The return of Panthro and Tristan’s lingering deal: While We’re Waiting
July 7, 2015Jamario Moon is ready
July 7, 2015Mo Williams was my first regret. The Cleveland Cavaliers were in the midst of one of the worst single seasons in NBA history and had just allowed Chase Budinger to drop 30 points on them as the Houston Rockets provided Cleveland with its 28th loss in its last 30 games. It was the night of the league’s trade deadline and Williams was in street clothes nursing an ankle injury. As I stood alongside the local media conglomerate waiting on then head coach Byron Scott to emerge from the locker room to tell us that “If you look at the stat sheet, offensively, we probably should have won,” Williams was the first to exit through that thumbprint-secured wooden door. He had a smile on his face, one that would be best described as unordinary for a competitor who was undeniably living out the most nightmarish of seasons. He looked at us all, raised his left hand above his head and waved as he made his way down the hallway toward the players’ garage.
Perhaps he received some good news on his ankle. Perhaps he couldn’t believe that 19,000 fans piled into The Q in the middle of February to watch Christian Eyenga start a professional basketball game. Perhaps delirium was just setting in. Or perhaps it was the look of a man who was just notified that he was being traded to the city of Los Angeles. And for whatever reason—one that still leads to said regret four-plus years later—I didn’t follow him down the hallway to ask. It wouldn’t be more than a few hours before news would break that Williams had been traded to the Clippers along with Jamario Moon; the Cavs would, in return, receive a well-paid Baron Davis and an unprotected first-round draft pick1, but would lose the one player who most embodied what the town was enduring post-LeBron James.
Williams was a sympathetic figure over what was undoubtedly the longest four months of his professional career. He was the star of Cavs Media Day in October of 20102, fielding non-stop questions about the team—his team—that remained in the wake of James leaving for Miami in free agency. The LeBron-based inquiries reached crescendo when one local reporter, in posing a question to Williams, mistakenly referred to the point guard as “LeBron.” Yet there Mo stood, lobbing out metaphor after metaphor, using his hands as if he were swimming through the Independence, Ohio air, in attempt to describe the roller coaster he had gone through over the six months prior—a 60-win season; a trip to the NBA All-Star Game; another trip to the NBA Playoffs; a crushing, drama-filled series loss to the Boston Celtics; the rug being completely pulled out from under his Nikes; the willingness to rise back up and attempt to take the reins; the hope that somehow, someway, things would not be as bad as they would seem; the whole “Cleveland against The World” point of view.
“At some point, you just have to turn the corner,” Williams said, embarking on a verbal journey in response to an inquiry as to whether or not he was “over” the summer. “You’re walking down this long hall—everybody been to high school before. You’re in this classroom all the way down the hall and you have to get to the other side of the hall. You look down this hallway and it looks so long, but once you turn the corner, you can’t see that other side of the hall any more. Right now today, we’re turning that corner to our next classroom, and we can’t see nothing but forward now. There’s no LeBron in this building. Whether you believe it or not, he’s not coming back… This is what we got. This is the hand we’re dealt and you have to play the best you can.”
Forget for a second the lack of prophecy on Williams’ part regarding James not returning to Cleveland. OK, you can also forget the stuff about the hallways and classrooms and what not. What Williams did do was confirm that the team would in fact have a lot of naysayers and the national media trucks would not be frequenting the team’s practice facility as much as in years past. And that “playing the best you can” bit? It’s tough to deny that Williams did just that, coming out of the gate swinging, tallying six nights of at least 20 points in November alone, including a game-winning 15-foot shot to beat the buzzer in a dramatic win over the Milwaukee Bucks. In that game, Williams took a step-back jumper over an up-and-coming Brandon Jennings, only to launch himself on top of the scorers table in celebration as a sold out Quicken Loans Arena crowd erupted around him.3
Williams was Cleveland. While some of his teammates kept in touch with James or qualified his decision to leave the Cavaliers in free agency as a “business move,” it was Williams who would have none of it. He spoke openly about the pain. He pondered retirement4. On that early December night when James and the Miami Heat came to Cleveland, and several Cavaliers welcomed him back with a mid-court embrace, it was Williams who wouldn’t even make eye contact with the small forward, giving him the cold shoulder near the scorers table as James extended his hand for a quick low-five.
“You play this game for one reason,” Williams said in 2010. “You play to win games and win championships. I couldn’t understand why a lot of things were happening to our organization, to a really good basketball team. I couldn’t really understand it. And when you don’t understand things, it can really stress you out.”
But much to Williams’ detriment, he was so Cleveland that even the will to fight and the desire to take on all opponents no matter how big or fast or strong would prove not to be enough. Unlike fans, emotionally bound beyond reproach, Williams’ talents carried value for a Clippers team looking to make a run to the postseason. There was no denying that dealing the point guard made the 2010-11 Cavaliers worse. Sure, they would go on to beat that mighty Heat team thanks to Davis and players like Ryan Hollins, providing the city of Cleveland with one of the few feel-good moments of that season, but that night was simply a small reprieve from some of the worst basketball to ever befall the city since the franchise’s inception. Also: It was Williams who enabled the Cavs to obtain that first-round draft pick—the one that would eventually turn into All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving5.
Since his departure, Williams has always made it a point to visit with Cavs staff and beat reporters whenever he would return to The Q, regardless of which team he was playing for at that time, having earnest, genuine conversations just moments before he was expected to be on the court. Mo Williams is from Jackson, Mississippi. He played college ball in Alabama, was drafted by the Utah Jazz, and has played professionally in Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Portland, Minnesota and Charlotte. Yet once word of his deal with the Cavs was official, it was Williams who shot out a tweet saying that has since been shared thousands of times: He is “coming home.”
In turning down the San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks, and accepting a two-year contract with the Cavaliers, Williams will return to Cleveland as countless Cavalier fans embrace him with open arms. Nostalgic as ever, fans in Cleveland remember all of the good that Mo was a part of when he was here last. Sure, there will always be that guy who points out the occasional 3-for-15 shooting night and the lack of impact in the postseason6, but for every one of them, there will be several others who will be quick to point out that the veteran was everything this city needed when times were the toughest. It was Williams who attempted to lift us up off of the floor. It was Williams who barged into our apartments, turned on the lights and dumped cold water on us when all we wanted to do was curl up on the couch with a bottle of Bombay and a canister of Pringles. And it was Williams who attempted to take the entire town and put it firmly on his shoulders—it’s not his fault his shoulders were only so big.
- This deal would eventually work out pretty well for Cleveland [↩]
- Let that one sink in a bit. [↩]
- Fun fact: The night of this game was my daughter’s first night home from the hospital, born just days earlier. It was also the first night she would find out what it’s like to be a Cleveland fan as my impulsive celebration scared the absolute shit out of her. I’ll never forget this game. [↩]
- Only to later say that he was misquoted a bit and that leaving many, many millions of dollars on the table because a teammate left was outright dumb. [↩]
- Whom, perhaps poetically, Williams will back up these next two seasons. [↩]
- Don’t be that guy. [↩]
7 Comments
I’m not RSVPg to the “Mo Fest 2015” edition for a number of reasons but I’m glad the Cavaliers signed a BACKUP for KI who can play when necessary and is available IN CASE OF EMERGENCY.
Always have liked Mo and glad to have him back. He has said repeatedly that Cleveland is his favorite town. It’s nice to feel wanted like that, to see someone who has lived there and has some good options, but chooses Cleveland over those options.
For the Mo playoff naysayers, let us also remember that he was a huge reason we even won game1 of the infamous 2010 playoff series versus Boston (+/- of +23, best on team by 12pts and it felt that way watching too):
http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201005010CLE.html
And, it was Mo in game6 of that series playing 46min and giving everything he had trying to stretch that series another game when no one outside of him and LeBron could hit a shot (12/34 FG + 10/17 FT= rest of team, 16/39 FG + 14/17 FT = LeBron/Mo).
http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201005130BOS.html
He better be bringing those awesome unis with him.
He did have some huge games in that Boston series. He really stepped up as even Lebron was overthinking and shrinking in the spotlight.
I’m realistic with Mo though, and take a stance similar to Shamrock. Production-wise, all I want from Mo is to play enough backup PG to keep KI fresh, and every once in a while display the hot hand and provide scoring punch off the bench (not unlike JR Smith). I also expect him to be hilarious from time to time and make the games a little more fun.
I’m ready for the MoFlo to begin again.