Watching LeBron, Cavs Win Makes Me Sick
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Roger Grossman, Lake City Radio-
It could have been that what I ate didn’t agree with me? Nope.
It could have been the heat? No, it wasn’t that.
It could have been the reality that my week of vacation was over and my alarm was going to start ringing at 2:30 a.m. again ... well, that could have been it, but it wasn’t.
No, it was the thought of watching LeBron James celebrating with his Cavs teammates after winning the NBA title at Golden State. It made me so ill I didn’t want to come to work Monday morning to have to talk about it. I’ve had the same feeling before – in 2003 when the Cubs gave away Game 6 with just five outs to get to win their first pennant since 1945.
It was that bad.
Oh, please understand, I am very happy for the people of Cleveland who had been searching for an oasis in a 52-year desert of not winning titles in the major sports leagues. As a Cubs fan, I understand that feeling more than most fan bases do.
But I have two basic reasons for needing to walk around with a bucket nearby for the next few days.
THE “LEBRON IS THE GREATEST” CONVERSATION: No, he isn’t. He’s really good, one of the best ever to be sure. But he’s not the best. His consecutive finals appearances streak is incredibly impressive.
He’s not the best ever ... at least not yet.
And while he is climbing the ladder of basketball immortality at a steady rate, there is a point that needs to be made: just because he’s great, doesn’t mean we have to like him.
While his place in history and the ultimate landing zone for his career are subject for debate, he will be on basketball’s Mount Rushmore when he is finished.
That said, though, it doesn’t change the feeling I have in my heart that I don’t like him. You can’t make me like him, and despite what some on social media demand, I don’t have to like him – now or ever.
I don’t like him because he left Cleveland for Miami, and how he did it. He essentially quit on the team in the middle of the NBA Finals against San Antonio, then he announced on national television that he was “taking his talents to South Beach” to play for the Heat.
Adorable.
Within two days he held a public press conference at Miami’s arena, where he famously promised they would win “not one, not two…” championships.
Quaint.
At that point he went from being the “kid from Akron” to Public Sports Enemy No. 1. He’s pretty much stayed there for me and a lot of others, except when Patriots coach Bill Beli-cheat steals the No. 1 spot away from him.
THE BATTLE OF STYLES: This NBA Finals was a bit of a referendum on styles of playing basketball. You have the Golden State Warriors, who were the grace and beauty of the game of basketball personified. They played the way the game was meant to be played. They moved the ball up-and-down the court with a style that was easy to fall in love with. Everyone was involved. It had stars that drove it, but it was a very inclusive way of going about your business. They played with skill and their collective and individual ability to shoot, dribble and execute their game plan was breath-taking.
Then there is Cleveland. One guy (not always James by the way), standing 30 feet from the basket, pounding the ball with one hand and glancing up at the shot clock, waiting for the final five seconds to make a move and fire up a shot. All the while, the other four players just standing and watching him dribbling a hole in the gym floor.
Occasionally, one of them will be asked to come set a screen to free that dribbling player to get open to either shoot, drive to the basket or kick it for a jump shot. Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of guys standing around doing nothing while one or two work – you know, like watching NIPSCO workers.
Again, let’s be clear, the Cavaliers won the championship because they were really good at what they did. But that’s the way the NBA used to be. We don’t want that anymore. We don’t want to see clutching and grabbing and holding in basketball. We don’t want defensive players pulling on their opponents’ jerseys to keep them from getting open. We want to see precision and movement. We want efficiency.
The Cavs winning Sunday set us back in the progression of the sport.
Where is that bucket?[[In-content Ad]]
It could have been that what I ate didn’t agree with me? Nope.
It could have been the heat? No, it wasn’t that.
It could have been the reality that my week of vacation was over and my alarm was going to start ringing at 2:30 a.m. again ... well, that could have been it, but it wasn’t.
No, it was the thought of watching LeBron James celebrating with his Cavs teammates after winning the NBA title at Golden State. It made me so ill I didn’t want to come to work Monday morning to have to talk about it. I’ve had the same feeling before – in 2003 when the Cubs gave away Game 6 with just five outs to get to win their first pennant since 1945.
It was that bad.
Oh, please understand, I am very happy for the people of Cleveland who had been searching for an oasis in a 52-year desert of not winning titles in the major sports leagues. As a Cubs fan, I understand that feeling more than most fan bases do.
But I have two basic reasons for needing to walk around with a bucket nearby for the next few days.
THE “LEBRON IS THE GREATEST” CONVERSATION: No, he isn’t. He’s really good, one of the best ever to be sure. But he’s not the best. His consecutive finals appearances streak is incredibly impressive.
He’s not the best ever ... at least not yet.
And while he is climbing the ladder of basketball immortality at a steady rate, there is a point that needs to be made: just because he’s great, doesn’t mean we have to like him.
While his place in history and the ultimate landing zone for his career are subject for debate, he will be on basketball’s Mount Rushmore when he is finished.
That said, though, it doesn’t change the feeling I have in my heart that I don’t like him. You can’t make me like him, and despite what some on social media demand, I don’t have to like him – now or ever.
I don’t like him because he left Cleveland for Miami, and how he did it. He essentially quit on the team in the middle of the NBA Finals against San Antonio, then he announced on national television that he was “taking his talents to South Beach” to play for the Heat.
Adorable.
Within two days he held a public press conference at Miami’s arena, where he famously promised they would win “not one, not two…” championships.
Quaint.
At that point he went from being the “kid from Akron” to Public Sports Enemy No. 1. He’s pretty much stayed there for me and a lot of others, except when Patriots coach Bill Beli-cheat steals the No. 1 spot away from him.
THE BATTLE OF STYLES: This NBA Finals was a bit of a referendum on styles of playing basketball. You have the Golden State Warriors, who were the grace and beauty of the game of basketball personified. They played the way the game was meant to be played. They moved the ball up-and-down the court with a style that was easy to fall in love with. Everyone was involved. It had stars that drove it, but it was a very inclusive way of going about your business. They played with skill and their collective and individual ability to shoot, dribble and execute their game plan was breath-taking.
Then there is Cleveland. One guy (not always James by the way), standing 30 feet from the basket, pounding the ball with one hand and glancing up at the shot clock, waiting for the final five seconds to make a move and fire up a shot. All the while, the other four players just standing and watching him dribbling a hole in the gym floor.
Occasionally, one of them will be asked to come set a screen to free that dribbling player to get open to either shoot, drive to the basket or kick it for a jump shot. Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of guys standing around doing nothing while one or two work – you know, like watching NIPSCO workers.
Again, let’s be clear, the Cavaliers won the championship because they were really good at what they did. But that’s the way the NBA used to be. We don’t want that anymore. We don’t want to see clutching and grabbing and holding in basketball. We don’t want defensive players pulling on their opponents’ jerseys to keep them from getting open. We want to see precision and movement. We want efficiency.
The Cavs winning Sunday set us back in the progression of the sport.
Where is that bucket?[[In-content Ad]]
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