Donte Stallworth Suspended Indefinitely
June 18, 2009Mason and Nash Bringing Home Some Hardware
June 19, 2009While We’re Waiting aims to be the round-up of the recent WFNY-esque information for your morning viewing. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email in the sidebar.
Actually, there are many reasons that people look at athletes with disdain. “So let me get this straight, Michael Vick gets two years in jail for killing dogs and Stallworth gets only 30 days for killing someone? Now they say that justice is blind, but even Stevie Wonder can see that more than 30 days in jail was needed here. I think this was a terrible injustice. This is why so many people look at pro athletes with disgust and disdain. I was thoroughly disappointed.” Brendan Haywood/Yardbarker
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Of course, they would have to win for someone to get the belt- “Imagine Garko having the belt one day. The next, Kerry Wood pitches perfectly and Pronk decides to give Wood the belt that night. Then, out of nowhere, comes Jamey Carroll, who up to that point has never won the belt. Chair to the head! Carroll grabs the belt, talks some smack, and wanders through the bowels of Progressive Field while Eric Wedge plays the role of the ignorant and dazed ref who was distracted by the the antics of Ben Francisco, who was pleading on behalf of his friend Ryan Garko. And then you hear the Undertaker’s music…..” Vince/’64 and Counting
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Sour grapes from SVG or no? “But more than anything, the way Dwight is treated by the national press and on a national level just surprises me. I don’t get it. Even as we got to the NBA Finals, he still wasn’t treated like the other stars in the league.” Pete Kerasotis/Florida Today.com
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Wow do I hope so- “The genesis of the last two NBA championships was the splashy deal, antithetical to the build-through-the-draft approach of the Spurs. Their four championships took seed after they landed Tim Duncan in the lottery in 1997, then took Manu Ginobili with the 57th pick in 1999 and Tony Parker with the 28th pick in 2001. And let’s not forget that David Robinson – another lucky-lottery No. 1 pick – was part of the team’s first two championships. The Cavaliers are next in line to make a deal that leads to a championship.” Tom Knott/ The Washington Times
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Mangini has at least one Cleveland fan, Jim Brown- “You’ve got one boss and you know who he is and he knows what he’s doing. He’s emphasizing intelligence and understanding more than just your job. Those are all the things we did with the ’64 team. When you understand the concept of team, then you’ve got a certain kind of advantage. When you allow individuality to take over your organization, then you’re going to have a weak setup.” Scott Petrak/ Medina Gazette
28 Comments
I find a lot of people complaining about the Stallworth situation have very little idea what they’re talking about.
Brandon from Yardbarker apparently hasn’t paid attention to the legal system (or even a Law & Order episode) for the last 40 years. (O.J. anyone?). A good lawyer can create the reasonable doubt on intent in most cases, and that is why D.A.’s settle. I don’t think it’s right, but it just shows an amazing lack of legal knowledge on his part. Vick LIED to FEDERAL PROSECUTORS. Covering up the crime makes it worse for you (see Watergate, Martha Stewart etc). That’s a poor opinion.
in regards to SVG’s whining about Howard…if the guy wasnt exposed in the Finals for being so completely one dimensional, he might be getting more of the same treatment that actual skilled basketball players get…he’s just physically gifted…it doesnt mean hes a good basketball player…not to say he wont be somewhere down the road…but right now, hes just more athletic than most…not that hes a better basketball player…
The difference here being that Stallworth accidentally killed someone, albeit under the influence. Vick was knowingly engaging and funding illegal dog fighting.
And besides, PETA cares more about animals than humans. You just can’t survive being boycotted by nut jobs and domestic terrorists.
I’m double posting this:
Stop comparing Dontes sentence to Michael Vicks [KSK]
@Washington Post
I’ve been thinking about this for the past few days, and I’ve come to a conclusion which I think is accurate but I’d love to hear what the rest of you have to say. (I think I’ll email Rizzo with this too)
Cleveland doesn’t win championships because in all 3 sports (in the free agency era) we’ve never been lucky in any draft.
In the draft we got a sure thing with LeBron. There was a very small chance that he wouldn’t be a great player. Everyone knew it, everyone saw it, and only an idiot would have taken someone else with the number one choice. So that wasn’t luck.
What I mean is in every sport, we’ve never taken a low 1st round or later player that has turned into a premier player.
That’s what every champion winning team needs at some point. Someone that doesn’t get top dollars, but plays like he should be getting number one money.
Where is our Tom Brady or Rothlespuke? Where is our Clyde Drexler?
(It’s interesting to remember that we drafted Bill Laimbeer, then traded him after one year.)
You have to get lucky in the draft and Cleveland has been anything but.
Here’s hoping that all our GM’s can find the diamond in the rough which will get us there soon.
I don’t know if anyone saw this. or cares for that matter, but Mike Doss was drafted to play in the UFL for the Orlando team under Jim Haslett. In other UFL news, the Las Vegas team did not draft a QB, and I have heard speculation of them wooing Mike Vick.
@historycat: Carlos Boozer. He’s legit. He just happened to bamboozle Gordon Gund.
@historycat: I would argue that getting Brad Daugherty, Ron Harper, Mark Price, and Hot Rod Williams in one single draft was awfully lucky. Few NBA teams have ever had a draft that good.
I am so tired of the Vick comparison. Dante was guilty of a DUI. That is all. The reason there was a plea is because the family understood 2 things. 1.) If it went to trial there was a good chance he would walk. 2.) They could get a financial statement out of it and Dante could put it behind him. The whole story changed when it was revealed the man was not in the crosswalk. That changes EVERYTHING in Florida. I have sold Auto Insurance in Florida forever and because of the laws there it it just different. I am not saying it is right but it is what it is.
I’m confused. Did Stallworth accidentally get into his car?
agreed ben… i’m goin to repost what i wrote a little bit ago in the previous post (sorry, i usually hate when people do this):
@#13
i actually have to agree with you a bit, lawyer… i read somewhere that the reaction time involved with being as “drunk” as donte was is the equivalent to talking on a cell phone or being really tired (pretty sure i’m at fault for both of those…at the same time… this morning).
again, NOT defending what he did, its a terrible loss for the victim’s family and friends, but i would be willing to bet that something similar could have happened to almost all of us at some point in our lives (scary isn’t it?).
and @#7 Cindy: you have to compare apples to apples cindy… his sentencing was fairly on par with other similar offenses in the state of florida. every state’s laws are different. if donte were to commit this offense in ohio it would have been much different (when dealing with drunk driving the victim committing a “crime” would not have mattered) but i believe in florida they take that into account. so the fact that the victim was walking across a busy interstate and not at a sidewalk takes some of the blame away from donte (in the eyes of the florida courts at least)
@ RockKing,
Yeah, that was a good draft, but Ron Harper was a compensation pick from the Ted Stepian Debacle.
But look at the 1999 Draft for example:
Pick 6: Wally Sczerbiak (All Star) To Minn.
Pick 7: Richard Hamilton (All Star) to Washington
Pick 8: Andre Miller (Non-All Star) to Cleveland
Pick 9: Shawn Marion (All Star) to Phoenix
Later picks:
# 16 Ron Artest
# 18 James Posey
# 24 Andrei Kirilenko
# 39 A.J. Bramlett to the Cavs
# 57 Manu Ginóbili
How many rings are there in this list? Manu has 3.
And that’s just the NBA . . . think of where we would be without the comedy stylings of Butch Davis.
You’ve got to really get a good low cost player in the draft and have a high paid superstar in the salary cap era.
@historycat: Revisionist history is fun (and stupid) but how about a team made up of people we passed on every year.
1995- Michael Finley 21 (Bob Sura 17)
1996- Kobe Bryant 13 (Potapenko 12)
1997- Bobby Jackson 23 (The original DA 13)
1998- First pick was at 48 and this draft sucked so moving on…
1999- Shawn Marion 9 (Miller 8)
2000- Turkoglu 16 (Crawford 8 – Traded for Mihm)
2001- Joe Johnson 10 (Diop 8) This one really bother me…
2002- Butler 10 (Wagner 6) Both Amare and Caron there…
2003- We could not mess up…but Detroit sure did…
2004- West 24 (Jackson 10)
2005- No Pick
2006- We picked Shannon Brown at #25 and this draft is terrible.
2007- No Pick
2008- Hickson..still too early
In summary we have done nothing since landing LeBron (except not have draft picks) The good news is that if we had landed any of the players before that we never would have got LeBron. Everyday I say a little prayer to Ricky Davis and Darius Miles…some teams tank games. We just got certain players and let them play.
@ Ben
That’s exactly what I’m saying. You have to be lucky and so far we haven’t been.
I’m not saying that we should have gotten any of the players that we missed on. What I am saying is we are to the point, with the Cavs especially, that you have to be both good and lucky and we haven’t been.
you have to be smart AND lucky. when you’re picking high, you cant make blatantly bad picks like dajun wagner, diop, trajan langdon or luke jackson. those were all awful picks which I (a regular fan) hated immediately. when youre picking low, you have to get a little lucky (like carlos boozer). you just cant be stupid and screw it up (like carlos boozer).
If there was no dajun wagner, diop, trajan langdon – there’d be no lebron. No complaints here.
Re: SVG’s griping about Dwight Howard – of course Howard isn’t treated the same by the national media. He’s a rebounding/blocking machine who throws the ball at the hoop going 490 mph or he dunks. If he could hit a shot outside of 5 feet, he would probably be a superstar…but he’s not. He’s like Dennis Rodman with the opportunity to score more.
Well, I think its unfair to harangue picking Andre Miller. He was a borderline all-star for many years and he might have gotten into the game during his years with us if he hadn’t been playing for the Cavs. Who sucked?
Besides, the team might’ve looked very different the last couple of years if we hadn’t traded Andre Miller for Darius Miles. Andre Miller, Lebron James, and Carlos Boozer would have been a solid core.
@bridgecrosser: It’s Brendon. Brendon Haywood. From the Washington Wizards.
The guy that hacks LeBron four or five times a game… 🙂
@DocZeus – We would probably not have gotten LeBron if we had Andre Miller. The 2002-2003 Cavs had the worst collection of point guards the league has ever seen (Bimbo Coles, Milt Palacio, and Smush Parker). Paxson probably would’ve ended up drafting Michael Sweetney.
bridgecrosser – fair enough about the bad picks helping land lebron. just because things worked out so well doesnt excuse the fact that paxson drafted like a dummy. what if they ended up #2 that year and drafted darko?
“what if they ended up #2 that year and drafted darko?”
They’d be the 15-win Columbus Cavaliers
“They’d be the 15-win Columbus Cavaliers”
Word on that… Man, although, sometimes I wonder if we had drafted Carmelo Anthony instead of Lebron would I be a happier person. Like we wouldn’t have to deal with the insane Lebron is leaving rumors all the time and I could enjoy the Cavs instead of perennially waiting for the hammer to drop and I definitely could behind Melo because I’m a Syracuse Alum and was a freshman at school the year Cuse won it all.
Can you imagine what this town would have done if they didn’t draft LeBron? How many times would he drop 50 on the Cavs? That would have been ugly. Even if they picked Carmelo, there would be no mercy for passing on one of the greatest players ever from your backyard. And it wasn’t like everyone didn’t know about him…
Yeah, you’re right. Nevermind.
heres a hypothetical. Z has a player option for this season and we are all assuming he picks it up. he would make something like $11.5 mil this season. under nba rules, could the cavs and Z agree to not have Z pick up the option making him a free agent, and then the cavs sign him to a 2-year $6mil/year contract? i dont even know if thats allowed.
@historycat: I don’t think that’s true about Ron Harper. I’m pretty sure the Cavaliers drafted Harper with their own #8 pick. The #1 pick to get Brad Daugherty was from the Roy Hinson trade.