WFNY Stats & Info: Statistical Mythbusters on Cavaliers-Warriors
June 4, 2015Storm Clouds: Cavaliers-Warriors Game 1, Behind the Box Score
June 5, 2015Note: Brian Spaeth has been manning an email newsletter (mostly) about the Cavs this season and generally we leave that off the front page of WFNY. That being said, his preview perspective on the NBA Finals had me pumping my fist and more ready for the games than I had been prior. So, I decided to share it. Also, it’s not too late to go sign up for Brian’s Finals thoughts.
Dearest Reader,
The next person not named Ben (see: end of this email) who uses the word “gravy” to describe the Cavs being in the Finals is forever shunned from this space.
Most of you reading this, myself included, have only seen a Cleveland team in the championship round three (3) times.
Based on my own assumptions:
We were happy to there – to be anywhere that was denoted a championship round – with the ’95 Indians.
As I recall, the ’97 run was somewhat unexpected and even more exhausting, making it hard to even account for the bigger picture on any level other than what was actually happening moment to moment.
The 2007 Cavs were, without a doubt, seen as a step in the process. Being there was an achievement, and a validation of the future.
This, though.
The 2015 Cleveland Cavaliers.
This is different, and I want to know how in the name of anything and everything that’s ever happened in the universe does one find satisfaction in simply being there, when the following is so much more true:
THIS MEANS EVERYTHING.
Let’s talk about one of many superbly rehashed storylines that have led up to this Finals.
All other points sit on top of this point:
Michael Jordan vs LeBron James in the Greatest Basketball Player of All Time Contest.
I’m not overlooking Cleveland as a whole in this – don’t fret – just put away your calculator and (plural form of) abacus and listen.
(Yes, I want you to listen. I want you to get someone else to read this to you. You need to hear it out loud.)
***
LeBron James will NEVER be considered as good as Michael Jordan.
Never, ever, ever.
NEVER.
Stats are stupid for this particular discussion, so again, throw away your @WFNYJacob trading cards if you’re taking part in this.
Due to length of career, modern training/recuperation, and the pending release nanobots throughout LeBron’s genetic code, he’s probably playing until he’s 45.
Thus, while LeBron will likely exceed (if not obliterate) Jordan in every possible statistical category, he’ll never be elevated above him based on that alone. The totals will be too skewed to be comparable.
(Wild card is if Jordan lives long enough to have his genes rewritten to age 28 and takes the court again. That’s a separate email.)
You can attack from the angle of averages, but once you’re talking about things like “7.6 assists in deciding conference final games vs 7.2 assists” or some other minutiae, you’ve already lost.
Even taking the “who am I building a team around” approach is going to favor Jordan, no matter how little sense that makes from an x-and-o standpoint.
Michael Jordan is a monstrous sports legend.
LeBron James is an all-time great athlete.
There’s not even a fine line between those two statuses, and the further he gets from his playing career, the bigger the gap to Jordan becomes, because LeBron’s numbers, MVPs, and titles can never match the legend.
Yes, even if he got 6 titles, the intangibles of Who and What Michael Jordan was (and is remembered/revered as) will block that off from LeBron.
Jordan’s non-statistical resume:
- Infinite and Multiplying Nostalgia
- Changed athlete marketing forever
- Long shorts (he did this before the Fab Five – they just made them even longer)
- Played in a Golden Age of the NBA as far as talent
- Defied convention that the league’s leading scorer could win a title
- 6-0 in finals
- Led the global expansion of basketball via Dream Team, changing basketball foreverOther than being one of the best players ever, what has LeBron done to set himself apart?
***
Exactly.
He’s in the sentence just before Kobe at this point, and based on his talent and the fact he’s never raped anyone, that’s an unfathomable injustice.
Which means he has to do this, and he has to do it now.
Look, if Golden State wins this series, good for them, but it’s a “yeah, they were really good – nice job” summation in the history books.
But us? Cleveland?
Much as I’d like to, I don’t need to rehash the city’s sports history nor LeBron’s place in same.
Suffice it to say the elements that make up all of it will never be replicated.
Michael Jordan didn’t do this, and nobody else ever will either, and while getting that trophy in Year 2 of The Return would be nice and all
Holy hell, I swear I just heard someone say gravy.
LOOK.
If LeBron does this, he changes everything about everything, and becomes a SPORTS LEGEND.
The universe deserves this story.
WE deserve this story.
YOU deserve this story.
The deal we made with each other way back in the season preview email was that we would, as a collective, give ourselves over to this experience.
Go back and read that, then spit venom on your ridiculous FiveThirtyEight-sourced historical and numerical precedents, and start buying in to destiny, and to fate, and to your aura, and to my aura, and to LeBron’s aura.
LeBron Part 2: Year 1 will never happen again.
THIS IS MEANT TO BE.
STOP LIKING GRAVY.
CAVS IN FIVE(5).
Ben vs the Finals vs Surviving the Use of the Word Gravy to Describe the Cavs Being in the Finals.
I’ve been joking that I just want the Cavs to win one more game, just so they do better than the 2007 team. But that’s kinda true.
The Warriors are good. Like really really good. I’m not sure Cavs fans realize just how talented Golden State actually is.
They’re amazing on both sides of the ball, they have no real weakness and they’re deep. Ya, the Cavs have LeBron, but Golden State has about five guys they can throw at him (Klay, Barnes, Green and Iggy, with Bogut backing them up).
They can’t stop him, but after for games or so, he might just get worn out.
If the Cavs are going to take this series, they can’t have any near misses (especially on the road).
Can’t be close all game, have a chance to win at the end but let Golden State off the hook. Cavs are absolutely doomed if they get down 2-0 or 3-1.
It’s gonna come down to role players.
If JR and Shump can continue to hit shots and if Thompson continues his Rodman impersonation, the Cavs have a shot.
But if anyone turns back into a pumpkin and Cleveland is relying solely on LeBron and a gimpy Kyrie, this could very well be a short series.
This entire run has been gravy since the Love injury. It’s almost been some kind of thought experiment “if you take away Love and Kyrie, how far can the Cavs still go?”
Turns out, pretty damn far. But I feel four more wins vs *this* Golden State team might be asking just a bit too much.
My brain tells me Warriors in five or six but my heart tells me the Cavs have a better shot than that.
They have height, they have athletes and they have shooters. Those three attributes have won a lot of people a lot of games over the years.
Throw in a coach with a vast history of winning in big games and that LeBron guy… who knows?
8 Comments
Keep it up with waitingfornextyear … MORE DETAIL
Brian has done a great job all season.
http://media.giphy.com/media/12nm5qO2hn9zkk/giphy.gif
He writes The Letter in July and we win the title in June? While revamping the roster on the fly and one and a half legs of the Holy Tripod missing?
It would be the best sports story ever. Especially when Blatt ends the joyous presser by pulling off the rubber mask to reveal himself as the goofy assistant manager of the Cavs Gift Shoppe, apologizing for keeping the real David Blatt bound in his basement and then placing his wrists together for the cuffs.
LeBron James will NEVER be considered as good as Michael Jordan.
Never, ever, ever.
NEVER.
Disagree. I understand your point, but I think one thing could tip the scales in his direction – succeed where Jordan failed. How? Be a successful 2 sport athlete. Jordan never made it out of the minors, but what if LBJ played TE for the Browns? Maybe Safety?
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I have such a heavy heart this morning. I so wanted that win last night. I just keep telling myself its not over. I felt similar in game one if the Bulls series but not to this extent. In Blatt we trust right? He had one heck of a game plan last night and hopefully he shows again just how grwat of a coach he is!!!!
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