500 Words on worrying about the 2018 NFL quarterback draft class
April 17, 2018A sweet homecoming for Francisco Lindor and an Indians win in Puerto Rico
April 18, 2018Happy Tuesday, WFNY!
I knew I was going to be writing this particular episode of While We’re Waiting (Season 10, Episode 82) in between Games 1 and 2 of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ opening-round series against the Indiana Pacers. I thought I was going to be writing about the Cavs being up 1-0 in the series. I certainly didn’t expect to be writing about them being down 0-1.
Yet, I was thinking about that this morning. I was asking myself, “Why?”. Why did I just expect the Cavaliers to be up? Sure, the Cavaliers had the better record, the better players, home court, playoff experience, LeBron James, etc, etc, etc.
Ok, I guess I answered my own question there. Clearly, this is a series the Cavaliers should win. It is a series I think they will win, I haven’t changed my feelings on that based on one game. However, it’s also true that all season long we’ve been waiting for …something. First, we were waiting for Isaiah Thomas to be able to play. Then, we were waiting for the team to click with Isaiah. Then we were waiting for the trade deadline to shake things up. Then we were waiting for chemistry to develop with the new guys. Then we were waiting for everyone to get healthy. But all along, we’ve really been waiting for this team to show us that “it” factor.
I’ve watched a lot of basketball in my life and I’ve seen many different kinds of teams. I think talent matters more in basketball than probably any other major sport. Yet there’s also another intangible quality to the truly great teams. When former GM David Griffin made the brash move to fire David Blatt despite the team having the best record in the conference, Griffin cited a “lack of connectedness” and a “lack of spirit”. I knew exactly what he meant, and I’ve felt it with this team all year. That lack of spirit has been a looming problem and the giant elephant in the room. It seems like Kyrie Irving’s out of the blue trade request just sucked the air out of the team and they’ve never been able to fully recover. Combined with the constant talk of LeBron leaving after this season, it feels like many of the team have been hesitant to fully commit 100%.
To be clear, this is not an overreaction to Game 1 of the Pacers series. I suspect the Cavaliers will be fine in this series. I think there’s a pretty good chance they come out on fire in Game 2 on Wednesday and take care of business and then everyone will feel better about the team. Winning and losing in the playoffs is like that. The Philadelphia 76ers win their Game 1 and everyone is talking about them being the team to beat in the East. They lose Game 2, and suddenly Joel Embiid is talking to the media about how he’s tired of being babied and it seems like the Sixers, the hottest team in the NBA over the last month, are suddenly in disarray. That’s how these things tend to work. The playoffs are a wild swing of emotions with every single win and loss.
But I’m not talking about Game 1 specifically. Yes, I think Game 1 showed evidence of the lack of spirit I’m referring to, but in general, over this entire season, everyone has been telling themselves the Cavaliers will be fine. But what if they’re not?
It’s been said that the Cavs will be fine when Isaiah returns. Then it wasn’t. It would be fine when they had time to gel. Then it wasn’t. It would be fine after they traded half the team at the deadline. Then it wasn’t. It would be fine once the playoffs started. In Game 1, it wasn’t. Now we say it’ll be fine starting with Game 2. Unless it isn’t.
This year’s Cavs team has been one of the hardest teams in my lifetime to figure out. Certainly, the hardest team to understand since we started this website. I can’t seem to shake this seemingly unbreakable confidence that they’re going to work it all out and be in the Finals. but I’ll admit, the first quarter of Game 1 was especially baffling.
The point is, I guess, that we’re running out of time to be right. We’re running out of opportunities for this team to click and for them to play the way we all think they are capable of playing. Game 2 of the first round is not a must-win game for the Cavaliers, but it is a chance for them to come out with more assertiveness and with more connectedness and with more spirit.
It will all be fine. Starting with Game 2 (I think).
Social Media Awards Generate Social Media Criticism
Finally, I just wanted to bring this up because it’s honestly one of the best things I’ve seen in quite some time and it had me rolling with laughter.
Over the weekend, we had something called The Shorty Awards take place. Evidently, the Shorty Awards is an award show in which people somehow decide to give awards to things like Emoji of the Year (Unicorn), Meme of the Year (Distracted Boyfriend, obviously), Snapchatter of the Year (Spencer Pratt?), and on and on.
You know, I try to be cognizant of my age and the fact that, sure, there are going to start being things that I simply don’t get. And what’s the harm in a bunch of people getting together to have fun and celebrate the people who use social media to build their own brands and whatnot, right?
But I have a really hard time with this one. Part of it is because, for all the good intentions of social media, it has created a culture of toxicity, where it is ok to treat people like absolute garbage. Part of it is a general repulsion by award shows in general, especially for things as purely subjective as art and creativity. Part of it is the way social media celebrity is training our youth to chase attention and to do anything to be viral and get famous, to focus on lifestyle over education.
Anyway, apparently actor Adam Pally agrees with me. Somehow the Shorty Awards decided to invite Pally to present a couple awards. Why not, right? Pally is funny, he’s engaging on social media, he seems like the perfect fit. Apparently, nobody thought to find out if he thinks there is any real value in this kind of award show, though.
The results were, well, interesting to say the least. Pally was visibly in agony as he was asked to introduce the nominees in a category for Corporate Campaign via Instagram or something like that. Then, after the award was presented to the winner (Congrats, GoPro!) and some awkward technical difficulties, Pally was then tasked with presenting an In Memoriam feature mourning the loss of social media platforms. Yeah.
Pally’s who presentation is in the video below (warning, there is some NSFW language in the video, but make sure you keep watching even after it initially seems like he’s been cut off after the first award because they do go back to him for the In Memoriam segment):
I get a laugh over the recognition of the conundrum Pally’s presentation put the organizers the show in. On one hand, I’m sure they wanted to cut him off sooner as he was out there absolutely slaying the whole show, but it was also creating a viral moment in real time, and, well, how can a show about virality not let things play out a bit?
Again, I recognize I am not the target audience for a show like this. I didn’t watch the show, nor did I know it even existed. I found out about Pally’s performance on …well, social media. How’s that for irony? The point is, though, I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade. Most of this is harmless self-congratulating that goes on in every single industry. I’m sure the annual Real Estate Award ceremonies in markets across America are equally pointless and painful for people outside that industry.
But there was something genuinely funny about Pally’s deadpan performance and he goes at something that does tend to take itself a little too seriously. And when he bemoans a girl quitting Engineering School to play video games, he has a point there, too. Not that entertainment and art in video games don’t have any societal value, they do. If you don’t believe me, do a Google search of the game Hellblade and read about the ways it has brought awareness to topics of depression and suicide and how it has helped people come to terms with their own depression. But there’s a world of value to society in education and discovery, things being marginalized by the chase for celebrity.