kinks) - Thanksgiving Day

Cavs - Hornets

2010-11-20T09:47:00.000-05:00

I was being good. I was all set to watch and write about the Cavs game in New Orleans. The first half was pretty good (Jamison was quite hot) right until the Hornets went on an 18-2 run to close the half. Ugh. The Cavs missed a lot of good looks but they also shot a ton of threes.

Then I switched over to ESPN for the end of the Celtics-Thunder game. Do the Thunder have set plays? I know Kevin Durant was out and Russell Westbrook had to be The Guy for a night but their entire fourth quarter offense was Westbrook forcing jumpers. They survived but damn, that was ugly.

Then I switched back to the Cavs game. They cut the lead to 13 heading into the fourth but things still didn't look good. J.J. was gettng absolutely abused by David West (34 points, 11 boards) and Cavs trailed 86-68. I'll be honest, after Joey Graham got ejected for a flagarant 2 and Jawad Williams started doing terrible Jawad Williams things, we turned off the game and put on Boardwalk Empire pilot (me gusta).

So, needless to say, I missed the Cavs storm back and somehow pull within three (104-101) with 21 seconds to go. How this happened? Well, it looked like some treys finally started to fall (Gibson had two and Parker had one in the rally) but it was too little, too late. I gotta say, I did not expect these guys to keep playing hard down 18 with 10 minutes to go. So, um, good for them! And shame on me for not watching the whole game. But once Fox Sports Ohio started showing CBS commercials over top of the game (Hawaii Five-oh!) and Joey Graham got ejected, our patience pretty much ran out.

You Just Have To

2010-11-18T12:24:00.001-05:00

Rob Parker, of ESPN New York on the tackling of the Jets fan:

You hate to paint an entire city with a broad brush. But in this case, you just have to. This might be the meanest, dirtiest thing to happen in sports.

Excellent point. Sure, you don't want to use one individual to pass judgement on an entire city and fan base but this time it's OK. Because... well, you just have to. Hooray logic!

The Cleveland Frowns have much more on this story, including eyewitness accounts and many questions including: how does a grown man attack a child in front of a crowd of people without starting a fight or someone taking a cell phone video or calling the police? The reason we even know about this story is because the mom (who wasn't there) told the Plain Dealer after the fact.

But sure, blame the whole city of Cleveland because one asshole acted like an asshole. Someone from New York and/or ESPN shitting on Cleveland? Unpossible!

And speaking of assholes acting like assholes, Clevelanders aren't going to be rallying around Scot Raab for getting himself banned from Miami's American Airlines Arena, are we?

Raab (who I've written about previously) is a writer for Esquire (we also both had articles in the Cavs Zine) and was denied a press pass for Miami's home games mostly because he spends his time on Twitter creating #WhoreofAkron hashtags and tweeting nasty things to LeBron James.

I certainly understand being pissed at LeBron and all that jazz. But you lose me when you use childish nicknames (LeQuit, LeDouche, Whore of Akron, etc) in your pieces or take time out of your day to tweet nasty things to LeBron. If LeBron is such an asshole and liar and quitter and blah blah blah blah, why waste your time on him?

I mean, I'm sympathetic with the "us against the world" view of Cleveland sports as much as anyone, but I have a hard time working up my righteous indignation over this situation. Raab is a great writer and a passionate Clevelander but I can certainly understand the Heat not giving him a press credential. Can you really blame 'em for not credentialing the Whore Of Akron guy?

Basically, if our choice is James (the athlete who stabbed the city in the back) or Raab (the national writer who tweets nasty, childish things all day), I choose neither.

Shocking News

2010-11-17T20:08:00.000-05:00

It's like shooting (and missing) whenever you feel like it doesn't get you into Coach Scott's good graces:

Graham is a licensed pilot, a trained chef and an accomplished musician. He credits his father for making his sons educated and well-rounded. Joey certainly fits that.

Now Byron Scott seems committed to finding out if he can play. Scott confirmed today that Graham has moved ahead of Jawad Williams in his rotation. He wants to give Graham a fair chance and find out what exactly he can give the Cavs besides a low post presence and the ability to hit mid-range jumpers consistently. If Graham can rebound and defend consistently, he could really push Jamario Moon for minutes at small forward.

I was less than thrilled at the Graham signing but he sure was a breath of fresh air Tuesday night against the Sixers. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised.

As for Jawad Williams.... he's been a disappointment (4 ppg on 33% shooting). He was mediocre at defense and offensively, he seemed to think he was allowed to shoot whenever he got the ball. It was ugly. Between him and Jamario Moon, the Cavs small forward position was awful.

Graham isn't going to set the world on fire but he should be able to give the Cavs something.

Welcome to the rotation, Joey.

Can't Wait for December 2nd

2010-11-17T13:19:00.000-05:00

Not a good sign:

An 8-year-old New York Jets fan was tackled by an adult Browns fan after Sunday's game, according to a television station in Cleveland.

The boy went to the game at Cleveland Browns Stadium in a Jets jersey with his father, who was born in New York. Much to the chagrin of the local crowd, the Jets rallied for a 26-20 overtime victory. The boy's mother, identified only as Danielle by ABC affiliate WEWS because she didn't want to reveal her last name, said the fans in the stadium were great, but things got out of control after the game.

"Calling him a bad word, to my husband and to my son, throwing food at them," she said, according to WEWS.

When the family reached the parking lot, the situation got uglier.

"As [my husband] was walking, holding my son's hand, a guy from behind tackled him. A drunken Browns fan tackled him and pulled him out of his dad's hand. He was on the ground crying," Danielle said, according to the station.

The boy was left with a scraped and bruised ankle. The mother said her husband didn't call police, opting instead to quickly get in the car and leave. But the mother wrote a letter to The Plain Dealer in Cleveland detailing what happened.

Awesome.

I'm definitely think there's a chance that the December 2nd Cavs-Heat game will never get started (assuming Bron-Bron shows up). If Cleveland fans are tackling 8 year olds (and I'm fully aware that this asshole isn't representative of our fans, but still) then I'm not sure what's off limits. Hell, look at how nastiness thrown Braylon Edwards's direction. LeBron is gonna get all of that and much much more.

This is an area that has no jobs, shitty weather and lots and lots (and lots!) of sports heartache. It's not even the majority of fans I'm worried about. Much like the post-Michigan riots, I worry that the Heat coming to town will be the perfect excuse for knuckleheads to act up.

Missed opportunity

2010-11-11T00:38:00.001-05:00

Cavs had a chance to sweep the home-and-home but just ran out of gas. I liked a lot of what I saw (mostly in the first half) but they have to take better care of the ball. Part of it is focus (paying attention, making quality passes, knowing where you are on the court) and part of it is just trying to do too much. They can't really afford making a lot of unforced errors (or have the biggest shot of the game be an Anthony Parker running, turnaround, fade-away trey).

Antawn Jamison played well (14 points, 9 boards) but Hickson only gave 'em 15 (good) and 6 (not good) and Mo struggled (shooting 4-11 while getting torched defensively) before leaving with an injury. Ryan Hollin is like a taller, rawer version of Hickson. I like a lot of what Hollins does offensively but he played 13 minutes and grabbed just 2 boards (he did 11 points). The playing time is there for him, he just has to produce.

It wasn't a terrible loss (it's not like they slept walked or went through the motions), but after beating a team in their home building, it would've been nice to do it in Cleveland. Also, I feel like Fred McLeod could call a game with an Austin Carr soundboard and there'd be no noticeable difference.

Cleveland 93, New Jersey 91

2010-11-10T14:39:00.001-05:00

Solid win, good road trip. The Cavs beat the Nets to finish 3-0 on their three game road trip (against Philly, Washington and New Jersey, but still). Their starters didn't play particularly well but Cleveland moved teh ball well (27 assists) and got major production from it's bench (outscoring their New Jersey counterparts 52-15). J.J. Hickson led the way with 18 points and 10 boards but the big story was Antawn Jamison (who looked like he actually a gave a shit), who finished with 15 points, 8 boards and 3 assists.

The Jumpshooter (worst nickname ever?) did more than just stand around and shoot. Antawn looked engaged. He moved without the ball (beating the entire Nets team down the floor for an easy bucket) and actually moved with the ball (scoring on floaters and setting up others with his drives). In short, he showed all facets of his game and was very effective. The Cavs are going to need more games like this from Jamison. They're a much tougher team to guard when Antawn is active and aggressive.

The ending was kinda crazy. Jamison hit a trey with a little over two minutes left to give the Cavs a 86-82 lead. After a defensive stop, the Cavs were scrambling (Boobie got his shot blocked) and the ball ended up in Anthony Parker's hands and he hit a rainbow three as the shot clock expired (Cavs lead 89-82). Leading 91-85 with 21 seconds to go (after Jordan Farmar blew two layups), the game seemed well in hand but then Jamison was whistled for a terrible foul (you really couldn't have gone up any straighter) and gave Anthony Morrow three freebies (which he made). The Cavs sealed it with two free throws from Parker (which is nice, considering the Cavs nearly gave the game away at line by going just 12-22).

J.J. Hickson: productive. Hickson played only 25 minutes but shot 8-14 on his way to 18 points and 10 rebounds. I'm more impressed with the 10 boards (3 offensive) than the points. I want to see to him notch double digit rebound totals on a regular basis. Against New Jersey, he was active and decisive (finishing nicely near the basket) and he was knocking down his midranger jumper.

It was not Mo Williams best night. Mo, coming off a nice finish against the Wizards, never got it going. He shot a woeful 1-12 from the floor and never found a rhythm offensively. Williams ran the pick and roll with a couple of Cavs bigs (Hickson, Varejao, Jamison) but his passes always seemed a bit behind. I like (re: LOVE) using him and Hickson in the pick and roll, but their timing just isn't down yet. Ramon Sessions stepped up in Mo's place, providing 15 points and 5 assists (including 7 and 3 in the fourth period, respectively).

I expected Brook Lopez would've hurt them more. With 16 points and 8 boards, Lopez certainly didn't put up bad numbers but he only shot 6-18 from the field. I give a lot of credit to Anderson Varejao, who looked healthy as he pestered Lopez for much of the evening. Aside from Travis Outlaw (27 points, 4-7 3pt) the rest of the Nets didn't really give Lopez a lot of help. I would've liked to see more of Derrick Favors, who grabbed 7 boards in just 15 minutes and looks like he'll be a load to handle down on the block.

and finally...

What? You guys again? The Cavs face the Nets in Cleveland tonight to wrap up their early season home-and-home. I'm interested to see how guys like Hickson and Lopez play after already seeing the defensive schemes (will Lopez handle Varejao better? Will Hickson get as many open looks? etc). Hopefully, the Cavs will continue to share the ball and not have a let down at home after going 3-0 on the road.

Eight isn't enough

2010-11-09T11:26:00.000-05:00

In this nice article about J.J. learning the Princton Offense, we find this little nugget:

Scott said Hickson will never be Jamison and stretch a defense to the 3-point line, but he is comfortable with Jamison shooting from as far away as 17 feet.

But there is a tradeoff. If Hickson is 17 feet away, he's not in position to rebound. With Jamison's knee bothering him thus far, the Cavs are deficient in rebounders after Anderson Varejao. It's why Scott began harping on Hickson to be a better rebounder.

Hickson responded with eight rebounds in the victory over the 76ers last Friday in Philadelphia, proving again he is capable of answering whatever demands Scott throws at him.

Eight rebounds? That's enough to answer Coach Scott's demands? Really? Eight. From your über-athletic starting power forward? Umm... no

J.J. has the size and ability to average eight per game. He should get eight boards simply by being on the court for 35 minutes. Hickson should not get praised for eight boards.

Speaking of rebounds, Jason Whitlock lays into Chris Bosh for not getting enough of 'em:

Bosh had one rebound against the Hornets. He’s averaging 5.4 boards through seven games -- five fewer than he averaged in White Vegas last season.

Udonis Haslem and Joel Anthony can’t fix this. They’re not long enough, bulky enough, tough enough, talented enough or hyper enough to give the Heat what they’ll need to beat the serious title contenders (Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Antonio) or maybe even the pretenders (New Orleans, Orlando, Atlanta) in a seven-game series.

Miami’s lone 7-footer, Zyndrunas Ilgauskas, is a spot-up shooter. He’s not a defender. He can only give the Heat 15 good minutes.

Jordan’s Bulls not only employed Rodman and Grant, but Phil Jackson kept a stable of assignment-sound big defenders (Bill Cartwright, Luc Longley, Bill Wennington, Will Perdue, Scott Williams).

Bosh has to step up. This week.

By Christmas, if he hasn’t drastically changed his approach and production, Pat Riley will surely explore every option to move Bosh and acquire a goon.

OK, I’m not an NBA trade expert. I don’t fully grasp how you get the contracts to match up and the value of “expiring” contracts. I’m just going to suggest the kind of players who could make James and Wade as lethal as Jordan and Pippen.

I agree 1000000%. Bosh is soft. He has to be the guy who's going to get those tough, rugged boards and that's not his game. I see no way that Bosh is keeping KG, Howard or Gasol off the boards during big playoff games. He doesn't have the body and he doesn't have that crazy drive that guys like Anderson Varejao and Reggie Evans have. Rebounding is about wanting the ball more. I don't know if Bosh (or Hickson, for that matter) has the mindset to be that guy.

Speaking of Varejao, Whitlock has an idea for who Miami should pick up:

Cleveland’s Anderson Varejao and Houston’s Luis Scola should be at the top of Riley’s wish list.

Varejao is ideal. He’s high energy. He’s 6-10. He’s played with LeBron. Scola is off to a ridiculous start in Houston, putting up 22 and 12 through six games.

There is no way in hell that the Cavs are trading Varejao to LeBron's Miami Heat (and, once again, if LeBron had such terrible teammates, why should other teams want them?). First of all, the Cavs already have all of Miami's pick from the LeBron sign-and-trade and the Heat have no young talent. Secondly, if you think Dan Gilbert is going to give LeBron the pieces to win a title, you've got another thing coming. Third, seriously, who would Cavs even want from the Heat?

I will say that Varejao is one of the more attractive, tradable Cavaliers. He can rebound and defend, he's signed fairly cheaply (thanks to that awful awful GM Danny Ferry) and he's still young (only 28). Andy is a great fit for a contending team. I just can't imagine that team being the Heat (I've said it before, but Oklahoma City is the perfect spot for Andy. It makes too much sense).

It wasn't the flash

2010-11-09T09:46:00.000-05:00

Braylon Edwards never shuts up:

Former Browns receiver Braylon Edwards, who will come to town Sunday with his 6-2 Jets, got his homecoming party started early this week with the following Tweet on Monday:

"And before I take off and forget, all you Cleveland browns fans, 17 is coming back and you better bring ya [darn] popcorn."

Edwards, who was traded to the Jets last season, knows he won't be warmly received, especially after telling the New York Times earlier this season: "There's nothing going on in Cleveland. There's no real estate. There's no social life, no social networking. All the people who have something going on leave Cleveland. So Cleveland has nothing, and I came in there with a New York-type of essence. So what? That was the attitude I came in with. Like, this is who I am. They didn't like the flash."

It was never that Braylon was from Michigan or that he had "the flash" and us dumb Clevelanders don't like shiny things. I can't speak for anyone else (but as a life long Clevelander and an Ohio State grad, I will), but what pissed me off was all that dropping of the football. Us boring Ohioans can live with the attitude if it comes with the on field production (see: the entire LeBron James era), but if you fuck up and still act like an asshole, well ya, there's gonna be some issues.

I don't think this is a particularly hard subject to grasp. Not dropping footballs = happy fans (you get millions of dollars to catch a ball for a living. If you fail to catch said ball, well, fuck you). But if Edwards is looking to egg on Browns fans, maybe he isn't that bright.

Meanwhile, Coach Mangini refuses to name a starter for the Jets game.... sneaky!

"Cleveland's Response to LeBron"

2010-11-05T13:20:00.002-04:00

South Park isn't the only one to parody LeBron's "What Should I Do" video:

I go back and forth on stuff like this. On one hand, this is really well made and pretty cathartic. What should I do? Don't dick us over on national television, you douche! And then don't kinda sorta apologize or ask for sympathy in a fucking shoe commercial. Way to speak from the heart, bud.

But on the other hand, we're gonna have to get past this sooner or later, right? Yes, it's only been a few months (which is forever in the internet era) but at some point we have to move on from getting dumped. Life goes on. The sports world sympathizes with Cleveland at the moment, but a few more videos like this (or a really ugly display on December 2nd) and we're gonna lose any good will we've built up. LeBron didn't bad mouth the city or the fans, he went to play for another franchise (in the most asshole-ish way possible, but still. No one died or anything).

(Also, I'm really really really really concerned about December 2nd. Please guys, don't do anything embarrass our city. Booing: OK. Throwing stuff: Not OK).

I will say that I enjoy that they point out that LeBron quit in the Boston series. This really can't be said enough, in my opinion. LeBron and the rest of the Cavs quit. This was the franchises' best chance to win the title and they gave up before the final horn sounded. I know his teammates were the worst players in the history of the NBA and all, but LeBron James quit. That's on his permanent record.

But ya, good video. Well done. I'm fairly certain I know the one girl (hi, Adey!), so that's neat.

What to do with Antawn Jamison

2010-11-05T12:33:00.000-04:00

The veteran forward hasn't been shooting well, he's been hurting and he doesn't like coming off the bench. Awesome.

From the Plain Dealer:

The knee was good enough for practice Thursday -- the first time since playing in Saturday's game against Sacramento -- though Jamison is still questionable for Friday's game at Philadelphia. The 34-year-old has had an MRI and tests that show nothing structurally wrong, and while surgery hasn't been discussed, Jamison also said he is "not going to deal with it throughout the season."

If it sounds like Jamison is frustrated, he is.

"So far, as a whole, this season has been frustrating -- as a team and as an individual," Jamison said. "But this is when you stay positive, continue to work knowing that you're doing the right things and hopefully you get a breakthrough on both parts."

That's why Jamison continues to work on his shooting; he figures it has to get better eventually. Typically, shooting is a strength for the 6-foot-9 forward, but he's hit just 32 percent in three games this season. In the preseason, he was 8-for-38 (.211) and missed one full game and most of another because of his knee injury.

If the Cavs are going to have any hope of making the playoffs, Jamison has to be a big contributor. But can he do it while coming off the bench?

Jamison's new job as a sixth man requires delicate handling, and he won't say he's unhappy with it. He simply smiles big and chuckles softly. His hesitance in speaking and his face say all the things he can't before he utters the right words.

"It's just an adjustment," Jamison said Thursday. "I'll leave it at that. It's an adjustment.

"My job is to do whatever they ask me to do. I will never question anything. I'm a team player. Whenever they call for me to go out there on the court, I'll be ready to play."

Jamison came off the bench only one other time in his career, when he won the Sixth Man of the Year award for Dallas in 2004. He averaged 14.8 points on 54-percent shooting that season -- the highest percentage of his career -- in 29 minutes per game.

That experience and Jamison's increasing age are both reasons why Scott says he envisioned a smooth transition to the bench.

On one hand, I feel bad for the guy. He left the woeful Wizards to come to a championship contender only to wind up back in a similar losing/rebuilding situation. That's gotta suck.

On the other hand, he played like shit in the playoffs (hey! They're gonna throw it over the top to KG! Stop fronting him!!!!!!!) and the Cavs are paying him $14 million a year through the end of next year.

I really don't want Jamison starting. The Cavs defense is mediocre as it is and I don't think the aging Jamison can keep up with the starting small forwards of the league. Plus, I like the idea of Jamison providing the scoring for the second unit.

However, the Cavaliers' best case scenario is for Jamison to play really well and get traded to a contender. And if he only plays well as a starter, it might behoove the Cavs to start him, just so he can put up some decent numbers. But will a playoff team even want him as a starter? I dunno. It'd be best for everyone if he does well as Cleveland's sixth man.

Before I go, one programming note to pass along. I'm not sure if I'll be able to catch tonight's game against the Sixers. I have company in town and I'm working all day tomorrow. Not sure if I'll have the time to watch the game (though I'd like to), let alone write it up. Same goes for tomorrow's game against Washington, it's my buddy's birthday and again, company is in town. I'd like to happen, but I won't promise you anything.

Mid Terms

2010-11-03T20:23:00.000-04:00

Here's my quick thought: we threw the Republicans out because they trashed the economy and fucked everything up. We elect Obama but he can only get so much done thanks to Republican obstruction and wishy-washy Democrats. So we decide to put the Republicans one of the Houses, even though they've explictly stated they aren't going to change their stripes (tax cuts! deruglation!) and probably won't cooperate with Obama (unless cooperation = doing what the Republicans want).

I have little faith that things will be any better in two years, after more obstruction, bullshit investigations (I'm 50-50 if they'll try to impeach Obama before 2012) and gridlock. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the Republicans will act responsible (and this time they really mean it when they say they'll be fiscally responsible!!!)

I'm somewhat bemused by a bunch of my Republican friends on Facebook who, after two years of bitching about Obama and socialism, are upset that they might face budget cuts at the schools where they work. Well done.

People are in trouble. Foreclosures, 10% unemployment... and our solutions seems to be cutting medicare, social security and other "entitlement programs". Awesome. That'll sure stop the misery (but onward in Afganistan! Maybe we should also attack Iran!).

My only solace is that I don't think that there's anyone credible the Republican's can put up against Obama. Plus, in the primary, the Republicans are going to have to run hard to the right (Birtherism, Christianism, etc) but that won't fly in the general.

And hey, at least Harry Reid won... right? Harry Reid? Whooo?

1-3

2010-11-03T10:12:00.000-04:00

Sorry I've missed the past couple games. I caught most of Saturday's game against the Kings on the drive down to Columbus (Mike Snyder and Jim Chones did an excellent job filling in for Joe Tait) and I was reading during yesterday's loss to the Hawks.

The Cavs need to put together four good quarters if they're gonna beat a team like the Hawks (or like Kings, I guess). The Cavs had a brutal first quarter against Atlanta and then had to spend the whole game playing catch-up. Against the Kings, they had a great first half but then blew a 14 point lead during a debacle of a third period.

With LeBron, the Cavs could overcome a terrible quarter. But, like the Browns, they're good enough to beat anyone, but they can't be spotting them easy points. If they play well, they can win. If they have a quarter of brain farts... notsomuch.

That being said, it was nice seeing Mo back in the lineup and J.J. Hickson put up a career high 31 points. The Cavs were without Antawn Jamison, though I'm not really sure how much he was missed (I am NOT happy with the way he's played in this young season. With LeBron and Shaq, Jamison could float around and pick his spots. But on this team, he has to shoulder a lot of the scoring load and he simply hasn't).

Toronto 101, Cleveland 81

2010-10-29T22:24:00.000-04:00

Little bit of a different feel to this one. First post-LeBron game, home opener against Boston? Cavs had a lot of effort and energy. A simple late-October game in Toronto? The Cavs focus and energy were, um, lacking to say the least. The Cavs gave up too many easy baskets and they made things hard on themselves offensively by standing around and chucking threes. Night and day compared to Wednesday's win over Boston.

Not J.J. Hickson's finest hour. After scoring 21 points against Boston, Hickson followed it up with a 6 point, 6 rebound performance. Fouls limited Hickson's court time to just 15 minutes, but I wouldn't blame the refs. J.J. commits dumb fouls and he has to find ways to limit that (like not needlessly swiping at the ball). The Cavs aren't deep enough (especially without Andy) to be able to win many games with Hickson on the bench.

The defense was not good. Cleveland's defensive rotations were a step slow and they gave up way too many open jumpers and easy shots inside. The Raptors shot 47% from the floor and simply had better effort. Reggie Evans absolutely killed the Cavs on the boards (14 rebounds, 5 offensive) and always seemed to end up with the loose ball (Hickson needed to do more on the glass too).

The starters were, well, awful. The five starters combined for 29 points on 11-37 shooting. Ramon Session went 1-10, Jamario Moon was 1-5 and Anthony Parker went 4-11. There was too much standing around and way too many contested jumpers. Ryan Hollins, starting in place of Varejao, scored 7 points in the first half but finished the game with those same 7 points (however, I did like his effort). Again, the Cavs were without both Mo and Andy, but a disappointed effort from the starting group.

The game didn't get out of hand until the third quarter. Toronto held a 7-10 point lead for most of the second quarter and Cleveland trailed 46-38 heading into halftime. The Toronto lead built to 13 early in the third but after some treys from Anthony Parker and Antawn Jamison, the Cavs cut it to 54-48 at the 8 minute mark. Led by Linas Kleiza (13 points in the quarter), the Raptors finished the third on a 23-7 run and that was all she wrote (the Cavs "tried" to get back into it by lofting a ton of threes).

On the plus side, a whole quarter of garbage time! Cavs fans who stuck around through the fourth quarter got their first glimpses of Manny Harris and Samardo Samuels. I thought both guys played well in their first NBA action. Samuels scored 7 points on some nice post moves (as well as an alley oop from Boobie) but didn't grab a single board in his 7 minutes. Harris scored 8 points (went 2-2 from downtown) and looked extremely fast with the basketball. Harris looked so good that I wondered why he didn't spell Sessions earlier.

and finally...

First back-to-back of the year. The Cavs can wash the taste of this game from their collective mouthes with a win over the Kings Saturday night in Cleveland. I'm going to be interested to see how the Cavs respond and bounce back from this loss. With Tyreke Evans and DeMarcus Cousins, the Kings aren't a team the Cavs can look past (not that this Cavs team should be looking past anyone).

It's a tad early

2010-10-29T14:59:00.000-04:00

I'm not going to lie, I'm fascinated by this Miami team. Am I still pissed at LeBron? Yes. of course. But am I still interested in how his game evolves and how his team does? Yes. I can't help it, I followed this guy's every game for seven years, it's hard to not be at least a little interested.

(Also, I bought some LeBron basketball shoes the other day. But don't judge, their price was slashed considerably).

Bill Simmons column about LeBron touches on many of the things I've been pondering:

This wasn't basketball, more of an arrangement. Something didn't feel right. Wade caught a breather and LeBron immediately snapped into 2008 Cleveland mode: pounding the ball upcourt with a hop in his step, attacking the rim with impunity, reminding everyone that he's the most talented player in the league (and maybe ever). He took three shots in a row. More importantly, he looked like LeBron again. A few minutes later, LeBron took a breather and Wade took over. Same thing. Everyone cleared out, Wade went on the attack, took the next two shots and looked like Wade again. Neither guy looked comfortable until the other one was taking a break.

Then again, was that really surprising? LeBron and Wade are creators in a decidedly modern way: scorers first, then passers if they can't score. I got this. That's how players think in the post-Jordan, AAU-dominated, microwavable fame era. That's how you earn the most money, generate the most attention, land shoe commercials and end up producing one-hour shows in which you pick your next team. You can't expect two superstars in their primes to suddenly shut off the "I got this" switch. It's not realistic. As Bill Parcells famously loved to say, you are who you are. And on this particular team, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James are redundant unless one of them changes.

[snip]

Granted, I love overthinking this stuff. That's what I do. But I attended Miami's first two games and my biggest takeaway was the team's collective joylessness. Even during the Heat's first victory in Philly -- an infinitely easier game because the Sixers stink and their crowd was mostly catatonic -- nobody seemed happy except for James Jones, who was making open 3s like it was a pop-a-shot game. There was a distance between everyone. I noticed it. My father noticed it. My friends on Wednesday night noticed it. The vibe was undeniably weird. I thought the Heat would be as close-knit as Oklahoma City; instead, they acted like like they had been introduced 45 minutes before the game. And LeBron and Wade weren't "Kanye West and Mike Myers raising money for Katrina" level uncomfortable, but you would have never guessed they were buddies or even acquaintances.

So ... why?

The easy explanation: They're adjusting to that "everyone hates us, now it's us against the world" mentality and it's going to take some time.

The overthinking-it-but-maybe-I'm-right explanation: Maybe everyone slowly realized during the preseason, "Good God, LeBron is MUCH better than Dwyane. What do we do? How do we handle this? Do we wait for Dwyane to admit it? Do we ... wait, what do we do???"

Maybe Wade can feel it. Maybe his competitive juices are kicking in. No, no, we're equals. He's not better than me. We're equally good. Look, I'll show you. Maybe it's just been the elephant in the room for six weeks. Maybe deep down, everyone knows the Heat can't take off until Wade has his "You can be chairman and CEO, I'll be president and COO" moment. It goes beyond who gets to take the last shot. It's about the dynamics of basketball. It's about someone emerging as the emotional leader, the spine of the team, the guy who says over and over again, "I got this." And you can't keep saying that if you're looking over your shoulder worrying that someone else is saying the same thing. It's like a fly ball in the outfield. Eventually, someone has to call it.

I agree 10000%. Either LeBron or Wade is going to have to change his game. Their games are too similar and they can't both have the ball in their hands. It was definitely noticable in the Boston game that LeBron was much more comfortable when he was surrounded by a bunch of scrubs (as well as Z).

However, this is still very very very very early in the season. Also, Dwyane Wade missed a bunch of the preseason with his ongoing divorce proceedings and various bumps and bruises. It's going to take a while for the Heat to figure out how to play together.

Simmons is right, either LeBron or Wade is going to have to alter his game. Maybe it will be LeBron. After all, Slam just came out with our annual "LeBron is working on his post game". Hooray! Good for him. He needs it. Badly. But forgive me if I hold off on the low post praise until he does it in crunch time against a good team.

(You want to know what would've made me hate LeBron til the end of time? If he showed up to the Heat with a turnaround and a jump hook in his arsenal. If he had a polished post game on Day 1 in Miami, I may have gone on a murderous rampage).

Cleveland 95, Boston 87

2010-10-28T12:28:00.000-04:00

Feels good, doesn't it? Can't get much better than seeing the Cavs beat Boston the night after Boston handled LeBron and Heat. It wasn't simply that the Cavs won, it's that they won with six guys scoring in double figures and playing good defense down the stretch (they outscored the Celtics 27-14 in the fourth). I know this is already cliché, but the Cavs looked like a t-e-a-m; everyone who played, scored and everyone played a role. Cavs fans really couldn't have asked to a better start the season. Thanks, basketball gods.

Something is different about the offense... Movement! Holy god, they're moving! The Cavs moved the ball from side to side during half court sets and made a concentrated effort to push the ball on the break. This led to mismatches and easy baskets. Weird. The Cavs definitely had some moments where they pounded the ball (note: don't give J.J. the ball 18 feet from the rim with less than 6 seconds on the shot clock) but the offense looked like... an offense. There was cutting and ball movement and all kinds of stuff (and when the ball did stop, Coach Scott got pissed and set 'em straight).

Watching the game, I couldn't help but think about last year's playoffs. J.J. Hickson led everyone with 21 points (14 in the first half) and finished with 6 boards (I'd like to see him closer to double digits) in 30 minutes. It's almost as if Hickson (and his quickness) is a bad matchup for Boston. Meanwhile, Antawn Jamison didn't score a basket until the 8 minute mark in the fourth quarter. I know the Cavs were pumped up and I know Boston was coming off a back-to-back, but man, they won with Mo in street clothes and getting just 4 points from Jamison (and no LeBron, of course). This team isn't terrible. Don't be surprised that the Cavs didn't fold in crunch time; a lot of these guys have played in big games over these last few years, they should be able to keep their nerves at the end of games.

Ramon Sessions is going to drive me nuts. He's fast as hell and it seems like he can get into the paint whenever he feels like it. This is good. But often times, when he gets to the paint, he has no idea what he wants to do (a fade-away, turn-around jump hook? Really??). This is bad. I love his aggressiveness and I like the idea of him backing up Mo and running the second unit, but I also fear we're gonna get at least one terrible pun from Fred McLeod per game (Class is in Sessions! Hey-o!).

The defense wasn't great, but they made some big stops down the stretch. The Cavs gave up some easy buckets (especially in the first half) but they cooled down as the game went on (Boston shot roughly 112% in the first quarter, 53% for the half and ended up at 47% for the game). While Cleveland won't be a lockdown defensive team, they're scrappy and they made Boston uncomfortable late in the game. Anderson Varejao looked healthy and his defense and rebounding played a big role in the fourth (he got a steal and led a fastbreak which ended with a Hickson layup, putting Cleveland up for good). Varejao finished with 8 points, 10 boards, 4 assists, a steal and a block (don't think about the playoffs don't think about the playoffs).

Boobie didn't shoot well, but he's a big reason the Cavs won. Cleveland trailed by 66-55 with 4 minutes to go in the third and no one would've been surprised had the LeBron-less Cavs folded against the big, bad Celtics but Gibson kept 'em in it. Boobie closed out the third period with 5 points and 3 assists to bring the Cavs within 73-68 at the end of three. Gibson proceeded to start the fourth with trey (which turned into a 4-point play thanks to Ryan Hollins free throw) and suddenly the Cavs were back in business. Gibson finished with 16 points (4-14 FG, 2-8 3pt, 6-6 FT), 8 assists and 4 boards.

Things I didn't like: Anthony Parker. I don't want to harp on AP too much, because he had some nice moments (especially his trey with 2:30 to go that pushed the Cavs lead to 89-84). But man, if I have to have to spend the whole year watching him shoot off the dribble, I'm gonna lose my mind. If he's spotting up or moving without the ball, great. Totally acceptable. But I cannot stand watching him try to break his guy down and hoisting running bank shots. Please, no more.

and finally...

So the Celtics beat the Heat and the Cavs beat the Celtics, meaning, by the transitive property of basketball, the Cavs are better than the Heat, no? I sincerely hope you or anyone you know isn't seriously making that argument. Don't get me wrong, this was a great win for these players, the franchise and the entire city of Cleveland. There's really not a better way to start the year; you want the players buying into Coach Scott early wins against title contenders is a great way to do it. They'll be better than the pundits think (note: if you want live a happier life, ignore literally everything ESPN says about the Cavs) but I don't think they'll be fighting for home court in the playoffs.

Dodging a Bullet

2010-10-23T09:48:00.000-04:00

Looks like pneumonia saved Joe Tait's life:

Were it not for the chest pains he experienced while calling an Oct. 10 exhibition game in Houston and subsequent diagnosis of pneumonia, the Medina County resident might not have learned he needed a heart valve replaced until it was too late.

“That is so true,” a cheerful and upbeat Tait said Friday. “One of the cardiologists I talked to said this was a situation that could have led to death in three or four months.

“When I got the pneumonia, they initially thought I was having a heart attack when I got to Houston United Methodist Hospital. And by the way, if you’re ever having heart problems, that is the place to go. They did a great job. They immediately went to work on me like it was a heart attack. That’s when they discovered the heart valve was closing up. That was a heck of a break.”

Tait, 73, recently returned to his Lafayette Township home after being hospitalized in Houston for close to a week.

The 2010 Basketball Hall of Fame inductee underwent a series of tests this week at the Cleveland Clinic, where it was determined he is suffering from aortic stenosis, a narrowing of the heart valve that results in restricted blood flow.

Tait is scheduled to undergo a catheterization on Tuesday. He said doctors told him if anything abnormal shows up, he will immediately undergo surgery to replace his heart valve and have other heart-related concerns addressed. If the catheterization goes normally, his surgery will take place between Nov. 8 and 12 to allow him to recover from the pneumonia.

Thank god they found this. If Joe Tait would've passed away during his final season (the very first season after LeBron left), that would've been the final straw. No more Cleveland sports for me! I'd have been out. Done. Fin.

Jokes aside, you've got to be thrilled they caught this. After 39 years of mostly bad basketball, Joe deserves a long and happy retirement. As of right now, the time table for Tait's return is early 2011 but I think I speak for most Cavs fans when I say that Joe can take all of time he needs. He doesn't need to be rushing back from heart surgery just to describe us J.J. Hickson's missed defensive rotations.

Ridiculously Awesome

2010-10-23T09:33:00.001-04:00

Dante Bucci - Fanfare

The instrument he's playing here is called a hang (sometimes a hang drum). According to Wikipedia, only two people in the world make hangs and they were only developed early this century:

The Hang was developed in 2000 in Berne, Switzerland by Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer (PANArt Hangbau AG). It was introduced at the Musikmesse Frankfurt in 2001. Its name comes from the Bernese German word for hand. The two deep drawn steel hemispheres of the Hang are hardened by a process known as gas-nitriding. The side considered the 'bottom' has an opening (Gu) in the center which allows the generation of the bass note through Helmholtz resonance. When it is played in a dampened way it can change in pitch similar to a talking drum. On the 'top' are seven (in the bass version of the Hang) or eight (treble version which is no longer produced) notes arranged in a 'Tone Circle' in zig-zag fashion from low to high. All are tuned harmonically (with fundamental, octave and the fifth above the octave) around a low note (Ding) at the center of the Tone Circle. Each creation is numbered and signed.^[2]

If want to purchase one (and after watching that, who doesn't?), you should know that it's a bit of a process:

In 2006 the Hang Makers stopped shipping instruments directly and halted sales through retailers. With that change PANArt indicated that to obtain a Hang, prospective customers were to mail a letter by post requesting an instrument. In 2007, purchasers were invited to Bern with an appointment time to select an instrument from the different Sound Models offered. With the distribution of the single model Integral Hang beginning in 2008, purchasers could choose between requesting an appointment in Bern and having it shipped. In June 2008 a correspondence was sent by PANArt indicating that the production of Integral Hang instruments for the year had been spoken for, and that after the last Integral Hang was given to an owner (sometime in 2009) PANArt would take a "longer break" to decide how they would proceed in regards to the Hang. Requests received by mail and responded to would not be "thrown away" but the letter writers (at that time) would be placed on a list.^[5]

A significant update in what it means to write a letter to PANArt requesting an Integral Hang was written by a visitor to PANArt in late 2009.^{[citation needed]} It was indicated that a request letter should not be considered an order that is entered into a list based on date. PANArt decides whom they invite for a Hang purchase partly by the date of the letter but also based on other factors. A letter sent and the date it was written does not hold a place in line or guarantee that a Hang will be obtained.

Guess it's time to polish up my letter writing skills. And scrounge up about five grand.

Doubt this will be the last time

2010-10-22T12:51:00.000-04:00

Byron Scott is a wee bit frustrated with the enigma that is J.J. Hickson:

Cavaliers coach Byron Scott called out third-year forward J.J. Hickson after an 83-77 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday night for a lack of focus and the fact that he doesn't fully know the offense yet.

Asked whether he thought Hickson could get it all together before Wednesday's regular-season opener against Boston, Scott said, "I'm not very confident that he'll have it down pat, but it won't be because of a lack of effort on our end."

With the return of forward Antawn Jamison in the exhibition finale after he missed the two previous games with a sprained knee, Hickson's five-turnover night left the competition for the starting power forward spot up in the air.
"I'm still thinking," Scott said. "I'm telling you, I'm still thinking."

[snip]

"It doesn't surprise me that much, because I've seen it at practice at times, too," Scott said. "To me it's a lack of focus. I think he wants to do it but sometimes he's 22 years old and he comes to practice and he's not focused. He has to get much better.

"This is a job, something you have to take seriously. There's nobody in the locker room that has an excuse because they have a video playbook and a playbook. And we're always available. So there's really no excuse.
"So he just has to get better. He has to take it a little bit more serious."

Scott said Hickson wasn't the only player who needed to get more comfortable in the offense, but he was the only one he named. And he's the one who can most affect the start of the Cavs' season.

I like this. I like this a lot.

I know Scott has had issues young players in the past (notably last year with Marcus Thornton and Darren Collison) so this shouldn't come as a surprise. I'm a little concerned that J.J. could get himself in the dog house, but I feel the Cavs need Hickson so much that he'll get some minutes regardless (whether or not those come at the end of games, remains to be seen).

That being said, I feel like we're wasting time if Jamison is the starting power forward. Hickson needs minutes. Period. This line worries me:

Jamison also helped himself. He impressed Scott with his conditioning and defense, despite shooting just 3-of-12 from the field while scoring seven points in 28 minutes.

Awesome. He shot 25% and helped himself. The last thing I want is to see this season is an Anthony Parker, Antawn Jamison and Joey Graham based offense, so get your head on straight, J.J. The Cavs need to be playing the young guys (in my opinion, at least) but some tough love early on won't hurt. I hope.

Get Well Soon, Joe

2010-10-22T10:26:00.001-04:00

Hopefully Joe will be alright:

Cleveland Cavaliers radio broadcaster Joe Tait will undergo a procedure on his heart and is expected to be out at least until January.

Waiting for Next Year has more:

Undergoing a battery of tests at the Cleveland Clinic, it was determined that the difficulty breathing and discomfort – also common symptoms of aortic stenosis – had a little more to it. Alas, Tain will continue to undergo various procedures to replace a valve and address other heart-related concerns.

There is no timetable for Tait’s return from his current ailment, though he is expected to not return until the New Year at the earliest. The team reports that Joe is in good spirits and remains very appreciative of the support given from fans. In his absence, WTAM (1100 AM) will rely on (usual in-studio correspondent) Mike Snyder with play-by-play as well as Cavalier legend Jim Chones with the color commentary.

Tait, 73, is in his 39th season with the Cavaliers and has a lifetime agreement with the team to be their play-by-play man as long as he wishes. Though he has stated his intentions to retire after the 2010-11 season, here’s hoping that it’s by choice and is not expedited by any health-related issues. The sooner the irreplaceable Tait is back and enjoying a “hot, delicious DiGiorno Pizza,” the better.

It'll be a shame if Joe's last year gets cut short. While Mike Snyder is a pro (I think he does a great post game show), no one can replace Tait.

A Superstar?

2010-10-21T18:55:00.002-04:00

So teams are calling the Cavs about Andy:

Sources say numerous teams have inquired about Varejao, but the Cavs won't even entertain such talks unless they're getting a superstar in return; Anthony, for one, has made it clear he wouldn't sign an extension in Cleveland.

I'm all for playing hardball... but a superstar?? Again: "Cavs won't even entertain such talks unless they're getting a superstar in return." Awesome.

I'm of the belief that the Cavs need tear down and rebuild in order to get back to the promise land (legit title contention). They have an entire roster built around a player that is no longer here.

Cleveland needs young guys and draft picks and guys like Varejao could bring in a decent haul of both (though if they're waiting for a superstar, they'll be waiting awhile). I like the fact that teams are asking about Cavalier players and I'm interested see what the Cavs philosophy is at the trading deadline.

I find it funny that teams are calling about Varejao. I was under the impression that Cavs had LeBron and no other talented players. It was Bron-Bron and a bunch of bums, no? But now teams want Andy, Boston signed Delonte and Shaq and LeBron took Z with him to South Beach. Playoff contenders want Cavaliers. You'd think they'd want good players.

If I'm the Cavs, I offer Varejao to the Oklahoma City Thunder (but not for Kevin Durant, because dangling Andy for a superstar is dumb). They're a team that could use a young, defensive big and they've been stockpiling young guys and picks for awhile now.

Speaking of tradeable players and young guys, the Cavs recently made a few announcements regarding both (I consider 4/5th of the starting five "tradeable players").

First, the starting lineup is going to be Mo Williams, Anthony Parker, J.J. Hickson, Varejao and Jamario Moon (with Antawn Jamison coming off the bench). I think Byron Scott has to start Hickson and that means the veteran Jamison comes off the bench. Jamison can play the small forward position at times, but he can't defend opposing threes on a regular basis. Once you decide to move Antawn to the bench, Moon is basically the default starting SF (but he does fit the up tempo offense). I like this move; Moon is athletic and Jamison gives them some second unit scoring.

The other announcement was that Manny Harris beat out former second round pick Danny Green for the fifteenth and final roster spot. I don't have a huge opinion on Harris but I've liked what I've seen. I don't even hold the fact that he went to Michigan against him.

Maybe I'm weird, but I don't usually hate on Michigan guys in the pros. As weird as it sounds, I want Michigan to be good. When OSU beats them, I want it to matter. So once guys get into the pros, I want them to do well so reflects well on UM (and therefor the Big Ten and Ohio State). So well done, Manny Harris.

(Also, Danny Green: wasted draft pick? Maybe).

Ever read a newspaper's comment section?

2010-10-20T19:13:00.000-04:00

You're not gonna believe this, but someone on the internet wrote something racist:

To illustrate that sometimes unpleasant interaction, James took the unusual step of retweeting some hateful Twitter messages to his 900,000 followers on Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday, the Miami Heat star said he did it to show people what he deals with on a daily basis.

James published three negative tweets on his feed including one that was racially charged.

"I just want you guys to see it also," James said after the Heat's practice Wednesday afternoon. "To see what type of words that are said toward me and towards us as professional athletes. Everybody thinks it is a bed of roses and it's not."

In one message a person wrote that James is "a big nosed big lipped bug eyed (racial slur). Ur greedy, u try to hide ur ghettoness."

Last month in an interview with CNN, James said that he felt some of the backlash aimed at him after his decision to sign with the Heat was racially based.

Personally, I don't really think this is that big a deal. Someone tweeted LeBron something mean and nasty? What? Unpossible! The dude has over 900,000 followers on twitter, odds are not everyone is going to be nice.

That being said, I'm not really a fan of Twitter heckling. I mean, I get it, to a certain extent. With Twitter, you know if you put someones username in your tweet, they'll be able to see it. And if you're really mad at someone, you now have a pretty easy way to let them know about it. But tweeting insults at famous people seems like a waste of time (heh, moreso than Twitter is normally) and Cleveland fans hate tweeting LeBron just seems pretty (especially the Delonte/Gloria shit. Classy guys).

I understand the why James is sharing these tweets with us, considering how much flack he and Maverick Carter took for saying that some of the post-Decision criticism of LeBron was racist. These tweets prove that LeBron deals with racist stuff (which really isn't here nor there). No one denies that James will get some crazy racist tweets (it's the INTERNET, for Christ sakes), but I wouldn't say these are even close to indicitive of the overall criticism leveled at Bron-Bron.

Maybe LeBron will use these tweets to light a fire under his ass. I sure hope so (the basketball fan in me is really interested to see how he plays in Miami). If these are fuel for his fire, good. If not, I agree with Robert Little of Black Sports Online:

Give me break if you are so soft that a couple of ignorant tweets get to you, then I am going to start to believe the people that say when things don’t go Lebron’s way he folds.

Because if you are going to fold to “E-Thuggin” how are you going to deal with the Celtics or Lakers?

You're Kidding

2010-10-18T07:21:00.000-04:00

Turns out, some of those Facebook apps aren't so concerned about your privacy:

Many of the most popular applications, or "apps," on the social-networking site Facebook Inc. have been transmitting identifying information—in effect, providing access to people's names and, in some cases, their friends' names—to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.

The issue affects tens of millions of Facebook app users, including people who set their profiles to Facebook's strictest privacy settings. The practice breaks Facebook's rules, and renews questions about its ability to keep identifiable information about its users' activities secure.

What? Farmville is one of the offending apps?

The apps, ranked by research company Inside Network Inc. (based on monthly users), include Zynga Game Network Inc.'s FarmVille, with 59 million users, and Texas HoldEm Poker and FrontierVille. Three of the top 10 apps, including FarmVille, also have been transmitting personal information about a user's friends to outside companies.

Most apps aren't made by Facebook, but by independent software developers. Several apps became unavailable to Facebook users after the Journal informed Facebook that the apps were transmitting personal information; the specific reason for their unavailability remains unclear.

Privacy and Facebook is always weird. Facebook hides their privacy settings fairly well and they have a tendancy to make sharing the default option. Despite how much I use Facebook, I try to keep a lot of information about myself off the site (kinda funny, coming from someone who uses his real name as his blog URL). For instance, I have a bunch of friends who show up in my feed as "liking" a whole host of products and shows (oreos, Lost, Jack Johnson, etc). This is something I do not and will not do; you're basically giving your information away to marketing companies. I'll pass.

But I love Facebook, I really do. I use it as my email (I don't have nearly all of my friends email addresses, but I'm friends with them on Facebook), chat service (no more AIM) and for just general socializing purposes. I've never use Facebook for games (mostly because I already waste enough time online) but distrust of the third party companies definitely plays a role (HINT: Farmville is evil).

It's almost as if they have an agenda

2010-10-16T08:12:00.001-04:00

Can you really be surprised that the company who relentlessly flogged the "LeBron's a free agent in 2010 OMG!!!" story for the past three years, aired LeBron's Decision, and created special Heat Index page to follow LeBron's new team would take a passing shot at the Cavaliers while promoting the upcoming season:

Does this happen to any other city? ESPN and Marvel team up to promote the 2010-11 season and they use one of their ads to disparage one of the NBA's 30 teams. I don't remember any baseball promos cracking on the Pirates or NFL spots ripping the Lions, but maybe I'm mistaken.

It's a twist on Marvel's iconic moment from a Spider-Man issue published in 1967 when Peter Parker quits being a super hero and leaves his alter ego behind.

But Cavs season ticket-holder Brian Barney, a downtown ad executive who saw the images online, was upset at what he considered a cheap shot.

"It's belittling," he said. "It seems mean-spirited."

Especially after ESPN's burn this summer. The network staged James' prime-time revelation that the Akron native and two-time MVP was bolting for Miami, known as "The Decision."

The Cavs are the only team in the preview issue not illustrated by an image of a current player or owner.

Gary Belsky, ESPN the Magazine's editor in chief, said his staff was sympathetic to Cavs fans, but when ESPN writers and editors presented story lines for the season to Marvel artists, they decided this was the way to tell it.

"Honestly," he said, "we talked a lot about that and we didn't see it as kicking the city and Cavs fans while they're down."

The thing that gets me is the fact that it's such a lazy move. This required no thought at all. Instead of looking for positives in this Cavs team (plucky underdogs rejected by the MVP!) or simply an interesting angle (new coach!), they took the easy way out and went with "HARDY HAR, LeBron left!"

But this is really par for the course. ESPN's most popular columnist, Bill Simmons, ranked the Cavs last of teams he'd like to see play and also went with the easy joke rather than anything substantive:

30. Cleveland
You knew it was coming. Just remember, Cleveland: It could be worse. You could be Seattle.

Here's the thing with Simmons's (repeated) Seattle cracks. Cleveland lost the Browns. The Cleveland Fucking Browns left. Then the old Browns won the Super Bowl and we're stuck rooting the second worst team in the NFL (thanks, Detroit!). I'm pretty sure Cleveland was more upset losing the Browns than Seattle was losing the Sonics. And sure, it's not like Seattle has a basketball team, but we're stuck rooting for basically the Clippers of the NFL. We've been Seattle.

Anyways, as far as cracks on Cleveland go, "The Unamazing Cavaliers" is fairly tame. This is nothing. If you're surprised and/or upset by this, you obviously haven't been paying attention over the past five/ten/twenty years. "The Unamazing Cavaliers" is uninspired and lazy.

Which really about sums up most of ESPN, no?

Get Well Soon, Joe

2010-10-12T14:23:00.000-04:00

No me gusta:

Longtime Cavaliers radio play-by-play announcer Joe Tait remains hospitalized in Houston with pneumonia.

The team said Tait, who was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame earlier this year, experienced discomfort and chest pains during and after Cleveland's game at Houston on Sunday night. He was transported to The Methodist Hospital, where he was kept overnight for observation and testing.

The Cavs said Tait is stable, receiving treatment and resting "more comfortably." He is expected to remain in the hospital for at least one more day.

I'm definitely bummed that this will be Tait's final season but it's probably time. Here's hoping he gets better, and soon.

You're Welcome

2010-10-06T19:28:00.000-04:00

You know always wanted to watch seven minute long Craig Ehlo highlight video.

Me Gusta

2010-09-29T18:07:00.000-04:00

Coach Scott has the Cavs running:

Scott does heavy running at the start and finish of each practice in camp and then runs a crisp schedule so players are doing drills while fatigued to help build up stamina.

But the finish seemed to make the biggest impression. The players run three series of shuttle sprints (foul line, half court, opposite foul line, full court) in a row in groups and everyone must complete them within two minutes. Scott and his assistants watch closely to make sure the players touch each line. Cheating means they have to start over.

Then they run three more.

"I saw a couple guys throw up, I'm not going to point them out, but it is good for us," Jawad Williams said. "It wasn't nothing fun, my feet are on fire."

Breakfast wasn't the only thing that didn't make it for some. Rookie Samardo Samuels cramped up and missed about the last half-hour. But otherwise, every player made it through the first day's challenge.

"Whoa, it was very tough. But I know it is going to bring us closer together, it's got to," Gibson said. "Everybody made it through and we pushed each other the whole way. We're going to start to love him for it, but right now it's tough on us."

I hope they stick with it. Too often NBA teams return to training camp professing their new found love of the running game only to have it fall by the wayside once the games start.

With guards like Mo Williams and Ramon Sessions and big men like Antawn Jamison and J.J. Hickson (plus Jamario Moon), the Cavs are better suited to run as opposed to a slower, grind-it-out style. Plus, I'm not sure how good they're going to be on defense (because they have guys like Williams, Jamison and Hickson) so they may need to simply outscore other teams.

Unnecessary

2010-09-29T17:00:00.002-04:00

This is stupid:

Lucasfilm Ltd. announced today that the live-action "Star Wars" saga will be converted to 3D.

"There are few movies that lend themselves more perfectly to 3D; from the Death Star trench run to the Tatooine Podrace, the 'Star Wars Saga' has always delivered an entertainment experience that is completely immersive," said the statement.

You know what would be cool? Rather than rereleasing the same shit (IN 3D!), why not just make new movies? Why bastardize the old stuff? I mean, sure, it's probably really easy and will make a ton of money but... oh. Right. Squeeze all the money you can out of these films.

Liberal Red Meat

2010-09-29T15:42:00.001-04:00

Matt Taibbi on the Tea Party (I highly suggest reading the whole thing):

Scanning the thousands of hopped-up faces in the crowd, I am immediately struck by two things. One is that there isn't a single black person here. The other is the truly awesome quantity of medical hardware: Seemingly every third person in the place is sucking oxygen from a tank or propping their giant atrophied glutes on motorized wheelchair-scooters. As Palin launches into her Ronald Reagan impression — "Government's not the solution! Government's the problem!" — the person sitting next to me leans over and explains.

"The scooters are because of Medicare," he whispers helpfully. "They have these commercials down here: 'You won't even have to pay for your scooter! Medicare will pay!' Practically everyone in Kentucky has one."

A hall full of elderly white people in Medicare-paid scooters, railing against government spending and imagining themselves revolutionaries as they cheer on the vice-presidential puppet hand-picked by the GOP establishment. If there exists a better snapshot of everything the Tea Party represents, I can't imagine it.

After Palin wraps up, I race to the parking lot in search of departing Medicare-motor-scooter conservatives. I come upon an elderly couple, Janice and David Wheelock, who are fairly itching to share their views.

"I'm anti-spending and anti-government," crows David, as scooter-bound Janice looks on. "The welfare state is out of control."

"OK," I say. "And what do you do for a living?"

"Me?" he says proudly. "Oh, I'm a property appraiser. Have been my whole life."

I frown. "Are either of you on Medicare?"

Silence: Then Janice, a nice enough woman, it seems, slowly raises her hand, offering a faint smile, as if to say, You got me!

"Let me get this straight," I say to David. "You've been picking up a check from the government for decades, as a tax assessor, and your wife is on Medicare. How can you complain about the welfare state?"

"Well," he says, "there's a lot of people on welfare who don't deserve it. Too many people are living off the government."

"But," I protest, "you live off the government. And have been your whole life!"

"Yeah," he says, "but I don't make very much." Vast forests have already been sacrificed to the public debate about the Tea Party: what it is, what it means, where it's going. But after lengthy study of the phenomenon, I've concluded that the whole miserable narrative boils down to one stark fact: They're full of shit. All of them. At the voter level, the Tea Party is a movement that purports to be furious about government spending — only the reality is that the vast majority of its members are former Bush supporters who yawned through two terms of record deficits and spent the past two electoral cycles frothing not about spending but about John Kerry's medals and Barack Obama's Sixties associations. The average Tea Partier is sincerely against government spending — with the exception of the money spent on them.

I need a cigarette.

[Edit] I also recommend this rant from Bill Maher on taxes:

When you raise taxes slightly on the wealthy, it obviously doesn't destroy the economy -- we know this, because we just did it -- remember the '90's? It wasn't that long ago. You were probably listening to grunge music, or dabbling in witch...craft. Clinton moved the top marginal rate from 36 to 39% -- and far from tanking, the economy did so well he had time to get his dick washed.

Even 39% isn't high by historical standards. Under Eisenhower, the top tax rate was 91%. Under Nixon, it was 70%. Obama just wants to kick it back to 39 -- just three more points for the very rich. Not back to 91, or 70. Three points. And they go insane. Steve Forbes said that Obama, quote "believes from his inner core that people... above a certain income have more than they should have and that many probably have gotten it from ill-gotten ways." Which they have. Steve Forbes, of course, came by his fortune honestly: he inherited it from his gay egg-collecting, Elizabeth Taylor fag-hagging father, who inherited it from his father. Of course then they moan about the inheritance tax, how the government took 55% percent when Daddy died -- which means you still got 45% for doing nothing more than starting out life as your father's pecker-snot.

and this piece on white people from the Village Voice:

What was going on? Had decades of sucking down so much high-fructose corn syrup not only made Americans incredibly obese, but also messed with white brain chemistry to the point that some sort of tipping point had occurred?

Not a bad theory, but no, there's a simpler explanation, with two parts: For the first time in their lives, baby boomers are hard up against it economically, and white boy is becoming outnumbered and it's got his bowels chilled with fear.

"In an age of diminished resources, the United States may be heading for an intensifying confrontation between the gray and the brown," writes Ronald Brownstein in his July National Journal article, "The Gray and the Brown: The Generational Mismatch." That's a polite and understated way of saying that older white folks are losing their shit as they're being replaced by young brown and black kids while the economy is in the crapper.

Brownstein notes that 40 percent of the nation's population under 18 is already non-white, with that number significantly higher in the Southwest (read: Mexicans!). By 2023, that number of young non-whites will be an outright national majority.

At the same time, the baby boomers are getting older. At 80 percent white, boomers have gotten pretty used to dominating nearly every field of endeavor in this country since they came of age—politics, business, education, the arts—just about everything but MTV programming. Boomers set the national agenda in so many ways that we can forget how much the national economy and national media cater to them. Bewildered by the number of Cialis ads you see on television showing those flabby couples sitting in bathtubs? Or the way that older women are suddenly "cougars" and "MILFs" and . . . oh, yeah, you remember, boomers are getting old, but still want to think they can get the sheets sweaty. See? Boomers and their fixations and fears explain nearly everything. . . .

I really recommend reading the whole thing.

Oh yeah, that's right

2010-09-26T13:37:00.000-04:00

Is it weird that I'm still not used to the fact that Byron Scott is the Cavs head coach? I know LeBron is gone and that Z followed him. But when I think about this upcoming season, all that comes to mind is Mo Williams, Antawn Jamison and J.J. Hickson. I'm always like, "oh yea..... Byron Scott is the Cavs head coach. Sweet."

Anyways, I really enjoyed the feature on Coach Scott in today's Plain Dealer:

After playing 10 seasons with the Lakers, winning championships in 1985, '87 and '88, Scott played two seasons with Indiana and one with Vancouver before returning to the Lakers in 1996-97 to help mentor a young Kobe Bryant.

He finished his playing career in Greece in 1997-98, then joined the Sacramento Kings as an assistant coach for two seasons before being named head coach of the New Jersey Nets in 2000-01. The Nets finished in sixth place that season, but reached the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003, losing to the Lakers the first time and the San Antonio Spurs the second. Scott says the memory of losing those two series as a coach fuels him more than his three titles as a player with the Lakers.

Fired by the Nets midway through the next season, Scott took over the New Orleans Hornets in 2004-05 and the team slowly improved from fifth place in the Southwest Division to fourth and then first in 2007-08, when he was named the league's coach of the year. In the middle of his five-year stay, the team spent parts of two seasons in Oklahoma City after the 2005 devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

Scott, who still owns a home in New Orleans, called that situation the biggest challenge of his career.
"You're talking about people's lives," he said.

Scott, an old-school guy who still has a Doobie Brothers ring tone on his flip phone, faces another challenge here, rebuilding the Cavaliers after James took his talents to South Beach. But his former Laker teammates are confident Scott will succeed here.

"He's going to do a great job," Abdul-Jabbar said. "The fans in Cleveland will be very pleased. He knows the game and he relates to the players in a very positive way. He knows how to win. He did a great job in New Jersey, went to New Orleans and did a great job. In terms of knowing his job and being able to get the job done, they don't have any worries."

Added Johnson, "When he got the Cleveland job, I was really happy for him. Of course, I wish it was with LeBron. But it's not. Byron will still do a wonderful job. He has been a winner wherever he's been. He knows the game inside and out. He brings a championship pedigree with him. And he's a player coach. Byron will do well.

"I think when you look at what has all happened to Cleveland, he's the perfect guy to come in and coach, because he's going to take this as a challenge and he's going to work hard to hopefully one day bring them what they've been missing and that's a championship."

I really don't think the Cavs are going to be as bad as pundits seem to think. For instance, Yahoo has the Cavs going 12-70 and ESPN isn't that much better, ranking them 27th overall (behind such teams as the Warriors, the Pacers, the Clippers and the Nets). Is Cleveland going to be a championshp contender? Hell no. But they aren't going to be the worst team in the league.

Book Review: Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande

2010-09-22T19:22:00.001-04:00

I really enjoyed The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right. It wasn't really what I was expecting, but it was extremely interesting and I liked it a lot.

I started this book thinking it was a self-help(ish) book about how people could use checklists in their every day lives to keep themselves organized. Heh. This is something I always tell myself to do more.

But Gawande focused his attentions on the use of checklists in three major fields: airplane pilots, medical facilities (mostly surgery) and building construction. Each industry used checklists to help navigate every complex procedures and to make sure everyone was on the same page.

By going through a checklist before surgery (or flights), it helped make sure that those small, but critical, steps aren't missed and that everyone was prepared if things did in fact take a turn for the worse.

Gawande also discusses how people don't want to use checklists even though they're really freaking effective. We love the idea of the maverick doctor or pilot (don't tell me what to do!) and the idea of making every follow these checklists seems weird. We don't want these professionals to lose their autonomy.

But people make mistakes. Even the best of us. And going through a checklist can help prevent... well... these preventable mistakes (stuff like wrong dosages or procedures). Using a simple checklist drastically cut down on many routine errors and saved lives (Gawande helped devise the checklist in this link). It really is amazing how well they worked. It's practically a miracle drug.

And while Gawande never brings up using a checklist in your every day life, it isn't too hard to reach that conclusion on your own. If these simple checklists can help surgeons and airline pilots, I'm pretty sure they can help Ben Cox.

The book itself is fairly short, clocking in at 224 pages and Gawande is a good writer. I wouldn't say the book flew by but it wasn't a long tedious slog to finish either. Anyway, I recommend it. It's definitely interesting and possibly even useful.

Would he have still counted against the cap?

2010-09-22T18:29:00.000-04:00

Mo Williams didn't care for LeBron's decision either:

Mo Williams is 27, healthy and has three years and $26 million remaining on his Cleveland Cavaliers contract. But none of that mattered much to him this summer after he watched LeBron James leave the Cavs to join the Miami Heat. Williams said he was so depressed by James’ exit that he considered walking away from the NBA.

“That’s how bad it got,” Williams said. “I contemplated it. I really sat down and envisioned life after basketball. …I really saw myself not playing.

“It just didn’t make sense to me. …It doesn’t make sense to me.”

I can't say I'm really surprised. I mean, Mo Williams thought about retirement, that's not really all that crazy. He's going from one of the best situations in the NBA to one that is decidedly worse.

“This summer was very, very stressful for me,” Williams said. “I really lost a lot of love for the game this summer.

“You play this game for one reason. You play to win games and win championships. I couldn’t understand why a lot of things were happening to our organization, to a really good basketball team. I couldn’t really understand it. And when you don’t understand things, it can really stress you out.”

Williams is slowly adapting to the new Cavaliers, who, along with their new coaching staff, will have a new offense that will be heavy on pick-and-rolls. Scott might play Williams at shooting guard with Sessions or Daniel Gibson running the point. In addition to being relied upon to score more, Williams inherits additional leadership responsibility with James and veteran center Zydrunas Ilgauskas gone.

“It’s crazy because ever since [James left], everybody I see, they approach me and say, ‘Hey, you’re going to be able to play your game now,’ ” Williams said. “ ‘You are going to be able to show everybody what you got,’ or ‘you’re going to be able to do this.’ I was happy with my role. We were winning basketball games. I was coming home every night a winner.

“Who can’t love that? That is what playing a role on a team is all about. …Everybody can’t be the star. I was perfectly comfortable being that piece.”

I can understand how Mo could be so upset. Hell, we all felt upset and we weren't the guys going to work with LeBron everyday. The Cavs certainly looked like they had good team chemistry these past couple years. I can see how one could feel jaded after their team captain declared that he's taking his talents to South Beach.

One of the more frustrating things (speaking as a Cavs fan, though I'm sure this is true for members of the organization) about LeBron leaving is how close they were to a championship. Yes, the Cavs folded early in the playoffs these past few years but you don't win 60 games entirely due to one player. The Cavs had stumbled a bit but they were heading in the right direction.

Teams have to learn how to win, then have to make the playoffs, then have to win in the playoffs, then they had to deal with being expected to win and then they win. That's how these things tend to play out. The Cavaliers struggled mightily with being the favorites. Mike Brown was better at coaching overmatched, scrappy underdogs than dealing with a veteran ballclub that was expected to win. They were at that last step.

And then LeBron left.

So am I surprised that Mo was jaded and contemplated retirement? Not really. I can completely understand how LeBron's decision could affect him so much. Now, had Mo actually retired? Ya, then I'd be shocked. But he didn't.

Jawad

2010-09-20T13:24:00.000-04:00

The Cavs resigned Jawad Williams to a one year deal:

The Cleveland native has decided to accept the Cavaliers' one-year qualifying offer and will sign it this week, agent Kevin Bradbury said. The sides have been in talks for months with Williams hoping to secure a multi-year deal. But the small forward has decided to settle the contract issue in time for training camp, which starts Sept. 28.

The contract is for $1.02 million, but is not fully guaranteed. But that is a position Williams is used to, as he made the team in each of the last two seasons out of camp with nonguaranteed contracts.

Williams had talked with several other teams, including the San Antonio Spurs. But as a restricted free agent he had limited options because the Cavs had matching rights.

"Jawad has stated from day one that his desire is to stay home and be with the Cavs," Bradbury said in a text to The Plain Dealer. "Jawad did not want to hold out and wants to get to camp and help the team get back to the playoffs. He's excited to be coming home to Cleveland again."

Good. I like how Williams plays there game. He's in control and he doesn't try to force things. If he's got someone smaller guarding him, he'll go down to the block, if he's got someone slower on him, he'll take 'em off the dribble. He's not spectacular at any one thing, but he plays a complete game.

Obviously, this isn't a make or break move, but I like what Jawad brings to the table.

LeBron's Special on ESPN hurt LeBron's popularity, reports ESPN

2010-09-15T23:45:00.001-04:00

I for one am shocked, shocked, I say!

The Q Scores Co., which conducts popularity polls, has James rated as the sixth-most-disliked figure in American pro sports. The results, known as "Q Scores," were reported Tuesday by CNBC.

According to the report, James is viewed in what the company considers a negative light by 39 percent of the general population. In January, while still a Cleveland Cavalier, he was viewed positively by 24 percent of the population, negatively by 22 percent, according to the figures from The Q Scores Co.

"LeBron's positive score at that time [January] was the highest we had ever seen it," Henry Schafer, executive vice president of Q Scores, told CNBC.

The company's current tally puts James' drop in positive rating in the past seven months at 41.5 percent. Q Scores considers James to be viewed in a positive light by only 14 percent of the people polled.

Who could've known that taking a shit on your hometown fans during a nationally televised special would hurt the 'ole Q Rating?

(And yes, I know LeBron doesn't feel that Cleveland is his hometown. But he's from Northeast Ohio. Most people in Northeast Ohio root for Cleveland teams. This is dumb).

Missed both of em

2010-09-13T09:27:00.000-04:00

Due to work, I missed both the Ohio State-Miami game and the Browns season opener against Tampa Bay. Though to be fair, I did see the 4th quarter of the OSU, so I didn't miss the whole thing.

My main thing I take away from both these games is how annoyed I am with the fans of these teams. The Buckeyes won fairly easily but my Twitter feed was full of people calling Pryor overrated and bitching about Tressel-ball. During the Browns game, people were freaking out about Mangini and some were even calling for Seneca Wallace. Awesome, only took about a half.

I mean, all Jim Tressel does is win a crap load of games. Sure, he can be conservative at times but the dude wins. Period. Pryor is kinda difficult, because he looks so good at times (like his 2-play, 80 yard drive) but then he'll botch some short out pass (he throws too hard, kinda like Derek Anderson). Sometimes I feel as if OSU are pissed that Pryor isn't better than he is.

And the Browns... I like what Terry Pluto had to say:

They have a new quarterback in Jake Delhomme who is desperately seeking a fresh start and a revival of his confidence. They are a team with limited talent, a team that must win with shrewd coaching schemes, smart players and an approach to the game that avoids big mistakes.

Exactly. The Browns best players are their kicker and their return man. They can't afford fumbles inside the red zone or throwing picks at the end of halves. I'm always pessimistic about the Browns but I think they should be better this season, but as Josh Cribbs tweeted:

today it was browns vs browns, & the browns lost...

The Browns have the talent to beat other teams, they just can't lose their mental focus and beat themselves.

Because you're the oldest guy in the NBA

2010-09-08T20:01:00.000-04:00

Shaq (via NBA Facts & Rumors post about the Cavs):

"I like that they play together and nobody really worries about shots, " O'Neal said. "When I was with Cleveland, guys who couldn't even play were worried about shots. Why was Mo (Williams) taking 15 shots, and I'm only taking four? If LeBron takes 20 shots, that's cool."

The Cavs had a lot of problems last season but "not enough shots for Shaq" wasn't one of 'em.

Neat

2010-09-07T22:48:00.000-04:00

So remember that letter to the editor I wrote awhile back? Someone read it.

Mr. Cox - Good letter to the editor. Keep speaking out- your comments matter. Sherrod Brown

Not a bad way to spend a Thursday

2010-09-03T00:33:00.000-04:00

Ohio State looked pretty good in handling Marshall (though the Thundering Herd kept tripping themselves. OSU played well but Marshall coughed up some balls) and the Browns looked actually competent. I'm basically in love with all of their running backs. And I know it's a preseason game, but man, you gotta love Phil Dawson.

I like fall

2010-09-02T12:06:00.000-04:00

Tonight, September 2nd, the Buckeyes kick off the football season against Marshall.

September 12: Browns open their season against the Bucs in Tampa

September 12: new season of Venture Bros begins. The trailer looks super awesome.

September 15: surgery for my deviated septum. I should be able to breathe! Huzzah!

September 16: new season of Always Sunny in Philadelphia begins

September 21: Civilization 5 will be released. I'll have no life for a solid 3 weeks.

September 21: Tor will release the prologue to the Towers of Midnight as an ebook.

Gonna be a good month.

I concur with Coach Scott and the cranky old guy

2010-08-29T19:04:00.000-04:00

Terry Pluto:

Joe Tait recently had a long meeting with Scott. The broadcaster said: "I really liked him. The minute he referred to the stuff at the arena away from the game as 'all that crap,' I yelled, 'You are my man!' He has a sense of humor, but you can see that he's all business. He's what the team needs at this point."

I've written about this before, but I don't particularly care for all of the in arena entertainment stuff (though I'm fully aware it's not for me. I'm a hardcore fan). I hope Scott can convince Gilbert to tone it down just a tad (fire breathing scoreboard!!!) but I worry that without LeBron, we could see an increase of that stuff.

I dunno, I've felt that if you put out the best basketball team you can, people are going to show up to games. And if you keep them interested in basketball (as opposed to all the extra crap) maybe they'll become a fan of the game of basketball and keep coming back. But I'm a huge NBA fan (courtside seats for Cavs-Spurs preseason game in Pittsburgh! Whooo!), so they don't really need to worry about me, I already like their product. .

The rest of Pluto's column is full of his usual goodness, per usual.

(On an unrelated note, apparently Browns' rookie Joe Haden was at the Caddyshack lounge last night while my friends and I were playing. I didn't see him. They must've been zooming back from Detroit, eh?).

This and that

2010-08-28T09:43:00.000-04:00

In case you missed it, here's some of the stuff that I was writing about yesterday:

Danny Ferry lands in San Antonio.

Ohio State-Michigan game could be moved to mid-season.

The Cavs's Chinese investors have backed out.

The OSU basketball team is finally getting a legit cheering section.

Go check 'em out. Gracias.

On a slightly different note, I'd like to inform everyone that a couple of my friends are guest bartending at Caddyshack in downtown Cleveland. Another friend's band, Falling into Fire, will be providing the entertainment. And for some reason, they're letting yours truly go on stage between FiF sets and allowing me to play some songs. Should be a fun time. Come on out!

T.G.I.F.

2010-08-27T00:38:00.000-04:00

For the foreseeable future, on Friday's I'm going to be the content supervisor over at LandLoyalty.com (formerly LeBrownsTown... had to change that name for some reason...). I should have a few posts over there each Friday covering a variety of topics. And if anything breaks (Browns cut McCoy!!) I'll be the guy posting the quick takes and links. Should be fun.

The 27th will be my first go round, so bear with me (but I think you'll enjoy 'em. Come comment!)

So come check it out: LandLoyalty.com

If this happens, I'll lose what little faith I have left

2010-08-26T11:47:00.000-04:00

Really guys? The Browns might cut their third round pick?

former University of Texas standout Colt McCoy might need to prove himself in the Browns’ final two preseason games to make their roster.

According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, McCoy, a third-round pick in April, is among one of eight players “on the bubble” for Eric Mangini’s team. That includes fellow QB Brett Ratliff, and two young running backs, James Davis and Chris Jennings.

This is dumb. I can't imagine the Browns cutting McCoy. I know Ratliff is a Mangini guy but still. You don't cut third round draft picks before they've even played a down in a meaningful NFL contest.

Wasn't the plan to have McCoy hold a clipboard all year anyways? The kid has some talent, no? Is it really that big of deal to carry four quarterbacks on the roster? I mean, with the way the new Browns have gone, they're usually picking guys up off the street for the final couple of games anyways.

More catchy songs with cuss words

2010-08-23T14:30:00.001-04:00

Being the Reel Big Fish fan that I am, I've developed a love for catchy, sunny songs that are chock full of f-bombs and bitterness. I dunno, maybe my perverse combination of optimism and disappointment comes from following Cleveland sports all these years. Anyways, this song by Cee-Lo (from Gnarls Barkley) hits me right in my sweet spot.

Cee-Lo - Fuck You

Book Review: Sway by Ori and Rom Brafman

2010-08-21T07:12:00.002-04:00

Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior is a very interesting book. Basically, the book is about why we do certain (re: dumb) things. Brafman brings up a lot of interesting studies (including a few sports examples, which I'll get to in a bit) and he talks about how we categorize things and people and how we're biased to our initial diagnosis, even in the face of evidence.

The Brafman's writing is approachable (nothing too jargony) and the book is a fairly quick read (it clocks in at just under 200 pages). In fact, I wish Sway was a little longer and more fleshed out. Brafman tends to jump around ("to better understand problem X, we must first learn about some seemingly unrelated study") and I could've gone for some more info.

Brafman discusses a study which found that NBA's players playing time depends on his draft status (don't tell Adam Morrison):

Staw and Hoang found that the variable most responsible for an NBA player's time on the court - "above and beyond any effects of a player's performance , injury, or trade status" - was his draft selection. Even after controlling for all other factors, in a given season "every increment in the draft number [e.g., getting drafted ninth instead of eighth] decreased playing time by as much as 23 minutes." Incredibly, draft order continued to perdict playing time all the way through a player's fifth yaer in the NBA, the final year measured in the study.

But draft order had even deeper inplications. Being picked late in the draft increased a player's likelihood of getting traded to another team and ultimately affected the longevity of his career. "A first-round draft pick," found Staw and Hoang, "stayed in teh league approximately 3.3 years logner than a p layer drafted in the second round."

Now remember, Staw and Hoang had isolated draft order from all the other variables. That means that if you have two players with the exact same toughness, scoring and quickness record, the one in picked earlier in the draft would get more playing time, be much less likely to be traded, and have a longer career than his counterpart, who-although he turned out to be just as good-had the misfortune of being picked later in the draft.

Let's pause here. Are Staw and Hoang saying what we think they're saying? If we think aobut this rationally, once a player is picked, his draft order shouldn't matter. After all, coaches and mangers should only be interested in a player's level of productivity on the court and his overall fit within the team. Once the draft is over, the draft number becomes an arbitrary statistic that gives no indication of how he'll actually perform on his new team.

But here's where value attribution meets up with a sway called diagnosis bias-our propensity to label people, ideas, or things based on our intial opinions of them-and our inability to reconsider those judgments once we've made them. In other words, once a player is tagged as a "low pick," most coaches let that diagnosis cloud their entire perception of him. It's as if each athlete wears a permanent price tag on his jersey. [Pages 69-70 in the hardcover]

This seems crazy but it kinda makes sense. I'd imagine that a player drafted in the first round is going to get more chances to prove himself or figure it out because he's been deemed to have "first round talent" (and who knows, maybe he can get even better!). I wonder if draft status affects NFL players in the same way (I imagine it does, but not quite to the same degree).

The book is filled with a whole bunch of examples like this. Another interesting idea is that we have the tendency to follow the group, even if we think/know the group is wrong unless someone else speaks up. The thing is, the someone else speaking up doesn't even have to be right themselves, they just have to speak out against the group (basically make it OK to contradict the masses) and then we feel comfortable doing the same.

Anyways, Sway was a fun, quick, read and I highly recommend it. The examples were quite interesting and it really makes you think.

Two equally awesome, yet completely unrelated videos

2010-08-20T22:19:00.003-04:00

This is all kinds of awesome.

Urban Disc Golf Project #3:

I've been wanting to get a portable disc golf basket for quite some time and this video isn't helping. If you aren't familiar with disc golf is fairly simple: you throw a little Frisbee disc (though not actually Frisbees) into a basket and each throw counts as a stroke, like in golf. I started playing a few years back and I'm just now getting decent. As of now, I plan on playing a tournament at Hudson Springs Park this Sunday ($25 entry fee, check-in is at noon if anyone is interested). It's not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

The second video has nothing to do with disc golf.

I came across this video on Boing Boing and not only is it hilarious, it's also catchy as all hell.

Rachel Bloom - Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury (um, not safe work language)

At least he doesn't play a rough and tumble style

2010-08-20T07:14:00.001-04:00

Anderson Varejao should probably take a rest:

The Cavaliers aren't terribly concerned about a right ankle injury Anderson Varejao suffered on Wednesday while playing for Brazil in Spain during a warm-up game for the world championship.

"We have been in contact," Cavs General Manager Chris Grant said via email. "Doesn't sound serious, but we are still gathering info."
Varejao, who could start at center or power forward for the Cavs this season, had to leave the game against Spain in Logrono, Spain, when former Magic draft pick Fran Vazquez fell on his right ankle.

Andy already has a bulky back, now he's tweaking his ankle. Sweet. Varejao is banged up before the season even starts. No way that comes back to bite the Cavs.

For what it's worth, the Cavaliers are saying it's not that badly hurt. So that's good. Andy is one of the Cavs prime assets. He's a great defender and rebounder (great, I say!) and while his contract isn't great (he makes between $8 and $9 million per year until 2014/15), there are worse contracts out there. A healthy Varejao is a valuable thing.

More Mosque

2010-08-19T15:10:00.000-04:00

It's all politics. And it's shameful. I'm pissed at Republicans for being assholes and I'm pissed at Democrats for caving to these assholes.

What Digby said:

All afternoon I've been listening to reporter after reporter reassure the audience that Republican strategists are very upset about all this Muslim trash talk and that they really just wish everyone could get back to an elevated discussion of the economy.

That's very convenient, don't you think? Their lunatics are out there fanning the flames of racism and xenophobia for the neanderthal base, while they tut-tut on TV about civility. I think they are quite happy to have it both ways. Right now they are dominating the news cycle with this ugly nonsense, which is all they care about.

August hissy fits usually fade once they've done their job, which is gin up the GOP base with red meat politics (swiftboats, death panels, Ground Zero Mosque) and turn the Democrats into pretzels, making them look like they don't know their assess from their elbows.

Ugh. I don't disagree. Shit like this is why people get turned off to politics. The endless outrage. Meanwhile, these folks (the Obama's, the Republicans, the Deans, the Palins) are allegedly the people who are running the country (or want to). This is a distraction.

Meanwhile, this cracks me up:

PLANS to build a state-of-the-art library next to Republican catastrophe Sarah Palin are causing outrage across mainstream America.

Campaigners have described the project as insensitive and a deliberate act of provocation by people with brains.

The issue is forming a dividing line in advance of November's mid-term congressional elections with candidates being forced to declare whether they have ever been to a library or spoken to someone who has books in their home.

Meanwhile President Obama has caused unease within his own Democratic party by endorsing the library and claiming that not everyone who reads books is responsible for calling Mrs Palin a fuckwit nutjob nightmare of a human being.

But Bill McKay, a leading member of the right-wing Teapot movement, said: "Sarah Palin is a hallowed place for Americans who can't read.

and that's not The Onion (via Balloon-Juice).

LeBron in GQ

2010-08-18T18:08:00.003-04:00

The last half of this song sums up my thoughts nicely.

So LeBron has said some stuff in GQ; he hated Cleveland growing up (shocking!), he spoke in third person (keep that up, buddy!) and he doesn't agree with Charles Barkley criticism (again, shocking!). The best part is that he hasn't even played a game for the Heat and he's already speculating about coming back to the Cavaliers ("If there was an opportunity for me to return and those fans welcome me back, that'd be a great story.").

This is why I'm critical of all the Never Retire LeBron's Number EVER talks. That's such a long time from now. Could I see a future in which LeBron returns to the Cavaliers? Maybe, it's not totally out of the question. It all depends on how good the Cavs are when LeBron reaches his ring chasing years (wait, maybe not the best example... they were a 60 win team and he went chasing rings in Miami. But you get my point). If a 34 year old LeBron signs on with a pretty solid Cavs team, I believe most fans would welcome him back. But maybe I'm weird.

With regards to him returning, LeBron says this about the fans: "Maybe the ones burning my jersey were never LeBron fans anyway." Here's the thing. I'm a Cavs fan. Yes, I like certain players more than others and yes, I even enjoy watching players for another team. Maybe LeBron doesn't get this, being a Bulls, Cowboys and Yankee fan, but most people (I assume) root for their home team regardless of the players. I certainly considered myself a LeBron fan during his time in Cleveland (all those Kobe vs LeBron arguments sure seem dumb now, huh?) but I was a Cavs fan first and a LBJ fan second. I don't think I'm odd in that respect. Team before players, right?

But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I became a Cavs fan because of Mark Price. Because man, that guy was awesome (via Stephien Rules).

I cannot wait for the season to start. I'm sick of LeBron and his drama. I care but I don't. I just want the games to start. I want to see how the Cavs do sans James (J.J. Hickson time!!!). Hell, I miss the NBA so much that today my friend and I discussed getting courtside seats to a preseason game (in Pittsburgh, no less). Preseason! Pittsburgh!

Frankly, I'm impressed they found another 9/11 issue before the election

2010-08-17T22:26:00.001-04:00

The Ground Zero Mosque is neither a mosque nor located at ground zero. Awesome. None of this shit surprises me anymore.

Shockingly, I really enjoyed The Daily Show's take:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Mosque-Erade

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor

Tea Party

I'd like to say I couldn't care less about the mosque/community center but that's not quite true (since, well, I am writing about it). I care about the people trying to make hay out of it. As for the actual mosque itself... meh. It doesn't really affect me.

To me, this is fairly straightforward. The local New York zoning boards have all signed off on it, the group, Park51, seems to have jumped through all the requisite hoops, we still have religious freedom in this country, the Bush Administration used this group in the past to promote tolerance, there's another mosque near to Ground Zero already and the World Trade Center site isn't exactly "hallowed ground" (there's going to be a mall in the new site!!). Let these non-Al Queda affiliated Muslims build their community center and leave 'em alone (and god forbid we'd talk to a Muslim about this).

But of course that won't happen. This is an election year.

One of my biggest pet peeves with politics and the media is the idea that everything must be balanced and "both sides do it". That's how you show that you're unbiased; you point out that both sides suck. See, you didn't choose a side or a political party! You're above the fray and principled. Both Democrats and Republicans are awful and that's that (and I don't disagree. I just think they suck for different reasons).

Hell, sometimes this is even true. But other times, notsomuch.

A political football from both parties? Spare me. Republicans, and the right more generally, have spent weeks demonizing the proposed mosque. They've painted it as treacherous, insensitive, and a menace to American values. Fox News has been been running the outrage machine 24/7. A-list pundits and top elected officials have joined in. But when, finally, Barack Obama steps in with a modest statement of support for religious freedom, both parties are now equally inclined to demagoguery? Give me a break.

Yup. It's fairly obvious that the Democrats want nothing to do with this but the Republicans are flogging it for all it's worth (could you imagine how they'd freak out if Obama told a church congregation where they could or couldn't build a church?).

What kills me is, in the grand scheme of things, this isn't important. Whether or not a mosque or mosque-like-thing is built near to Ground Zero isn't really a pressing issue. The country is at 9.5% unemployment, there's immigration reform, financial reform and a host of other pressing issues and all our media can focus on is the political fall-out from the mosque that isn't a mosque.

Awesome.

Something I'll never have to worry about

2010-08-12T18:00:00.001-04:00

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet say billionaires should give away half their money:

On Wednesday, the Giving Pledge -- a movement spearheaded by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates -- revealed the names of 40 individuals and families who are taking up the challenge to give away at least half of their net worth during their lifetime or at death. Along with a commitment, the philanthropists all posted a letter explaining why they were taking the plunge. Analyzing their remarks offers a rare glimpse into the minds of the richest of the rich: how they view their fortunes and where they think their money should go after they die.
The most common philosophy: That a life of monetary excess can be an empty life if the wealth does nothing to advance a greater cause.

This seems pretty neat right? And I certainly don't disagree with the rich donating their money to charity.

And right now, with the economy the way it is (and state governments hemorrhaging money and Congress fighting over how to pay for unemployment extenstions) it's certainly not a bad idea for the wealthy to be donating their money (and it's certainly good PR).

But I tend to agree with Peter Wilby of the Guardian (via):

Salute Buffett who says his children won't inherit "a significant proportion" of his wealth. The filthy rich, or some of them, have shown they have a heart.
But let's be clear. Money paid to charity is exempt from tax; the US treasury already loses at least $40bn (£25bn) a year from tax breaks for donations. So billionaires, not the democratically elected and (at least theoretically) accountable representatives of the people, get to decide on the good causes.
[snip]
we should welcome the Gates-Buffett initiative and applaud those who have joined it. Generous, public-spirited billionaires are preferable to mean ones. But remember that two-thirds of US corporations contrive to pay no federal income tax at all and that transfer pricing alone – a legal device, used, for instance, by Ellison's Oracle Corp, that converts sales in one country to profits in another where tax liabilities are low – deprives the US treasury of $60bn annually. Such sums, which pile more taxes on the poor and reduce funds for government projects that advance the public good, dwarf what the 40 billionaires propose to give away.
If the rich really wish to create a better world, they can sign another pledge: to pay their taxes on time and in full; to stop lobbying against taxation and regulation; to avoid creating monopolies; to give their employees better wages, pensions, job protection and working conditions; to make goods and use production methods that don't kill or maim or damage the environment or make people ill. When they put their names to that, there will be occasion not just for applause but for street parties.

Exactly. With the government trying to figure out how to pay for school teachers, cops and firefighters (and their pensions) and California looking to (gasp!) legalize pot, the billionaires could help a lot by just paying their taxes. (I dunno, if these guys can afford to give away have their money, I'm pretty sure they can afford higher taxes).

I know, it's weird. But taxes pay for stuff. Like bridges (remember that bridge that collapsed in Minnesota? There's 756 more that received the same grade) and libraries and schools and a whole bunch of things that are important. Unfortunately, we seem to be going the other way.

And sure, it's easy for me to say "hey, just tax the rich" but ya know what? They're fucking rich. Tax them at 90% and they're still be way richer than myself. They can still be rich and we can have pensions for teachers.

Win-win.

Newspapers

2010-08-12T08:00:00.000-04:00

This cracks me up:

Devices were judged on a variety criteria to see how each functioned given a set of circumstances. The criteria themselves were weighted for the final score; individual and final grades were assigned on a curve.
Each device had its strengths. For some it was speed; for others it was capacity. Some were better with shorter articles; others with longer works. And cost, as always, was a factor. But in the end, one e-reader stood out.
The Newspaper.
The most obvious advantage of The Newspaper was the size of its display, which outclassed its rivals both in terms of size and elasticity. The Newspaper display could be read at full size or, when flipped open, twice its normal width. We also had no trouble reading copy when the display was flipped to half or even quarter size. One of our engineers even figured out how to make a hat.

I do love newspapers. There's something about finding an article serendipitously in a paper that you just can't replicate online with keywords ("if you like this, you may also like this"). Simply by it's physical layout, you can find something interesting that you'd never have known about otherwise. (I feel the same way about visiting a library. Yes, you can search a library catalog and order a bunch of books. But if you browse the shelves, you're likely to find books that your search missed).

I try to read the Plain Dealer everyday (either before work or on my breaks) but the paper has been getting thinner and thinner as the years go on (and the Akron Beacon Journal has gotten quite tiny). Sometimes, when I'm feeling particularly cranky, I write letters to the editor (I'm secretly an old man).

People still read newspapers, they just do it online. That's the issue. It's the same content as the actual paper... but free. The papers don't make nearly enough money from online ads (shocking, I know) and Craigslist killed one of their big revenue streams so eventually the content will suffer (hence the thin paper). The internet is awesome but no one really knows how to make money off it.

Finally, this sequence of strips from Doonesbury is fantastic:

I like pictures

2010-08-11T18:14:00.005-04:00

These color photos of Europe from 1906 absolutely fascinate me (this is from Austria).

1906 seems like ages ago, but it really isn't all that long off. I remember reading an article about Bob Feller (which I cannot find for the life of me) which said that his first roommate upon coming to Cleveland was a veteran... of the Civil War. I have an autograph from a guy who knew a guy who fought in the Civil War. Weird.

Also, after last week's solar storm, I was hoping to see some sweet Northern Lights pics and I was not disappointed. These are awesome.

I've always wanted to see the aurora borealis in person but it's never really worked out (though, to be fair, I've never tried all that hard). The pictures alone look awe inspiring, I'd can't imagine witnessing them live would be like. Whenever I see pics of the Northern Lights, I can't help but imagine what seeing these colors would've meant to people 100 (or 1,000 or 10,000) years ago.

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day is always worth a visit. Great pics plus good explanations of what the hell you're looking at.

More Austin Carr!

2010-08-11T18:00:00.004-04:00

In a surprise to no one, the Cavs won't be on national television very often:

As was expected, the Cavs were massively demoted from the national scene when the NBA's entire schedule was released on Tuesday. After averaging more than 30 national TV dates on ESPN and TNT over the last four years, the Cavs will have just two games on those networks this year. Their total national television guarantee is three games, with one game set for NBA TV.

For comparison sake, the lowly and annual bottom-dwelling Los Angeles Clippers were scheduled for 12 national television appearances based on excitement over the return of Blake Griffin from injury.

James' new team, the Miami Heat, are scheduled for 29 national TV games -- including James first game in Cleveland since leaving in free agency. As The Plain Dealer reported last week, it will be Dec. 2 at The Q.

It is what it is. I live in the Cleveland/Akron area so I'll get all the Cavs games, no problem. But if you lived out of state and followed the Cavs, you could get away without having NBA League Pass since LeBron and company were on TNT seemingly every other week.

Windhorst does a nice job of breaking the scheduling quirks (more back-to-backs, a long home stand, etc) and I recommend reading the whole thing.

However, Windy writes this in his notes: The Brazilian National team won its Super Four Tournament, a warmup tournament for the FIBA World Championship, over the weekend in Brasilia. But Cavs big man Anderson Varejao didn't play over concerns with his back.
Varejao suffered from back spasms on and off for the last six weeks of the Cavs' season and was limited in the playoff series with the Celtics because of the injury. According to a source, Brazil held Varejao out mostly as a precaution. Brazil is scheduled to start the World Championships in Turkey in two weeks.

This scares me. You could make a pretty strong case* that Andy's back is what hurt the Cavs the most against the Celtics in last years second round matchup. The fact that his back is still bothering him has to be a concern (though I wonder how active Andy has been if he's with the Brazillian national team).

* If Andy is healthy, he's A) take some of Antawn Jamison's minutes, B) take some of Shaq's minutes and C) be able to run (and finish) the pick and roll with James. Without Andy's defense and young legs, the Cavs were pretty limited with regards to their bigs (especially since Coach Mike refused to play J.J. Hickson for some unknown reason).

Interesting Speech

2010-08-08T13:00:00.002-04:00

(Note: the following is non-Cleveland sports related. Stuff other than sports catches my interest from time to time and I enjoy writing about it. And with the Cavs stuck in the offseason (really, we're discussing assistant GMs?), the Tribe being depressing as usual (another deadline of salary dumps, Hafner's shoulder has him on the DL and Carlos Santana showed us his Ray Fosse impression) and my mistrust of the Browns, I've decided to post my thoughts on these other subjects here. Heh. So basically, rather than annoy my friends and family with links on Facebook, I'll annoy you, my readers (on, a blog I did name, um, Random Thoughts). They could be about politics or libraries or music or disc golf or books or... you get the idea. If you don't like 'em or think I'm a major dork (you have no idea how excited I am for the next Wheel of Time book) or a communist, neat. Feel free to call me an idiot in the comments or, I dunno, just skip the post. It's cool. No worries).

This part of valedictorian Erica Goldson's graduation speech (via Fark.com) echoed a thought I had few days ago:

I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system.

The other day I was musing (with pride!) about my guessing strategy on multiple choice tests, for when I stumped by a question (how to eliminate answers, avoid runs in one letter, etc, nothing elaborate). And I thought to myself, "Wow, that's sure a useful life skill. Knowing how to game a multiple choice test".

On a similar note, I had a teacher in grad school that used to complain about students coming up to her and saying "Just tell me what I have to do to get an 'A'." I definitely felt that way sometimes. Just tell me the stuff I have to learn and I'll go about doing it.

Anyways, nice speech. I don't agree with all of it or some of the language (indoctrinate is a bit harsh) but it definitely made me think.

So the Cavs had two future NBA GMs under Ferry?

2010-08-06T10:56:00.003-04:00

The Phoenix Suns hired Lance Banks to be their GM:

Despite the fallout over the past month, the Cavaliers' front office must have done at least a few things right over the past five years. Because teams keep hiring their executives away.
The latest was Cavs assistant general manager Lance Blanks, who was hired as the Phoenix Suns' general manager on Thursday. Blanks, who arrived with former GM Danny Ferry from the San Antonio Spurs in 2005, is the second executive to be hired away in the past week.
Team legal counsel and salary-cap specialist Mike Winger was hired by the Oklahoma City Thunder for a higher-level management position last week. Ferry, who resigned in June, interviewed for the Portland Trail Blazers and New Jersey Nets general manager jobs after leaving the Cavs.

The Cavs front office has taken a lot of heat these past few weeks for what they didn't do for LeBron James. Criticism include (but not limited to): not surrounding LeBron with young talent, not trading Wally Szczerbiak's expiring contract at the deadline two years ago, and being too short sighted with some of their moves. (I've addressed these in the past here, here and here, respectively).

I get all that. Sorta. However, I can't get past the fact that the Cavs were coming off two 60 win seasons. I know LeBron is great and that he was the focus but I don't recall many other one-man 60 win squads. They built two 60 win squads while their star player was playing footsie with every team in the league (while basically holding a gun their head).

Now members of the front office are getting hired elsewhere. That means they had to have done something right, no?

As for Lance Banks, I don't really have an opinion of the guy. How would I know what he's worked on these past few years? Same goes for Mike Winger. I guess it's a good sign that Dan Gilbert is hiring people who other teams value but that's really all I got.

You know who shows up to Cavs games?

2010-08-03T18:22:00.002-04:00

People from Akron. Which is why LeBron's ad cracks me up:

LeBron James has taken out a full-page ad in his hometown paper in which he thanks the people of Akron for supporting him -- and doesn't mention the city where he played basketball the last seven years.

Look, LeBron has always differentiated between Akron and Cleveland. LeBron grew up in Akron, Ohio which is an entirely different city than Cleveland, Ohio.

And I might be weird (well...) but I've never really differentiated that much between the two. Of course they're different cities... but they're different cities in Northeast Ohio. A lot of people (I'd even say most) don't live in Akron or Cleveland proper. They live in suburbs.

Myself, I grew up in Hudson. When I've had to explain where it's located, I've always said it's about halfway between Cleveland and Akron. If you want to go see the Cavs, Browns or Indians play, you drive into Cleveland. If you want to see the Aeros or Zips play, you drive into Akron. Either way, you're making a trip into a city.

I grew up reading about Cleveland sports in the Akron Beacon Journal. The ABJ has always covered Cleveland sports. Both Brian Windhorst and Terry Pluto first covered LeBron for the Beacon. Pluto will still write about the Zips (or Golden Flashes) in the PD. Sure, they aren't the same city, but it's not like the locals differentiate between the two all that much.

As for the letter itself... whatever. If it would've come out the day after The Decision, it might've not looked so petty or cheap. But LeBron's letter came after Z's own ad (in which he thanked Cavs fans and the city of Cleveland). I can only imagine the meeting at LRMR:

"Hey, you see the ad that Z took out? He wrote a letter thanking the fans"

"Cool, we should do the same thing, but make ours much pettier"

"Brilliant"

If that's how this is gonna be, fine. I know LeBron is probably pissed at Cleveland fans right now and I can't say can I blame him. But he's the one who brought this on himself.

I just hope no one does anything stupid on December 2nd, 2010.

Breaking: Water is Wet

2010-07-29T10:00:00.004-04:00

So some jackass wore a Miami Heat #6 LeBron James jersey to Progressive Field last night:

A fan wearing a Miami Heat jersey of LeBron James drew the ire of the crowd at a Cleveland Indians game and was escorted out of the ballpark.
Fans in the left-field bleachers chanted obscenities and pointed at the man Wednesday night during the sixth inning of the Indians' 8-0 loss to the New York Yankees. Hundreds of fans joined in before security led the man out of Progressive Field.
As he left, some fans followed him toward the gate with more derisive chants.

Heh.

Look, I know not everyone will agree, but when you wear an opposing jersey to another team's stadium, stuff like this is going to happen (at least the trash talk and what not). And when you rock a #6 Heat jersey less than a month after LeBron skipped town, well, not saying you deserved it... but you were pretty much asking for it:

First, there's no defending the indefensible.
Simply put, the guy is an asshole. He knew exactly what was going to happen.

There's perhaps no worse place in America that you could wear a LeBron Heat jersey than the bleachers at Progressive Field during a game against the Yankees. Anywhere else in the stadium and he might not have taken much abuse — sparsely filled sections and families with kids don't really provide the right mix of alcohol and crowd-induced rage to carry an obscene chant. But the bleachers were filled to the brim because of A. Rod's possible 600th home run, and they were filled with the commoners, beer-addled, angry at a lopsided game, and already in midseason form spewing venom at Yankees fans who had invaded The Jake.

It began when the offending party waltzed through the home run plaza. An "asshole" chant broke out immediately.

I was standing on the porch the entire game so I'm not entirely sure what went down when the guy reached his seat in the bleachers, but judging from the events later in the night, it was a lot of the same thing witnessed in the beginning.

Eventually he was escorted out of the stadium by police. Whether this was for fighting, vulgarities, or just being a douche, I have no idea. From the video evidence, it looks like he might not have been sitting in the right seat, or fans weren't letting him sit in the right sit, or he just wanted to try sitting in ten different seats.

Should the guy forced to leave simply because he wore a different jersey? No. But when you wear the opposition jersey to a game, you have to expect to take a little heat. However, one of my most fun sports experiences was when I went to the OSU-PSU game in Happy Valley. Of course, I wasn't talking shit and trying to piss the natives off like this moron.

Can't wait til someone tries this at a Browns game. Not gonna end nearly as well.

Talk about selling high

2010-07-28T22:31:00.003-04:00

The Tribe shipped Johnny Peralta to Detroit Tigers for a minor-league pitcher:

Those Indians fans who love to criticize Jhonny Peralta -- the number seemingly grew exponentially each year -- finally can relax.

Peralta was traded to the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday for minor-league pitcher Giovanni Soto.

Now, I didn't hate on Peralta as much as most Indians fans, but that's probably just because I don't catch their games day-in, day-out.

I just know that Peralta drove the die-hard Tribe fans absolutely bonkers. He seemed lazy, his defensive range was terrible and his offense output has dipped these last few years.

Hyperbole

2010-07-27T23:45:00.005-04:00

(Note: Heh. I did not expect this post to grow this large. What started off as an overreaction to Bud Shaw making a crappy Evil Empire joke morphed into a giant LeBron thesis paper (footnotes!). It's quite long but I feel it's fairly coherent, though it does ramble at times. Proceed at your own risk. It needs editing it, but I'm lazy and sick of thinking about this subject but I don't feel like tossing the whole thing. Hopefully, this is the last time I write about LeBron until he actually does something on a basketball court).

Bud Shaw: New York Yankees' empire is not as evil as Miami Heat's.

Evil? Let's all take a step back, shall we? I think it's safe to say that we can all agree that LeBron James could've and should've handled his exit from Cleveland better. Had he written a letter like this, his departure would've stung a lot less.

But nothing about this process was, you know, evil. After seven years, six All-Star appearances, two MVP's and the franchise's only trip to the Finals, LeBron acted like an asshole when he left. Egotistical dickhead? Yes. Evil, unfeeling, traitorous monster? No. (You know what's evil? Taking a speech about overcoming racism, editing it to make it look racist and releasing to the public, stoking racial resentment in order to score cheap political points, resulting in a woman losing her job and thrusting her into the public eye. And then lying about it. THAT'S evil. /Not to get all political or nuttin...).

I guess I'm kind of surprised that I'm in the minority in disagreeing with Bill Livingston's call to never retire LeBron's number. I can't help feeling that we're overreacting just a tad.

I think I understand the grievances pretty well. They are, in no particular order: he signed a contract with Miami that was longer than any he signed with Cleveland, he didn't like the same baseball team as the rest of us, Game 5 wasn't the first time he gave poor effort*, he's helping recruit more players to Miami than he ever did to Cleveland, he didn't marry his girlfriend, he was a bad tipper**, he left via The Decision, he quit in the Boston series (most notably Game 5***) and, finally, he's a big time jerk/cocksucker/quitter/fraud/traitor/asshole/liar/douchenozzle/scruffy looking nerf herder.

Safe to say, Cavs fans are pretty pissed. Oh, and as for Bill Simmons and this mailbag quip:

Q: You missed one thing at the NBA draft that only a hypersensitive Seattleite still mourning the loss of the Sonics would catch: Kevin Durant was seated in section 206 at last night's draft. 206 is Seattle's area code. Kill me now.
-- Ben, Seattle

SG: Remember, Cavs fans -- things could be worse. You could live in Seattle.

Um, the Browns franchise moved away and won a SuperBowl five years later. Oh, and the team we got for compensation has been worse than putrid. Plus, we live in Cleveland. Your move, Seattle.

I know we all feel betrayed that LeBron left and the way he went about it was stupid. But this is as mad as we're ever gonna be (well, probably. If he shows up to Miami with a jump hook and a turnaround fade, I'm gonna murder someone). Obviously, the Cavs won't be retiring LeBron's number anytime soon but I don't think "at some point in future" is really out of the question. Right now, the wounds are still too fresh and LeBron is still playing in the league. But if the worst thing he did was "act like a dick on his way out", then I'm pretty sure it's possible to reconcile. Time heals all wounds.

It's not like it would be the first time a sports franchise has honored a player who fought with management or left on bad terms. Hell, Brad Daugherty all but shunned the Cavs franchise after he retired (I SWEAR this is true but I can't find a link to save my life), but number 43 is hanging from the rafters. Hell, if Dave Winfield can write stuff like this about George Steinbrenner,then I'm pretty sure Dan Gilbert and LeBron can patch things up. Of course, it would take an actual apology from LeBron but we got time.****

Look, I'm not going to tell anyone not to be mad at LeBron. But when my Twitter timeline (@BenCox83) is routinely full of Cavs fans sending LeBron('s intern that manages his twitter account) these vile, personal life bashing, hate filled tweets. I don't like it. I feel like we're headed someplace wrong. (My favorite type of 'CLE fan to LBJ' tweet? The "Fine, leave asshole, Cleveland is a football town anyways! Fuck you!!" ones. Nice. "Yeah, we only watched the Cavaliers because of... you. Oh." That showed him!)

Like many people, I really enjoyed Will Leitch's take on The Decision (emphasis added):

Loving sports, by definition, requires a certain suspension of disbelief and logic. We are all pouring our hearts and souls into cheering for men (and women) who do not care about us, who are not like us, who are not the type of people we would ever associate with (or even meet) in real life. We deify them because it is hard to find people to deify in the real world: Sports spans every age group, ethnic group, political persuasion, and all else that serves to divide us, separate us. We cheer for athletes because sports does not matter, not really. We cheer because sports is, ultimately, harmless.

And we trust that they will at least pretend. We trust that they will recognize the ultimate ludicrousness of this whole enterprise, that these are grown men wearing tank tops, throwing a ball up and around, running on wood, that this all exists because we allow it to exist, that the illusion must be maintained. We trust that they understand how good they have it, how much we give them, against our own self-interest. We trust that they are not laughing at us.

I get being pissed at LeBron James for how he handled his exit (including the Boston series) and that some of his conduct was shameful. But the dude isn't evil or some sort of diabolical figure.

LeBron is a 25 year old kid who grew up without a father and whose mother was in and out of his life for much of his early years. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated at the age of 16. He had multinational shoe corporations seeking to give him millions of dollars before he made his first NBA basket. The Cavs catered to his every whim, including hiring friends and family to official and unofficial team positions. Local sportscasters feared to criticize him. He's one of the two best basketball players on the entire planet and has made millions upon millions of dollars playing a game and endorising products. He's being advised by his high school buddies and some shady dude who calls himself World Wide Wes.

And really, we're shocked that this 25 year old child star has a huge ego and handled a major life decision poorly? Seriously? Spoiled child millionaire acts like egotistical fuckstick. No way! I mean, hell, when I was 25 I made some stupid decisions and handled some relationships (both personal and professional) pretty fucking poorly. At the very least, my communication skills left something to be desired (also, turns out Barnes and Noble frowns upon an employee calling his supervisor a "Cave Troll" on this blog. Who knew?). It happens. You grow up.

And in all seriousness, I can't really begrudge LeBron for heading to Miami. He gets to play with two of his best friends (one of whom just happens to be an MVP candidate) in sunny Florida. Man, that sucks! Do you know how many of my high school friends no longer live in the Cleveland area? And as the piggybacking on Wade, I don't buy that Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson wouldn't have teamed up with another star if presented the opportunity.

And while I love Bryant Gumbel's take on LeBron:

Despite such evidence to the contrary, LeBron James seems to think he needs a ring to change his life and secure his legacy. Maybe he’ll get one, maybe he won’t, but it’s probable that no amount of rings will ever remove the stench he wallowed in last week. LeBron may yet find that in the court of public opinion, just as putting on a tux can’t make a guy a gentleman, winning a ring can’t make one truly a champion.

I also can't blame LeBron for being so ring focussed. That's all you hear about now days; Jordan has six and Kobe has five, which is one more than Shaq (and Barkley, Malone and Ewing have none. HAHAHAHAHAHA). Alex Rodriguez was still on the field wearing his glove when he was asked "A-Rod, does this World Series title validate your career?" Hell, the Plain Dealer even called LeBron out on if when he left. "Seven years, no rings."

The message is pretty clear: championships matter. The end.

Can you blame LeBron for trying to team up with other All-Stars? Is there anyone on the Cavs close to Chris Bosh's talent, let alone Dwyane Wade's? Plus, winning a ring will redeem his exit from Cleveland, at least in the eyes of most people (I mean, look at Ray Lewis and Ron Artest). In sports (and especially in the NBA), rings are the barometer that which the greats are judged. I can totally understand LeBron making the move he did.

When it comes down to it, even though I know LeBron did the Cavs and their fans no favors on his way out, again, the last seven years did not suck. I had fun. I enjoyed myself. I won't be burning any jerseys. Maybe I'm keeping my expectations low, but I liked having the Cavs matter again. Coming back to Gumbel, I know this was meant about LeBron, but I feel it goes for us fans too:

Even though he never won a title, Dan Marino is still the biggest hero in Florida. And in Boston, all those Celtics championships are dimmed by the unforgettable brilliance of Ted Williams, who never won anything. In Chicago, Gale Sayers and Dick Butkus have legendary status despite playing on losing teams. And even in the NBA, where guys seem obsessed with being viewed as ‘the man’, real men like Barkley, Ewing and Baylor are ringless, but revered.

Sports is fun when your team is good. I feel like this pretty is simple. You know when the baseball playoffs are fun and interesting? When the Indians are involved. You know when they're tedious and boring? The rest of the time. And Cleveland winter's suck a lot more when Lamond Murry is the Cavs leading scorer.

Yes, the ultimate goal is to win the title, but only one team can do that each year. But it's not like the fans of every other team wasted their time (or did they?). This city hasn't had won a title since 1964 and LeBron was our best chance in quite some time. It didn't happen.

We. Want. It. So. Bad.

But even though our teams haven't won, I've really enjoyed their attempts. The Manny-Thome Indians were a ton of fun, the Price-Daugherty Cavs were my childhood team and I'd like to think the CC-Victor Indians were pretty well loved. Sure, no titles but a lot of fun, no? Nagy surviving by the skin of his teeth in 97 against Baltimore, Carmona pitching while being surrounded by nats against the Yankees in 2008.... Good times.

I guess I'm just surprised to see LeBron turn into Bill Buckner. One big mistake (how he handled leaving) erases everything else he did (though less than a month has passed, we're still a bit raw). I'm not saying I'll be rooting for him in Miami or that I condone how he handled himself, but him being a douchebag doesn't ruin the rest of his tenure for me.

While the Cavs certainly won't be retiring his number anytime soon, I'll be shocked if #23 isn't hanging from the rafters after LeBron calls it a career.

*I'd say if you asked Cavalier fans the question 'when did LeBron show poor effort?' 90-95% of them would say Game 5. Though I feel some fans would say LeBron showed poor effort constantly, especially in the regular season after a few playoff runs. Now, it's really really hard to point to LeBron's stats from 06-07 (27-6-6) and 07-08 (30-8-7) and claim the guy was loafing (which isn't exactly what I'm saying). But that's because LeBron is so freaking good. The guy can put up 25-6-6 without even trying. Trust me, I've seen him do it.

Throughout LeBron's tenure, I've ragged on about his heat checks, poor shot selection (dagger three!!) and lack of willingness to head to the block quite a bit. All of these problems stem from lack of effort. Have you ever played in a basketball game where you know you're better than your opponent or you're tired or just simply bored? I have. You know what you do? You settle for jumpers. You stand around. You make a few shots and you think "hey, I'm feeling it, I think I'll hoist another one" (and then you do and piss off all your teammates). Issues like these are what makes LeBron (and Shaq before him) so frustrating. For as good as he was, he could be even better.

LeBron could've created easier shots for himself (and his teammates) by learning some simple post moves, he could've increased his scoring by 2-3 points a game by shooting 80-85% from the line, he could've been an absolute nightmare moving without the ball. Standing around and holding ball for 15 seconds before settling for a long jumper isn't the most efficient way to get your points (and rip Coach Mike's offense all you want, but again, I can't imagine he said, "alright Bron-Bron, do nothing for 10 seconds, take a jab step and chuck it")

**I can't prove it at all, but I've heard this from a bunch of people

***My personal theory is that LeBron realized (after seeing Mo and Jamison get torched repeatedly) how much work he'd have to do in order to simply get the Cavs out of the second round, gave up. He knew he was leaving and he didn't want to deal with it.

****I really don't think it's out of the question that within the next 20 years we'll have some interview from Bron-Bron where he states he's sorry for the way he left, he was young and immature and he could've handled himself better. Granted, I don't think this interview is gonna happen anytime soon, but I believe it'll happen at some point.

The Cavs did something

2010-07-27T15:04:00.000-04:00

Chris Grant, in his first real move of his career, traded Delonte West to Minnesota for Ramon Sessions. Exciting!! Whoooo!!

The Cavs reached a deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves to trade for guard Ramon Sessions. The Cavs will send Delonte West and Sebastian Telfair to Minnesota in exchange for Sessions, center Ryan Hollins and a 2013 second-round draft pick.

The team had been looking for a player like Sessions, even signing restricted free agent guard Kyle Lowry to an offer sheet two weeks ago, and had been actively shopping West. With his contract set to become fully guaranteed by Aug. 5, it was the team's hope to trade West by this week.

I hate seeing Delonte leave (sorta) but this isn't a terrible deal. Actually, it's a fairly decent deal. The Cavs are getting a quick, starting caliber point guard and a dude who's 7 feet (can't teach size!) for basically an expiring contract and garbage (no offense to Bassy Telfair).

I admit, I'm not all that familiar with Ramon Sessions. All that really comes to mind is that, as a rookie, he had some crazy stat lines at the end of the 2007-2008 season (like a 20 point, 24 assist game) and then became one of Minnesota's billion point guards.

Terry Pluto likes the deal and he kinda talks me into it:

Ramon Sessions is exactly the type of player the Cavs should be adding at this stage of their life without LeBron James. That's especially true because the price for Sessions was minimal, in terms of contract ($12 million left over three seasons) and cost in the trade. Delonte West and Sebastian Telfair were shipped to Minnesota, where both are expected to be cut for salary cap purposes.
Meanwhile, Sessions could start, or at least be the Cavaliers' first substitute in the backcourt.

So why is a Minnesota castoff someone the Cavs need?

Because Sessions is the point guard who loves to motor the ball down the court on the fast break. He is very effective in the pick-and-roll, and he has the quickness to drive to the basket.
[snip]
Sessions has started 47 games in his pro career, averaging 14.7 points, 8.4 assists and 4.3 rebounds while shooting 45 percent in 35 minutes per start. With the Bucks in 2008-09, it was 38 starts, 15.2 points, 7.5 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 45 percent shooting.

When given a chance, he delivers impressive numbers. He is the type of guard that new coach Byron Scott loves, because of his tendency to play in high gear, but not throw the ball all over the gym. He is a terrible 3-point shooter (10-of-56 for his career), but smart enough to know not to shoot often from that range.

The Cavs have a backcourt jammed with guards who love to fire away from long distance -- Anthony Parker, Mo Williams and Gibson. They don't have a pure point guard such as Sessions.

While I see what Pluto is saying (he fits Scott's system, he's young and he's cheap!), I can't get over the fact that the Cavs have reunited the point guards from the 07-08 Milwaukee Bucks. Yay?

Kelly Dwyer sums up the Cavs side of the deal thusly (emphasis added):

And, Cleveland? You're still pretending to use stopgaps?
Unless the Cavs are planning on a massive overhaul soon — trading away big parts like Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison for cap relief, draft picks, young prospects; or any combination of the three — the team is just deluding itself. Which, considering the fact that Dan Gilbert owns it, sounds about right. Preferring to save face and pass on obviously rebuilding after its failure with LeBron James became so, so public.
I'll give them the same optimistic bent I gave the Timberwolves last summer. If they're picking up Sessions as an asset — a good scoring guard who is worth twice what he makes and has a contract that, with a player option after two more seasons, expires soon — then good on them. This is sound value for money, and players.
But if you're going to try and back up Mo Williams with the same version of himself, minus all that accurate shooting? Then you're mistaking yourself for a team that actually matters. And, worse, wasting your fandom's time. Kindly rebuild, soon. They showed up for 2002-03, if you'll recall, so they'll definitely show up now that most of the tickets for 2010-11 have been sold, and now that your team has achieved martyrdom.

I have a hard time disagreeing with that.

I completely understand the not wanting to rebuild. I'd always get so frustrated with people who'd say shit like, "without LeBron, the Cavs would be no better than the Nets/Knicks." I fully believe that the Cavs could've and would've been a playoff team sans LeBron. Would they be a championship contender? Hell, no. But they could've snuck into the playoffs as a 6th-8th seed.

And gotten whooped in the first round. And earned a mediocre draft pick for their troubles. And then repeated the whole thing over again the following season.

How often have the Cleveland Cavaliers been relevant in the NBA? How many eras were they, you know, good? I'd say three times and I'm willing to hear arguments for a fouth. To me, it's safe to say there are three distinct eras of Cavalier success: 1975-1978 (Miracle of Richfield), 1988-1994 (Price-Daugherty) and 2003-2010 (LeBron). Exciting players, big playoff games... fun times.

You know what preceded all of those runs? High draft picks. Like, really really high.

The Cavs drafted guard Austin Carr 1st overall in 1971. In 1986 they took center Brad Daugherty 1st overall (and guard Ron Harper 4th). And, of course, LeBron James was chosen 1st overall in 2003. Three eras of basketball greatness (or basketball very-goodness) all brought about by the first overall pick.

I don't think that's a coincidence.

Look, this deal isn't terrible. Both Pluto and Dwyer say Sessions is an asset. That's good. But to what end? I don't need to spend next season watching the point guard rotation for the 2007 Milwaukee Bucks. We know how that turns out (26 wins, 56 losses).

Don't get me wrong, I'd enjoy watching a scrappy, fast paced Cavalier team try to make the playoffs (you think Gilbert doesn't want to face Miami in the first round?). That's not a terrible way to spend next season. But I worry that, at the end of the day, going that route is simply a year wasted before their actual serious rebuild. 44 wins won't get them anywhere.

(And as much as I'd love to see the spectacle of a home playoff crowd for Game 3 of Heat-Cavs, I'm not sure I want to witness (har!) an angry LeBron dropping a 50-18-13 in a rage induced beat down while talking heads scold us classless Cleveland fans for our uncouth t-shirts, signs, chanting and battery throwing).

Basically, I'm reserving judgment on this deal until I see what else the Cavs have in store. I don't hate it. Sessions is a nice, cheap player. They got him (and a 7 footer) for practically nothing. But I want to know what the Cavs are going to be doing with Mo Williams Daniel Gibson and Ramon Sessions all on the roster. What's the plan? What's the end game? Best case scenario?

(Also, I'll miss you, Delonte. You rapped about hot sauce, you got arrested while riding a three wheeled motorcycle (with three guns, including one in a guitar case), you taught me about the Golden Panther, you occasionally did shit like this and this, you made sure J.J. got your donuts (and I purchased a shirt for the occasion) and you may have derailed a title run by banging LeBron's mom. It's been fun. You were definitely one of my favorite Cavaliers of the LeBron Era. Best of luck).

Dumb

2010-07-24T20:06:00.003-04:00

Bill Livingston is a cranky old man:

Before the Cavaliers retire LeBron James' number 23, they will win that championship owner Dan Gilbert promised would arrive before James' first one in Miami.

The number 23 will never hang in the rafters on Gilbert's watch. It is entirely appropriate that it never hangs there at all.

[snip]

I believe we will want to remember the six good players (Austin Carr, Bingo Smith, Nate Thurmond, Mark Price, Brad Daugherty, Larry Nance) whose numbers hang in the rafters, not the indisputably great player who left in a manner designed to inflict the most emotional pain on the fans and do the most harm to the franchise.

James simply does not belong with men who took pride in the jersey and played to honor the city and its fans.

Um, the guy is the Cavs all-time leading scorer and won two MVPs in a Cavalier uniform. Yea, he's a total dick. I get that. And I get that we're all pissed at him for how he left the team. (Basically, it's the 'Pete Rose was an asshole, but he was really good at baseball' Hall of Fame argument).

But again, the last seven years didn't suck. You can't tell me those years weren't fun. Yes, the way LeBron left was terribly shortsighted and narcissistic but it doesn't invalidate all the things he did on the court.

The Cavs have retired Nate Thurmond's number and Nate the Great played a grand total of 114 games in Cleveland. 114! If Nate's number is retired, I don't care if LeBron decapitated Moondog and wiped his ass with a Mark Price jersey on his way out, his number deserves to be retired.

(However, before LeBron gets his number retired, World B. Free needs his jersey in the rafters. Should've happened years ago).

The Cavs did something, but not that

2010-07-22T23:13:00.003-04:00

The Cavs may have missed out on Matt Barnes...

NBA free agent and Del Campo High graduate Matt Barnes has agreed to a two-year deal to join the Los Angeles Lakers next season, Barnes said Thursday.

Barnes made the announcement Thursday night to fans attending the Sacramento Tweetup event in Sacramento.On his Twitter feed, Barnes tweeted, "Its official I AM A LOS ANGLES LAKER. I wanna thank u for all ur patients and understanding. This is a dream come true!!!"

The agreement is a reported two-year contract worth $3.6 million, according to Yahoo! Sports.

but they did sign rookie power forward Samardo Samuels!

The Cavs reached an agreement in principle with rookie free-agent power forwardSamardo Samuels on a multiyear contract, agent David Baumanconfirmed to The Plain Dealer.

Samuels (6-8, 240) is a low-post player expected to play power forward and center. The deal is believed to have a partial guarantee for the first season, which makes it likely Samuels will make the team. He was impressive during the Vegas Summer League with the Chicago Bulls, averaging 12.6 points and 7.4 rebounds. His biggest statement came when he scored 17 points with seven rebounds and outplayed Sacramento Kings draft picks DeMarcus Cousins and Hassan Whitesidein a game last week.

A high-profile recruit when arrived at the University of Louisville, Samuels averaged 15.3 points and seven rebounds as a sophomore last season before declaring for the draft.

I'm okay with both of these developments. I admit, I have no idea who Samuels is, but it sounds like he's got some skills (I do love me some low post) and it's good to hear that he was a "high-profile recruit" and that he'd be entering his junior year (so he's got time to improve).

As for Barnes, he'd be a nice player to have, but I wouldn't want the Cavs to overpay to get him. Cap space isn't the end-all, be-all for the Cavaliers (I mean, they're still located in Cleveland afterall) but the last thing they need to do is to tie up a bunch of money in overpriced, aging (Barnes is 30) role players.

Back to Samuels. This is the type of player the Cavs are going to have to target for a bit. Low risk, high(-ish) reward, overlooked, young players. The Cavs need to stick a couple of these low draft picks and undrafted signings and maybe take a flyer on a guy like Adam Morrison. I know he's a joke, but your hope is that guys like Morrison have learned from their mistakes in their first few stops and now know what it takes to succeed in the NBA (like what happened with Chauncey Billups and Ben Wallace).

The Cavs are kind of in no-mans land right now. They have enough good players that they aren't going to completely suck but they certainly won't be contending for a title in the coming season. LeBron kinda screwed up their offseason (ya think!?) and they've been pretty quiet but I wonder how active they'll be at the trading deadline. Maybe they'll be like the Tribe and end up shipping veteran guys like Mo Williams, Antawn Jamison and Shaq (provided they resign him, which isn't out of the question) to contenders in late February and start hoarding draft picks and young talent.

Wait, did I just compare the Cavs to the Indians? Fuck.

News that would've excited me three weeks ago

2010-07-21T23:37:00.004-04:00

Chris Paul has demanded a trade:

When Paul was quoted a few weeks ago as saying he'd be open to a trade if the Hornets aren't committed to building a championship team, it was only a small hint as to the size of the chasm that exists between the franchise and its cornerstone player. Paul, in fact, has put into motion an aggressive exit strategy that will accelerate in the coming weeks, and his clear intention is to be traded before the start of the 2010-11 season, a person with direct knowledge of his plans told CBSSports.com Wednesday.

"He wants out," said the person, who has been briefed on Paul's strategy but spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss it publicly. "He wants to play with another superstar. He wants to follow LeBron's model of teaming up with other great players."

Paul's list of preferred destinations consists of the Knicks, Magic and Lakers, and members of his inner circle already have sent word to the Hornets of his desire to be traded to one of those teams, sources say. If Paul has his way, he's played his last game in a Hornets jersey.

There's been some talk on twitter that the Cavs should go after Paul. I mean, I'd love watching the guy but A) I don't see how it's possible and B) I'm not sure he'd be any happier in Cleveland than he is in New Orleans.

I find it humorous that Paul's trade demand comes after he joined LeBron's marketing group, LRMR. Did he watch The Decision and think "I want to get in on THAT!"? This trade demand will do wonders for his reputation. (And funny how this comes out AFTER LeBron bolts for Miami's beaches. No chance he'll end up in Cleveland).

I don't have a dog in this race, but I'd rather Paul end up in Orlando rather than New York or Los Angeles. I'd pretty much cry if he ended up with Kobe and the Lakers. The Knicks would be kinda neat, seeing Paul run D'Antoni's 'seven seconds or less' system, but I don't know how good they'd actually be.

But Orlando... Chris Paul teaming up with Dwight Howard would definitely make the basketball dork inside me quite happy. Teamed with Paul, Howard would end up shooting like 80% from the field while getting roughly 85 dunks a game... Paul made Tyson Chandler look good... with Howard?? Yikes. Pick and roll of doom.

The Cavs have almost done something

2010-07-20T09:48:00.002-04:00

But there's a good chance it won't happen (but it might!!):

Forward Matt Barnes intended to turn down a multi-year offer from the Cavs on Monday and agreed in principle to a deal with the Toronto Raptors, sources said. ESPN reported the deal was worth two years and $10 million. According to a league source, the Raptors' offer was significantly higher than what the Cavs offered.

However, the deal would require a sign-and-trade with Barnes' old team, the Orlando Magic. The mechanics of that deal weren't finished Monday night. There is a possibility it could fall through and Barnes could reconsider the Cavs' offer.

Awesome! The Cavs are in the hunt for Matt Barnes! But probably won't get him. This is after they lost out on Brad Miller because they didn't want to give him $15 million over three years and had the Rockets match Kyle Lowry's contract offer.

I dunno, I'm both annoyed that the Cavs are pursuing these decidedly mediocre players (though Barnes would be nice for a running team) and frustrated that they keep losing out on these same mediocre players.

However, I'm glad Chris Grant is following in Danny Ferry's footsteps in some aspects, as Windhorst explains:

The major reason the Cavs aren't able to complete deals at the moment is they are unwilling to outbid other teams. After losing LeBron James, the team likely will have to pay a premium to get mid-level free agents such as Miller and Barnes.

Good. The only thing worse than signing Brad Miller or Matt Barnes is paying for the privilege. The last thing the Cavs want to do is be an expensive, mediocre team. If they want to rebuild, go right ahead. If they want to field a scrappy team and attempt to make the playoffs (to face the Heat....), by all means, go that route. But if you're going for that scrappy team, you can't be giving large contracts to over-the-hill centers or role player swingmen.

James was never signing here

2010-07-17T09:38:00.003-04:00

At least, that's what Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski says (and I believe him):

Within an hour of the Cavaliers’ season ending in Boston, James’ inner circle, including power broker William Wesley, agent Leon Rose and business manager Maverick Carter, stood outside the visiting locker room grumbling about coach Mike Brown.

James had wanted Brown gone a year earlier after the Cavs lost in the Eastern Conference finals to the Orlando Magic – despite Brown guiding Cleveland to 66 victories while winning the league’s Coach of the Year award. Ferry debated Gilbert to keep Brown. He won out, but Ferry knew it would be tough to make that case again in 2010. Every decision the Cavaliers made had to be run past James. He didn’t always get to decide, but he had to be consulted.
This time, Gilbert believed he had to fire Brown to have a chance of re-signing James. When he was fired, Brown purposely left his star’s name out of a public statement of thanks. He knew James had led the movement for his dismissal for more than two years and Brown no longer needed to pretend that he liked, or respected James.

Ferry warned the owner there wouldn’t be a better coach available to hire. Eventually, Gilbert pushed out Ferry, too. The owner wanted to take over a bigger portion of the basketball decision-making and Ferry’s stubbornness made that difficult for him.

The franchise was in complete upheaval, and Gilbert had the Cavaliers trying everything possible to impress a non-responsive James. The Cavaliers star had started to fully distance himself from the organization. He refused to get on the phone and discuss his future with Michigan State’s Tom Izzo, whom Gilbert had offered $30 million to take over as coach.

Before the Cavaliers ever reached out to him, Izzo turned down a less lucrative offer to coach the Chicago Bulls. James wasn’t returning Gilbert’s calls and messages – never mind willing to talk with Izzo. Before Izzo finally turned down Gilbert, he was delivered a direct line to two of James’ close NBA friends, who told him he should only take the job with an expectation he’ll never coach James in Cleveland. Gilbert tried to sell Izzo, but the coach feared there wasn’t a single influential official in the Cavs organization who truly had a relationship with James.

Wow. I highly suggest you read the whole thing.

There's a lot of good tidbits, including:

* James was nearly left off the 2008 Olympic Team due to his immaturity

* Mike Brown didn't really care for LeBron

* Gilbert wanted to fire Brown after the Orlando series

* The Cavs kept film sessions short because James would fall asleep or get bored

* Pat Riley doesn't want to coach again (doesn't like the grind)

* Tom Izzo was told that he wouldn't coach LeBron in Cleveland

* LeBron was irked that Derek Rose never reached out to him to play in Chicago

and much much more.

I have to say, I've hated on Wojnarowski in the past, but he's done excellent work throughout this entire free agent period.

If it's any consolation to Cleveland fans, James comes of like a complete ass throughout this process. The TV show, the lying (Cavs have the edge!!), the drama... he looks like a spoiled, petulant child.

A spoiled, petulant child who happens to be the two-time MVP....

While I'm still pretty pissed at LeBron for how he handled this crap, I can't deny that I'm intrigued to see how the Heat mesh and gel next year. The basketball dork in me is fascinated by the team that Miami is putting together.

Also, you won't see me giving away or burning any of my LeBron gear. Despite all the time Iput in watching the guy, this was never personal for me. The dude is an ass and I wish he stayed here, but the last 7 years didn't suck. The Cleveland freaking Cavaliers mattered. They were on national television a billion times a year. It. Was. Fun.

And yes, they didn't win a championship. The Cavs didn't get to the promise land. But neither did Kosar or Newsome or Lofton or Thome or Manny or Price or Daugherty or Sabathia or Victor and we still love those guys, right? Only one team can win every year but it doesn't mean if you fall short it was a waste.

To me, that's LeBron's biggest mistake, he could've still left and still been loved (sorta) but his decision to air The Decision will cost him big time in his home state:

Back in Akron, James still wanted to go through his live hourlong television show on July 8 to announce his decision. This had been Maverick Carter’s big idea, his production, and still people around him worried about the fallout in Cleveland. Several friends told James this was a bad idea to do to his hometown, that leaving the Cavaliers live on national television would make this a public-relations disaster for him.

James didn’t seem to agree, didn’t think it made a difference. Mad was mad, he thought. He would take a beating, but it would subside and people would love him again in Cleveland. The TV event had delivered hope to the Cavaliers that they would keep James because they never believed he would go on air and open himself to such a visceral reaction.

He strung the Cavaliers along until the very end.

The Cavs Nearly Did Something

2010-07-15T08:04:00.003-04:00

Chris Grant hasn't been sitting on his hands! The Cavs inked Houston Rockets backup point guard Kyle Lowry to an offer sheet (4 years, $24 million) but the Rockets matched roughly 12 hours later. So.... great.

It seems like the Cavs assumed that would happen and they're already moving on:

It was not a surprise to the Cavs, who had attempted to work a sign-and-trade deal with the Rockets prior to having Lowry sign the offer sheet. The Rockets refused, confident they'd match the offer, which they did.

So the Cavs went to the next course of action, league sources said, and began stepping up their efforts to trade for a guard with the same traits as Lowry. It is possible the team could make such a move by the end of the week.

[snip]

So while the Cavs have a quality point guard in Mo Williams, they obviously intend to acquire another one. Two players believed to be on the radar are former Ohio State star Mike Conley and Minnesota Timberwolves guard Ramon Sessions.

I'm not really high on either of these guys, but if I had my pick, I'd go with Conley (and not just because he's from Ohio State). Conley is young, has a shorter contract (has a qualifying offer for 11/12) and is coming off his best season as a pro. Sessions is older (though only 24), can't get off the bench in Minnesota and is owed nearly $13 million over the next three seasons.

The Cavs are looking into a possible sign and trade for Shaq either to the Knicks or possibly the Hawks:

The latest rumored landing spot for Shaquille O’Neal is Atlanta, as the Cavaliers reportedly have talked about doing a sign-and-trade with the Hawks to acquire swingman Marvin Williams.

I'm not really all that thrilled about Marvin Williams. Yes, he's young (only 24) but his points per game declined the past two seasons and his rebounding numbers dropped last year too (to be fair, he averaged just 30 minutes last season, lowest since his rookie year). Most disturbing, he's owed $30 million over the next four seasons.

Now, maybe you think that the former #2 pick could thrive in new coach Byron Scott's up-tempo system. Maybe. But it's not like the Hawks were a slow paced team (though they did go through a lot of isolations). I'm not totally against the idea of taking a flyer on Williams, but only if the Cavs are trading someone like Mo Williams rather than Shaq. By trading Mo for Marvin, Cleveland would be giving up salary for salary, instead of trading a free agent for a guy with four years left.

Although, do you know who would look good in Coach Scott's running system? 2009 first round pick Christian Eyenga. Windy had a nice bit about him at Summer League and the dude can jump, I'll tell ya what:

So the Cavs are making some small waves in free agency and they're adjusting to the new offense in summer league (and J.J. Hickson is dominating the young guys).

The post-LeBron era (or the post-Z era!) has officially begun.

Z signs with Miami

2010-07-13T18:19:00.004-04:00

Zydrunas Ilgauskas is no longer a Cavalier, for real this time:

Saying he's chasing a dream to win an NBA title, Zydrunas Ilgauskas is leaving the Cavaliers after 14 seasons to join LeBron James and the Miami Heat.
The Cavs had a contract offer on the table and told Ilgauskas he was always welcome with the organization, but with the team in rebuilding mode, Ilgauskas chose to accept a two-year, $2.8 million offer in Miami. The second year will likely be a player option.
"It was a tough decision for me; very emotional," Ilgauskas told The Plain Dealer. "I spent 14 years of my life here. I came in as a young boy and grew up to be a man. Cleveland had a lot to do with that."

The Heat, who had no centers under contract, began recruiting Ilgauskas after James signed last week. James was part of the recruitment effort.

"Obviously (LeBron) related how much he'd like for me to join him," Ilgauskas said. "I looked at all my options. When I stepped away from all the hoopla that surrounded free agency, from a basketball standpoint, for me personally, it was the best decision I could have made."

Couple things...

Obviously, I'm gonna miss Big Z but it's not exactly a big blow at this point. Without LeBron, the Cavaliers should be entering a rebuilding period (Dan Gilbert's ill advised promise to win before LeBron not withstanding) and rebuilding teams don't need old centers. Z barely got any minutes in the playoffs anyways (a combination of his diminishing skills and Mike Brown's stubborn refused to see that Shaq sucked) and I don't mind the big fella chasing a ring, especially at his age.

Though I will say, Z's move to Florida has me quite conflicted. When LeBron took his talents to South Beach, it was a fairly easy decision not to root for the Heat. But now with Z in the fold, I can't simply root for Miami to lose, I've now got to root for LeBron get injured (nothing serious like an ACL tear or anything, but maybe his... elbow? Heh) and THEN hope for the Heat to win the championship without James. Much more complicated. (I'm just kidding, by the way. I never root for injuries. Except when the Steelers face the Ravens. Then I hope Ray Lewis sacks Big Ben, somehow snapping both their necks in the process. I keeed!).

Also, of course LeBron helped recruit Big Z to Miami. LeBron also met Derek Fisher at the airport for Fisher's free agent visit. Brian Windhorst tweets:

Western Conference executive: "LeBron has done more recruiting in the last five days than he did in the last 3 years."

Sounds about right. Remember, LeBron never even spoke with Tom freaking Izzo when Izzo was considering the Cavaliers job (but Bron-Bron was still undecided at the time...). When Cavs fans say that LeBron quit or his heart wasn't in it, this is the kind of crap we're talking about (also, Round 2 vs Boston).

Finally, Henry Abbot of TrueHoop tweets:

I'm waiting for someone to tell me that joining the Heat revealed some flaw in Zydrunas Ilgauskas' character.

HAR! I knew someone was going to make a snarky comparison between LeBron's and Z's respective departures and the fan/media reaction. I know Henry is trying to be funny here but man, if someone can't understand why Cleveland fans would have different reactions to LeBron and Z bolting for Miami, I'm not sure I want to waste my time explaining the difference. (As for an answer to Henry's question, Z is a roll player, not the 2-time MVP. Though, speaking only for myself, the only thing about LeBron's move to Miami was the way he handled it publically).

Hell, I'm just waiting for someone to say that Cleveland fans are racist. I mean, we freaked out when LeBron, a black player, left but we're all hugs-and-kisses for Z, who is, obviously, Lithuanian.

But in all seriousness, this really feels like the end of an era. Z's been a Cavalier seemingly forever and the squad during his rookie year is one of my all-time favorite teams. That 97-98 Cavs team (coached by Mike Fratello!) started four rookies (Z, Brevin Knight, Derek Anderson and Cedric Henderson) and a not-quite-out-of-shape Shawn Kemp. They ended up bowing out in the first round to the Pacers and the future looked bright right up until Z's feet broke and Kemp used the lockout to sample all of Baskin Robbins' 31 flavors.

Even with all of LeBron's antics, having Z on the Heat roster would make a potential Miami championship just a teensy, tiny bit easier to stomach. Still, seeing Z get to the promise land in a different uniform will be bittersweet to say the least.

I wish him all the luck in the world.

More LeBron Fallout

2010-07-12T22:16:00.003-04:00

In a surprise to absolutely no one, Dan Gilbert was fined by David Stern for his and subsequent interviews:

Shortly after James' announcement, Gilbert fired off an incendiary letter to Cavs fans, vilifying the 25-year-old and calling his decision to bolt Cleveland as "narcissistic" and "cowardly behavior." He also guaranteed his team would win an NBA title "BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER 'KING' WINS ONE."

Gilbert took it a step further when he later told The Associated Press in a phone interview that he felt the NBA's two-time MVP quit on the Cavs during the playoffs the past two years, and that James "has gotten a free pass." He also said James should be held accountable for his actions.
[snip]

Gilbert is attending the owners' meetings in Las Vegas, where NBA commissioner David Stern said Monday he was fining the Cavaliers $100,000 for the comments.

"He was completely correct in expressing his disappointment," Stern said, adding that Gilbert's statement and the sentiments he expressed in a follow-up interview with the AP were "a little bit extreme."

Only $100,000? That's not really a whole lot to an owner of an NBA franchise. I'm still shocked that Stern hasn't made him take that letter down. It's still up on Cavs.com for anyone to read.

Stern also said that he didn't care for LeBron's special (which ESPN innocently points out just happened garner 10 million viewers) and that LeBron should've informed the Cavs before the TV show (no shit!). Craig at WFNY has a nice post on what LeBron should've done. Me gusta.

As far as Jesse Jackson's Dan Gilbert/Slavery comments... both Stern and Gilbert dismiss them (and disagree, obviously) and I really like Jason Whitlock's take:

It’s stupid. Dan Gilbert’s rant was certainly immature, but it wasn’t remotely racist. He sounded like a scorned lover, a guy who gave his heart to a relationship and found out on national TV that the alleged love of his life didn’t care about him at all.

I agree whole heartedly

BTW ^this post^ was, um, posted today over at Upon Further Review Sports today, albeit linkless, as rebuttal to this. Check it out.

Speaking of other sites where my crappy writing appears, LeBrownsTown.com has now (for some weird reason...) been renamed LandLoyalty.com (rolls off the tongue, no?).

and finally, you know wanted to read Matt Taibbi's thoughts on The Decision. Of course you do.

Random LeBron Thoughts

2010-07-10T18:53:00.003-04:00

First off, Dan Gilbert.... the letter. I gotta say, when I first read it, I loved it (as did Joe Tait). As a Cleveland fan, reading Gilbert's letter that night was extremely cathartic. It was refreshing to see someone put words to how we all felt and it was nice to see someone step up for the Cleveland fans. And it was definitely cool to see someone release something to the public that wasn't chock full of platitudes and bullshit jargon. That's definitely how Dan Gilbert felt, no question about it. But he came off as a jilted boyfriend and if he would've waited a few hours (or days) I'm pretty sure he would've written something different.

Also, I'm SHOCKED that David Stern let that thing stay up. That's gotta say something... but I'm not quite sure what.

That being said, Dan Gilbert absolutely has the right to be pissed at Bron-Bron. There is absolutely no reason why Gilbert needed to learn of LeBron's decision at the same time your or I did. This is an owner who, by all accounts, peddled to LeBron's every whim. He hired James's friends, he allowed the pregame rituals and he basically let LeBron do whatever he wanted. That LeBron ignored his calls and texts that night is absolutely shameful. I don't fault Gilbert at all for being angry. Though as Terry Pluto says, he might want to walk back some of that stuff. "When your heart is broken, your head doesn't work"

And to all those people ragging on Gilbert and Cleveland fans saying, "if LeBron is such a bad person, why did you want to resign him/cheer for him all these years??" BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT SPORTS IS. You root for the guys on your team until they're no longer on your team. San Francisco Giants fans defend Barry Bonds. Steelers fans root for Ben Rapistberger. I rooted for that dick head Albert Belle (who did NOT take steroids!). That's just how these things work. You love your guys til they're no longer your guys.

Speaking of pissed off fans... stop it with this shit. There's no need to be bringing LeBron's mother into this. It's immature, childish and in unbelievably poor taste. There's enough reasons to hate on the guy that we don't have to call out his mom.

Same this all of LeBron Fatheads being slashed to $17.41 (the birth year of Benedict Arnold). Yes, it's Dan Gilbert's company and he can do what he wants, but it's fucking petty. Lord knows that Gilbert has as much reason to be pissed as anyone, but it's childish.

Look, LeBron isn't a traitor and even if you think he is, it doesn't excuse a lot of the 'jokes' I see going around twitter about his mom or his GF (and about how he's probably cheating on her in Miami). While I didn't want him to leave (um, hello? he's the 2-time MVP!!), it's his choice and one could argue that he chose the better position.

But the way he left was a major punk move. I can't deny that. He didn't talk to Tom Izzo. He wouldn't take the calls of Bernie Kosar, let alone the fucking owner of the Cavaliers (but hey, he'll help recruit Derek Fisher to the Heat). He strung Cavs fans along and then took a dump on them on national television, acting like we should've been grateful for all those years (even though he committed 5 year to the Heat, more than he ever gave the Cavs to build).

Ignoring the Cavs and the city before bolting is classless. He had to have known what his departure would do and he could've and should've handled it better. He could'be taken out a full page ad, thanking the fans (like C.C. Sabathia did). Hell, LeBron wouldn't have even needed to write the thank-you letter, just paying for it would've been enough. He could've, oh I dunno, signaled his intentions to the Cavaliers front office and allow them to move forward with their offseason plans. Going out the way he did the Cavs no favors and he burned any bridges he had left (and Dan Gilbert came in and pissed on the remnants).

I dunno, there's enough legitimate reasons to be angry at LBJ that I don't think we need to be cracking mama jokes (though, I will say this is funny), ragging on him for not marrying his girl and sending him hate mail via twitter (though I have heard that he's a terrible tipper... so... ya! EVIL).

As for the Cavs, I'm glad that they didn't let emotions get in the way and actually completed a sign-and-trade with the Heat. I'll take four picks and a trade exception (two firsts and two seconds). It's better than nothing. (Although, it means that LeBron isn't taking less money to join the Heat).

In my opinion, the Cavs need to rebuild. Tear down and start again. Now, I definitely wouldn't mind watching a plucky Cavs team get to the playoffs and try to get home court, but they aren't going to do any damage once they get there. There's a rumors floating around about a Shaq+Mo for Marvin Williams + Josh Childress deal and I really don't like it. Marvin Williams is a b-u-s-t and he's owed roughly $30 million over the next four years (salary from Sham Sports). The last thing the Cavs need to be doing is taking on more longterm salary.

The Cavs need to stockpile as many young players and draft picks as they possibly can and start fresh. I don't know how the fans are going to react after LeBron's departure, but I think there's been enough new fans that Gilbert and co should get some leeway in rebuilding the franchise.

But maybe not. Maybe the Cavs will sink back into irrelevance as the Browns scratch and claw their way to another sub .500 season (Delhomme to Engram baby!! Whoo!!!). I dunno.

But I do know this: life goes on. It's just sports. They're supposed to be a diversion from Real Life. It's supposed to be fun. As Terry Pluto always says, "Don't let millionaire athletes ruin your day".

I would've rather he signed with the Knicks

2010-07-09T00:57:00.006-04:00

So LeBron James signed with the Miami Heat, teaming up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to form one super, cash strapped team. I really don't care what this does to his legacy or how this affects the NBA or sports in general. LeBron has no real control over those things. But he did have control over how he handled himself during this free agent process. And he handled it poorly, to say the least.

Obviously, having LeBron bolt during free agency would've sucked regardless of the result. There's no right way for him to have ditched the Cavaliers. No matter what, if he left, Cleveland fans would've been pissed off (not that I can blame 'em).

But it's the way he did it that is so.... frustrating? Aggravating? Infuriating? All of the above?

LeBron could've taken the normal free agent tours, visited various franchises as they pitched him business plans and then weight his options. He could've announced his new deal at a press conference, like literally every other professional athlete. It would've sucked, but it would've been par for the course.

But no, that's not what LeBron decided to do. Instead, he made all those heavy hitter come kiss his ring at an office in downtown Cleveland (after he went on Larry King and said the Cavs "have the edge"). He announced that he would reveal his choice during 1 hour live special broadcast on ESPN (allowing them to run the Cleveland Sports Misery Montage in prime time).

Oh, and he called the special "The Decision". The Drive, The Fumble, The Shot... The Decision. Awesome. Thanks for giving us the finger on your way out!

There are people out there that will say that LeBron doesn't owe Cleveland fans anything. And to a certain extent, they're right. LeBron gave this city seven years of high quality basketball and when became a free agent, he chose a new destination.

Does he owe us anything? No. But a little fucking respect would've been nice. I don't think that's too much to ask.

This is a town that watched him grow up, followed him since high school and 'witnessed' him become the MVP that he is. They cheered him, ignored the slights (the Yankees hat, the gratuitous flirting with other franchises), looked past the faults (hooray for more heat checks!) and stuck behind him in the face of national criticism (the worst part of this whole debacle is that I now find myself agreeing with Skip Bayless. Kill me).

And the franchise let his family and friends follow the team around. They built a new practice facility and upgraded the lockeroom and arena. Oh, they also built two 60 win squads.

And for the seven years of good times, LeBron slams the door on Cleveland in the most public and painful way possible.

What kills me is, he doesn't even seem to understand what he did wrong. He seemed completely oblivious when Michael Wilbon suggested that he might be hated. During his ESPN interview, he acted like the fans should be grateful because he "took the franchise to places [us] fans have never seen". Gee, thanks.

And sure, he's right. I'd never seen the Cavs have a 60 win season or get to the NBA Finals. But it's not like he should be bragging about any of this. His team had homecourt advantage these past two seasons and never even got to a Game 7 before bowing out. I've sure as hell seen the Cavs bow out in the second round before... but just not while their best player blatantly quit.

And that's right. James quit against Boston. There's no other way to put it (Dan Gilbert sure as hell knows). LeBron needed to step up and he failed. The Cavs had the better team but LeBron never stepped up and became a leader. It was a squad built entirely around him, to "win now." And when I read shit like this, I just want to scream.

A source with knowledge of the conversation, said James recently told a friend he would sign with the Heat because he didn’t see enough effort from his Cavaliers teammates in the playoffs

That's what was so frustrating about this ESPN lovefest, it's like LeBron's performance against Boston never happened. James (...and the Cavs) lost because his teammates (on those back to back 60 win teams) just weren't good enough (it certainly wasn't because James never developed a post game or decent shot selection). LeBron's teammates suck and that's the story and everyone seems to be sticking to it.

Nevermind the fact that Danny Ferry and co had to build and rebuild these (60 win!) Cavalier squads on the fly while James was holding a gun to their heads and playing footsie with the entire league. I highly doubt Mike Brown survives the Orlando series or Gilbert picks up Antawn Jamison's salary if they had a solid commitment from James. The Cavs could've done more (Trever Ariza?) had LeBron committed to them.

Instead, James decided to bolt and sign with the Heat for five seasons, which is a bigger commitment than he ever gave the Cavs (and seriously, Miami? With the fans that never show up to games? At least the entitled New York fans would've appreciated their talents on a night-in, night-out basis. Talk about a town that doesn't deserve it).

All I know is, the Heat better win at least 60 games next season. At least. I mean, we all know James can carry a squad of scrubs to 60 win seasons, he sure as hell better be able to do it with two All-Stars.

No pressure, Bron-Bron. You dick.

The Last Day

2010-07-08T08:13:00.002-04:00

I've read roughly 2,000 LeBron stories over the past 24 hours. Here's a few to read while you're waiting for LeBron's Special (sneak peek!)

Jon Krolik, of Cavs: The Blog has an excellent piece:

We are not LeBron James, and LeBron James is not us. On the court and off of it, LeBron has only allowed himself to appear tangentially human. On the floor, LeBron is the most blessed player the game has ever seen. Nobody has ever had his combination of size, speed, and explosiveness. He can see plays in a split second that most people couldn’t dream up given all the time in the world. He’s more skilled with his off hand than most forwards are with their dominant one. He can hit insane shots from anywhere on the court, and often makes them simply to prove he can.

He also refuses to make the concessions to fundamental basketball that so many people have demanded him to make. His shot selection is often baffling. He refuses to put himself in the post and use his combination of size and strength to dominate with a minimum of effort. He’s never developed a solid mid-range game, and he’s not even a lights-out free throw shooter. Sometimes, it’s like being the best isn’t good enough for LeBron; he needs to be the best while proving that his own way of doing things works better than all the ones that existed before it.

Off the court, LeBron is even less accessible than he is on it. He wants to be the richest athlete of all time, yet he surrounds himself with his high school buddies. He’s constantly cracking jokes and playing the buddy-buddy role with his teammates, but he keeps the general populous at arm’s length with a bizarre gumbo of warmed-over team-first mantras and a healthy dose of self aggrandizing-behavior. He wants to be Warren Buffet, but he wants to be a big kid as well. He wants to be One of The Guys, but he wants to hand-pick who gets to be One of The Guys.

He has refused all archetypes. He is not the intense workaholic whose desire to win dominates all other aspects of his personality. He is not the happy-go-lucky kid who just wants to play the game and have fun. He is not the suave businessman who controls everything in front of him. In trying to be all of those things, he has become none of them. He has become larger than life, but not in the way he wants to be. He is Alice after eating the cake, too big to fit through the door to the garden and too far down the rabbit hole to come back. And he might not even care.

Tonight, the eve of what was supposed to become LeBron’s big day, is instead the nadir of his career. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and all the hype and adoration that LeBron James inspired has come crashing down upon his ringless self. He is a King without a crown, and now he is being criticized for daring to take the throne. All LeBron did was play basketball very well and lap up every bit of praise lavished upon him for doing so. Whatever LeBron is other than a basketball player, we made him into. Now we have taken it upon us to punish LeBron for his hubris, and ourselves for trusting it. What the gods wish to destroy, they must first label as promising.

(I highly suggest reading the whole thing).

Jason Whitlock, Blame LeBron's Entourage for this Mess:

Surely LeBron James has an exit strategy.

Surely this is all going to play out like a season-ending episode of Entourage, with Vince Chase escaping ruin thanks to the behind-the-scenes maneuvering of Ari and E and Vince's good fortune.

There's no way Johnny Drama and Turtle are running King James' kingdom. No way.

Thursday night, LeBron will appear on ESPN and announce he's re-signing with the Cavs, who stole Chris Paul via David Stern's for-the-good-of-the-league ruling. You know it's the same ruling that delivered Pau Gasol to the Los Angeles Lakers and Kobe Bryant.

That's how this has to play. LeBron and Paul will be on TV Thursday night, agreeing to join forces and knock off Boston's Big Three, Kobe and Pau and Wade and Bosh. That's why Paul talked LeBron into joining Twitter. They're best friends. Paul is going to save the King.

LeBron James is not stupid.

He's not going to appear on an hour-long TV special to take a dump on Cleveland by revealing he's the black Art Modell. That can't be his end-game strategy, a teary and televised middle-finger farewell to his hometown.

And he can't be so delusional that he thinks sitting down with Stu Scott to tell the world he's staying in Cleveland will go unpunished by media and fans in New York, New Jersey, Miami and Chicago.

God, I'd hope so. I've seen some Chris Paul rumors elsewhere and ESPN 850 was saying that Dan Gilbert and co were working on a major trade.

John Hollinger, Daily Dime:

That earthquake you just felt was the balance of power shifting south in the Eastern Conference. If reports are true that LeBron James will announce he's signing with the Miami Heat at his made-for-TV extravaganza on Thursday night, we can immediately elevate the Heat into the ranks of the contenders and demote the Cavaliers to the also-ran scrap heap.

Forget about the black-and-blue battles between Cleveland and Boston; in 2011, the Eastern Conference finals are looking a lot more like the Florida state championship. That will be particularly true if Orlando's Dwight Howard gets his wish and the Magic are able to add New Orleans point guard Chris Paul later this summer; the one piece of fortunate news for Hornets fans on that front is the higher-than-expected salary cap number also diminished the Hornets' luxury tax concerns.

Ugh. I really hope these Miami reports aren't true. I can't imagine that LeBron A) would give NE Ohio the middle finger on national TV and B) sign with the Heat with his own ESPN Special while Bosh and Wade signed together on Wednesday. That comes of soooo poorly.

Drew Magary of Deadspin, LeBron James is a Cocksucker:

Tomorrow is the day LeBron James becomes the most unlikable person in the NBA, and perhaps all of American sports. I used to think he was okay a year ago. No more. He's the villain now.

It doesn't matter where he opts to go. If he goes to Chicago, he's a cocksucker. If he goes to Miami, he's a goddamn cocksucker. Even if he goes back to Cleveland, he's a goddamn cocksucker. He's a self-aggrandizing sack of shit, and ESPN is a bunch of pussy-whipped enablers for giving him a free hour of airtime tomorrow night and inevitably using 55 minutes of it to let Stu Scott give him a rimjob.

Look at what Kevin Durant did today. He signed an extension well before he could have filed for free agency, announced the signing, and then went back about his business. He didn't need all this dog-and-pony show bullshit. James does, and that means he's a dipshit. People have been kissing this man's ass SINCE FUCKING MIDDLE SCHOOL, and he still needs this hourlong AFI tribute special? Bullshit. BULLSHIT.

And I don't care that he asked ESPN to use the commercial airtime tomorrow night to go to charity. That's the most transparent use of charity for the sake of self-glorification I've seen since I saw some actor do it yesterday. "Hey ESPN, why don't you spend an hour kissing my ass? Oh, don't worry. We'll give the money to AIDS babies. That totally makes me selfless." No, it doesn't.

Heh. Let's move on.

Adrian Wojnarowski, State of LeBron: Live at 9, from his ego:

Privately, Dwyane Wade(notes) andChris Bosh(notes) weren’t pleased on Wednesday morning with the belief that James’ camp was responsible for leaking their plans to a television partner, but then again it makes perfect sense: This isn’t about Wade and Bosh choosing the Heat. It’s about LeBron getting the stage to himself on Thursday night.

One front-office executive whose team made a presentation to LeBron James told Yahoo! Sports that he believes James is choosing between Miami and Cleveland. And yet, if James wants to deliver the biggest kick in the gut to his hometown, he’ll pick the flat-linedNew York Knicks. Whatever the decision, he’s made clear that the teasing and tormenting of the loser isn’t his concern.

Team LeBron is having the time of its life, but has no idea the repercussions of what it’s done here. All that comes to James now is the biggest burden to win a championship that sports has ever seen. They aren’t making James a bigger star with this big-top, but a bigger target. All those teams that marched into the presentations and listened to some of the foolish and naive questions asked of them believed these kids had no idea what they were doing, or what they had gotten themselves into. They’re all feeling more validated every day. From beginning to end, this process has been a farce.

I'm am shocked (shocked I say!) that Adrian Wojnarowski doesn't care for LeBron's free agency process.

Matt Moore, CBS NBA Facts & Rumors:

And most strange in all of this? There have been no leaks that put him back in Cleveland. Not the location of the announcement . Not the movement of his tax documents . And not the prospect of the super team. It's all leaning away from Cleveland.

Why?

Why in a time when there is abject speculation from every angle and degree, where every person with an agenda for James going to his or her city, is there no significant word about Cleveland?

And again, the reporter who's followed his entire career, who's been a step away from him from the time he hit high school, that guy isn't hearing anything ? A guy who's as widely respected in NBA media circles as anyone and who has had the, er... mouth of LeBron James (since if he had his ear LeBron would be listening to him, and that's not really, you know, let's just move on), that guy has heard nothing. Zilch. Zero. Nada.

Something's up.

I've noticed this too.

Terry Pluto, LeBron James' decision is biggest moment in Cleveland Cavaliers history

While he can pledge his loyalty to his hometown of Akron and insist he'll always help the place where he grew up, signing elsewhere will be viewed as a rejection by the fans in Northeast Ohio.

Nothing will compare with Art Modell moving the Browns to Baltimore in terms of sheer sports betrayal.But James leaving at this point in his career would be No. 2 on the Cleveland broken hearts list.

This is not like the Indians players who left or forced trades because ownership here could not pay them what they could make elsewhere. NBA rules dictate that the Cavs can give him an extra year on his contract and at least $30 million in his pocket. It seems the Cavs have done everything reasonably possible to build a winner around him.

The recent assumption is James will join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. That still seems doubtful because of the Heat not having the salary cap room to pay all three players the maximum. Also, who controls the ball -- Wade or James? Both have very similar styles of play.

The other hot team for James is supposed to be the Knicks, because New York recently signed Amare Stoudemire. One NBA executive (not with the Cavs) told me, "LeBron should be smarter than that. The Knicks are a team of smoke and mirrors with poor ownership and a style of play that doesn't win in the playoffs. The Nets have a better basketball situation than the Knicks."

Chicago makes the most sense for James, in terms of talent. He'd play with Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah and Luol Deng. The Bulls do have a rookie coach in Tom Thibodeau and a history of splits between the coaches and the front office.

James knows the Cavs better than any other team. Over and over, the case has been made for him to stay home. If James actually stays, if he appears on national television and announces that he's picking Cleveland and Northeast Ohio over Miami, New York, Chicago and anywhere else -- it truly will cement his legacy as a local legend.

Is that a reality, or fantasy? Only James knows, but what he decides will say a lot about his priorities, and the future of the Cavs.

Right now, everything seems to be pointing to Miami (but early last night it was all New York). For what it's worth, Brian Windhorst hasn't been able to confirm the reports.

I just can't imagine LeBron going to Dwyane Wade's team. He'll be Pippen to Wade's Jordan. And hey, that's fine. But playing in Miami is going to require sacrifices on the court, not just in the pocket book.

But I don't know what to think. I'm trying to tell myself that LeBron and his boys are spreading rumors everywhere just to push the hype for tonight's special. Do I believe that? Maybe.

This whole thing sucks. No matter what happens, James has hurt himself and his image. He doesn't come off well. Even if he stays, it won't be the same.

If James goes, I'll be pissed (obviously) but life will go on and I'll still watch the Cavs (and blog about 'em! Sporadically!). If you're going to feel bad for Cleveland fans, don't (well, not too much). It's just sports.

But if you're gonna feel bad for any one, feel bad for the young kids (think of the children!!!). This whole free agency drama would've absolutely killed the 10-year old Ben. I would've bombarded Chris Bosh's twitter account with angry messages roughly 45 times an hour (I mean, seriously? A sign-and-trade to the Cavs puts Bosh and LeBron in a much better position to WIN NOW).

The Cavaliers are the franchise of the young fans. I see a lot of kids come through the library and Cavalier shirts easily out number the Browns and Tribe combined. These kids don't know what "Only in Cleveland" means. If James goes on ESPN and announces he's leaving, he destroys them. They aren't bitter and jaded like the rest of us.

At least not yet.

"The Decision"

2010-07-07T13:38:00.003-04:00

That's what LeBron is calling his 1 hour announcement special on ESPN this Thursday. The Decision.

It fits right in doesn't it? The Drive, The Fumble, The Shot... The Decision.

Blah.

With LeBron announcing his decision on ESPN (something Bill Simmons joked about months ago), Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh filming a documentary about their free agency (only to end up in Miami together), this whole thing feels like a charade. But hey, maybe LeBron really has no idea where he'll go and he's just trying to help out some charities... right. (Meanwhile, Kevin Durant quietly reupped with OKC for five years).

Say what you will about LeBron, his ego and ESPN, but I gotta say I've been on the edge of my seat. I hate myself for it, but I've been devouring every last rumor. Hell, at the start of Tuesday I was convinced LeBron was staying (the Bosh-to-Cleveland rumors) and by the time I went to bed (post ESPN 1-hour-special announcement) I was sure he was gone. Bitch about his ego all you want, but it worked. People care. LeBron is all over twitter, Facebook and ESPN (and I'm not sure, after all this, which is the most reliable news source).

You have to question the wisdom of the ESPN special, don't you? How is that even going to work? It starts at 9pm and lasts an hour. Is he going to announce at 9? 9:59? And there isn't this a no-win scenario. If he takes a full hour only to announce he's staying in Cleveland, that's extremely anticlimactic. But on the flip side, he wouldn't go on national TV and kick all of Northeast Ohio in the balls... would he?

I just can't help but think that this prime time announcement special means he's out the door. As SI's Lee Jenkins tweeted:

The kind of person who needs a 1 hr tv show to announce a decision is not the kind of person who stays in Cleveland

You can't tell me there's no truth in that.

Twitter is, naturally, all full of rumors. Chad Johnson and Jared Dudley are saying that LeBron is heading to the Knicks (who Chris Broussard says are gaining ground) and Newsday is reporting that the filming of the special will take place in Greenwhich, CT (which Brian Windhorst calls a suburb of NY). Windhorst also says he's been told not to read into the location of the special.

Meanwhile, LeBron spent the day in Akron, playing hoops at his camp with Jamario Moon, Christian Eyenga, Danny Green and Cavs assistant Chris Jent (while Byron Scott looked on). In an irony of ironies, the Cavs (amongst others) are looking to make a last minute push to bring back Carlos Boozer.

Ric Bucher points out that all these late Knick rumors could simply be LeBron building up the drama so people will, you know, actually watch an hour long special on ESPN:

Rumors of NYK having legit shot at LeBron or him going to Mia seem like an attempt by LRMR to create suspense for Thurs show.

At this point, the more bullshit rumors ESPN feeds the public, the better it is for their prime-time Thursday night telecast. Bucher has more:

An NBA exec: "Who does a 1-hour special on how you just ripped the heart out of your hometown?" Now a 1-hr special on why you stayed...

I have to agree with this. At the end of the day, I just can't see LeBron doing this to NE Ohio. I mean, he wouldn't kick us all in the nuts on national TV.

Right?

Well if Devin Brown likes him...

2010-07-02T11:44:00.002-04:00

then who am I to question:

Former Cavalier Devin Brown thinks Byron Scott is the perfect new coach for the Cavs and the sort of guy who just might persuade free agent LeBron James to re-sign with the team.

"He demands respect," Brown said of Scott, his coach for two-plus seasons in New Orleans. "I really think he was a great hire for Cleveland. I think it was a move to show LeBron that they are serious about what they're trying to do. I really think it's a great fit."

Though I do like the hire of Byron Scott. I really don't see anyone out there who is a better fit for the Cavs. I wouldn't want to be pursuing LeBron James with a rookie head coach. Scott has been to the Finals as both a player and coach and, as Devin says, demands respect.

I have more on Scott's hiring over at LeBrownsTown.

The Last Days

2010-06-28T20:41:00.009-04:00

So here we are, the waning days of the LeBron Era in Cleveland.

Maybe.

This last month has been a bit nuts, there are rumors flying every where. The NBA world has officially gone mad.

LeBron was supposed embark on a elaborate free agency tour but instead decided to host teams in Akron. LeBron, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Joe Johnson(?) were all set to have a Free Agency Summit but it got canceled. Except that it didn't. But LeBron wasn't there. Or maybe he was.

William Wesley is trying to push LeBron out the door so he can be a stronger agent (and a very convenient scape-goat). Hell, World Wide Wes is even trying to engineer a trade for Chris Paul, a player he doesn't even represent. But apparently, Wesley won't be a part of any of LeBron's negotiations.

For LeBron, it all comes down to winning. And the ownership, the ownership definitely matters most. But LeBron isn't even talking with the Cavalier front office! Except that he is. Windhorst says that LeBron will have the final word (well, duh) and that despite everything, the Cavs still have "the edge" to retain his services. And hey! The Cavs even have a coach! (maybe)

Are we having fun yet?

I don't know how this is possible, but I'm fascinated by this whole saga while simultaneously feeling extremely ambivalent. It's not that I don't care (obviously, I do) but I've simply grown numb to the whole thing. I've been bombarded with so much LeBron James News, it's insane (and that's without watching any PTI or SportsCenter).

(I've embarked on an unofficial boycott of ESPN ever since the Cavs were unceremoniously bounced from the second round of the playoffs. I do this whenever Brett Favre/Barry Bonds/Terrell Owens-eque stories pop up. Why watch? I know I'll simply get frustrated. Same reason why I never watch Cable News).

Basically, I just want it to be done.

(Also, re: ambivalence. LeBron is the first pro-athlete I've really followed where I've been older than the athlete. It's a different experience. I still care probably more than I should but, as with ESPN, I have other things that interest me (aka books, politics, job, not-having-money, not-getting-laid, etc) and obsessively following some dude younger than me seems weird. I dunno).

Right now, it looks like Miami and Chicago are LeBron's two most likely non-Cleveland destinations. The Bulls can sign two max free agents (New Jersey is making a last ditch effort to clear space to do the same. Fuck you, Washington) and LeBron could team up with another superstar like Wade or Bosh (while the Heat are pushing for the whole threesome). Needless to say, the Cavs cannot do the same.

While I certainly understand the appeal of playing alongside another superstar, I hope LeBron realizes it's not an automatic championship like many believe (aka Fantasy Sports =/= Real Life).

Say LeBron signs in Chicago with Bosh and teams up with Derek Rose and Joakim Noah. Pretty sweet, right? But tell me why you wouldn't simply back the lane against that squad? Derek Rose is many things, but a spot up shooter he ain't (they just traded Kirk Hinrich for, as far as I can tell, nothing). Nevermind the fact that he'll have to drive by Jordan's statue every day heading into work. Enjoy playing in that shadow.

And Miami? So LeBron is going to head into D. Wade's house and either A) take over the show or B) defer to Wade? Really? All while taking less than the max? And how good is Chris Bosh? On a team with James and Rose/Wade, Bosh's offensive duties would certainly decrease. Is Chris Bosh going to be able to defend and rebound against the likes of Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol come playoff time? Bosh is certainly skilled offensively but is he be willing to do that dirty work down low? Would you call him playoff tested? I dunno.

What I do know is this: two years ago the Cleveland Cavaliers won 66 games and this past season they won 61. Yes, LeBron is the reason the Cavs were contenders but his performance is also the reason they were bounced from the playoffs two rounds too early (not that he was the only issue, mind you). Leaving a 60 win team on the heels of an epic choke job is going to be his Ohio Legacy. Good luck with that (he'll be second only to Art Model in Most Hated Cleveland Sports Figures).

Certainly the idea of LeBron teaming up with Bosh and/or Wade is tantalizing, but how many championship teams were built through free agency? Has that ever worked? I just hope that if he bolts, he knows he's leaving a pretty damn good situation.

I also think that if LeBron decides to stay, he should sign for more than a three year deal. Take the full max and reup for six years (and make a TON more money); the Cavs can't go through another three years of "you better win right this second or I'm gonna leave". It's no way to build a franchise; it hurt them last summer with free agents and it's the reason they currently have no cap room (or coach). LeBron needs to be their rock (ala Magic, Bird and Jordan) and it's hard to build around a cornerstone if you can't count on him to be there in the future.

People like to point to KG's "loyalty can hurt" comments after Round 2 as reason LeBron should go, but I can't help but wonder if say, Paul Pierce feels the same way. Winning in Cleveland will count for more. Period. How many championships will LeBron need to in Chicago to feel validated? Three? Four? More? What if he only gets one? He'll never be bigger than Jordan, not anywhere, but especially not in Chicago. He wins in Cleveland, he's The Man. Period. The End.

As for what I think he's going to do? I have literally, absolutely no idea. No one does. Everything is pure speculation. If I had to make a guess, I'd say he goes to the Bulls. Yes, LeBron would have to share the ball with Derek Rose in Chicago, but at least the end-of-game situations would be pretty cut and dry (unlike Miami). I certainly hope he stays here (the Cavs do supposedly have the edge) but I haven't felt confident that he'd reup ever since the Cavs were bounced by Boston.

I guess if I have a plea for LeBron, it's to finish the job here. Don't let your last home game in Cleveland be the Game 5 stinker (or let your legacy be: Yankees Hat==> Hold Franchise Hostage==> Flirt with Other Teams==> Lay Egg in Biggest Game of the Playoffs==> Leave for Team that Historically has Ripped Out the Hearts of Cavalier Fans). If you can get the Cavs over the championship hump it'll count for so much more. You'd have built your own legacy. Winning here, in Cleveland, in Ohio, will be sweeter.

Somehow, I think you know that.

PS: I never mix work and sports blogging, but this is a special occurrence. On July 8th (the first day free agents can sign with their new teams), the Brook Park branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library system is hosting Plain Dealer columnist Terry Pluto. I actually set up this particular event but I'd be lying if I told you that I purposely planned to host Pluto on LeBron's (possible) signing day. Just a happy convergence. Sign up here.