First day of Cavs and Halloween costumes: While We’re Waiting…

Happy Wednesday, Blawg Pound. The Cavs lost to the Bulls last night. The weather has adjusted itself accordingly, as it’s a rainy, dreary day in Northeast Ohio. Womp womp.

I write this section Tuesday afternoon, a few hours before the Cavs tip off the season against the Bulls in Chicago. I can’t think of the last time I was this excited for a ballgame. I suppose the Browns’ season opener was close, as there isn’t much that can touch the anticipation of the first game. It’s like your first day of school, or your first day at a new job, or your first time doing other fun things. Despite all the predictions and projections, we don’t know what’s going to happen. We have ideas and educated guesses, yes, but I’ve found that I have little interest in the prognostications of others. They may be well-informed and useful and interesting, but I just want to watch the games, man.

I’m so damn excited. Perhaps I’m just feeling the effects of my post-lunch coffee, but my legs can’t help bouncing and my fingers have tingles. The Cavs’ approach to this season is a slightly more mature version of last — get (and stay) healthy, don’t overexert the stars, get into the playoffs — which I suppose means that Game 1 isn’t that important in the long run. But hooo boy am I excited.

I just love basketball. I’m simple like that. I think it’s the best game there is. I’m not asking you to agree — you do your thing, I’ma do mine. I state it only as a means of explaining why I feel like I’m at the top of a lift hill right now. It’s the best. Whether it’s sports or not, I hope everyone has something like this, something to look forward to that keeps a smile on the face and energy in the limbs. I’ve never been much of a Star Wars guy, for instance, but I imagine that all the latest pictures and trailers have that effect on people. Whatever it is, I hope you’ve got it, because I’ll be damned if it ain’t fun.

I write this section Wednesday morning, several hours after the Cavs tipped off the season against the Bulls in Chicago. The game was…fine. It was fine. It wasn’t great, and it wasn’t awful. The Bulls hit some tough shots, the Cavs missed some open ones, and Pau Gasol made a fantastic play to block LeBron James on the Cavs’ last good look. An opening loss is a bummer, and it won’t get any easier with a trip to Memphis tonight. But not unlike last year, patience is the name of the game.

One guy I was thrilled to see last night? TNT sideline reporter Craig Sager. The famously aggressive dresser was forced out of work for much of last season by a battle with leukemia — Sports Illustrated has more details here — but he received bone marrow transplants, the cancer is reportedly in remission, and Sager is back to work.

TNT’s basketball crew (Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Shaquille O’Neal) can be a touch silly sometimes, but it looks to be a tight-knit bunch. The NBA community at large rallied around Sager when news of his cancer broke last year, with support felt deep and honest and true. Someone else who was happy to see Sager back? Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, his longtime interview nemesis. Popovich called Sager after hearing the good news of remission, a conversation which Sager recounted to Richard Deitsch for the above-linked SI article:

“Sager?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s Coach Pop,” said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. “How you doing, pal? I see you are coming back to work?”

“Yeah, I am,” Sager replied.

“Does that mean that this is pity party is over now?” Popovich bellowed. “Does this mean I can go back to not answering your questions and making fun of your clothes?”

Said Sager: “I wouldn’t have it another way.”

Finally, Halloween is Saturday and your faithful scribe has yet to conjure up a worthy costume. For a while between childhood and semi-adulthood, I was not the most enthusiastic Halloween participant. I acquired/stole a black t-shirt from my brother some years ago that read HALLOWEEN COSTUME across the chest in white lettering, and that was my go-to for like four years. Pretty party-poopy, no?

I came around some time later, likely as I arose from my adolescent funk. I’ve never had a real show
stopper of a costume, but I’ve had some that were at least replacement-level. Unfortunately, two that I chose while I lived in South Korea were not exactly familiar to the average Korean. I was a pretty solid Tintin one year, with the hair and the sweater and high socks and all, but it turns out that Belgian comics are not included in the Korean curriculum. I had a hunch that would be the case and was prepared to pull out a photo at all times. I showed it to the principal of the school I taught at to explain myself, which was met with a suggestion that I put on one of the old masks they had in a box. Encouraging.

The previous year I was a pothead (hold your BUT WHAT WAS YOUR COSTUME jokes, please). I have a brilliant tie-dye shirt from the 1996 Lithuania national basketball team — the Grateful Dead sponsored them — and I literally tied a pot to the top of my head with a shoelace. I know; brilliant. Problem is, Korea isn’t exactly marijuana-savvy. Drugs and drug culture are largely not a thing over there; neither Cheech nor Chong is in the cultural lexicon. Rather than the super clever dude I saw in the mirror, I imagine passers-by saw a tall foreigner with a terrible misunderstanding of how to garden. (This costume, it should be said, was not worn at the workplace.)

But this year, I got nothing, and we’re approaching the 11th hour. If you have any fun suggestions, please feel free to pass them along. Whether they relate to Cleveland, sports, Cleveland sports, current events, pop culture, or something else altogether, it’s always fun to spitball ideas. Perhaps you have a fond memory of Halloweens past, like when my friend Matt dressed up as Malley’s Albert Belle bar. Perhaps your mom slaved away on a Tin Man costume, as mine did for my brother. Perhaps you tried to recreate Lady Gaga’s meat dress and found yourself on the wrong end of a pack of neighborhood dogs. Lots of moving parts when it comes to Halloween costumes.

A couple throwaways I came up with that you are more than welcome to borrow:

Forrest Trump — Perhaps Forrest Gump in shrimp boat attire, but with the Donald’s inimitable and unenviable hair? A suit with a Trump campaign button, topped with Forrest’s long beard and trucker hat? I’m not sure how one would dress up, but I’m a fan of ideas built around wordplay. (Seems I wasn’t the first to come up with this one.) French Kiss, anyone?

This "French Kiss" #halloweencostume (modeled by Musers!) is incredible… https://t.co/DQ4dZNnJWM pic.twitter.com/ucuSeZo4Bv

— Alex Cavoulacos (@acav) September 25, 2015

Dion the Waiter — Our old pal Dion Waiters, but as a waiter. I’m envisioning a basketball jersey over a white dress shirt and black pants, possibly with a server’s apron around the waist. Or you could approach it more realistically and just keep your hands up all night, as Dion has been prone to do while, ahem, waiting for a pass. (Tread lightly; there’s a Shot reference herein.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNXSp03XqDo