Who Shot? JR: Cavaliers at Mavericks Behind the Box Score
March 11, 2015Cavs in-air team photo becomes instant highlight
March 11, 2015
Happy Wednesday, Blawg Pound. It’s no longer freezing outside. Rejoice! You can clap your hands without fear that your fingers will snap like candy canes under a steamroller. You can take a step and touch the actual ground instead of just ice. You can hear birds chirping without thinking what is wrong with you stupid animals.
Warm weather also means quicker movement, so let’s act accordingly and dispense with the pleasantries…
The NFL Offseason is fun?
The NFL doesn’t see big trades like Major League Baseball or the NBA, just middling players swapped for late-round draft picks. That’s an oversimplified and inaccurate perception, as there have been plenty of exceptions—Herschel Walker, Randy Moss, and Brett Favre are among major names who were traded—but football’s offseason is characterized more by free agency and the draft than trade activity.
It was a surprise, then, to see a flurry of significant NFL transactions on Tuesday. Pro Bowl tight end Jimmy Graham was traded from New Orleans to Seattle. Longtime Baltimore stalwart Haloti Ngata was shipped off to Detroit. The Rams and Eagles exchanged quarterbacks, with Nick Foles going to St. Louis and Sam Bradford to Philadelphia.
There were major signings, too. Despite rumors linking him to the Browns, Darrelle Revis signed a five-year, $70 million deal to return to the New York Jets after one season in New England. Former Browns cornerback Buster Skrine will join Revis in the Big Apple, having inked a four-year, $25 million contract. Former Raven wideout Torrey Smith agreed to a five-year deal with the San Francisco 49ers, while veteran running back Frank Gore left San Francisco for the Indianapolis Colts. Jake Locker retired at just 26 years old.
There will be plenty more moves made before training camp starts, including those of the NFL Draft, which WFNY’s Joe Gilbert has been diving into with the zeal of ten men. He started on the defensive side of the ball, with safeties, cornerbacks, and inside linebackers getting the deep dive treatment thus far. If you don’t know who America’s next supersized millionaires will be yet, stay tuned and he’ll set you right.
Um, the Browns didn’t do anything to improve their roster yesterday. But get excited for the big jersey reveal on April 14!
Browns announce their jersey reveal April 14 will air live on local TV.
— Zac Jackson (@AkronJackson) March 10, 2015
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Going Up on a Tuesday
Another Tuesday game, another Cavs win. The Wine and Gold have won four straight on Tuesdays, with last night’s 127-94 victory over the Mavericks in Dallas the latest. They beat the Boston Celtics a week ago Tuesday, won at Detroit on February 24, and also won in Detroit on January 27. For the Cavs’ last Tuesday loss, you have to go back to their 107-100 defeat at the hands of the Phoenix Suns on January 13.
The Cavs flat-out dominated the Mavericks last night. They played uptempo, unselfish ball, and sprinted away by outscoring the Mavs 73-45 in the second and third quarters. They threw down dunks, splashed threes, sank free throws, grabbed rebounds, and got that weak stuff outta there. Every single Cavalier posted a positive plus-minus rating, led by J.R. Smith’s plus-28. The starters alone combined to score 108 points, with Timofey Mozgov the only one with fewer than 20; he scored a measly 17.
Trips to Texas are fearsome propositions for NBA teams, and had been especially so for the Cavs recently. They had lost their previous 14 games in the Lone Star State against the Mavericks, Rockets, and Spurs. It’s a treat, then, to see the Cavs hurl that monkey off their back with such force before Thursday’s game in San Antonio.
Last night’s roadie in Dallas was the Cavs’ last regular season game on a Tuesday. The Cavs finish the regular season 7-3 on Tuesdays. As for how they fare the rest of the week:
Sunday: 4-4 (.500), with five games remaining (@ORL, @MIL, PHI, CHI, @BOS). Their last Sunday game was a kick-in-the-pills loss to the Houston Rockets on March 1.
Monday: 6-2 (.750), with two games remaining (@MIA, DET). Their last Monday game was a comfortable win against the Philadelphia 76ers on February 2, which extended their winning streak to 11 and moved them to 10 games above .500 for the first time.
Tuesday: 7-3 (.700), none remaining, as outlined above.
Wednesday: 5-5 (.500), four games remaining (BKN, @MEM, @MIL, WAS). Their last Wednesday game was last week’s victory over a Toronto Raptors team that went certifiably insane from the field in the second half.
Thursday: 4-4 (.500), two games remaining (@SAS, MIA). Their last Thursday game was a national TV win against the Golden State Warriors that served as a declaration of intent to the rest of the league.
Friday: 11-6 (.647), three games remaining (IND, @BKN, BOS). Their last Friday game was a recent loss in Atlanta in which the Hawks blitzed, trapped, and doubled the Cavs to death.
Saturday: 4-1 (.800), none remaining. Their last Saturday game was a mostly dominant and occasionally magical win over Phoenix last weekend.
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Connor “The Crusher” Michalek
I have, perhaps against my better judgment, not been shy about sharing my affinity for professional wrestling. It’s something I enjoyed as a kid, I got away from for a while, and that I have been pleasantly surprised to rediscover in my twenties.
But I don’t bring that up to talk about elbow drops or haymakers. I bring it up because, for as easy as it is to mock wrestling, it has the ability to tug on the heart strings as much as any “real” sport.
That happened this past Monday night on Raw, WWE’s flagship program. WWE announced the first-ever recipient of the Warrior Award, named after the Ultimate Warrior, a longtime superstar who passed away in 2014. The award honors “someone who has exhibited unwavering strength and perseverance, and who lives life with the courage and compassion that embodies the indomitable spirit of the late WWE Hall of Famer, The Ultimate Warrior.”
During his WWE Hall of Fame speech, Warrior espoused the virtues of the world’s everyday heroes, praising those who make an impact on and inspire passion in the lives of others. “Every man’s heart one day beats its final beat,” Warrior said, “And if what that man did in his life makes the blood pulse through the body of others, then his essence, his spirit…live forever.” It wasn’t quite Jim Valvano at the ESPYs, but it was in the ballpark.
The Ultimate Warrior, born James Hellwig, passed away three days later.
The first-ever Warrior Award was given to Connor Michalek. Connor, an enormous wrestling fan, was born in Hampton, Pennsylvania in 2005. At the age of four, he was diagnosed with pediatric brain cancer. When he was seven years old, he and his family made a YouTube video requesting to meet Daniel Bryan, his favorite wrestler.
The video made its way to WWE headquarters, and Connor’s dream became reality. He met Bryan and a host of other WWE superstars. He got to shake their hands and put them in chokeholds. He shared with them that his wrestling name was “The Crusher.”
He lived up to that billing by delivering a knockout right hand to the head of wrestler and real-life WWE Vice President Triple H. The Crusher pinned him in a real WWE ring, and a real WWE referee counted out a real 1-2-3 as scores of real pro wrestlers cheered him on from ringside.
The Crusher later sat in the front row at Wrestlemania and watched Bryan, his hero, win the championship belt in the main event. After holding up his belt in triumph and basking in the chants of the crowd during the most significant moment of his professional life, Bryan hopped out of the ring and made a beeline for Connor, embracing him and sharing with him the title moment as 75,000 fans in the Superdome roared in approval.
The Crusher, born Connor Michalek, passed away 19 days later.
There is now a foundation in his name—Connor’s Cure—that funds pediatric cancer research and provides aid for families in need, and which raised over $200,000 and helped 50 families in its first year alone.
And so, on Monday night, WWE presented its inaugural Warrior Award—named after one of the most legendary characters in the industry—not to a wrestler, not to an athlete, not to an entertainer, but to a child who embodied courage better than any of them ever could. He fought off cancer for half of his life. He achieved his dream of meeting his heroes. His memory lives on in the name of helping others. 20,000 wrestling fans stood and chanted his name Monday night, nearly a year after his passing.
You can’t tell me that’s not real.
Enjoy your day, gang. Thanks for reading. Go do something good.
11 Comments
The Browns must just be employing some free agency rope a dope–waiting for every other team to spend all of their money and then swoop in for the tasty remnants. What a plan. Those guys will sure look good in their new unis!
PS. As for little Connor ‘ s story, at least now I can say I’m a wrestling fan. Man,no lie….pediatric diseases hit your soul about a thousand times harder when you have kids. Goddam what a gut punch.
Did it get dusty in here…? Thanks for sharing that story Will.
I’m probably in the minority, but I’m okay with the Browns lack of interest in free agency so far. The only player I was really interested in was Suh because he’s the type of game changer you really don’t see hit the market, but he honestly wasn’t going to come here. And all the other signings? They’ve mostly been overpays that I’m completely fine avoiding.
This week’s episode of Raw was one of the worst I’ve seen in a long time. The Crusher piece was the best thing about it by far. This WM build-up has been atrocious, to say the least.
Aside from a couple segments (Orton-Rollins, Bray-Taker), I agree. It felt like they knew they had some good stuff chambered, so they spent about 2 1/2 hours going through the motions. My buddy Derek and I will have a new column on it up later today at http://www.sportsmonocle.com
I had issues with both those segments, though they were at least interesting.
The Orton turn (and his whole return really) has been very poorly executed. He shows up at Fastlane to help Rollins and befriend him for a couple weeks just so he can beat him up after a meaningless match on RAW? It’s one of those angles where you have to check your brain at the door to enjoy it. And I hate how Rollins has looked more and more like a cowardly idiot and less and less like a Machiavellian schemer.
And the Taker/Bray thing is a little too mid-90’s goofy for me. I guess you have to include some supernatural mumbo jumbo with Taker, but I’d leave it rather than take it. Plus, it’s hard to get excited knowing that the Deadman won’t actually show up until Mania. So it’s just Bray rambling until then.
I agree to some extent. Thought Suh and Revis were game changers. Also thought they weren’t realistic options for us. FA is fundamentally an overpay for teams primarily trying to get out of the cellar or to SB contention. We yet again have mor slots to fill than impact full draft picks (which may not even pan out based on our history). Why we aren’t landing DL, TE, LB, or CB help is puzzling. Like beyond just them being patient or whatever. Need to land a DT soon.
“It’s one of those angles where you have to check your brain at the door to enjoy it”
Done and done
We’ve missed out on Owen Daniels (meh) and Julius Thomas at TE. I would have liked Thomas, but $24M guaranteed is a lot so I won’t criticize for passing on him.
Not really sure about what DTs have been signed and which ones are still out there.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve got my pitchfork and torch handy. I’m just going to let most of free agency play out before I start burning stuff.
Nice coverage of Connor Michalek I was aware of his story last year. Connor might be gone but will never be forgotten!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUhzFCz2F98&t=25