Cavaliers on verge of shattering NBA’s luxury tax record
July 2, 2015Timofey Mozgov undergoes knee surgery, expected to be out six weeks
July 2, 2015Days like July 1, 2015 don’t happen very often in any sports city, let alone Cleveland. Everything that was in play that could have swung up or down ended up kissing the sky. Kevin Love and Cleveland Indians and Iman Shumpert and the pure joy of knowing at least a little bit about a bright future. It was a day where even in the absence of wins and a hangover from the NBA Finals still lingering, it’s hard to say that fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers would trade places with any fans of any other team in the entire league. It’s the kind of day that makes you wonder if you would trade places with any fan base of any team in sports right this second. Consider that for a millisecond, will you?
Of course, some of you were too afraid to accept the sunshine that warmed our faces yesterday. I saw some of you on Twitter going to the old tropes about Cleveland sports misery and “only in Cleveland” as Carlos Carrasco dropped his no-hit bid at the last possible moment of the Tribe game last night. It would have been nice, no doubt, but the Indians won their third straight game and did so in convincing fashion by outscoring an opponent handily. You get to feel however you want about whatever you want, but I’m not suffering with you.
Carlos Carrasco struck out 13 while carrying a no-hit bid into the ninth inning and Brandon Moss knocked in five runs. Your Cleveland Indians didn’t achieve a no-hitter or a perfect game in the past three games, but they carried perfect games through five innings for three straight games. And Corey Kluber is waiting in the wings to pitch today. Here’s hoping he scrapes some skin off Andre Knott’s head before heading to the mound. I hate to boil this thing down and out of the grey area, but at least for a day, everything’s all good, not bad.
If you tweeted "only in cleveland" after that please delete your account and/or take a vacation. Goodness gracious
— Jordan Zirm (@clevezirm) July 2, 2015
Back to Kevin Love.
Kevin Love didn’t shock the world, but he shocked the rumor mongers when he announced that he was coming back for some “unfinished business” with the Cavaliers for the next five years. Five years and a whole lot of Dan Gilbert’s money. Hell, it could have been all of Dan Gilbert’s money for all I care.
The Cavaliers’ last off-season set this whole thing up. This isn’t a physically failing roster of arthritic old stars surrounded by LeBron-inflated role players. LeBron is the old man on the block — and still the best player on the team — who is surrounded by young players who are all conceivably still improving. Kyrie Irving is 23, Tristan Thompson is 24, Kevin Love is 26, and Iman Shumpert is 25. For the next four years, those guys will be keys around LeBron James as the Cavaliers try to be the only real team to beat in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.
I was reading to my kids at bedtime when the Shumpert announcement came in and it was icing on the already tasty cake. I grabbed my boys together and we celebrated another good thing for the Cavs right there on the spot, looking at the picture and reading Shumpert’s words that “You don’t buy jewelry in this league, you earn it.”
Don’t be undersold on Iman Shumpert. He’s a role player for this Cavaliers team simply because he’s surrounded by LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, but he has potential to be a legitimate NBA starter quality player regardless of his teammates. You can’t quantify heart and I don’t love talking about intangibles, but Iman Shumpert’s un-measurables are piled on top of a well-rounded ability to play both offense and defense.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have it all right now. They haven’t won anything and they still have to climb that mountain one more time to try and plant their flag at the top, but you have to like their chances. The Cleveland Cavaliers took a window of undetermined length and put a healthy four-year duration on it. I know it’s tough to appreciate these kinds of things because they feel so foreign, but this is what generations of tradition are built upon. That’s why Dan Gilbert’s not worried about spending a kajillion dollars in payroll and taxes over the next four years. There will be challenges and ups and downs along the way to be sure, but yesterday was way up. It was awesome.
I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
12 Comments
I concur with Jordan Zirm. With all of the good that is going on in our sports (even though the Tribe could be better, but how about that pitching???), it’s as if Cleveland fans, so foreign to feeling good about sports, MUST find something about which to begrudge themselves. It’s hard to break a “woe is me” mentality, but our sports teams are finally making legitimate strides. Get used to the good feelings, people!
But when the malaise has such a familiar comfort, we don’t know what to do with these strange “good feelings”!
I’ll admit it. I made a disgruntled Cleveland tweet. But I had to. The joke “He Mesa’d that up” was too funny (dark, exaggerated but punny) NOT too. But as fast as the wave of disappointment came after the hit, a wave of “who cares, THAT WAS A GREAT PERFORMANCE, and they’re #WINdians” followed. Zirm is correct. GO TRIBE
All that aside the sporting Gods owe Cleveland another one. To come within 1 strike of a no-hitter and lose it as well as the shutout was typical Cleveland.
Yea, I get annoyed with the overly negative Cleveland Fans as much as anyone, but how many no-hitters have been broken up with 2 outs and 2 strikes in the ninth?? I mean, I was happy the Indians won and Carrasco had a masterful performance, but it’s hard sometimes *not* to think there is always some gray cloud surrounding Cleveland Sports teams.
I hear ya. It couldn’t have been scripted any better/worse. That’s how I see the Cleveland brand of misery. We don’t just lose, we creatively lose to epic proportions. It’s like we’re in all the sports movies where the “good guys” win at the VERY last second for dramatic effect… except we’re the bad guys.
I ran from mid work out to catch the last two batters, but my disappointment was immediately eased by Carrasco’s wonderful reaction. If he gets it – that no-hitters are in large part lucky flukes, otherwise career mediocres like Len Barker and Dick Bosman wouldn’t have thrown them – then how upset should I be.
Max Scherzer had a perfect game broken up by a slight lean-in with a HBP with 2 outs in the 9th just a couple weeks ago. It happens.
The appropriate response (IMO – just for me at least) was the one that Carrasco himself gave. A hearty laugh and then the wave of appreciation of what just happened washing over everything.
Totally agree, but years of repetitive losing and heartbreak takes a toll. That toll isn’t something you can just choose to get over (for most). The only thing that can really turn the tide is winning a ring, and even then some will still feel dread.
I am as optimistic as I have been about Cleveland sports since 2007. Sure, those teams did not end up as we all had hoped, but I am not one to put past issues on current teams. Really, I don’t think I could follow sports if I had as pessimistic view as some (note: not you).
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