Kardashians, Gleason, and Cavs Coaches: While We’re Waiting

Happy Tuesday, WFNY!

I hope everyone had a phenomenal Labor Day Weekend. I know I did. I discovered the joys of Snapchat filters thanks to my nieces and nephews who showed me how to do it. That was probably the first moment in my life where I truly felt old. Like, old in a different way. Completely out of touch with the things young people are into. It was bound to happen, such is life.

Regardless, holiday weekends are always great. But the downside of having While We’re Waiting duties on Tuesday is that we have so many three day weekends that push into Monday that I often find myself doing WWW when I get back from being out of town and away from sports. Such was the case this weekend. I caught a decent amount of the Ohio State game, I saw a little of the Wisconsin-LSU game, and I saw the last three or four innings of the Tribe’s incredible comeback win on Sunday. Beyond that, I’m a little out of the loop.

So what’s going on in the sports world to talk about today? I suppose we could talk about this Tristan Thompson and Khloe Kardashian thing. I mean, it sure seems like it’s a thing, and if it’s a thing, that is both frightening and exciting at the same time. It’s frightening because the Kardashian machine swallows up everything in its path and just spits it out and leaves it by the side of the road to die when it’s done with them. But it’s exciting because the Khloe and Lamar show was actually pretty entertaining, and I would watch the crap out of a Tristan and Khloe TV show.

There’s no doubt that everything that goes with being around a Kardashian could create an enormous distraction for Tristan at a time when his career on the court is really blossoming. But then again, James Harden didn’t allow his relationship with Khloe to ever get in the way of his performance on the floor. If Tristan more follows that path and goes less the route of the likes of Kris Humphries and Lamar Odom, maybe everything will be OK.

Yep, this is what happens when I unplug from sports for a couple days and suddenly have to write about them. I find myself writing about Kardashians. Yikes. OK, OK, let’s at least talk about SOME real sports, no matter how briefly.

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I want to see the Steve Gleason movie, but I can’t

Has anyone seen Gleason yet? I’ve been so moved by Steve Gleason’s story. It’s a remarkable tale of heartbreak, glory, soul crushing news, revitalization, perseverance, strength, hope, and mortality. If you’re somehow unfamiliar with his story, Steve Gleason was a safety for the New Orleans Saints. When Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city of New Orleans, the Saints had to play “home” games away from New Orleans for a while. When the team finally returned, in their first game back in the city, Gleason blocked a punt early in the first quarter that was recovered for a Saints touchdown. It was considered one of the most emotional plays in Saints history. A statue of the blocked punt currently sits outside the Superdome.

Unfortunately, Gleason was later diagnosed with ALS. But rather than just accept the disease without a fight, Gleason has publicly taken his fight to the masses. He has used multimedia to document almost every aspect of his fight with the disease, while also making a video diary for his young son, trying to distill a lifetime of fatherly advice into digestible volumes that can be passed down when his son needs it.

Now Gleason’s story has hit the big screen, with the documentary of his disease and everything that goes with it being displayed for all to see. I imagine it can be tough to watch someone fight something like this, but I really want to see the film. I want to support Gleason and his fight. But I don’t know if I can watch the movie. Not that I don’t want to. But I’m not sure I can physically watch the movie without breaking down. It’s been a struggle for me to see any mini features down on Steve’s story and his relationship with his son. It’s uplifting and heartbreaking to the point that is tough to handle.

So yeah, I’ve been hesitant to see the film. But then I came across this tweet from Steve:

I think people want to go see @gleasonmovie this weekend, but are a bit hesitant. I have this message for them:
-SG pic.twitter.com/uiCyWT9Lzo

— Steve Gleason – "Live Impossible" (@SteveGleason) August 12, 2016

“I don’t pray for a life without suffering. I pray for the strength to understand and live triumphantly despite suffering. I hope you will go and watch GLEASON this weekend. Laugh. Cry. And know that I am happy.”

True inspiration. I’ll be seeing this movie as soon as I can.

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Should we be concerned about the Cavaliers coaching situation?

First of all, who even knew that they had a situation? We knew Ty Lue was a free agent, and we knew it was a foregone conclusion that he would get a new contract. Beyond that, there was precious little indication to the public that something was boiling under the surface. Turns out, however, that Ty Lue’s contract was not the end of this story.

While Ty Lue got his new contract, the Cavaliers picked up a team option on Larry Drew’s contract, the rest of the coaching staff remains unsigned. And they are starting to get rather frustrated by this situation. As David Zavac writes,

All of this leads to Haynes’ characterization of the state of the talks in pretty dire terms. “Frustration is at its worst”, he says, and it’s “unbelievable” that a team coming off an NBA championship finds itself in this situation. He notes that the standoff has “reached the point of hostility”.

I don’t know if this will turn into a big deal or not, but the fact that we haven’t heard anything about this before now tells me that the staff was confident things would work out. But now that at least one of them is going public with their frustrations (via the media) it seems that confidence is waning, and turning to frustration.

I’ll admit, it does seem a little odd that the Cavaliers are in this position. Coming off an NBA Championship, why not just keep everyone, right? But the fact is, this is a one-sided report. This is the coaches expressing their frustration through Chris Haynes. We don’t know what the coaches are asking from the front office or whether or not it is something the Cavaliers’ front office is simply uncomfortable with. This is why nobody wins when negotiations go through the media.

It’s hard to imagine Phil Handy and Damon Jones not being signed at some point. Those two coaches are especially dialed in with the players on this team. And there’s no reason not to bring back Jim Boylan and James Posey if Ty Lue wants them on his staff. So what is this story really about? What’s going on here?

I don’t know. It’s a bizarre situation for sure. It’s not really anything worth “worrying” about per se. But it’s definitely something worth keeping an eye on. As the Cavaliers are still without a deal for JR Smith as well, this offseason seemingly won’t end. It has to end one way or another soon enough, though, as we are now just a few weeks away from training camp starting.

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That’s all for me today on this sports-deprived Tuesday, but next Tuesday we’ll have real Browns football to talk about. Until then, enjoy the rest of your week.