Random Thoughts from the Weekend

I don’t think we appreciate Kyrie Irving.

Oh, we know he’s good. He’s so good, some of us are already worried about his free agency.  He made the All-Star as a sophomore, who’s team was…. below average. That’s hard. Young players don’t usually get rewarded by the coaches, especially young players on crappy teams. You can tell he gets the respect of not only the coaches, but older players and commentators as well.

It seems like every few months there’s a new leaked Kyrie video. Last summer, Kyrie wowed everyone at the Team USA practice, schooling multiple NBA players. In April, Kyrie showed up at a college pickup game and put on a show. This summer, he showed off his moves for Team USA in a game. Yesterday, his “Shammgod” crossover was an oasis in the NBA offseason desert.

When’s the last basketball player to have videos get passed around like this? The man practically caused a scene when he schooled Brandon Knight in this year’s rookie-sophomore game. That videos of this kid dribbling go viral should tell you something.

His biggest knock is his lack of defense, and while it’s a legit criticism, I’m… less than concerned. That the second year point guard doesn’t play NBA defense very well isn’t a big deal. That’ll come. Especially if the Cavs are routinely in close games where his defense could be the difference. Mike Brown will have something to say about that.

I maintain that we don’t appreciate how lucky we were that the first post-LeBron draft pick was a player of Kyrie Irving’s caliber. That almost never happens.

Here’s some more random thoughts from the weekend. 

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– I can’t imagine I was alone in enjoying Bernie’s non-apology following the criticisms leveled by Peter King and Jeff Fisher. The whole thing was just dumb and overblown. I kinda feel none of this would’ve happened if it wasn’t for Jim Donovan bringing up a Pope. Once you mixed in religion to your criticisms, you’re an easy target.

– It’s hard not be just a little excited at the Browns’ performance in the preseason. Yes, it’s preseason. Yes, the defenses are vanilla and the offenses aren’t showing any real plays. But man, watching the Browns and having them be Not Awful is just… nice. None of this matters once the season starts, obviously. But still. Everyone looks like they know what they’re doing.

– Barkevious Mingo having a bruised lung is messed up. Only in Cleveland does the Browns’ first round pick get an injury where a doctor says, “I played football through college, and I’ve never heard of any football player having this. Usually the only people I’ve treated with this were bullriders. It takes a really big whack to bruise a lung. It’s hard to do. You’ve got to really get hit.”

– The Brown don’t know which play the injury occurred. Chud: “There wasn’t some huge hit that would lead you to believe that’s when it happened. I’m not sure at what point it happened in the game, whether it was one particular hit, or a combination of hits.” Great. Usually you get a bruised lung from some kind of big monster hit (like a car crash).

– That this could’ve happened with multiple little hits or a combination scares me. How do you prevent something like this (asides from, you know, not playing professional football). Sure, Mingo can put on some more muscle. But he hurt an organ inside his rib cage, inside his chest, under pads. Not like he can just put a cast on it.

– I think we’re going to like Jordan Cameron.

– This faux-QB controversy is the most mind numbing story of recent memory. Look, I know Chud has kept his options open by not naming Weeden the starter, but this is dumb. I know it’s August and not a lot is going on, but listening to sports talk radio debate this “quarterback contest” is literally the worst.

– I can’t imagine I’m the only one concerned with the injuries to the running backs. Dion Lewis has a fractured fibula and our buddy Montario Hardesty has a dislocated thumb and yet another knee injury that required surgery. Meanwhile, Chris Obonnaya has been being used as a fullback.

– I’m sure these will be the last suspensions Urban Meyer will hand out. When you’re a perennial contender (like both Meyer and Ohio State), problems are bound to pop up. It’s part of doing business as a major college football powerhouse.

– The Indians are 3.5 games back of the Wild Card. The Yankees are 6 back. If the Yanks would some how sneak in with Travis Hafner and Mark Reynolds contributing… Not good.

– To you baseball twitter folks who watch (and tweet) every Tribe game, do-or-die, I salute you. I can barely do that with the Cavs.

– I’m still kinda blown away by the baseball PED suspensions vs everyone else. Miguel Tejada just got 105 games. 105!! The guys getting busted are MVPs and Hall of Famers.

– You know what’s a fun twitter search? “LeBron+Biogenesis”

– Is anyone else mildly concerned that the Cavs haven’t released a time table for Anthony Benett’s return?

Spoke with No. 1 pick Anthony Bennett who had left labrum surgery on May 8. Said, “I’m pretty sure I’ll be back by the start of the season.”

— Jared Zwerling (@JaredZwerling) August 17, 2013

He’s pretty sure he’ll be back for the start of the season. Does this mean he’ll miss preseason? Training camp? Can he play in the Wine & Gold Scrimmage? I just want to see this guy throw down a monster dunk on someone. I don’t care if it’s against an opponent or Tyler Zeller. I just want to see it happen.

– I finally started watching Breaking Bad. I figured since it was going to be in my face for the next few weeks anyways, I should get myself caught up. Some times certain things are just part of the national conversation and I don’t like feeling left out. Guess what, you’re not gonna believe this, but the show that everyone says is awesome… is awesome. I’ve been binge watching this past week and am already mid-way through Season 3. Those first two or three episodes are super intense.

– That being said, I haven’t seen any Duck Dynasty and that show’s season premier nearly doubled the ratings of Breaking Bad’s season opener. So maybe that national conversation isn’t what I think it is.

– I have to say, while I don’t watch a lot of TV, I really enjoy the shows I do watch. Shows like Breaking Bad, Louie and The Venture Bros aren’t for everyone. But they are for me. I’m glad cable allows smaller, niche, shows to thrive.  We all don’t have to like the same things. That’d be boring.

and finally…

– This librarian thoroughly enjoyed Craig’s and Denny’s podcast about reading books and magazines (amongst other topics, like whisky!). Happy Sunday everyone!

M&D 2013 Sabotage from Mike and Duane Show on Vimeo.