Posts Tagged ‘Lebron James’

Poor fans.  You so have my sympathy.  If I were a lawyer, you would also have my business card to sue the Pirates for what they did this season, well, since 1992.

Here are some stories from other great sites:

• Steady Burn found a lawsuit a mother won when she sued the little league baseball people for not teaching her son to slide properly.  She raked about $125K.
• Motown String Music presents the Charlie Villanueva hairless wonder contest.
• That NBA Lottery Pick reports that the Memphis Grizzlies will use EA Sports NBA 2010 as their new scouting tool.
• The Friedly Blogfines has the comparisons of Cub Starter Randy Wells in the NL ROY competition as well as who else is going to be considered.
• NESW Sports has a video to prove that Lebron James has learned his lesson.  No more soft dunks for everyone.
• My Sports Rumors has the NFL power rankings – training camp edition.
• Babes Love Baseball finds the Seattle Mariners all pumped up because Adrian Beltre is back!
• Tony Blogs says that the traditional “side view” can make a comeback in Madden 2010.
• Steady Burn has video of Delonte West’s new KFC rap, shot in a KFC parking lot.
• Chicago’s MMA has a list of athletes that could be good MMA fighters.
• Outside The Boxscore asks :”Does anyone want Michael Vick?”
• Major League Jerk wants to know why the Mariners are trading for Pirates.
• Moon Dog Sports has a “Chris Mortenson goes to camp” fail piece. 
• Sharapova’s Thigh rates the Top 40 wide receivers for all of you fantasy football gurus.
• Fansided ran a poll to many bloggers called what twelve famous people would you have at your last supper?  which I participated in.  My #1 guest is Karen Carpenter so there would be more food for me and the other 11 guests.
• The World of Isaac posted a great picture of Eli Manning – drunk.

All of this grumbling about Lebron James leaving Cleveland after this season is starting to really get on my nerves.  Don’t get me wrong, King James can pretty much pick his destination whether it be New York, Miami, or Australia.  I just don’t see Lebron wanting to leave Cleveland unless they really do stupid things in the front office between now and the end of the season.

Bringing in Shaq is a good thing.  Do you think Danny Ferry acted without first calling James and asking him for his opinion?  Danny Ferry is one of the puppets who Lebron controls.  If a player were out there and Ferry were to sign him without first contacting James, he would have a reason to pack his bags at the end of the season.  Fortunately for Cavs fans, that doesn’t happen because James is basically the GM of this team.

Mike Brown won Coach of The Year.  Brown replaced Paul Silas.  Lebron didn’t like playing for Silas because he actually tried to coach the team.  E=MC2?  Catching on yet?  Danny Ferry replaced Jim Paxson because Paxson got fired.  He could not be puppeted out like Ferry.  Mike Brown was basically hand-picked by James to coach the team.  So now Lebron is not only the GM, but now he is the head coach and has a puppet for each hand.

Besides being the GM, Head Coach, and player, James also is basically playing in his backyard.  A home game for the Cavs is a home game for Akron.  Lebron’s mother can come up to watch.  Granted, if he went somewhere else it’s not like he couldn’t afford to relocate his mother to watch games.  However, an incredible amount of the people who own season tickets in Cleveland are people who were following James’ magical run at Akron SVSM.

We all know that Anderson Varajeo is not even close to earning the money thrown at him last week by the Cavs.  He runs a good pick-and-roll with Lebron, so GM James said, “Pay the man“.  Coach James said, “Pay the man“.  Oh, and teammate Lebron James said, “Pay the man“.  So guess what… the man got paid.

Anyone who thinks that Lebron James isn’t running every dimension of Cleveland Cavaliers basketball to some extent is naive and/or blind.  This all raises the point that there is absolutely no reason for James to go anywhere for any reason.  Lebron James will be in Cleveland as long as he has control of all of his toys and titles.  Mario Lemieux owns the Penguins.  Don’t be suprised is Lebron turns around and buys the Cavs someday.  Then he can be owner, GM, Coach, player, vendor, etc…

The Cleveland Cavaliers are scrambling desperately to plug the holes that prevented them from winning it all last year.  Anthony Parker, currently with the Toronto Raptors, is the next guy down on Danny Ferry‘s wish list.

Shaquille O’Neal, in my opinion, was a good signing.  Leadership and experience go a long way in the NBA and Shaq has plenty of both to offer.

I am glad that Ron Artest signed with Los Angeles.  Artest is a head case and will have problems with Phil Jackson and/or Kobe Bryant while he is in a Lakers uniform.  Thanks Mitch Kupchak, we owe you one.  Then they turn around and give Trevor Ariza to Houston.  Who will be worse next year?  Houston or Oklahoma City?

Charlie Villanueva and Ben Gordon probably wanted to play together like they did at UConn a few years ago.  I want to play kickball at recess again too, but it probably can’t happen.  Joe Dumars isn’t seeing the big picture in Motown.  Rasheed Wallace is going to be gone, Allen Iverson has been used entirely wrong since they got him, and Rip Hamilton is unhappy.  Bringing in Avery Johnson to handle this dog and pony show wont be enough.

I wish the Cavs would just go after Chris Bosh and get it over with.  Bosh will be in a Cavs uniform next season, mark my words.

Boxing lost one of its biggest names yesterday when Alexis Arguello passed away.  I liked Arguello because he didn’t talk with his mouth, but rather used his gloves.  Arguello beat Ray Mancini in a classic battle, but he will unfortunately go down in history as the guy who lost to Aaron Pryor twice.

• Josh Q. Public presents Ken Griffey Jr., A Bronx Tale.  Good piece about Jr’s visit to New Yankee Stadium to face Arod and the Yanks.
• Sports Rubbish has pictures to prove you should never try to rob an old boxer.
• If you are in a fantasy football keeper league, Sharapova’s Thigh has rated the quarterbacks, see where your guy ranks!
• Sportspoop reports in the NFL’s fuzzy new math that the season may be extended to 18 games.
• Hoop Doctors caught up with Danny Granger of the Pacers for an exclusive interview.
• Detroit4lyfe writes about Marion Hossa(ma Bin Laden) and refers to him as a hockey terrorist.
• No Guts, No Glory tells us about 5 athletes who should give up on acting.
• Sir Charles In Charge had a sportswriter think that Barkley was actually doing the writing on the website.
• King James Gospel reports that Charlie Villanueva has signed with Detroit, eliminating Cleveland from the picture.  Focus has now shifted to Ron Artest.
• PSAMP reports that Charlie Batch, aka Nostre Damas, has predicted that there will be no football played in 2011.
• NESW Sports found supermodel Joanna Krupa doing an ESPN interview about T.O. and “The Superstars”.
• PacMan Jonesin’  says Tiger Woods kind of responded to Jim Brown’s harsh words.

Big win for Pittsburgh over Detroit last night.  Sergei Gonchar wears the hero costume for a day.  Here are some stories from other great sites…

• Was a softball coach from Maine fired because she is a lesbian or because she made her team walk through sheep feces, submitted by Sports Rubbish.
• Major League Jerk takes a look at this years worst MLB uniforms.
• PSAMP salutes Max Talbot, another Pittsburgh Penguins hero of Game 3.
• The Zoner poses the age old question of whether or not it is ok to boo and to what extent.
• Steady Burn posted a neat piece.  Danica Patrick, in a recent SI interview, said using performance enhancing drugs is only cheating if you get caught.
• Fansided takes a good hard look at how to get involved in sports blogging, and the time it takes daily for anyone wanting to start blogging.
• Sharapova’s Thigh analyzes Maria Sharapova’s run at Roland Garros and eventual exit from the French Open.
• Fanhouse posted today that Tony LaRussa is suing Twitter over a Tony LaRussa wannabe imposter.
• My Sports Rumors tells you that Mickael Pietrus is worried about which shoes to wear in the NBA Finals, Kobes or Jordans.
• Hoop Doctors give the three keys for Orlando to win the NBA Finals.
• FOX Sports reports that NBA Commish David Stern is going to meet with Lebron James about his post-game snubs and show of sportsmanship.
• Heels On Hardwood lists 10 paperbacks to help NBA fans get through the end of the season withdrawls.

Unique in comparison to any other personality to ever play the game of football.  That would be my way of describibg the great Jack Lambert.  Lambert, at last report, was a Pennsylvania game warden sitting in trees, waiting for the hunter who cheated.  Here are some great stories from other sites.

• John Salley is a PETA hypocrite.  The sworn vegetarian eats a rats tail on reality television as caught by Hugging Harold Reynolds.
• Brady Anderson is pissed at Sports Illustrated for naming Peter Angelos the worst owner in MLB as found by Steady Burn.
• NESW Sports presents the first installment of this weeks Interweb.  This weeks interweb features some pretty cool clicks such as Lebron not being the only player to avoid shaking hands, a Beatles Rock Band Trailer, as well as much more great stuff.
• Total Pro Sports provides footage of the great catch turned in by Joba Chamberlain in last nights Indians vs Yankees game.
• In a related story, Detroit4lyfe shows how Joba fought off insect attack #2 in his second consecutive Cleveland appearance to pitch the longest outting in his career.
• Ben Roethlisberger is not as popular as Lebron James and must accept his defeat as presented by PSAMP.
• Sports Rubbish found some internationally disturbing footage of a boxing match from Finland where one of the boxers fathers attacks the referee!
• Major League Jerk has the proof in a great article about Arizon’a Chris Young being the worst hitter in baseball.
• Pacman Jonesin’ takes a hilarious poke at Tom Brady’s knee, calling it the best knee of all times and even suggesting Lebron wanting the knee to sign with the Cavs.
• Remember when the Cubs gave up on Rich Hill last year?  The Orioles seem to have figured out what it was troubling him that the Cubs could not, from Josh Q. Public.
• My Sports Rumors dives way into the future to take some shots at the 2010 NFL draft.
• The Fifth Corner, omniscient of all activity involving current, former, and even future Tar Heels tells us why Ty Lawson’s stock is dropping.
• The World of Isaac takes a shot at Pittsburgh’s media calling them “whiny” and saying he knows now where Crosby gets it.

Cleveland failed to advance to the NBA Finals, losing to Orlando, 4-2.  The Magic, on paper, have a stronger team.  If you lined up all the players for The Cavs and Magic up at a playground and had Van Gundy and Brown pick teams for a game, the results would prove which team had superior talent.  Obviously Mike Brown would pick Lebron first.  Van Gundy would probably take Dwight Howard second.  The next three picks would all be Magic players too. 

Lebron James tried to be a one man gang when he had to.  Unfortunately for Cavs fans, Delonte West couldn’t hit an outside shot the whole series.  Mo Williams wasn’t the guy Cavs fans fell in love with this year.  Zydrunas Ilgauskas looked tired and old.  Anderson Varajeo and Ben Wallace should never be looked at as offensive threats. 

All during the regular season, teams would do their best to take the lane away from Lebron forcing him to kick the ball out to a wide open Williams or West who made teams pay.  The single biggest malfunction in the Orlando series was that nobody was able to shoot from the outside with wide open, or at least, great looks.  These are shots your perimeter players have to make, and no one stepped up.  Not Wally, not Sasha, not Delonte and not Mo.

With that being said, the Cavs could only take away the three-pointer to leave Dwight Howard open, or doubleteam Howard and get their eyes knocked out from three.  Let Rafer Alston shoot the threes.  Rafer Alston owned us and outplayed anyone in Cleveland’s backcourt every game.

People are pointing fingers at Mike Brown, the 2009 NBA Coach of The Year.  I don’t see how he can blamed for riding the horse that got him there.  The mismatches and lack of a second scorer killed the Cavs, and what could Brown do?  Too many weapons, too many ways, and not enough responses.

Was Lebron a bad sport?  Go through life winning everything everytime you play.  Have a season like Cleveland did, losing only 20 games all year, but six to Orlando.  The competitor in him hasn’t had much practice at losing when he was supposed to win, so he was ultra-frustrated and disappointed with the results.  He made good yesterday by talking to the media, congratulating Orlando, and wearing a Yankees hat, bringing me to the next item.

Is Lebron leaving?  No.  The Cavs are going to offer him an extension this summer which he will sign.  Before he signs, look for changes.  Remember, Lebron kind of handpicked Mike Brown, most of his teammates, and the city is in love with the guy.  The Cavs can also offer him an extra year that no one else can because he is currently plaing for them.

What needs to happen?  Nice knowing you Zydrunas and Ben, time to move on.  Ilgauskas drives me nuts.  When you are over 7′, hit the boards on offense instead of waiting outside the arc to shoot a three. Ben Wallace was the scrappiest rebounder in the league a few years ago and was never a threat to score anywhere he played.  However, he is not the same as he was when he played for Detroit.  He would get 20 rebounds in a big game, no questions asked.  Having both he and Anderson Varajeo on the court makes the Cavs better defensively, but cripples the offense.

The Cavs need to get that #2 guy, whoever he is.  Someone who can light it up on offense to take the burden away from Delonte and Mo.  Lebron’s gonna get his, no matter what.  I did a story about why the Cavs would do better against Boston than they would against Orlando, I feel vindicated for writing it, but wish I could tell you how wrong I was.

More important than lifting his team to fight another day.  More important than scoring 37 points.  More important than posting a triple-double, was the look in Lebron James eyes late in the fourth quarter.  As Dwight Howard fouled out and jawed at Lebron, the look Lebron shot back said more than anything, we aren’t quitters.

You know Lebron is performing like a king when they put his name and stats right next to the 1965 Jerry West game-by-game stats.  It is a record that hasn’t been flirted with often.  Lebron will probably not break that particular record in this series.

I feel refreshed that Mo Williams can still shoot.  Lebron’s supporting cast stepped up last night and played the way they had all year until the start of this series.

Game 6 in Orlando is not only do-or-die for the Cavs, but I feel it is now do-or-die for Orlando as well.  If the Cavs can sneak one out in Orlando, then I feel Game 7 would see the Cavs as big home favorites.  One game will dictate an outcome of a great season for the best Cavs team in history.

If Lebron has that look in his eye Saturday, beware Magic, the king knows what’s up.

Hopefully you were not sitting behind home plate at this game.  Lots to get to today.  Here are some great stories from other sites.

• Steady Burn has an early Belmont Stakes list of odds with Mine That Bird the favorite.  I don’t think anything will stop this horse from winning this time.
• Yogi Berra speake his own language sometimes.  Zoner Sports has dug into the archives and pulled out a couple of classic Yogi Berra commercials worth seeing.
• Sergio Garcia voted prom queen: let the catcalls begin. In Game Now has posted a picture you have to see!! 
• Detroit4lyfe has removed the Penguins from their Bloguin website and replaced them with an octopus to patronize the Red Wings rather than the Penguins in the upcoming Stanley Cup Finals.
• NESW Sports posted a cartoon video of How Lebron James carried the Cavaliers on his back through Game 5.  There is even a cartoon Anderson Varajeo, hehehe.
• Intentional Foul has found another Lebron and Kobe Muppet sighting.  In this clip, they are the anchors on Sportscenter ~ pretty entertaining to watch.
• With Brett Myers ailing, My Sports Rumors poses the question, Where do the Phillies go from here?
• Sharapova’s Thigh takes a good look at how pitching woes and a rash of injuries are killing teams like Tampa Bay.
• Juan Pierre is loving life without Manny in LA.  Josh Q. Public reveals how the resurgent outfielder is playing like he is 21 again and why.
• Talk Hoops takes an in-depth look at the Cavs vs Magic Game 5.
• John Calipari Is In Trouble and has some explaining to do from Moondog Sports.

With Cleveland’s pure outside shooters (Delonte West & Mo Williams) struggling to hit outside shots, why is Zydrunas Ilgaukas outside the arc firing threes?  I was never a fan of Ilgauskas shooting very far from the paint.  Why not keep your biggest player close to the hoop?  Maybe he would get a rebound or get Dwight Howard to foul him.  I have been fired up all year when Big Z shoots these long-range shots.

To me, this is the equivalent of bringing in that utility outfielder to pitch when you are getting clobbered and realize realistically that you have no chance to win.  It is lining that fat tackle up as a tight end eligible on the one and throwing to him when you are up by more than 10 points in the fourth quarter.  It is something that should be seen as a novelty in sports.  Unfortunately for Cavs fans, Ilgauskas has his mind set on firing bricks from more than 20 at least three times a game.  This all started in the early 90’s when Manute Bol would get the ball with big leads or deficits and shoot the 3.

Message to Mike Brown:  Tear that play out of the arsenal.

Sadly, a few of Z’s threes have gone in.  Take a six-year-old to a putt-putt course and they might get a couple hole-in-ones for getting lucky enough to hit the clowns mouth.  Big Z hit the clowns mouth a few times from three this season, so now he thinks he is Robert Horry and wants to hang outside the three-point line and just wait for the ball.  In the meantime, Lebron James is driving and if he misses and doesn’t get his own rebound, there is no one else around.  They are all having a picnic waiting for the ball to be kicked out.  The two exceptions are Anderson Varajeo and Ben Wallace.  They hustle after loose balls and play the game according to what their size dictates they should do.

Maybe we should turn Ben Wallace loose.  He can fire up his new McDonald’s sponsored 30 foot hook shot.  If they start to fall, people get a free sixth Quarter Pounder if they buy five.  Or we can let Anderson Varajeo (Sideshow Bob) run give and go plays with Big Ben all night.

Bottom line is real simple…  If Delonte and Mo can’t hit the outside shot, bring in Joe Smith and Sasha Pavlovic and go to the bigger post-type lineup.  Where is Wally Szcerbiak?  He gets hot and nails threes in bunches.

There are a million opinions as to what has to happen for Cleveland to pull this series out.  I don’t think you would hurt your chances of winning any if you didn’t waste three possessions a game on Zydrunas Ilgauskas firing up bombs from long range.