Johnny Manziel, Browns season over, plus True Detective – WFNY Podcast – 2014-12-30
December 30, 2014LeBron James Comes Home — WFNY’s Top 10 Cleveland Sports Stories of 2014: No. 1
December 30, 2014It is LeBron James’ 30th birthday, so let’s set aside all gripes about the Cavs for a moment. Let’s forget all the rumors and lukewarm endorsements and puzzling quotes and overall weirdness that have inspired no less an NBA authority than Grantland’s Zach Lowe to write that “it’s no fun watching this team play, covering it, or following the coverage.”
It’s a birthday! It’s a celebration! How about some birthday wishes in enough languages to satisfy even the most aspiring global icon:
Feliz cumpleaños (Spanish), bon anniversaire (French), feliz aniversário (Portuguese), vill gléck fir däi gebuertsdag (Luxembourgish), gelukkige verjaarsdag (Afrikaans), Χρόνια Πολλά (Greek), 生日快樂 (Mandarin), 생일 축하합니다 (Korean). お誕生日おめでとうございます (Japanese). If that’s not enough, you can find more birthday greetings here.
Okay, that should do the trick. Now, moving on to actual basketball things: The Cavs play the Hawks Tuesday night in Atlanta in what will be Lebron’s seventh career birthday game. With that in mind, let’s look at how LeBron has performed on birthdays past.
2003: Cavs vs Pacers
LeBron had a solid showing in his birthday debut, scoring 22 points in a 92-89 defeat. Carlos Boozer contributed 17 points and 11 boards, buoyed by the fact that he still had a soul back then. A relatively young Jermaine O’Neal and the former Ron Artest paced Indiana with 21 and 18 points, respectively.
2006: Cavs at Bulls
LeBron notched 33 points and 9 rebounds in a 103-96 Cavalier loss. He shot 15-of-26 from the floor, including 3-of-4 on threes. Larry Hughes was the Cavs second-leading scorer with 15. The Chicago bench bunch of Ben Gordon, PJ Brown, and Malik Allen combined for 44 points in leading the Bulls to victory. 2006 feels very, very long ago.
2008: Cavs at Heat
LeBron had another big game, scoring 38 points on 12-of-24 shooting in 43 minutes. Alas, the Heat prevailed 104-95, handing the Cavs just their fifth loss of the season. Miami bested both Cleveland’s rebound and assist totals by nine, and four Heat players scored 13 or more. Also, Dwyane Wade may have given LeBron a cake injected with mind control serum.
2009: Cavs vs Hawks
LeBron’s first NBA birthday win, 106-101. The Cavs extended their winning streak to six games as LeBron went off for 48 points on 15-of-23 shooting. Joe Johnson put up 35 of his own, but it wasn’t enough to get Atlanta over the hump. Mo Williams added 14, and Shaquille O’Neal had 11 before making a beeline for the post-game cake.
2011: Heat at Timberwolves
LeBron’s first birthday on the dark side. He had perhaps his best all-around birthday effort, totaling 34 points, 10 assists, 8 rebounds, and 4 steals. His future teammate Kevin Love led the Wolves with 25 and 12. In something of an oddity, five different Minnesota bench players scored in double figures.
2013: Heat at Nuggets
Another fine performance by the birthday boy: 26 points, 10 assists, and 6 rebounds for LeBron. Mario Chalmers somehow scored 10 points despite making just one field goal, ensuring at least one yelling at-free evening. JJ Hickson’s plus-minus of -17 was a game-worst.
LeBron is 3-3 on his birthday in his career, with his teams averaging a net margin of -1.5. He is averaging 33.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 6.7 assists in 40.2 minutes, predictably strong numbers. His shooting has been terrific, at least on field goals: 56/47/71 splits for a 64.2 true shooting percentage.1
LeBron loves a big stage, and it’s reasonable to expect a big performance in Atlanta. Lord knows we could all use something good to take our mind off of the bad stuff for a while.
So, Happy Birthday, LeBron! Now show us your gifts.
- Tip of the cap to WFNY’s Jacob Rosen, aka #JakeyStats. [↩]
4 Comments
I specifically remember exactly where I was and what I was doing for the ’09 game against the Hawks. I was at a Buffalo Wild Wings somewhere in North Carolina (I want to say Raleigh, although I lived in Wilmington), I was drinking Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat, and I had just come to the conclusion that it tasted like Fruity Pebbles, without reading the label, I might add. I was quite proud of that, as I had racked my brain for the first 3 quarters and 7 beers before finally realizing what it tasted like. Anyhow, not mentioned above is the fact that Anderson Varejao hit the only 3 pointer of his career that game. It was late in the shot clock and it either won or iced the game. I can’t quite remember which. I was the lone Cavs fan in the joint and I blew my lid. It was awesome.
That’s fantastic. Thanks for sharing. That beverage sounds like a perfect pairing for these LeBron kicks: http://nikelebron.net/tag/fruity_pebbles/
Cavs need him tonight in every capacity!
Here it is. So amazing. It’s the purest 3 pointer of all time, lol. No rim, no nothing. Even the sound it makes when it hits is nothing short of musical.
http://youtu.be/rAGLNKFSSDE