Tribe Wins – Pavano Auditions
May 27, 2009Mo Clarrett Wants to Give Football Another Shot
May 27, 2009
On top of losing last night, I made a big mistake, I think. I decided to spend the night with the sports bloggers of the world talking through the game on Twitter. Basically every team was represented on there and the conclusion I came to is that everybody, and I mean everybody hates LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Well, maybe not everybody, but really close. It is strange though, because I was expecting a lot of analysis and interesting perspectives, and almost all there was was vitriol, hate and anger toward LeBron James.
The only team that didn’t seem hateful and angry toward the Cavaliers last night was actually all the bloggers from the Orlando Magic. They were following the action, pointing out statistics. Cheering when their guys made loads of threes and scolding their guys when they gave up runs to the Cavs. Funny that I had to look to the opponent for even-handed treatment.
I know LeBron’s marketing is heavy handed. I know between the magazines and TV people might get a bit sick of seeing LeBron James. To sit back and broadcast your joy at watching the Cavaliers’ demise this post-season still seems a bit out of left field. All LeBron has ever done is work his tail off trying to make the Cavaliers franchise better. He has never smashed teammates for not playing up to his level. In fact, he has thrived on trying to keep them involved.
Even when he was clearly one of the most valuable players in the league last year, he finished fourth in the MVP voting because the Cavaliers didn’t win enough games in the eyes of the media. No matter that every game the Cavs won last year was basically on his shoulders. On top of that, this is the first year the Cavs have ever been the number 1 seed. They finally get to the point of being a real live contender. Not a Cinderella like they were when they got smashed by San Antonio. This Cavs team was thought to have finally arrived at the dance. And even before they have a chance to win anything, people want to knock them off some kind of pedestal even before they have a chance to try to climb atop it.
I thought that level of anger and hate was reserved for constant winners like the New England Patriots or historical winners like the New York Yankees or Dallas Cowboys. You see, I thought a lot of that anger emanated from jealousy. But the Cavs haven’t even won anything worth being jealous of yet. But there it sits. Even before the Cavs ever win anything it is already Cleveland versus the world. I just hope LeBron and company can conjure up a miracle to shut everybody up.
42 Comments
HOW BOUT THEM BROWNS!
He is just so likable…how can anyone hate him? He really loves playing the game for the game…Just cause he makes funny commercials and is really good shouldn’t be a reason for people to hate on him. As for people hating cleveland…what have we ever done to tick anyone off…we never win anything!
What (I think) it comes down to is that this age of writers/bloggers/whathaveyou HATE being told who they have to believe is the best player/coach/team/logo/etc.
Brett Favre. Hate. Yankees. Hate. Boston. Hate. I think the only person who has been able to escape this vortex is Tiger Woods. Perhaps its because of the winning?
Nike campaigns, commercials, etc. It’s a lot of exposure, and it causes a backlash.
Well, this and shear jealousy of a player that they’d all welcome on their team; but mostly, it’s the exposure.
And dont forget, we’re the only ones that get to see the Cleveland-based stuff. The rest of the world was shocked that he went back to St Vs for the MVP award. We expected it. We know who he really is. The rest of the world only knows what they feel they’re being force fed…
If you’re curious why everyone dislikes him… its because he gets superstar treatment from the officials. Lebron james is an absolutely outstanding athlete, to be sure. But Lebron is not one man. He’s 4 men. He’s an absolutely outstanding athlete and 3 biased officials.
If you can’t accept the fact that he gets calls (and non-calls… dropping your shoulder while running THROUGH defenders time and time again?!) that NO ONE else in this league gets, you’re nothing but a homer.
“he gets superstar treatment”
….perhaps because he’s a SUPERSTAR.
I agree that he’s a super star. But that doesn’t justify changing the rules of the game.
This is why I gave up on basketball long ago. If someone is that good, they don’t need the help of the officials. I get sick of seeing good players given calls just to boost ratings. I guess I enjoy parity in a game.
My bad.
#3 – Maybe thats the problem.. Tim Tebow is apparently “so likeable” but I cant stand him.
I think people are just tired of seeing him everywhere and he hasn’t done anything to be at that level. Like win a championship.
Yeah he’s great and a mega super star, but to the people who don’t watch every game or any games and just knows who the winners are. They see him on the losing side, not the winning side of such superstars like Tiger, Micheal, Wade, and Bryant.
This is just me putting myself in others shoes, and actually hearing what people say about him. Since I do live in Florida and have watched most playoff games away from my living room in a social atmosphere.
Tiger Woods isn’t immune to this either. Being a big golf fan, I root for Tiger Woods, but I run into plenty of golf fans who root for him to lose.
I’m surprised the hate toward LeBron. In an era where people are annoyed at idiotic professional athletes, finally one comes along who gets it — LeBron — yet there is still dislike toward him? That I just don’t get.
@Gho – the rules are changed for every star. Howard is allowed to camp out in the key, push for rebounding position, set illegal screens….why? because he is a star
He’s the Devil here in DC.
Why? From what I’ve gathered, pure jealousy. Yes, he traveled once in a game when the Cavs beat the Wiz in OT. However, they also beat them 3 other times that series.
People are obscenely jealous in this neck of the woods. Couple that with overexposure, and yea – it turns to bitterness quickly.
@ #10 – It is called ‘jealousy’ and it is a terrible thing. Sports fans, in general, are bitter people. They hate anything more successful than what they have for themselves.
@MacNip
The first drive of the game last night, Howard was called for defensive 3 seconds. Further, if you watch him, he’s got enormous legs and takes a mammoth step out of the key with impressive regularity.
And it surprises me that anyone with vareflop on their team would be talking about “pushing for rebounding position”
Annnnnnd nicknames…
After watching Michael Jordan get call after call against the Cavs, I feel no shame about LeBron getting the “superstar treatment”.
Noone ever likes to admit that their player gets the superstar treatment. Listening to Orlando over the past week, you’d think the refs were forcing Dwight Howard to carry LeBron down the court in a rickshaw when Howard was getting away with as much–if not more–than LeBron on every possession.
Though Boomhauer just nailed it, we in Cleveland wave LeBron’s superstar treatment in everyone’s faces since we had to deal with over a decade of Jordan getting it against us.
I love him, and feel privileged to watch him. It’s astonishing that since coming into the league at 18, constantly under the heaviest media scrutiny, his biggest “scandal” has been a speeding ticket. But try to be objective and imagine you’re in a different city and interested in watching the conference finals as a fan. Every promo, puppet commercials (!), non-stop gushing from announcers, and during time-outs: a clip of LeBron smirking in that press conference, looking down with smug self-satisfaction, and saying, “My range? Unlimited.” Then you’d think, “what has this guy won? He thinks he’s god?” They don’t see how much his teammates love him, how he never calls them out, how he never embarrasses his young coach, etc. Personally, if I’m in D.C. or somewhere, I’d probably feel the same way.
I agree. It was ridiculous that MJ would get the calls that he did. But you guys are wondering why people don’t like lebron… I’m trying to help you understand.
There’s only 2 teams in this league where their fans get to cheer for a “superstar” player that gets to play by the “superstar” rules. Should it come as a shock that the rest of the teams would like some equality in the way that the rules are enforced?
Anyway, all of you can just respond to parts of my posts or go all ad hominem on me because I (gasp) used a nickname. However, I’m simply giving you an explanation, as I see it.
@ Scott
Nicknames are almost NEVER funny. I cringe every time I read someone use that nickname that has become popular for the combination of Mangini and Kokinis. I don’t cringe because I am offended at its vulgarity. I just get the chills because of how cheesy and unfunny it is.
Leave the cheesy negative nicknames for politicians and political pundits. They thrive on unfunny cheese. We don’t need it in sports.
People don’t like LeBron because they think he’s cocky, and full of himself. They have no idea how much he cares about his hometown, friends and teammates. I run into these people in Columbus, they only see the most tippiy top news stories (LeBron wears Yankee hat, LeBron is a bad tipper).
And like Scott said, some don’t like him because they feel like the media is forcing them to like him, although after they have watched the team play they quickly start to change their opinion.
Oh, yeah, and a lot of people are dumb.
Should it come as a shock that the rest of the teams would like some equality in the way that the rules are enforced?
And that’s our point. Howard gets away with moving screens EVERY TIME he sets them. Can’t you see that you’re basically splitting hairs and playing semantics?
a little surprising, but maybe its because im in new york where a lot of folks are still holding on to the idea that lebron might be a knick, so they arent quick to hate.
but then, at the same time, not surprising at all because of everything thats been mentioned. and i guess this is all coming as a shock to clevelanders because we’ve never been in the position of having a player so good that people hate to see his face. we’ve always had feel good teams like the cardiac kids and the miracle and richfield.
but the bottom line is so what? why should cavs fans care? whether its hornets hype or twitter or some guy at the bar, im not going to sit and make him like the cavs or lebron. i honestly dont even care if somehow the cavs turn into the nba’s villains and somebody with a “redz” tattoo and a mask takes out rafer alston in a parking lot with a crossface chickenwing. ill look past almost anything for a championship at this point, and i could care less about popularity.
I think Scott nailed it…jealousy that he’s not on their team. There’s also this view that Cleveland’s somehow not “good enough” for LeBron (despite the fact that he was born here, more or less). Folks love to see him fail on the Cavs as evidence that he should be somewhere else.
“Superstar” calls are the worst thing about the NBA, period. A close second is the concept of “playoff fouls”. This league needs to start calling the rules in the book (moving screens, anyone?) regardless of who commits the foul or when.
Personally, this idea of everyone hating Cleveland teams (add Ohio State to that group) is nothing new. I have lived in Florida for 5 1/2 years, and I can’t begin to explain how much folks around here despise our teams. And it’s not just LBJ and the Cavs or the Buckeyes. As soon as the Browns briefly appeared to be a football team again a couple years back, I went from being the lone Browns jersey in the bar that everyone left alone to being the guy getting trash-talked by fans of every team, from the expected (Steelers) to the bizarre (49ers? Really?!). The Tribe came to town 2 weekends ago, and I spent the game hearing not only how bad they are (cuz the Rays, as we all know, have had a long tradition of excellence), but also how the Cavs are overrated, LBJ is a stiff, Brady Quinn is a pretty boy, and Ohio State should be an NAIA team.
The worst part is, there are no ACTUAL Florida fans when it comes to pro sports, and the Gators have assembled a bandwagon that puts the Red Sox to shame. I know several Florida guys who haven’t watched a Magic game since the days of Shaq and Penny who were texting me Sunday night as I watched the game in Akron, ripping the Cavs and Cleveland in general. Florida fans are by far the most frontrunning people you will ever encounter, getting the best of the good times (Marlins titles, for example) without the heartbreak, since they all have their “real” teams to root for back wherever they are originally from. This situation makes it easy for them to be particularly mouthy when they are doing well, but watch them scatter like roaches once the losing happens.
I’m just thankful I come from a place with real fans. It would be nice if one day that loyalty was repaid.
Fact: Dwight Howard was 4th in the NBA in fouls committed during the regular season
Fact: Dwight Howard led the East in fouls per game
these facts seem to get lost anytime anyone talks about LBJ getting calls in this series
and AMEN B-bo, A-men
@ Gho – “There’s only 2 teams in this league where their fans get to cheer for a “superstar” player that gets to play by the “superstar” rules. Should it come as a shock that the rest of the teams would like some equality in the way that the rules are enforced?”
Were they enforcing the rules last night when Hedu walked (with no call) on his last drive of the game? Refs are not the reason games are won and lost. I can’t stand when people complain about the refs being one sided. There are 2 sides to that coin and there always will be.
Great teams win in spite of the refs. Calls go both ways, fans are just usually too blind to see it that way.
Right now Orlando is the better team, lets see if they can still be the better team for one more game
Here’s the thing. For every “superstar call” that LeBron gets, a foul on him doesn’t get called. The fact is, he gets fouled 90% of the time he goes to the basket. But, he’s so big, that it doesn’t get called. Sometimes refs call it when it isn’t. Sometimes, they don’t call it when it is. It evens out.
“It evens out.”
Do 3-point percentages?
I’m trying to find a way to say this that doesn’t sound disparaging to this post, because I enjoyed reading it. But I feel that posts like this are part of why people hate Cleveland sports fans so much. Through no real fault of our own, we tend to have an overwhelming sense of insecurity and a massive inferiority complex.
Furthermore, we don’t have much to hang our hats on in Ohio, particularly the northeast region. So we cling to our sports teams and we are overflowing with passion. With that passion, though, comes the flooding of mainstream media outlets with comments about how we’re so disrespected, or how great our teams are, and how everyone who dares to say the slightest negative thing about one of our teams is a know-nothing moron who works for ESPN, etc, etc, etc. It can be overwhelming, and it turns off a lot of fans in other cities.
I wouldn’t trade the passion of Cleveland sports fans for the world. But with such a massive fan base, you’re bound to have a lot of idiots who make the whole of us look bad. It’s just a fact of life. Gotta take the bad with the good.
Don’t worry haters, it a few days you won’t have LeBron to kick around anymore.
Have fun.
The Plain Dealer put it best saying LeBron averaged 2.0 fouls per game this year. The calls against him in the playoffs have been right on average. LeBron is just a good defender and the Magic fans and Stan Van Gundy just don’t get it.
By the way, is anyone as sick as I with Van Gundy?? Yes, he can coach…I will give him that. I just can’t stand his comments such as calling Big Ben and Mo Williams floppers, or even how he called out Shaq this year. He is a D-BAG. If I have to see him one more time with his arms straight out to the side with that dumb look on his face, I might throw something at my tv. So, it looks like my television will be broken about 2 minutes into the game tomorrow….
I blame Drew Carey.
Great article
I no longer live in Northeast Ohio so I get a pretty good outside view of CLE sports and what others think. I can tell you the hate for Lebron comes from him being the “Chosen One” and the “King” whithout him winning anything (NBA championship) as of yet. That’s how others view it: For all the hype he hasn’t won anything yet. He is averaging 44,7,7 this series and people still hate on him for those reasons.
I’ll say this for him: He has been a model citizen, hard worker, franchise saver, and an all time great in the game without throwing teammates under the bus or requesting a trade like his superstar counterpart KobME-Bryant has done.
I cannot talk about MJs ‘superstar’ treatment since I was too young for the times when he killed the cavs, but the last play in regulation was definitely a ‘superstar’ call for LeBron. I am a huge fan of his, but that foul at the end that led to OT was iffy. Granted that Hedu should have been called of travel right before that.
I’m not a NBA fan, and its the officiating that throws me off the most. I feel like it would be a much more entertaining game if players just went out and played instead of trying to get fouled and this and that. The officiating is so objective many times that it seems ridiculous. The best basketball to watch is when it gets to the last 5 minutes of a playoff game, where calls tend to not get made as much.
I actually think him “doing it the right way” at all times is a big reason people bash. When you do and say all the right things while micro managing exposure, people start to get skeptical.
Some things people forget: LeBron did run off Drew Gooden and said some pretty disparaging things about him in the process.
Two years ago he blasted his own teammates (he had every right to) by clamoring for changes to be made. Think about if you were on that team and imagine hearing that, knowing he could be talking about you.
So sometimes, when there’s a drumbeat of doing and saying the right things, it starts to sound hollow. I know a lot of people outside of Cleveland rolled their eyes at him doing his MVP presser from St V’s, just b/c they thought he went out of his way to “do and say the right thing.”
Just another perspective. I’m not saying it’s right.
Plus, the whole pre-game ritual thing has upset pretty much everyone outside of Cleveland..that at the rickrolling (even though Boston does something similar). It came off as a team who’s never won anything being poor sports and exceedingly cocky.
@Boomhauer (#16) — AMEN.
Ok, I’m back from lunch. Sorry.
Anyway, you guys make some good points. Hedo definitely traveled on that drive. Lebron walks pretty regularly as well, Ilgasuitsijki (I honestly don’t even know how to pronounce his name, let alone spell it) did as well. There are lots of travels. Pointing out when its not called is going to be the rule, hardly the exception.
Moving screens? Everyone does. EVERYONE. Its absurd.
Note, I’m not making excuses for when the Magic or anyone else violate the rules. All I’m suggesting is that they should be called with a lot more consistency regardless as to who is violating them.
If they aren’t going to call travels, thats fine. But let everyone be clear on the fact. Same with putting your shoulder down and driving through people as you drive to the basket. If thats not gonna be an offensive foul, thats fine. But make sure that everyone understands that it won’t be called.
I firmly believe that the arbitrary nature of the calls is what discredits this sport more than anything. I’m a die-hard NFL fan and watch the NBA only because there’s no football on TV. Don’t get me wrong, I think the NFL officials seriously blow games sometimes. (The last 2 Steeler superbowl wins, anyone? Are those guys EVER gonna win a title without obvious help from the refs?) But it isn’t nearly as subjective and arbitrary as the calls that go on in the NBA.
Actually Henry Abbott from Truehoop slowed Hedo’s travel down frame by frame and set according to the letter of the NBA law, it wasn’t a travel.
Cleveland Versus the Curse….
Lebron James is one of the best basketball players I’ve ever seen play — comparing season to season.
I enjoy seeing him play — although it would be nice if someone would acknowledge that he uses Performance Enhancing Drugs (Steroids, HGH, the Clear, The Cream, etc.).
Did a quick search of Michael Jordan when he was 23 years old (he scored 63 against the Celtics) — Here’s the picture:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/si/2009/writers/ian_thomsen/04/05/jordan/michael-jordan.jpg&imgrefurl=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/ian_thomsen/04/05/jordan/index.html&usg=__tYzItLe7haFQ0i5lY-sygUpBgP4=&h=410&w=298&sz=64&hl=en&start=15&um=1&tbnid=4MW-ZOq6QyX2PM:&tbnh=125&tbnw=91&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmichael%2Bjordan%2B%252B%2B24%2Byears%2Bold%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1
Now compare that to a picture of Lebron James at the same age:
http://myfutureinfocus.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/lebronjames.jpg
They should call me the Truth, not Paul Pierce.