Cavs beat Celtics, 87-79, to advance to their fourth straight NBA Finals
May 28, 2018Browns Film Room: OL Austin Corbett’s strengths
May 28, 2018LeBron James has absolutely nothing to prove ever again. That’s my prevailing thought the morning after he and his Cavaliers teammates defeated the Celtics in Game 7 of the 2018 Eastern Conference Finals. It’s increasingly difficult to talk about LeBron James. He’s not only done it all so that everything feels like it’s been said about him, but he has done it all at such a superlative level that you run out of effective modifiers to describe his accomplishments. This year’s victory was truly superlative.
I’m not one who thinks the Cavaliers team is as awful as everyone else in the world thinks it is. With a little bit of experience and time, I think these role players could blossom around LeBron James. There’s no Kyrie Irving walking through that door, but there are some guys with potential who are all 25 or under with little NBA experience. I think there’s a chance for them to become a part of the future, but in the present, LeBron’s workload was clearly outsized, especially when you consider that Kevin Love basically missed the last two games of the series getting knocked out of Game 6 in the first quarter and then missing Game 7 altogether.
And so LeBron James and the Cavaliers are headed to the NBA Finals to play either the Houston Rockets with their two superstars or the Golden State Warriors with their two-plus superstars. LeBron James will have to have his most superlative career performance if he’s going to get the Cavaliers over the top and deliver another parade to Cleveland. It’s not likely and it won’t be a favored outcome by the time the lines are set in Vegas, but anything is possible with LeBron James.
Even saying that and believing it, it doesn’t feel like enough. So I go back to my first statement. LeBron James has nothing to prove ever again. It’s all spectacle at this point. Keep adding on to that impossible list of achievements and accomplishments. Keep defying the odds and making people feel silly for doubting at any level.
Damarious Randall is a sports fan like you.
So, I will admit that this tweet isn’t necessarily the smartest thing you can do. Damarious Randall doesn’t have to become a Cleveland fan because Jimmy Haslam now signs his paychecks. It’s ludicrous to think that a guy who was traded to Cleveland would abandon his favorite teams. At the same time, Randall probably didn’t know exactly what level of vitriol was headed back in his direction when he tweeted the following after LeBron James and the Cavaliers locked up their NBA Finals berth.
https://twitter.com/RandallTime/status/1000939583901757442
The thing that gives Cleveland fans a bad name is that we take shots like this as if someone punched our mothers. Bomani Jones has talked about how different Cleveland fans are with their defensiveness and willingness to go over the top whenever someone attacks us. There are a variety of reasons for it, but it doesn’t change the fact that we really do go too far. I’ve been that guy looking to say the most hurtful things I could to people I’ve disagreed with.
Even if Demarious Randall earned some vitriol with the way he blatantly trolled on Twitter, it would be nice if more of us in Cleveland could just ignore stuff we don’t like or otherwise take the high road.
CHVRCHES is back…
I like CHVRCHES a great deal, but I didn’t love their last album. It had a few really good songs, but overall I didn’t love it. I’ve only just started listening to Love is Dead, their latest, but so far I think it’s really good. Enjoy Graffiti on this Memorial Day.