Nobody is really sure what's going to happen tonight. For that reason, a lot of the city is scared. There has been rampant discussion since the day he left in newspapers, on TV, message boards, etc. about what Cleveland should do when he comes back to the Q. The consensus is...something will happen. What that is and how bad it will be, however, is still totally up in the air. If this were baseball or football, I think its less of an issue. In baseball, the pitcher just throws some chin music or plunks a player once or twice and the fans feel justified. In football, as we Clevelanders saw against the Jets, our players had no problem waffling Braylon Edwards any time the ball got within ten feet of him. This is a bit different. These Cavs players won't take matters into their own hands and dole out their own brand of justice. Nor should they. That said, tonight could be cathartic for a lot of people in this God-forsaken town. Especially if somehow the Cavs won (I'm not optimistic. Its taking longer than I expected for them to fully implement B.Scott's Princeton O). As much as we don't want to see another Malice at the Palace......I'm not ruling it out. Not from the fans who've shown enough moral deviance to give the world Bottlegate, Ten Cent Beer Night, etc. Especially when he does that stupid fucking powder throw. Either way, I don't expect a good game tonight. Its going to be ugly. Either LeBron is going to go into Fuck You mode, light it up and incite a riot, or Cleveland will play its best damned game of the season and grind out a win.
Know what they should do? Fucking cheer. Cheer for a player that helped a struggling franchise triple it's worth. Now I'm not saying cheer the entire time just once. Give him thundering applause and a standing ovation when he is introduced, then at the start of his powder throw boo him mercilessly. This player did a ton for Cleveland I'm amazed that there is no gratitude from the city or the fans. I HATED the way he left, all the coverage the rumors the speculation all of it was so annoying. If it was my team I'm sure I would be pretty sour, but you have to get over it. Make it deafening for him on the free throw line, boo him relentlessly when he is on the floor, taunt him on the bench, but when his name is called in the beginning give him his just due that would show a lot of class.
Much as I hated that whole Decision bullshit, I completely agree here. If Philly can cheer Iverson, there's no reason Cleveland can't cheer LeBron for all that he gave them. Me personally? I hope the entire city goes up in flames.
The only reason I disagree with you is simple: Sure, the Decision was stupid. I don't give a fuck about how he handled it. I don't care if he signed his contract with his dick and sold pornos of it. Sure, he gave them a few good years, but he fucked them in the worst way possible. Not only did he bolt to another team, he waited until all the impact free agents were off the market. It was the best free agent class in a long, long time (if not ever), and they had to put all their eggs in that basket until that basket went away. He could have just announced it on the first day, and they could have licked their wounds, regrouped, and gone after some of the other guys. But he dragged it out, dragged it out, dragged it out, and it's going to hurt the Cavs a lot beyond this season.
I think the Decision was terrible and insulting to the Cleveland fanbase. It showed Lebron to be an arrogant prick who can't even do the decent thing most athletes do which is pretend to care about his fans. I don't think Lebron giving the Cavs notice on July 1 (opening day of free agency) would've helped the Cavs at all. Frankly, I doubt the Cavs would've been able to sign anyone without Lebron being there. They were near the top of the salary cap as it was, if not above it, plus they weren't/aren't an attractive team without Lebron. Now if Lebron had quietly let it be known that he had no intention of resigning with the Cavs prior to last season, they could've worked on trading away bad contracts as well as not bothering to trade for Antawn Jamison. They had a few expiring contracts, and holding onto those to get under the cap would've allowed the Cavs to recover quicker. But instead they did everything possible to build a team centered around Lebron, and when he left, it left the Cavs with a massive hole in their scheme and clearly with a severe downgrade in talent.
And every day, Dan Gilbert's grapes get more and more sour. Why do you all assume that he knew any earlier than a day or two before he announced it? I see no reason to believe that LeBron wasn't legitimately unsure of where he wanted to play. Basketball is a business, not a group hug. If LeBron wasn't providing what the team needed, they would have dropped him like a hot potato. As much as I found LeBron's self-aggrandizing behavior absurd, the moral self-righteousness of Gilbert et. al. is even worse.
Let's not forget they had 7 years to surround LeBron with talent, and the best they could do was Antawn Jamison and the shell of Shaq's former self. They didn't even have a point guard worth a shit until Mo Williams showed up. How long was he supposed to wait around for them to put together a quality roster? Loyalty doesn't mean shit if championships aren't being won. Just ask Reggie Miller or Kevin Garnett circa 2007. I don't blame the fans for being bitter like that response video shows, but it needs to be directed at the Cavs' front office, not LeBron.
To be fair, LeBron's constant threats of "if we don't win now, I'm leaving" were responsible for some of those horrible decisions and signings that were defensible in the short term, but killed the Cavs in the long terms. But as you and MoreCowbell correctly noted, the blame ultimately lies on the front office and ownership for being foolish enough to kowtow to LBJ on everything. Gilbert has no one to be mad at except himself.
Because if he had any intention of staying, he would have tried to help encourage talent to come to Cleveland.
The fans brought it hard. The team didn't. Fucking pathetic. The play was just abysmal. I'm honestly embarrassed I stood up for them against KIMaster a few weeks ago. That was coathanger through fetus ugly. No heart. No fire. No fucking desire. The ONLY Cav on that floor who showed anything was Boobie Gibson, but we knew he'd bring it, he's been talking all week. The rest just disappeared. Hickson? One highlight dunk. Williams? Oh, he still plays? Varejao? Who? Hapless fucks. On the flipside, I know 24 isn't that long, but in all my life, I've never heard a louder, more hateful crowd. There were a LOT of fights. A lot of LBJ fans getting their asses kicked. Had there even been a spark in that game, or chippiness beyond House/Gibson, shit would have gotten bad fast. Who's Your Daddy chant easily best of the night, though beginning with Asshole being heard clearly over TNT telecast was pretty awesome as well.
You seem oddly proud of the fact that a lot of Cleveland fans resorted to violence, and might have harmed LeBron if it weren't for the additional security. I don't find anything to condone in that, especially since LeBron's biggest sin was taking advantage of free agency. Yes, "The Decision" rubbed it in, but look at Chris Bosh for an example of someone who told the team up-front he wasn't coming back to Toronto, and is STILL incredibly vilified by his former fans. Now, there is nothing wrong with chants and showing one's displeasure, but when it gets to the level of physical threats and violence, there is a problem. In Europe, these people are called "soccer hooligans", and considered subhuman, mouth-breathing trash. Apparently, the same can be said for a lot of Ohians attending yesterday night's game. Speaking of which, what major free agent in his right mind would want to play in Cleveland after this, for an owner like Dan Gilbert? (And the recent investigation into tampering didn't help matters)
Looking back, I can't blame LeBron for not staying. There's no telling what he already felt about Gilbert, even before that retarded open letter was published. With the way he's acted since LeBron left, I consider him to be one of the worst figures in sports. Worse than Jerry Jones, Al Davis, Hank Steinbrenner, Barry Bonds, Scott Boras, or Drew Rosenhaus. Did you notice the expression he had on his face whenever the camera focused on him? The man reeks of self-loathing and bitterness.
It's humiliating. Trust me I'm a philly fan and we have by far the baddest of the bad apples. To beat someone up because they have an LBJ jersey on? That makes you a retard and an embarrassment to any team you support. I think Cleveland looked awful and like a bunch of spoiled brats last night. Combine that with a team losing by 28 didn't bode very well. Honestly the city had the chance (as silly as it sounds) to take the high road. One long cheer when he was introduced, show the nation that you do appreciate this amazing player who brought you to the championship. Then the second the ball goes in the air for the tip, start booing. Make the boo's loud and make sure that whenever he plays the Cav's Cleveland will let him know just how they felt about him leaving and the way he did it. All sports have an underlying courtesy that should exist between fan and player I don't think it was shown at all last night. It's a shame because Cleveland is a great sports town. They bounce back after having a football team taken from them, handled the Indians losing pretty well, not a lot of incessant whining and crying about curses and years without titles. Now this, it's going to be a black eye. The longer the nation has to see Cav's fans on TV and ESPN complaining about LeBron the faster they are going to forget the stupidity of "the decision" and start siding with James.
What I noticed was him trying to yuck it up with some of his former players and the announcers pointing out how he shouldn't be doing so. Some of the players would respond positively, others wouldn't even speak to him and the rest, well I wish they'd have been mic'ed up because I sure would have liked to have heard what they had to say to him. There were a few times it didn't look like his advances were received well at all. Not a surprise. When it all comes down to it what matters most is proving yourself and your team better by what you do on the court. We all know who did just that last night. What a stinker of a game for the Cavs. Boo indeed.
I watched that entire game last night. Every minute, with intent, minimal drinking and constant hushing of the many friends that were over. One of them being a girl from Cleveland who didn't watch basketball that much but she sure hated LeBron. What Dchavok said was right about the fans bringing it and the team not even showing up. Boobie (terrible fucking nickname by the way) brought it, and everyone else disappeared. How the fuck do you get trapped by Z? How the fuck do you get trapped by Z twice? Why didn't anyone come up so Mo could get a pass off? Fucked from the beginning. Now, I don't condone violence, and I'm happy the incidents were minimal. They reported 1 arrest, and 4 ejections at the end of the night. No idea what happened outside the arena. That's good. I saw the stupid fucking Rick Reilly piece shouted from the top of his "holier than thou soapbox" about how Cleveland fans should act and I have to go on partially disagree with Mike on this because I don't think LeBron showed the reciprocal courtesy with "The Decision" that removed the underlying courtesy. I don't think anyone, should tell the Cleveland fans how to behave within the law. Cleveland has gotten kicked in the teeth by every single sport. Don't bring up McNabb and Philly, he was traded. Most other returns like this, wasn't exactly the players decision like it was this time. Farve wanted to come back too, but they wouldn't let him because of the drama. Why would they boo either of those guys. In terms of the NBA, I don't think Jordan was Boo-able, and a second return to Chicago wouldn't have been that great since the team broke up. If they wanted to boo from start to finish, it was their right as fans. They paid for it, and it was within the law. As soon as his plane landed, as soon as he got off the bus, as soon as he walked in and I wished they paid to boo. Let's not forget they cheered big Z, he didn't leave like an asshole. But hey, they got it out their systems now. Now we can go on and forget about Cleveland. And I doubt anyone is going to really "side" with James also. People still want their 20 minutes back from that bullshit.
No one in this topic has a problem with booing at a sporting event. We have a problem with beating up LeBron fans, threatening to murder LeBron James, and vandalizing his mother's house in Ohio. All of which happened. You call it "bullshit", yet you spent those 20 minutes watching him, didn't you? And it's not like you didn't know beforehand what "The Decision" was about. Who is dumber; Paris Hilton, or the idiots who rant and obsess over what she's wearing and what she says? If you wanted to avoid that, why not just visit a sports page a few minutes after the special was aired? Anyways, terrific game from LeBron James; he might be a petulant, selfish, and arrogant man-child, but he has the motivation and fire in adverse circumstances that most of the legends possessed.
Maybe I missed this, but when did Bosh tell the team he wasn't coming back? He certainly didn't give the impression he was a lock to come back and that he would like to play in his home of Texas, but also that resigning in Toronto was a possibility. Most of the anger currently directed at Bosh is from people still being super pissed about Vince. Bosh trashing the city of Toronto as soon as he signed elsewhere certainly didn't help. That said, I have no problems with Bosh. He did what he was supposed to, worked hard and made himself better.
Uh, what? It was reasonably known by all involved parties more than a year in advance that Bosh wasn't coming back. Like, it was known DURING THE SEASON (and to anyone with a fucking brain, before the season) that he wasn't coming back.
Well to be fair, I was at a bar drinking with friends. They had it on all the TVs, with the sound blaring through the speakers. Anyway, the Celtics are on fire, and they lit up my Bulls. Maybe it was a bad idea for Noah to talk trash to Garnett who will take a blink in his general direction as a sign of disrespect. I was hoping the game would be closer like it was in the beginning of the year. The Celtics looks like they are always going to have at least 2 out of 4 of their stars playing per night unlike the one at a time system they used to float through last year. Boozer needs to integrate into the offense now so we can get everything moving smoothly. I worry about Coach T's ability to create offensive plans.
Dallas looked phenomenal when they decimated Utah (riding a 7 game winning streak at the time) on the read a few nights back. They were quick and athletic, with Kidd and Marion appearing better than I have seen them in some time, Terry playing terrific, and Nowitzki submitting possibly his best season ever. (Completely unstoppable) Along with Chandler and Butler, their best six players are as good as any in the league, and Carlisle has done a great job coaching them, making them into a solid unit. Unless Stern instructs his 3 Zebras to screw Cuban in the play-offs like he did in the 2006 Finals against Miami, they are a real contender.