NBA

Well….

I was going to attempt to put together a piece explaining my feelings and where we go from here….but then I found Dan Gilbert’s letter….and I felt a lot better.

Dan Gilbert is the ballsiest and greatest owner out there not named Mark Cuban. I don’t care how classless anyone thinks this letter may be, this perfectly sums up how Cleveland fans feel.

http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/news/gilbert_letter_100708.html

I’ll put something down later when I can fill a page with more than just cussing and scenarios in which LeBron tears both ACLs.

Go Cavs.

Guilty Pleasures

As I sat anxiously watching “The Decision” I could not control my giddiness. Everything leading up to his decision had me believing that he was jumping ship and I could not be happier. It’s not because Cleveland actually had a good, check that GREAT team…that’s right folks, that’s a Yinzer complimenting a Cleveland sports team…but rather it’s because I enjoy seeing die-hard Cleveland sports fans suffer. Yeah I know thats wrong. Probably kind of sick too, but it’s the truth. Their hopes get built up so much for the Browns and the Indians but each year they fall flat on their faces. However the Cavs were legit. But now they’re unlegit. Again.

It’s hard to say James made the wrong decision because he’s playing with Wade, and Bosh. Miami fans don’t come close to Cleveland fans. Cleveland fans are some of the most loyal fans ever. Cheering for pathetic teams isn’t easy to do…trust me, I find myself questioning why I continue to chee for the Pirates, but then I remember it’s because I love that team. And Clevelanders love their teams. No fault there. But seriously, why get all upset. In seven years, how many championships has James gotten you all? Zero. How many finals did he lead you to? One and they got swept.

Now are you a better team without him. HELL NO. Not even close. Actually, the Cavs are now one of the worst teams in the league if you ask me, but cut the guy some slack. Except for the last few games in this postseason, this guy carried you. He led what was otherwise a collaberation of run-of-the-mill players to the best record in basketball. Here’s something you all should do. Learn from Pittsburgh. When Sergei Gonchar signed a contract with the Ottawa Senators this offseason, the city didn’t go up in arms, instead they thanked him for his time and service to the team and community. Granted Gonchar was a key contributor to their Stanley Cup championship, but when he comes back to Pittsburgh, I promise you he will get a standing ovation. Please do the same with James.

These super-freakish athletes are humans too. They need to lookout for themselves. James tried for seven years and couldn’t get it done. Now nothing is for sure, but I think he has earned the right to go to South Beach to try and win a championship. If nothing else, James can’t be called greedy or that he is in it just for the money. Instead he wants to win. He tried and Cleveland, but now will try in Miami.

Yeah, I’m happy he left. I feel bad to an extent for Cleveland, but at the same time, deep down I’m smiling. Guilty pleasure.

Ed Speaks: Why We Are Not Covering LeBron

Things. Keep. Changing.

Besides, just watch out Twitter account @BorderWarSports.  Just easier to re-tweet what Windhurst at the Plain Dealer is reporting.

Maybe we’ll have a reaction piece on Friday.  If we care enough about the biggest decision in Cleveland history.

And yea, I’d consider ranking LeBron with Model if he left.

/Editor out!

Michigan State Can Relax: Izzo’s Not Leaving

The Cavaliers won’t be getting their first choice for head coach.

In what was the more important of the two major press conferences tonight (well, at least if you’re in Cleveland, which has despised BP since they moved their workforce from downtown Cleveland), Tom Izzo announced tonight that he would be staying with the Spartans.

This leaves me wondering what Dan Gilbert will do with his Izzo-themed PJ’s and alma mater tax write-offs.

Anyways, Izzo probably did the right thing.  He stuck with what he knows works well and will continue to work well.  Despite the secretive flight to Cleveland, and then an equally secretive flight by Gilbert to Akron’s Fulton Airport to meet with LBJ, supposedly (Media covered both flights, but the latter has seemingly disappeared from the interwebs).

LeBron is the question mark, and no high-quality coach will be willing to come to Cleveland  without him playing for them.  Without the ‘Akron Hammer’, the Cavs have nothing to keep good talent.  Except for the rumored promise of somewhere in the range of $6 million a year.

Unfortunately, it would seem that Cleveland is in a bit of a quagmire.  They will have to try to sign LeBron first, then a coach.  This isn’t what NBA teams usually do..  Typically, you want to hire a coach early in the Summer, that way you can get the best name on the market and let him plan for the Fall season (which feels like starts in a few weeks…damn you three month long playoff system *shakes fist*)

The Cavs won’t do that, though.  They heard the message loud and clear.  Sign LeBron.  Then we’ll talk.

Big Z Has It Right

Head over to Fox 8 Cleveland and check out this video of Zydrunas Ilgauskas speaking out about Coach Brown’s firing and you’ll see what people are forgetting about the most:  You can’t blame Coach Brown for losing when the whole team is at fault for losing.

Age Brings Experience Not Brittleness

So that’s it. It’s done. Cleveland you will probably need a eulogy after what just happened. Then again what just happened? This was the number one team in the East, those Cleveland Cavaliers. They were also the number one team in the association. They were suppose to once again walk through into the finals and have that LeBron James versus Kobe Bryant Final we all wanted. Yet again, James’ journey to the finals took an abrupt stop thanks to great defense and better team play that was the Boston Celtics.

It’s weird writing about how the Celtics have played well in this series, in fact the entire playoffs the Celtics have played great. This is a team that people wrote off because they were too old, and health was a huge issue. And yet it was the old guys that performed so well in this game 6. Rasheed Wallace able to get double digit points, Kevin Garnett got a double double, and Paul Pierce was able to get double figures. Yet the Celtics weren’t suppose to be here. In fact many people picked the Miami Heat to upset the Celtics in the first round. Yet the Celtics nearly swept the Heat and then comes this series against the Cavaliers. A series where there was only one game where the Celtics looked awful which was game 3. That makes the clash between the Orlando Magic and Boston Celtics a lot more interesting, don’t count out the Celtics experience.

Yet what’s sad about this series is that it’s not about the Celtics. It was never about the Celtics. Once the series went 3-2 in Boston’s favor, this series was more about James. Not the Cavaliers, but just one man. A home town hero and a home grown talent. These last two important games were all on LeBron James. He has been called the greatest, the next Micheal Jordan, a two time MVP, and yet he still couldn’t win. What doesn’t make any sense to me is that Cleveland has brought pieces to him to win. They got him Mo Williams, they got him Shaquille O’Neil, they got him Antawn Jamison, yet they only get into the second round? While in ’07 James with virtually no one carried his team over the Detroit Piston and made it to the Finals. Shouldn’t this have been easier for James to win?

What is different about ’07 was how James had people who stepped up. In this series no one other than James came to play, and even James’ play was questioned. Cavs fan had to be happy to see Williams step up getting 20 points in the first half but it seemed to little too late (Since he only had scored two points in the 2nd half). The Cavaliers were committing to many turnovers with nine going to James, and the defense made it more difficult for the Cavaliers to shoot well. James’ triple double may have seemed like he was trying to take control of this game himself, yet the look in his eye seemed very disinterested. What’s funny is that the Celtics didn’t have to rely on one person to carry the team.  This is probably why I’m not shocked that they won the series. The Celtics had production from all kinds of players not just there starters. Tony Allen, Glen “Big Baby” Davis, and Rasheed Wallace all contributed in this series. Kind of makes LeBron look over and say, “Coach, where’s my help?”

Well now the playoffs will continue without it’s prize player continuing on. Can’t say I’m upset considering I’m a huge Celtic fan. However the big picture now starts to loom over the NBA playoffs and offseason. Where does LeBron go? Before I would have said he would stay in Cleveland, yet why didn’t he take a contract extension knowing that the Cavaliers can offer him the most money out of any teams in the market? But with him not talking, not saying he will stay makes me think. LeBron James is packing and getting ready to leave. Don’t quote me on where, but I will say Chicago seems logical to me, if James leaves. Cleveland, you will now be looked at every second for the next 47 days till free agency starts, and with that if James does leave what happens to the city that desperately needs a title to revitalize it. Don’t fret just yet Cleveland, this motion picture is just over. The curtain falls, time to leave, people booing, and waiting for the sequel.

-C.J Maffris

BORDER WAR – Thursday the 13th

After one day, Mike and Chris are left wondering what happened to their beloved hockey team, and how to get out of the hole they are now in.  Can they tie things up in this week’s Border War?  Three chances today, as we pick the Cavs/Celtics, Indians/Royals, and Marietta College Pioneers / John Carroll University Blue Streaks in the second game of the OAC Tournament.

Nightmare on Huron Rd., Part 2.

Its 1:30 in the morning as I write this and sleep just doesn’t sound like a viable option right now.

I think I’m in a nightmare as is.

As a Cleveland sports fan since as long as I can remember, you become indoctrinated to heartbreak. You’re used to it. Its just part of being a Clevelander. With the Cavs in the playoffs the past five years, the video montages come prepackaged and ready to roll every single year.

Red Right 88.

The Fumble.

The Shot.

The Drive.

The Blown Save.

But what about tonight. The Emasculation? The Evisceration?

Tonight wasn’t much about heartbreak. Heartbreak indicated losing a close matchup where you honestly thought your team could win, only to be severely let down. This loss was never in question by the end of the second quarter. You saw no fire, no desire, no passion in the eyes of the Cavs. You had LeBron going up to shoot, outthinking himself, then passing it off and looking immensely awkward. You had Anthony Parker flubbing pass after open pass. You had your best guard playing only 9 minutes of the game and contributing absolutely nothing. You had your coach, a ‘defensive mastermind’ choosing to quickly sub players in the 4th quarter for quick fouls, a strategy saved for the final two minutes of a close game…..not with 4 minutes left in an unholy blowout.

I can’t figure out LeBron. I’m not sure anyone can. Here’s a guy who refuses to shake hands with the Magic because he was fuming that his team couldn’t pull off the win. He then speaks about it and promises to use it to fuel him throughout the coming season. Well, the 2009-2010 season isn’t over until the end of the Finals. All roads from Cleveland/Boston lead to Orlando. The team that enraged him.

So what does he do? Does he elevate himself to aggravated superstar playing with a chip on his shoulder…..you know, that thing that superstars do to play the game at a higher level than everyone else….like Jordan, Kobe, Bird, Magic, Isaiah…

Nope. He plays ONE great game, and four complacent games. His body language just screams that he’s given up. If it’s his elbow injury, then there’s more we aren’t being told.

I just don’t know what else it could be.

Either way….here’s some mental notes from the game:
Mike Brown needs to go. The guy is a non-entity. Retain him as defensive coach or just be rid of him. The guy is likable, but the point of a coach is not to be likable. It is to make his players work harder, to be smarter than them, to show them the path to a championship.

The only guys in the game who showed any passion or desire, even if it was the briefest flicker- Shaq, Antawn, Mo, Z. For 3 of those 4, this could be their last legitimate shot at a championship. For one, he’s been pegged as a playoff dud and, try as he might, only one game out of quite a few prove otherwise.

Boston is just proving to be the luckier team. Better calls. Bench players randomly catching fire (‘Sheed, Tony Allen, Big Baby).

The Cavaliers forgot how to rebound. They just stood there, or immediately began the run back. You know what wins games? Second chance points. Offensive rebounds. Resetting the offense. Thats what makes Z such an invaluable center. He may be plodding, he may be older, but I’ll be damned if he doesn’t scrap and give us 8-10pts per game on tip drill alone. Shaq doesn’t do that. Varejao was kind of catching on during the season but gave that up for playoffs. Hickson has been too terrible to make any judgments.

They just don’t want it. As fans, we often get accused of lumping ourselves in with the team to become a collective we. Not tonight. The city of Cleveland, the fans of the Cavaliers; we want this. We want this bad. We need a championship. We are a dying city that everybody likes to joked about and beat up whenever they can. We want that one shining moment to prove everyone wrong.

I just don’t think the Cavaliers players recognize that. They talk about it, sure, but do they really understand? When the game ends, they put on all their bling, go out and have a great meal, get some sleep in their plush houses/condos/apartments, and attempt to brush it off the next day.

For some fans, the Cavs are the only bright spot in their life. Watching the Cavs win makes their week better.

Cleveland as a city has been losing for years. We don’t hide that fact. We admit that we just can’t catch a break. The Cavs are supposed to be that break. But instead of helping, they’re just breaking us even more.

How much more loss can we take?

As we look toward Game 6, I don’t know what to say. I want the Cavs to pull it out. I wholeheartedly think they can.

But you won’t catch me saying that out loud. I also thought the Indians were World Series champions in 1997.

And that the Cavs were NBA Champions last year.
And that the second and third Matrix films would be the greatest films ever.
And that Han Solo shot first.
And that Luke Jackson, Jason Kapono, and Wally Szczerbiak would be great additions to the Cavs.

As you can see, I’m often wrong when I speak. So this time, I’m keeping my mouth shut.

Surprisingly Not Surprising

Game 5 last night between the Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers seemed to go the way that I expected. No, I’m not a fortune teller and I was not expecting the blowout of 32 points that the Celtics manage to put up, but in this series it seems that the road teams have played better than the home teams.

Look at game 3 in Boston when LeBron James scored 20 points in the first quarter alone. Game 3 is also where the Cavaliers gave Boston their worst home loss in playoff history, which is saying something with all the history the Boston Celtics have. Now here’s game 5 with the Celtics returning the favor, handing the Cavs their worst home loss in playoff history.

If you look at all the games in Cleveland, though, you can’t be surprised at  how poorly the Cavs have looked  against the Celtics. The Celtics have now won two games on the road in the series, when before this year the Celtics and Cavaliers couldn’t win on each others’  floor. One thing I’ve noticed from watching all of the games is that on the road the Celtics have dominated all but three quarters in this series, those being the first quarter of game 5 and the 2nd half of game 1.

However,  this game surprised me at how passive James looked. With the media eating up Rajon Rondo after he had an unrealistically spectacular game,  people were saying that perhaps James should guard Rondo, since no one else on the team seemed to be able to do it effectively. During game five, James was standing around outside the key at points in the game and couldn’t help his team secure a rebound or even create mayhem in the paint. He looked tired, almost worn out, which is surprising to see.

That should worry Cavs fan..a lot. It seems in this series that every player not named LeBron James is just waiting for James to be that superman that he was in ’07, taking the Cavaliers to the finals with virtually no help. No other player on this Cavalier team has stepped up at all.  Antwan Jamison, for whom they traded in midseason, has really done very little throughout the series, perhaps even the entire playoffs. Shaquille O’Neil, who’s main mission was the win a ring for the king, has looked more like a jester out on the floor, not contributing the way he has for Kobe Byrant or Dwayne Wade.

This point was brought up on ESPN by Tim Legler, which made me think, and should have Cavs fan ask themselves: Could we label LeBron James right now as a player who is great in the regular season, but crumbles with the playoff pressure? Look at some of the greatest players that don’t have ring and have crumbled in the finals. Players like Dan Marino, Patrick Ewing, and Charles Barkley never won a ring and failed multiple times in the playoffs. James has been in the playoffs a few times now, even made it to the finals once. Yet he still has no ring,  and he’s the best player in the game. Sadly, at this point we may have to put him in the class of Alex Rodriguez and Peyton Manning, but then again, they each finally acquired one championship ring, James hasn’t.

So as Thursday arrives Cavs fan have to wonder if we have  just witnessed  the last game James plays for the Cavaliers.  Who knows?  Honestly I don’t see James leaving unless Dwayne Wade stays in Miami, which I don’t think he will. But it brings up a point where Cleveland fans have to wonder, with this team being the only team that could make a run for a title, that without their home-grown star will this city be stuck with  a continued championship drought for many more years to come? I can’t really make a  prediction on that, stranger things have happened. I don’t know what to expect for the rest of the series, since it  has been showing surprising numbers throughout with players and teams. Surprisingly, though,  it looks like the Celtics have done what expert and fans didn’t think they could do. Win.

If LeBron Leaves, He Only Has Himself to Blame

The Cleveland Cavaliers had their biggest playoff loss ever on Tuesday night.  Granted, it is a small playoff history, but still.  It’s a rough loss for a franchise that entered the game hearing every sports analyst mention that it could be The Akron Hammer’s last in the wine and gold.

But if LeBron James were to leave Cleveland for another team this summer, he only has himself to blame for not winning a championship for the hometown fans.

Looking at the numbers from the series so far:  In games Cleveland won, LeBron was at least 50% from the field.  In losses, less than 50%.  If he has hit from outside the arc, it’s a victory, but if he can’t, then it’s a loss.  In fact, in Game 5, LeBron scored more points from the charity stripe than from the field.

Simply put, it would seem that for the Cavs to win a game this series, they need at least 30 points from #23.  However, he struggled to put half that on the board.

LeBron couldn’t win a title because he didn’t have a supporting cast.  So the Cavs went out and got them.  LeBron needed a big man.  So the Cavs brought in Shaq.  LeBron hurt his elbow.  However, he keeps telling the media that it’s a non-issue.  So who’s left to blame for poor performance?  Who is to blame for the Cavs post-season break-down?

LeBron James

I hate saying that, since LeBron is Akron’s son…possibly the biggest man in Akron since Goodyear made it the Rubber City.  But if he decides that he needs to go elsewhere to play basketball, he can’t say that the Cavaliers didn’t try.  That team did everything they could to separate itself from the 90′s catastrophe that moved from Richfield Coliseum into the Gund Arena.  They got a new owner, a new name for the arena, renovated the arena, and actually pumped money into a cast of supporting players.  His pick was destiny, since the lottery is, well, a toss-up, and Cleveland somehow landed the #1 pick.

This was his time to shine.  The games are supposed to be on his shoulders.  But he can’t seem to deliver this year.  And if he leaves, that’s his choice, but he should not blame Cleveland.  He should blame himself.