Cleveland Stop, Cleveland Stop!

(For those of you who do not understand the title, it's a play on this song by The Presidents of the United States of America.  Great song!)

And also before I start, I wanna apologize for not getting this post up sooner. On Monday I had surgery and it's been hard to function. Let's hope I can get through this without it becoming too apparent that there is Vicodin currently running through my system.

So by now me talking about how the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA title in game six (called it!) over the Heat last Sunday is not exactly breaking news. (And in the process won me a t-shirt from Sportshouting.com! It's great sports social networking site you should all check it out.) But, putting my spot on prediction and brand new t-shirt aside there was something about the aftermath of these finals that really ticked me off. Now, as someone who was rooting against Miami and for Dallas I get the excitement, believe me I do. But if I have to here about the city of Cleveland and psycho ex-girlfriend owner Dan Gilbert, and how happy we should all be for them one more time I might just throw up. (Actually that might be the meds making me regurgitate my breakfast, but who's keeping track?)  Like we get it Cleveland, last off season sucked, but will you get over it already?

Did you see Dan Gilbert's tweet after the Mavs won Sunday night? Saying something about no shortcuts? In my personal opinion that was a no class move. What Dan Gilbert should be doing is calling Mark Cuban to PRIVATELY congratulate him. Not posting a cute cliche on twitter like some 13 year old girl hoping to create drama to be talked about the next day at school. How about instead of taking a nice long bath in self-pity, Gilbert focuses on nothing but the next NBA draft.. WHERE HE HAS TWO TOP 4 PICKS! Come on Gilbert, get over it.

I did a little research and saw that the 5 stages of grief were;

1. Denial and Isolation - This should have been the initial reaction to "I'm taking my talents to South Beach"
2. Anger - This is probably the stage where you start burning jerseys.
3. Bargaining - So I'm thinking this was the moment right before the regular season started where most Cavs fans thought to themselves "S**t, my team sucks... Can we have LeBron back?"
4. Depression - OK this is probably when the Cavaliers up just one of the worst regular seasons in NBA history. I even feel bad that Cleveland fans had to suffer through that but last time I checked that season did end, so let's hope this stage does. 
5. Acceptance - (cricket... cricket...) Yeah I'm still waiting on this one too..

Why does it feel like Cleveland is back at anger when they should be accepting this and moving on? I guess that's what really gets me mad. As much as I hate how they were screwed over last summer, I hate more that they are content wallowing in their own self pity and not moving on. This should make Cleveland fans stronger, not turn them into middle school girls. And let me just throw out a disclaimer that I'm not talking about all Cleveland fans, just the way their owner and a lot of the fans are responding. So what would really make me happy, and allow sports fans in Cleveland to grow, is if they could move on from this and look forward to the future. I know they most likely won't be where the were a year or two ago anytime soon but they WILL get better and I would hope the climb would be fun for them. All I'm saying is this; Forget about LBJ, don't follow his every move, look forward to the future, and for God's sake put this behind you! Let's get through this 5th and final step of acceptance, Cleveland. What do you say?

I'm sure this post was a little more disorganized and loopy than most but you know what, it was damn fun to write! But look forward to more posts without the influence of pain killers in the coming days.

Class Dismissed,
The Sports Undergrad

SoS

Creating a Lasting Legacy

Right off the bat I need to start by saying that this has been an incredible NBA post season thus-far. Every round has offered its own flavor of off the walls excitement and corny soap opera type drama. And after all the scuffling and chaos finally two teams have emerged above the rest as title contenders. In on corner we have the Dallas Mavericks, a veteran bunch whose offense runs through post-season MVP, Dirk Nowitzki. Then in the other corner we have the villains, the front-runners, the NBA's version of Two and a Half Men, or as you might know them the Miami Heat. This is a team created last off-season that will wow you with their mix of athleticism and determination. One team is young, one team is old. One team is deep, one team is shallow. One team came together last off-season, one team has been years in the making. Which team will win? And maybe more importantly; how will this series shape the legacies of two superstars, LeBron James and Dirk Nowitzki.

The impact on the career this series will have of these two athletes might be bigger than the series itself because of the rare historical significance of these future Hall of Famers. For Dirk it would be the cherry on top of what has been a sensational, all time great, career. Say what you want about him being 'soft' (complete bs) or his funky ways of scoring (the man is a magician out there) his 23 and 8 career average make him potentially one of the greatest scoring big men of all time.  He's come so close and been snake bitten so many times before that this series would put an end to any doubt that he can get it done when it matters most. This is a make or break series for Dirk.

Oh yes, then we have LeBron. Can you here the haters now? "LeBron doesn't have the clutch gene!" "LeBum can't win it all!" "LeB**ch will never be Jordan!" (By the way, is this really a fair criticism? I mean, who ever will be Jordan?) "DELONTE WEST SLEPT WITH LEBRON'S MOM!" (Once again, probably not a fair criticism and extremely inappropriate but wildly funny and will never get old.) The point is that if LeBron doesn't win a title this year people will continue to question if he ever will, if he ever can.. Fair or not the criticism WILL come. And eventually, perception can become reality. If LeBron wins he potentially becomes a top 5 all time player (and according to Scottie Pippen maybe better) and the rest of the NBA is in a buttload of trouble for the next 5 to 10 years. (remember, the Heat WILL get better) No way of denying it, this is a big time opportunity for LeBron.

The best part of this series is that in 20 years when me and my son are sitting watching some sports and he asks me about LeBron or Dirk, I'll tell him about this series. No matter the outcome, this will be a series we talk about when defining the legacies of all time greats. And by the way, I haven't even mentioned Jason Kidd or Dwyane Wade until this point, both guys who will be in the Hall and will have their respective legacies impacted by this series. (Ok fine, and alien/dinosaur love baby Chris Bosh too.) So if you're a true NBA fan, sit down, grab some snacks, and watch this series because I promise you this; you'll be talking about this series for the rest of your lives. Enjoy the series and good luck to both squads because God knows, there is a hell of a lot at stake. And by the way, I'm taking the Mavs in 6. (Dirk will continue to be Dirk and the Heat won't be able to keep up with the performances of role players like Barrea and Chandler.)

Class Dismissed,
The Sports Undergrad

SoS