No Love for Cleveland, Example #582,193

In recapping the Lakers' loss to the Suns last night, the Game notes included the following little item: "Phoenix has a victory over the teams with the three best records in the league -- the Lakers, Boston and Orlando." Incidentally, L.A. is 24-6 (.800 winning percentage), Boston is 23-7 (.767), and Orlando is 22-8 (.733). Funnily enough, though, Cleveland is 24-8 (.750), a full game better than Orlando (and neither team played last night, so it's not like that is a sudden shift). I guess that would mean that the three best teams in the league are L.A., Boston, and Cleveland, not Orlando. And in the two (and only) games Cleveland and Phoenix have already played this year, Cleveland handily won both games. So I guess Phoenix hasn't won games over the top three teams in the league this year, and I guess Cleveland has once again been overlooked.

Amazing what a little research can do.

For the Record....

I remember numbers 8, 7, and 5 through 1, and each one still stings. But when I get to number one, it's still a pain you can't even begin to describe - I still fill with a wistful, morose perspective, pondering what could have been if Fernandez hadn't committed that error...(which speaks to how much I love baseball, how much an Indians championship would mean to me, and how pathetic my life actually is).

*Sigh*...............

Your 2009 NBA Finals Champions - The Cleveland Cavaliers!

Clearly, Orlando's 4-2 series win over Cleveland in the Eastern Conference finals was tainted. The only solution is to declare Cleveland the victor, the NBA Finals void, and give the NBA title to the Cavaliers.

After all, it seems that's the only way the city of Cleveland will ever get a championship....

This Is Why I Quit Watching Basketball in the First Place

Shorter NBA: An elbow to the throat or head will always result in an automatic ejection/suspension.

Except when it doesn't.

An NBA Finals First

There are a lot of great things about the Cavs being in the finals (it's their first time in team history, which is always special; they came together well before anyone expected, as not one "expert" put them in the NBA finals; Lebron finally taking that big-time leap to super-stardom, both in playing and in leadership; the emergence of Daniel Gibson; the Cleveland-San Antonio matchup gets us away from this crappy "need" for it to be "big market" teams in order for the finals to be interesting; the opportunity to see how the best player in the world [Lebron] will do against what may be the best team in the world; etc.).

Brazil is loving the Cavs' arrival, too. Why? Because Anderson Varejão of the Cavs is the first Brazilian player to ever appear in the NBA finals. The globalization of basketball has been nothing but good for the sport, and Varejão's appearance marks another positive in the NBA's efforts to expand globally.

GO CAVS!!