The season finale illustrates the defense’s weaknesses: Cleveland Browns Film Room
December 31, 2014The WFNY Sportsman of 2014: LeBron James
December 31, 2014I was reading Jason Lloyd’s most recent Final Thoughts about the Cleveland Cavaliers this morning. This comes a day after I was reading a snippet about LeBron and business decisions from Chris Haynes buried in a Cleveland.com post. There’s controversy in the headlines surrounding this Cavaliers team every day, and I have to be honest when I say I’ve been happily detached from it all. I haven’t been detached from the basketball at all, mind you. I think I’ve only missed two or three games live, and I’ve watched the extended highlights of every game that I did happen to miss. I’m engaged in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ season, but somehow I’m still detached from the “drama”1 that has engulfed the news cycle on a daily and weekly basis. I can’t tell anyone else what to do, but I think more people should do the same.
David Blatt continues to be a topic of conversation. It’s as if we never saw LeBron James go hot and cold with pretty much every coach he’s ever had. It’s like we forget about how the “LeBron bumps Spoelstra” thing ever happened and eventually blew over as the Heat achieved success with their talented team.
We end up self-fear-trolling ourselves with a bunch of negative hypotheticals because it’s all so new and unknown and scary.
It makes sense and I’m not saying reporters shouldn’t talk to players and get their reactions to each game, but with a new team like this Cavaliers team, with a new coach, the amount of talking is too much for the amount of time they’ve been together. Because the Cavaliers are so new to each other and figuring things out and trying to do this thing together for the first time, there’s a general sense of frenzy around them no matter what. If they’re winning, it’s a happy frenzy like when they had an eight game winning streak. When they’re losing a high profile game on Christmas Day, and three out of their last four as they are right now, the frenzy is about whether there’s anyone championing David Blatt in the Cavaliers organization.
This is the NBA and I do realize that anything can happen. Maybe LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love decide that Blatt isn’t their guy, submarine all his authority and force the Cavaliers to fire him and promote Tyronn Lue. Maybe. It’s possible. Seems highly unlikely after just 30-plus games as a team, but hey—crazier things have happened. Maybe LeBron finds this season to be a nightmare and finds a way to justify leaving the Cavaliers again after just one year. That’s possible too, but also seems highly unlikely. Same with Kevin Love and on down the line. Ask me to come up with five more negative scenarios and I can easily do it.
The frenzy feeds the fear troll in all of us. We end up self-fear-trolling ourselves with a bunch of negative hypotheticals because it’s all so new and unknown and scary—and yes sometimes fun—but still terrifying because it’s something worth caring about and caring is putting yourself on the line and and and… FRENZY FRENZY FRENZY!
I’m not immune to it. I generally get crazy in the middle of Browns seasons. From week-to-week I lose all big picture perspective at times. Look no further than my post at halftime of the Browns’ first game when they went down 27-3 to the Steelers. I was out of my mind and the emotions and fear burst out before the Browns were finished with one half of one game in their entire season. The Browns showed me right then and there coming back and just barely losing 30-27. And then the Browns beat the Steelers handily later in the year. All of the people who were claiming Tuesday night’s Cavs game was “over” in the third quarter? They disappeared when the team pulled within two.2 Fear isn’t unfounded, but our worst fears often are. We’re imaginative people and we can all imagine some awful scenarios. We probably shouldn’t.
And the Browns don’t have one of the top five most talented rosters in the league. They don’t have the best player in the game like the Cavaliers do. I know it’s not perfect and I do get frustrated from time to time like everyone else, but I have to look big picture with this Cavaliers team. They’re one of the best teams in the NBA and they need to work through the growing pains of getting to know each other. I also know that they have to talk to the media after every game and that speculative things will have to be written about an unknown future. LeBron James, Kevin Love and David Blatt could all be gone next year. Blatt could be gone even sooner. You never know, but I can’t worry about that right now. It’s too abstract.
Plus, if I keep obsessing on all the potentially negative things that could happen with the Cavaliers because they’re sputtering a bit with their schedule, I’ll probably miss out on all the fun. The Cavaliers have one of the most talented rosters in the entire league. If you can’t find a way to have some fun with that, then maybe you need to adjust your approach as a fan.
19 Comments
Well said. The desire to react to every game is nauseating enough. Reacting to every half, quarter and play is even worse.
GET OUT OF HERE WITH YOUR LEVEL-HEADED PERSPECTIVE.
Ahem. Thank you for your level-headed perspective.
Or as Craig referenced above, every time LeBron shoulders a coach out of the way a la’ High School Hallway.
I mean geez, those thing happen.
THEY LOST TO THE HAWKS, LEBRON WASNT ON THE SIDELINE CHEERING, KEVIN LOVE DIDNT PLAY IN THE FOURTH QUARTER, DION WINKED AT KYRIE BEFORE HE THREW THE BALL OUT OF BOUNDS.
EXTREMELY LOUD NOISES.
All sarcasm aside, I’m not sure how many times LeBron can actually address the things people are worried about and then still watch people get worried.
His letter homecoming openly stated “he knows this would take time”, he told everyone early to “relax”, he’s quoted as saying “TO MAKE A FEUD BETWEEN ME AND BLATT IS JUST TO SELL” for chrissakes!!!!!
And this is why I only read about Cleveland sports on this site (unless PK gives us a nod in the MMQB). I can’t be bothered with the national media anymore when it comes to my teams. I don’t even watch ESPN anymore (their takes on Cleveland teams is one reason, but there are many others). Too much faux-“drama”. GET CLICKS GET CLICKS GET CLICKS
“It makes sense and I’m not saying reporters shouldn’t talk to players and get their reactions to each game..”
perhaps reporters SHOULDN’T be talking to players after every game, or hell, at all. when was the last time a post-game player interview revealed something actually meaningful as opposed to hollow feeding-frenzy garbage or generic “both teams played well, we just went out there and tried to win the game” platitudes?
i think marshawn lynch has it right – don’t give the parasites anything.
Chris Perez. And look where that got him.
Great post. I swear I have been saying the same thing after every. single. loss.
Just sit back and enjoy the ride. There will be highs and lows….but in the end I think it will all work out just fine.
Happy Holidays.
let me be clear that i’m not trying to be combative, but i’m not entirely sure what you’re suggesting here. his boycott of the media caused…. what? he was released because he wasn’t a very good baseball player.
http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view3/20140613/5051769/they-re-shitty-o.gif
wtf is self fear trolling
that just sounds like thinking
All the hyperbolic clickbait and Twitter chatter is easy enough to ignore and as you say, should be.
However, I can’t take a “relax and have fun with it” stance since the team is excruciating to watch 90% of the time. They’re the opposite of fun to watch, and appear to have no fun (or intensity) themselves actually playing.
LeBron looks like he tries hard about 20% of the time, and openly admits he has an entire mode for it. He’s either disinterested, bored, satisfied, lazy, or just doesn’t care until the playoffs.
That’s fine if you’re the Spurs and from the GM on down you’ve largely been together for over a decade, but the Cavs won’t become a team or win with Chill Mode Lebron. He’s one of the poorest leaders and/or biggest headcases the label NBA Superstar has ever seen.
People wondering about LeBron leaving and coach firings are one thing, but people wondering wtf is wrong and if it can be fixed is pretty viable based on what we’ve watched on the court.
As a whole, the team has looked awful for two months and is getting worse. They had one 8-game win streak, and even then, they only looked good in like 5 or maybe 6 of those games.
The one positive takeaway is the Heat were a mess that first year, too. I can remember people yelling disaster as late as March of their first season when they had a 4-game losing streak, and Coach Spo et al were collapsing and talking about “figuring it out somehow” well into the Playoffs.
And I won’t feel bad for LeBron having to answer lots of questions. Chris Haynes actually wrote an entire column wherein he justified Chill Mode. lol
When the local media serves as your PR department it’s actually quite the benefit to be interviewed by them.
Exactly. They appear disinterested and bored half the time. Defense is a rumor to them.
Geez, I really hope that Blatt/LBJ troll the media and stage a major bump or yelling match just to show the team how absurd these things are.
Not sweating the rocky road we’ve been on. This will take time and more than likely will not happen this year. I’m fine with that and we shouldn’t be hitting the panic button already.
What i see on the floor worries me, can’t help it. The loss of Andy has this team at least temporarily unmoored and of course having the three stars and Marion sitting out at various times has exacerbated the situation. But even with a full roster, there’s been a lack of defense, rebounding and overall toughness. Agree it’s going to take a year, at least, but Love and James having opt-outs and the rumors around Blatt have me squirrely.
i agree. the negative buzz around james,love,blatt and waiters is maybe unavoidble but not just or contributing to the team sussess. its a product of years of disapointments high expectations human nature and social networks. i hope the managment are smart enough to recognize that and make the right choices. those choices for me is try to keep the noise down, keep the roaster and coach and bring a good center. cya in the east finals 5 month from now.
Was speaking more to players speaking beyond cliches and such. Perez was honest about booing fans which led to said fans turning up the dial. This was long before his boycott and subsequent collapse.