On Building Around An Icon

If there is one thing that this NBA season has taught us, it's that LeBron James is a once-in-a-lifetime talent. His jumping is much more explosive than most 6'8"-6'9" players, his speed is incredible for his size, his power is unparalleled for most Small Forwards, and he is a much better shooter, particularly from 3-point range, than when he came into the league. His game seems constantly evolving and improving, and it seems the sky is the limit for his abilities.

If there is one thing that the Cavaliers/Magic series has taught us, it's that the Cavaliers haven't surrounded LeBron with the correct talents. Or much talent. Even after all the roster changes since LeBron got there, he's still forced to do everything, for the most part, himself. Yes, at the end of the game you want the ball in the hands of the league's MVP... but it's the rest of the game where LeBron needs more help.
So what do I think will help LeBron? Let's take a look at the roster and find out:

Backcourt: The knock on the Cavs for LeBron's first few years was that they had no one who could hit an outside shot. They have more than answered that problem... with Mo Williams, Delonte West, Daniel Gibson, Pavlovic, and-to some extent-Wally Szczerbiak. The problem here is that all these players are the same--they are all spot-up three-point shooters. Williams may be the only one who can get his own shot... but that's really not the point. The point is that none of these players are POINT GUARDS. They have no true ball-handler/facilitator on the roster. They have shooting guards... who they give the ball to on occation. But LeBron needs someone who can really handle the ball so that he can post up or run off screens and get open shots. The Cavs have no one who can take the pressure of bringing the ball up the court from LeBron. Even Jordan had Pippen who could bring the ball up and facilitate the offense. Now I'm not saying that these players are bad... I've actually been impressed by West, particularly that he can post up smaller guards and not only get shots, but quality shots from the post. The point here is that LeBron needs someone who can take some of the pressure of constant ball-handling off of him. Someone in the Deron Williams/Chris Paul mold. You know who would be perfect? Either Alston or Jameer Nelson, depending on who the Magic decide to keep next year (how great would it be to reunite Nelson and West in the backcourt?).
Additionally, I would like to see the Cavs get a Bruce Bowen-like defensive specialist guard with some size who can guard players like Kobe or Melo so that LeBron doesn't have to for 4-quarters.

Forwards: As much crap as I give Anderson Varejao, he is the kind of player LeBron needs around him--high energy, tons of effort, rebounding, flopping, all that good stuff. However, Varejao is NOT the type of player you want STARTING for you. Off the bench? He's perfect... giving energy and good minutes. But he is NOT a STARTER. LeBron needs a PF who can get the ball down on the block and make things happen with his back to the basket. The Cavs NEED a post presence. I understand wanting to stay out of LeBron's way on his way to the basket... but imagine if LeBron had someone offensively talented enough on his team that people actually doubled someone who isn't him! I thought Joe Smith could have been this guy... but apparently there isn't a whole lot of gas left in that tank. I know they'll never get Gasol or Garnett or Duncan... but that is the kind of player LeBron needs to help him with some low-post scoring. How about trading for the Clipper's Al Thornton? He might actually be expendable in LA, especially since the Clips are about to get Blake "I want to see his parents, I hope they show them on the telecast, oh good they did" Griffin.

Center: LeBron doesn't need any scoring help here if he can get himself some scoring at the 4. So all James needs from this position is a defensive-minded, rebounding specialist. Kind of like-oh I don't know-Ben Wallace. It's unfortunate that Wallace's skills have deminished so much in the past few years... because he would be a perfect compliment to James on my revamped Cavs team. If they can get a younger version of Wallace, all the pieces would be in place.

It doesn't seem like a lot, but these changes will turn the Cavs from a very good team, into a dynasty. And, yes, they already have a lot of pieces in place... but I am talking about them NEEDING 3 starters. That IS kind of a lot, particularly since you've been trying to build around LeBron for 5 seasons. The more I think about it, the more patetic I think the Cavs roster moves have been... and they have failed LeBron to surround him with the right people. If LeBron decides to leave, I hope he can find a team that will make a better effort to get the right people in place to give him the championship(s) he deserves.

The mystery of Kobe

There's no way Game 7 of the Lakers-Rockets series should be happening.

There is no way that a team that lacks any star power aside from Ron Artest, starts a 6'6" center, and and was facing a massive talent deficit before the series started, before losing its best player, should win two of three, and at worst would play the Lakers to a standstill over four games.

The result of game four was understandable. In a one game situation, being without a star, teams often can play in a different style that their opponent hasn't seen before. But Game 6, with the opportunity to keep their foot on the neck of the Rockets, the Lakers instead let them get up off the mat and hit back. 

The Lakers have, all postseason, shown a lack of killer instinct. The lone Jazz win in the first round series came after a late comeback. In Game 1 and Game 6, the Lakers closed after Houston had built up leads, it was as close as 2 in the 3rd, at which point the Rockets pulled away again. What's amazing about this lack of killer instinct is that they showed the same thing last year, most especially in blowing the huge lead in Game 4 of the Finals. It's also a damning result for the idea that Kobe Bryant's will is the equivalent if Michael's.

There are two men in NBA history who have shown that they would rather cut off their own limbs than lose, Michael Jordan and Bill Russell, the greatest winner ever. Both men willed their teams to wins they shouldn't necessarily have won, both men made their teammates substantially better, because those teammates both respected and feared them so much. Other players, Isiah Thomas, Larry Bird, Magic, Tim Duncan have had similar effects on teammates. Kobe's effect seems different. 

Kobe, so self-possessed, so self-aware, seems like he's always wanted to enter that group. To be thought of as one of the great leaders in his sport, since so often, leadership means success. And you always hear about how hard Kobe works, how much he's inspired LeBron to up his game this season in terms of preparation. 

But if that's true of his Olympic teammates, why hasn't Kobe's effort translated to the other Lakers? I think its a combination of factors. One, I don't really think Kobe's leadership is such that he can inspire guys to compete for him, either out of fear or love. He wasn't the Alpha dog of the Lakers championship teams, Shaq was. Leadership was provided by others as well, whether it was Horace Grant, AC Green, Big Shot Bob or Derek fisher. In the '04 season, nearly every major outlet wrote about how important Karl Malone was in leading that team, and how when he got hurt, the team disintegrated. Kobe makes a show of leadership. He glares, he snaps, he does the things he thinks make a leader. But they don't, at least not on their own. 

And maybe Kobe doesn't have that killer will either. It's one thing to work exceptionally hard, but its another to actually come through with an effort to inspire. Kobe hasn't done that since Shaq left. In each season ending series, the Lakers have essentially quit. They did so against Phoenix in 06 and again in 07, and did so in Game 6 last year. Kobe has not had a signature game where he's hobbled and toughs it out, no amazing comeback where he takes the team on his back, and no signature game in which he locks down the other team's best scorer. His own killer instinct is suspect, so it's not that surprising when his team's is as well.

Mannywood... the reaction

There's nothing quite like a positive steroids test to bring out the hyper self-righteousness of sportswriters. 

Does that mean that taking steroids is a good thing? Of course not. But the implication that somehow Manny Ramirez was Earth's greatest hero and the new hope of the game before last Thursday is profound revisionist history. He was a man largely reviled in New England for forcing his way out of the lineup of the defending World Series champion by allegedly being a malingerer. A man whose team placed him on irrevocable waivers after being within a few outs of a World Series in 2003. 

When sportswriters are angered, one must get out of the way, because quite frankly, you might be killed by the torrent of acidic venom. Bill Plaschke wrote that Manny should be "fired," others writing about how he's destroyed the Dodgers' season, and other equally histrionic protestations. But the real issue is this:

No one suspected it. And they didn't expect it because they assumed Manny was too stupid to keep up a steroid program.

The anger over steroids from sports writers primarily, I suspect, comes from having not suspected anything in the summer of 98. Everyone was so taken by the story of McGwire and Sosa, of the surly giant man with his adorably chubby son and the effusive enthusiasm of this wonderfully fun Dominican, that they didn't actually think about what might be happening to the record book. They also hated Bonds anyway, and notice that whenever Bonds' pursuit of records and connections to steroids were played up, his seemingly evil nature was always brought up as well. A-Rod's admission, it seemed, brought a similar reaction, because A-Rod's character was already under assault. 

Essentially, sports writers are loyal to the story, including stories they've created themselves. Anything that destroys that ready-made story, that's the violation.

 

On the Economy and Putting Sports in their Place

This weekend was the hundred-millionth* running of the Kentucky Derby... and the record 28th-straight year I haven't watched. I, first and foremost, have a problem even calling horse-racing a sport, since it is the horses who are doing all the work... and I refuse to acknowledge a different species as 'athletes'. Secondly, and most importantly, I have a problem with any spectacle surrounding a sporting event which is more in the spotlight than the actual event. The Derby has always been about the stupid hats, the ugly/expensive clothing, and mint juleps.

Outfits worn by people who obviously lost a bet

It's hard for me to take a 'sport' seriously when it seems that what is the most interesting is happening outside the lines. But what I have the biggest problem with about the Derby NOW is that the spectacle seems to have no economic perspective.

I fully understand that sports are a respite from reality, much like movies or gaming, and have a bit of leeway in economic status. But I would like my sports to start understanding their place in the economy... that they are NOT a true reflection of what is important... and that they're, basically, a hobby. And I don't think I'm alone in this thinking. This is why we've seen such a backlash against Matthew Stafford's deal with the Lions (reportedly six-year, $78 million contract, with $41.7 million in guarantees). Particularly in a state like Michigan, with the top four cities in terms of unemployment in the country, giving this kind of money to someone who hasn't even played yet seems ludicrous. I've heard the arguments about the free market and players getting whatever they can get... but I would like the owners of teams, and the people in charge of leagues, to start recognizing when the money involved is getting excessive. Common wisdom says that the only way to get owners to recognize your displeasure is to 'boycott,' and I'm not going to go to any games this year, but--truth be told--it's more because I can't afford to and not because I'm trying to send a message. Perhaps the message is that the common fan can no longer afford to go to games. Time to get some perspective, sports... and not flaunt luxuries in our face.

*Some facts included herein may not have been checked

Wang and Kumar go to Long Island

So I read an article today that Islanders owner Charles Wang regrets buying the NHL franchise nine years ago. Wang, a local boy made good, along with his partner Sanjay Kumar shelled out $170 million for the team in 2000 and has spent an additional $208 million out of his own pocket since then (a loss of 23 million dollars per season). If I had the money and could keep the team I grew up with from skipping town, I’d be hard pressed not to step in. But could I honestly say I know how to run a sports franchise? Who would I bring in to run operations for me? If it were a basketball franchise, I’d have to give Bill Simmons his shot, but in other sports, I haven’t really thought about it.

Wang says he knew going in that he was going to lose some money, but given another chance, “I wouldn’t do it again.” Bill Daly, NHL Deputy Commissioner, and Wang have both pointed to the need for a new arena as the Achilles’ heel of the Islanders. Thankfully, they aren’t counting on tax payer money to fund the project, but Wang is still held up in bureaucratic red tape in building the new arena himself. I’m just tired of hearing owners say a new stadium is going to solve everything. Joe Louis Arena is kind of a dump, that doesn’t stop the Red Wings from making money… I wonder what the difference is?

Oh that’s right, the Islanders suck. They have made it out of the first round of the playoffs a McGradian ZERO times in the last 15 years, failing to even make the playoffs in 11 of those seasons. Maybe if you didn’t dole out huge, long term contracts to likes of Alexei Yashin and Rick DiPietro. ( I suppose you could just avoid trading Zdeno Chara, Bill Muckalt and the second overall draft pick [Jason Spezza] for Yashin in the first place). Or maybe you could not trade Roberto Luongo and Olli Jokinen for Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha. Or send two previous 1st round picks and one future 1st round pick to have Ryan Smyth for a month. Of course, having Smyth did help the Islanders sneak into the 8th seed that year! (…where they were promptly dispatched in 5 games by the Sabres). Or maybe if you sought out better business partners -- Wang bought out Kumar in 2004 — he’s serving a 12-year prison term for a $400 million accounting fraud scandal.

So yes, clearly it’s the lack of a new stadium that is your main concern. Hey, instead of spending another $3.7 billion on a new arena, maybe you could use some of that money to hire a GM, or scouts, or a coaching staff that could find/develop talented players to put on the ice?

Sometimes, year after year of a lousy product turns consumers away -- no matter how shiny of a box you try to present it in.

In praise of boredom

This year's NBA playoffs were regarded, at least before Derrick Rose blew up in Game 1, turning Bulls-Celtics into a series for the ages, as essentially a giant waste of time. We knew the match-up that was ultimately decide the Larry O'Brien Trophy, and we still do, everything else is basically the sideshow as we wait for the main event, Lakers-Cavs. 

Aside from robbing the playoffs of a certain amount of joy, this ultimately gives certain series the shaft. Now I'm going to do something I really never would have imagined anyone doing... I'm going to defend the Hawks-Heat series.

 

Not that the series was good basketball mind you, because God knows it was awful, awful stuff. 

 

And do I think that the Hawks have much of a shot against the Cavs? I do not. 

 

But here's the thing. Because of the fait accompli of the Finals, barring injury, we need something either unexpectedly dramatic, like the greatest first round series ever, or absurd, like a 58-point blowout, to drive the conversation, however briefly. But the prospect of Heat-Cavs offered something different, something we wouldn't otherwise get until the finals, a series between two of the top three players in the league. I know of at least a few people, like Bill Simmons and Jay Marriotti, talking about the spectacle of a game 5 in Cleveland tied 2-2, after Wade had gone for 50+ two straight games to even the series. That would be compelling television.

 

Instead, we get the Hawks, a fine, rising team, but a team devoid of a telegenic superstar. Instead, it’s a team that was solidly the best of the rest of the East for nearly the entire season, after the Billups trade, a team whose best player who's signing resulted in a lawsuit between ownership. But here's the thing. I think the Hawks at least provide a better matchup than the Heat, who, we learned over the course of that series, consist solely of Wade, the zombified corpse of Jermaine O'Neal, an infuriatingly disappointing Michael Beasley and a coach no older, I think, than myself. Josh Smith is infuriating, but talented enough, I think, that he might actually be called upon to check LeBron on occasion, and Joe Johnson could prove to be an issue for the Cavs, now that he's out of his slump. The Hawks probably are going to be more of a challenge, and they'll need that testing as they move forward.

 

This, I believe, is not the matchup we wanted but its the matchup we, and ultimately the Cavaliers, needed. 

Dave's 1st Tirade

Today in Washington, your highly esteemed elected officials spent the day confronting one of the most critical issues facing our nation. The continuing downward spiral of the world economy? The second coming of the Bubonic plague? American troops fighting two wars on foreign soil? Rising unemployment, plunging housing market, health care reform, the collapse of social security, global warming, Somali pirates?????

No sir. A college football playoff system.

Thanks congressmen. I’m glad our priorities are in line.

Don’t get me wrong. I am a sports FANATIC. I believe the BCS is often a beauty contest and a great big fraud. But is this really what we want the leaders of our country to be spending their time on?

In the words of Rep Gene Green of Texas (who btw proudly displayed a University of Houston helmet in front of him during the hearings) “We can walk and chew gum at the same time.” Ok then. But can you ride a unicycle across a tight rope while juggling live hand grenades, hula hooping, and providing a proof for the quadratic equation? I guess that’s why we have 435 of you to distribute the work load.

And yes, in this time of global recession, the millions of dollars that a bowl game is capable of bringing to the local economy is surely of some significance. But even if Congress is able to break the Power Conference commissioners and bowl game CEOs, I can’t imagine them instituting a system that doesn’t incorporate the Rose, Sugar, Orange and Fiesta bowls. So that money is not moving anywhere. Where it would come into play, is bringing some of the revenue to smaller schools that have been shut out of the championship game to date – schools like Boise St., Utah, and Hawaii who have had legitimate claims to at least a chance at a national title. Those schools are publicly funded institutions, so I suppose the tax payers in those (less than populous) states will be appreciative.

We can debate the relative merits of a playoff system vs. the current BCS championship game, and the impact it would have on the meaningfulness of the regular season. Do I want a playoff system? Of course, but I also believe that crowning an undisputed champion on the field of play would actually be detrimental to college football by taking away the hours of debate on ESPN, radio talk shows, and internet message boards that the current system creates. But that’s neither here nor there. What I’m thinking about today is congress’s involvement.

Do we really want the federal government stepping in and governing sports in this manner? Previous attempts by similar committees have after days of testimony concluded that “Congress Won’t Legislate after BCS Hearings.” Is this anything more than a photo op, so that a few representatives can show their football loving constituents how they’ve got their backs? At least this has some impact on the lives of Americans – unlike the cluster of steroids related hearings, which you know I couldn’t honestly give a damn if some grown men decided to inject their asses with chemicals in order to hit a few more four-baggers. If they want to risk liver damage and shrunken testicles to put on a show at the homerun derby and turn the record books into a sham thus invalidating their entire era, go right ahead. And don’t give me the 14 year olds are going to emulate their heroes argument – any 14 year old who is driven enough to want that and dumb enough to not do a little research, gets what they deserve. Ok, I’m way off topic at this point. I guess the point is that MLB should’ve taken care of the mess that they created when they looked the other way during the summer of McGwire/Sosa love. The BCS system is not likely to be changed without an outside force compelling the current powers that be (Div I presidents, conference commissioners, bowl game presidents, the CEOs of All State, Tostitos, Fed Ex, etc…) to make a change. College football is big business. The BCS bowl games are big business. $125 million per year for the TV rights for four games starting in 2011. It just seems like the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee could be doing more good – like looking into how CEO’s that run their corporations into the ground, (and worse helped to create a worldwide recession) walk away with severance packages worth more than I will ever see in my lifetime. Because, honestly, whether Florida deserved to be crowned the mythical national champion last year over Texas, Utah, or USC, probably doesn’t matter very much today to 39,000 Chrysler employees or the over 500,000 employees of auto parts suppliers wondering how long before the trickle down effect might shut down their plant.

On Playoff Excitement and Rivalries

It has been years since I regularly felt the soft caress of a blog--fingers expertly intertwined with binary in an explosion of mental voyeurism... as such, please be gentle.

Sex with computers aside, I wanted to start off with a playoff series that has been recently occupying my time. Let's talk about the Boston Celtics/Chicago Bulls first round NBA playoff series, arguably one of the best first-round playoff series of all time. What makes it so good? Well, there is the great skill shown by the competitors... Ben Gordon proving himself to be a deadly, clutch shooter; Ray Allen, aka Jesus Shuttlesworth, cementing himself as a Hall-of-Famer; Paul Pierce putting the Kilts on his back and essentially carrying them through long sections of games; and newcomers to the spotlight like John Salmons, Glen "I refuse to refer to a grown man as 'Big Baby' " Davis, and Derrick Rose playing out of their minds. There is also the fact that, in 6 playoff games, 4 have gone to AT LEAST 1 overtime... the overtimes adding almost an entire extra game worth of time to the series.

However, I think the part of this series that makes it so compelling is good old fashioned hate. These two teams flat out don't like each other... which, as far as I can tell, is a recent phenomena for these particular rosters. Yes, the Bird Celtics and Jordan Bulls has a few good series, but I can't recall these players hating each other so much. And I also can't recall another NBA series in recent memory with more stitches: Hinrich as stitches; Miller has stitches; hell, Pierce has stitches IN HIS NOSE. It's been about two decades since the Bad Boy Pistons traded punches with almost every team in the league... and since then there have been very few basketball rivalries as emotional and violent as this one.

Perhaps it's my youth watching mostly football and hockey, but I love this level of hate in my sports. When I think of great rivalries from my youth, one of the first and best ones that comes to my mind is the Red Wings/Avalanche rivalry of the mid-to-late nineties. Yes, they were both talented teams, but it wasn't a Wings/Avs series unless there was AT LEAST one full-ice, goalie-on-goalie brawl. And, at the time, I don't think there was a single fan who didn't want in on those fights. The emotions were so high for fans that the mere mention of Colorado or anyone on the Avs roster to me, a Wings fan, and my teeth clenched, knuckles turned white. I was ready to go. If you and I were having a conversation, and you mentioned that you liked the Avalanche, the conversation was OVER. Not only was the conversation over, but if you wanted to fight about it, I would have been up for it.

And that's the level of pure, unadulterated hatred we're talking about with the Bulls/Celtics right now. Both Boston and Chicago are great sports towns, and the intensity and ferocity of this series is great for the NBA. This is the kind of rivalry that transcends fan-dom and engrosses the casual fan or, better yet, fans of other teams. It's only the best rivalries that makes fans say, "Sure I want to watch my own team, but I CAN'T MISS this game." Yankees/Red Sox, Ohio State/Michigan, Duke/North Carolina, Colts/Patriots... the kind of rivalries that you watch regardless of which team you root for or where you live. I think that THIS SERIES (Bulls/Celtics) is the kind of series that moves a rivalry into that elite category. If you're not doing anything tomorrow (Saturday) night, I encourage you to check out game seven of this series... if nothing else, to see who will need stitches.

Another thing I want to talk about is those idiots in the stands of games who, on the phone with their 'buddies', stand up and wave to the camera. We get it... you're at the game. Good for you. Now sit down, dumbass... you're in the way.