Cleveland Cavaliers

I find in my files a story I wrote about LeBron James. Here's the lead:

"I am ... reporting live on the 6 o'clock news and I am thinking of Phineas T. Barnum.

"The sword swallower just downed a saber. The bearded lady is on next. Twelve clowns just got out of a four-person car. Hide the peanuts and watch your step. Here come the elephants.

"Yes, folks, it's an absolute circus surrounding LeBron James. Please pass me the cotton candy."

I haven’t seen this kind of a commotion since the Indians Dime Beer Night riot in June, 1974.
Or, maybe we have to go back to 1969 when the Cuyahoga River caught fire.
From coast to coast, every media person with a newspaper, magazine, blog, web site, radio or television program has an opinion about LeBron James’ destination. Everybody claims to have an inside source. He’s going to Chicago, New York, New Jersey, Miami or elsewhere.

Cavs guard Mo Williams tweeted to his twitter fans a plea not to be traded. On bended knee, he said, he was begging to remain in Cleveland. All this trade talk, he said, is nerve-wracking.

I call it changing of the guard, but it's really the changing of the centers. That's what we saw in the Cavs' win over Chicago Sunday. J. J. Hickson and Shaq each played 17 minutes. "Z" played the final 3 1/2 minutes.

It is Hickson's time.

Shaq was almost helpless against the athletic Joakim Noah, who scored 21 points and pulled down 20 rebounds. Wilt Chamberlain had games like that half a century ago, except Noah makes his free throws.

Basketball player Joakim Noah was 100 per cent correct when he said Cleveland is dull. He's young and adventurous and he reflects how most professional athletes view Cleveland. From his perspective, yeah, we're not exciting. He grew up in France and Florida and now plays in Chicago. But we're dull from any perspective. Over the years I have travelled to every major city and dozens of small ones and, man, we are not Party Town, USA. But there's nothing wrong with that. It's juvenile to turn Noah's remark into a federal case. The reaction here reinforces his contention.

That's what I was telling my son, John, as we watched the St. Ed vs. St. Ignatius basketball game in Sullivan Gym last Friday. The St. Ed Eagles had a terrible first half. Missing about 10 of 15 free throws was only part of the problem. They also lost the ball with careless no-look passes in the chaos underneath the basket more than once.

"They watch too much television. They see LeBron do that and because he makes it look easy, they think it's easy," I said to John.