James Davis Gone as Browns Running Situation Clouds Further
October 26, 2010The Indianapolis of Baseball: An Offseason Digression
October 26, 2010Make no mistake Cavs fans, this was a breakup and we were the jilted lovers. Weâre the ones still standing by the altar, flowers in hand, waiting for our prince charming to show up and give us what we have wanted all our lives. But heâs not coming because he has run off with our younger, better looking sister. And so we continue to wait.
Thatâs what life as a fan of the Cavaliers (and really, Cleveland sports in general) is like. We are the proverbial bridesmaids forever waiting for it to be our turn to be the bride. Now we have to deal with the aftermath of our very public and humiliating breakup that took place in front of the whole world on national television. I can think of no better way in the world to begin the healing process than by turning back to NBA basketball and the games themselves. And that brings us to tonight.
While the rest of the world awaits in eager anticipation for tonightâs tipoff between the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics, many fans in Cleveland are stuck with a dilemma on our hands. Do we watch the tipoff tonight, or do we avoid it?
Iâm sure for a fair number of fans this is an easy decision, one way or the other. Plenty of Cavs fans will probably simply not watch it and not think twice about it, content to just wait until tomorrow to watch the Cavaliers play. For others, theyâll probably just let it go and watch the game and not worry about the constant reminders.
Iâm somewhere in the middle. I donât really want to watch the Miami Heat play basketball. LeBron James serves as nothing but an endless memento of the relevance that was lost in Cleveland. On the other hand, thereâs not many matchups more fun to watch than when LeBron and Paul Pierce go at each other.
Yet, going back to the breakup scenario, who really wants to be around their ex-lover after such an ugly breakup? Do you really want all your friends and associates relentlessly reminding you of what happened and mercilessly pointing out why you were never really good enough in the first place? Who needs that kind of aggravation, right?
The problem is, though, until we can accept what happened, we can never truly move on. I donât want to be bitter about this NBA season. There are so many threats to my enjoyment of the NBA right now, from the potential lockout to talks of contraction to the way teams now build these super teams, that I canât afford to let my own feelings of rejection affect my ability to watch this game.
So above all else, tonight marks the beginning of closure. At some point this season, the subplot will shift, both on the national level and on the local scene. So much energy has been spent this summer on dissecting what all went down that it became exhausting. I know from feedback that you, our readers, are so sick and tired of reading about LeBron James and the Miami Heat and the fallout of his departure in Cleveland. I share in that frustration as I, too, am suffering from LeBron fatigue as a writer, which is yet another reason why the start of the NBA season is a much needed distraction. The only problem is that said distraction also happens to be the source of my need for reprieve.
So it goes for Cavaliers fans. Itâs a new season. Tonight we begin to finally be able to heal and move on, and thatâs why Iâm going to force myself to watch the Heat play the Celtics tonight. The Heat and LeBron are so ubiquitous throughout the NBA that their presence will be inescapable this year. From NBATV coverage to a minimum of 15 minutes of every SportsCenter dedicated to the Heat to ESPNâs new âHeat Indexâ insanity to coverage on almost every blog throughout the NBA blogosphere, we wonât be able to get away. So the sooner I get used to it, the sooner life in the NBA will feel normal again.
Itâs going to be bittersweet tonight for sure. With all the excitement a new season offers, we will have to balance it with one last reminder of what was also taken away from us. And you can say maybe LeBron deserved to have the choice of playing with his friends. You can argue that the organization deserves this for letting LeBron run wild over the franchise for the last 7 years. You can argue that the team didnât do enough to put the talent LeBron needed around him. But what you absolutely cannot argue is that the fans of the Cavaliers deserved any of this.
Cavs fans have always been underrated and over looked. Cleveland is a better basketball city than most national pundits realize. For the last 7 years, though, there was no denying the quality of basketball fans in Cleveland and throughout Ohio as a whole, really. Cavs fans turned The Q into one of the toughest and loudest arenas to play in and the fansâ support of LeBron James and the Cavaliers never really wavered too much beyond the occasional Yankees hat scandal.
So no, Cavs fans didnât deserve any of what happened this summer and it certainly seems unfair that not only did they lose their local hero, but now they have had to be reminded of it almost daily. So even though the NBA tipoff tonight is a celebratory event across the nation, it will be a bit of a bittersweet affair for fans in Cleveland. The good news, though, is that the path to redemption begins tomorrow in Cleveland. So, I say, Go Cavs, and hereâs to a great season of basketball in Cleveland!
28 Comments
I feel much the same way, Andrew. Here’s my hope for today/tomorrow. Celtics > Heat + Cavaliers > Celtics = Cavaliers > Heat (by proxy)
Probably won’t happen like that, but if it did, it would be a GREAT way to start the season.
I’m not bitter about anything. I called LeBron for what he was about 3 years ago. Was I pissed? Sure, still am.
But, it’s been pretty easy for me to move on overall. I’ll be attending the home opener tomorrow and watching every Cavs game I’m around for this year, just like any other year. As far as the rest of the games go, I’ve honestly never been one to watch tons of NBA games early in the season (watch most NFL games), so I won’t be watching tonight. It really wouldn’t bother me one way or the other to watch it though. Don’t get me wrong, I hope all three of them suffer career-ending injuries and the team misses the playoffs, but I’m not going to sit there and obsess over it.
Merely reading news that the aforementioned happened or reading a score line is satisfaction enough.
Just another season of basketball in Cleveland ala pre-lbj times.
Which basically means nothing really going on unless you have nothing better to do that night and can pick up cheap tickets 30 minutes before tipoff. Probably a really good deal if you hold out till after tipoff.
The thing with using this Heat/Celtics game to embark on a road to closure is that there’s pretty much a 100% chance that the conversation between the analysts, the pre-game clips, the half-time show and the clips interspersed with the game will center around this summer’s free agency.
I don’t really care either way, outside of being slightly annoyed at the over-coverage of the Heat in the national press. I’m not going to watch the game, but mostly because I don’t have TV in my apartment and don’t feel like going out of my way to stream it/watch it somewhere else.
#6 torn ACL, 8:46 1st quarter. Book it.
On the west coast, so I’ll prob only catch the second game…almost no doubt about that.
Hey look, Isis is back! Book it!
I’m done with the Cavs right now. Somehow, watching LBJ in Miami doesn’t hurt me as much as watching Cleveland w/o LBJ.
When I watch Cleveland, and I see how not-super-awesome we are, I hurt. When I watch Miami, I’m just watching good basketball, and I hurt less.
“You can actually pinpoint the moment his heart rips in two. Riiight there.”
http://download.lardlad.com/framegrabs/9F13/109.jpg
I’d like to see Shaq go all goon on Mr. Myself-Pity just once. A Sling for the King.
@Amin: Haha, nicely done.
@nobody: I kinda envy you. I’d rather just flip between the 2 late games than have to deal with the Heat game being on primetime.
This off-season lasted an eternity it seems, but I’m excited for Cavalier basketball. With or without a certain #23.
Tonight, I’ll be rooting for injuries! Who’s with me?
BOOYA! BOOYA! At least we’ll have Stu Scott back in actionne. BOOYA!!
:[
I’ll watch the game. He’s with Miami now it sucks it will suck for a bit but it is what it is.. can’t change it. I’ll mainly watch because I’m ready for the NBA season to begin and when the Cavs play tomorrow then that will be my game of choice!
If LeBron suffers a career ending injury tonight, Ill try really hard not to be happy about it. đ
FWIW, I’m watching the game tonight because I like watching the NBA. And even though it’s going to be annoying, it should be a high-quality game. Especially because KG is going to make Bosh cry. HOW IS THAT GUY MAKING MAX $$?
Anyway, at the end of the day, the only thing that’s going to be salt-on-the-wound-esque for me is the fact that EVERY SINGLE sportscenter segue away from Heat coverage will be “and now let’s look at LeBron’s old crappy team, the crappity crap craps from craptown.” Hopefully they won’t, but that juxtaposition has been rampant so far.
Also, this can be remedied by not watching sportscenter.
Tonight is needed for healing but I must admit it’ll be strange seeing all of those former Cavaliers facing off in new uniforms. If that wasn’t bad enough the Cavaliers get to open their season against a couple of those same former teammates the next night. Irony abounds!
Here’s hoping that the Curse of Dan Gilbert is as powerful as three Bambinos, two Billy Goats, six Rocky Calavitos, two Madden Covers and a copy of Sports Illustrated.
Nobody has mentioned this…I will be watching to see how Z does tonight. It will be much harder seeing Z in another uniform than LeBron. For the past 3 years I have been setting myself up for this day, the day LeBron is wearing another city across his chest – but I never even thought of having to “witness” Z wear different colors.
i suspect Z will play 5-10 minutes, take a few awkward-looking deep 2’s, and make it his way back onto defense just in time to head back up on offense.
I’m just thankful there’s new NCIS tonight. Somewhere the math that LLCoolJ > LBJ works out, right?
I’m glad the season is finally starting and we can just focus on the games. No more wondering if the Cavs could/should have done anything different the past few years to keep LeBron, no more speculation about secret deals, whether Dan Gilbert should have used a different font than Comic Sans, no speculation the Cavs will be the worse team in the history of professional sports.
Just basketball.
The team will take care of itself and it’s record will be what it is. But at least we can just focus on the games.
well, let’s hope Boston comes out energized and Miami is still working out the kinks (Wade did miss a bunch of preseason).
plus, Boston matches up well since they have the bigs and the PG that Miami will have a problem defending. they could even slow up the pace to frustate the Heat as well and make them work the half court sets.
con’t – then the Celtics hopefully are still high on their Heat win that they take the Cavs lightly and we can get the season started off with a win đ
On last night show’s David Letterman was still knocking LeBron.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8of2MofDKbM
@24 Notice how Barkley softned his viewpoint on LeBron tho? He repeated alot of what he said prior but it had a much softer, less edgy wit to it. I also loved how Barkley said he’d be seeing LeBron tonight and that he’d try and get LeBron to do Letterman. This is why you can’t take Barkley serious. He just spouts off but more times then not softens like one of his favorite donuts.
I want to be entertained, so I’ll be watching Boise St. tonight. No way I’m watching MIA v. BOS, nor will I watch either team this season, unless they are playing the Cavaliers.
I don’t care about the rest of the NBA, at least not right now. I will watch the Cavaliers, and only the Cavaliers, for the first four to five months. Then around late March or so, I might watch a game with different teams (just not MIA or BOS), but only if Hubie Brown is doing to color commentary, because I might actually learn something.
I don’t want it to be this way, but I’m sick of the national narratives in both baseball and basketball, to the point where I only watch Cleveland teams and no one else. But my interest in baseball outside the Indians has become next to zero over the last ten years, and I have no interest in hearing about the Yankees and Red Sox, even when they are not playing (they still seem to overshadow the Giants and Rangers, who are actually, you know, IN the World Series). The NBA is going in that direction for me as well, especially with the overload on reporting of the big market teams. So, no thanks…Cleveland or nothing for me.
I may watch it for a few minutes, but I’m more focused on how the Cavs will do tomorrow! LeBron isn’t part of this team anymore, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t wishing for that trio to fail. I will only be able to watch maybe two Cavs games this season, but I guess it’s better than none :/.
i am looking forward to rondo making lebron look foolish again