Links to The Present: September 2nd, 2009
2009-09-01
First off, sorry for the slight player profile delay: it became obvious when I started thinking about this that Z’s profile is going to take some serious thought, so you’ll have to be a little patient with me. Until, then, some links:
This Rubio thing absolutely infuriates me. Drives me crazy. Nothing I hate more in sports. Anyways, here are some good takes on the situation that at least attempt to give it a positive spin, from the THN’s Howlin T-Wolves blog and blog God-Man Britt Robson.
As it’s unofficially Michael Jordan week around the web, I’ll just say this: I didn’t figure out that Michael Jordan was actually in peril of losing any of those championships until I was about 15 years old, which is around 8 years after the fact. I was just starting to get into sports when he was on his final championship runs, and basically saw him as an invincible God who could never be defeated at anything basketball-related. Whatever he really did back then, there’s no way he possibly could have been as good as I thought he was, and in some ways I feel like I’m happy with things being that way.
ESPN panels like the Cavs to finish first in the East and LeBron to stay in Cleveland. I mean, hooray? All things like this really do is put more pressure on the team, so I don’t really get psyched about “respect” from the national media. Do others feel differently? Sound off, guys.
I skipped Shaq vs. tonight, although I did catch a scene of him buying a bunch of little-leaguers ice cream out of the truck and then the little leaguers giving him batting tips. In that 60 seconds, I pretty much got all I wanted out of the show. Then I’d had enough. And it’s not like my TV schedule was stacked-I ended up watching Tool Academy 2. If I’m not the target audience for this show, who is?
Couldn’t care less about Shaq Vs. either– as far as I can tell, that IS tool academy. (New Shaq name — the Big ToolKit?) I think Clevelanders are just uncomfortable with the spotlight, at least up until we get at least one trophy in the damn case. Anyway, why isn’t it all riding on Dwight Howard. He won, right?
As much as I hate the “underdog card,” I wouldn’t mind being a little disrespected. It would give us a little motivation, something to fuel us after we sweep through the first 2 rounds of the playoffs and think we are just going to be handed the ECF trophy.
It’s weird because I never felt great about them last year, and they kept winning. I had much more confidence in the 07-08 season.
I think this is because of the 06-07 magical Lebron-beating-Detroit run. I sort of have more faith in LBJ when he’s the underdog.
Mostly, I have little faith in people when they say “Cleveland is going to win”. One small example would be “CLEVELAND ROCKS” on the cover of sports illustrated just before we got it handed to us by orlando.
I like the Cavs’ chances as much as anybody’s, as I think they’ll be less dependant on their biggest new piece (Shaq) than the other east giants will be on theirs (Wallace for Boston and Vince for Orlando). KG’s questionable health makes Rasheed tremendously important for the C’s, and from what we saw last year, it’s debatable what Sheed’s got left. In letting Turkoglu walk, Orlando parted with their best playmaker, which means Carter and Jameer Nelson have to step up (not saying that they can’t, but I think there will be an adjustment). With all that said, Orlando still… Read more »
I kind of wished they would have pegged the Cavs as third. I think this team thrived, at times, on the underdog “no respect” card…. Then they started railing people at the end of the year and the playoffs, and the media was, for lack of a better term, blowing them. I don’t want to say they started smelling themselves, but…. the Cavs did blow quite a few leads against Orlando. (That being said, I did put Cleveland at #1 in the East in my predictions… and let the record show that I posted my predictions 3 hours before ESPN… Read more »