I’ve never seen such pure train-on-train hatred like this before. You would think one actual freight train would respect another metaphorical freight train enough to not let this be plastered all over its side, but I guess chivalry is dead and an angry freight train is just the same as an angry Guantanamo Bay prisoner.
Painting the sides of trains still seems to be popping. Good to know.
(via Reddit)
I’m not really sure exactly how to get in to this, but Dion Waiters is very confident in his skating skills and he wants to prove it to Kyrie Irving. Yep, that works.
From his journal at Dime Magazine:
I still haven’t gone out yet in Cleveland, though. I just go to practice, come home, chill. That’s pretty much it, every day, all day, so I haven’t been out yet. I did go out bowling and played pool a couple of times, but that’s pretty much it. I’m looking for a skating rink out here. Kyrie told me there’s one about 30 minutes from him so I’m probably going to go one day. I don’t know if Kyrie really knows how to skate, like I really know how to skate. He probably can skate a little though.
Can someone please let Dion Waiters know where the best skating rink in or around Cleveland is so that he and Kyrie Irving can settle this skating dispute like men? And can someone please take a video camera with them to film it so we can all weigh in? Thanks in advance. Winner takes on Rajon Rondo in a roller skating death match.
Oh, and if you’re wanting to make jokes about his last name being Waiters and how the servers at Sonic wear skates, please do so in the comments. Very much looking forward to that.
Join me as I count down my predictions of the regular season finishes for the 2012-13 NBA season, at a rate of three teams per day. Tell me why I’m wrong in the comments.
27. Phoenix Suns
In the first season of the post-Nash era, Suns GM Lon Babby is wisely stockpiling draft picks and trying to create cap flexibility so that they can return to being an annual contender, as they were from the mid- to late-2000s. This season should be a difficult one in Phoenix as Goran Dragic is a significant dropoff from Nash, no matter what you think of Dragic’s skills, and there’s little reason to believe the Suns won’t have a team defense in the bottom third of the league once again.
Free agent signee Michael Beasley figures to take over the role of alpha scorer on this team, claiming, “This is the first time I’ve really been encouraged to shoot even more than I already do, and we all know that I shoot a lot.” Yeah, we sure do, Beas. This will not turn out well.
26. Cleveland Cavaliers
The 2012-13 edition of the Cavaliers have the look of a team who could get off to a brutal start to the season. Kyrie Irving has been shooting poorly in preseason as he recovers from a broken hand, rookie shooting guard Dion Waiters has struggled so far, and eight of the players on their roster have no more than one season of NBA experience. Regardless, Irving is an All-Star talent and he’ll likely remind us of that fact by the end of the season.
Anderson Varejao’s return after missing 41 games with a wrist injury last season should bolster the Cavs’ interior defence, assuming the league’s new anti-flopping rule doesn’t significantly reduce his effectiveness. Depending on how the first half of this season goes, Varejao and the $17.3 million remaining on the final two years of his contract could go on the trading block as the Cavs are following a similar strategy to what the Suns are trying to do — banking future picks and clearing cap space for future potential acquisitions.
25. Sacramento Kings
There is no better example than the Sacramento Kings of how misleading traditional counting stats can be. We see a team with three players who each averaged over 16 points per game last season (Marcus Thornton, DeMarcus Cousins and Tyreke Evans), that was sixth in the NBA in points per game, and that plays a fast-paced, run-and-gun style — and some of us might think that they could turn into the new “Seven Seconds or Less” success story. Aside from the fact that current-day versions of Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion in their primes are not walking through that door, there are other problems in Sactown.
Cousins seems to be a virtual lock to average 20 points and 10 rebounds per game this season, but those will be empty numbers if he can’t shoot closer to 50 percent from the field and if he doesn’t dedicate himself to becoming at least a decent defender. The Kings finished 29th in points allowed per 100 possessions last season, and Cousins will need to become more of a presence in the post if they’re going to significantly improve in that category. Meanwhile, Evans needs to shake his reputation as a shooting guard who can’t shoot — he made just 27.7 percent of his shot attempts from beyond five feet from the rim last season.
Previously in the countdown: 30-28
Next in the countdown: 24-22
I know it is more fun to make fun of the Cavaliers’ front office than to give them daps, but I think we need to look at what they’re doing for the upcoming season and give them some applause. Because this, my friends, is pretty genius.
Other scheduled promotions for the season include “Mayan Calendar Survivors Night” on Dec. 21, the day the Mayan’s predicted the world would end, that is slated to be “the biggest party in Cleveland,” when the Cavaliers host Indiana.
Promotional giveaways include “The Christmas Story” Bobble Leg Lamp on Dec. 5 against Chicago, a Kyrie Irving Bobblehad on March 4 against New York, and the ever-popular Wild Thing (Anderson Varejao) Wig on Jan. 5 against Houston.
My aunt and uncle go to the house from “A Christmas Story” — located in Cleveland, which is why this is a thing — every couple of years and they even have a full-size leg lamp that they bring out every Christmas, so this is going to go over pretty well in their household. I am not joking when I suggest that there’s a chance they’d drive to Cleveland for a bobbleleg. Based only on this completely personal connection to two people I am related to, it certainly sounds like there’s a market for this. I’m totally on board for this.
The other big one in there, “Mayan Calendar Survivors Night,” is just hilarious. It definitely has the potential for some “Disco Demolition Night” disaster, where people take things a little too far, but it’s still a funny idea. Especially when you consider “the biggest party in Cleveland” is scheduled for a night between teams from Ohio and Indiana. I bet they understand the irony.
Plus, the Cavs have new alternate jerseys for home games that look pretty nice, if you’re a fan of mustard. Good things are happening in Cleveland.
I have bad news for Osama Bin Laden’s former translator besides the fact that he has been imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay for more than four years — things betwixt LeBron James and the state of Ohio are starting to get smoothed over. There may longer be no need for an apology because things are starting to seem peachy keen.
From the Akron Beacon Journal:
Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic also unveiled the newest honor to Akron’s most famous resident — blue and white signs that will be posted at nine major entrances to Akron that proclaim the city his home.
“For my money, he’s the greatest Akronite because he cares about Akron,” Plusquellic said.
Uh oh. If Akron has already forgiven LeBron — and their mayor considers him the greatest Akronite who has ever Akroned — then Cleveland can’t be far behind. In fact, according to Google Maps, they are only 46 minutes behind, which means I have to rewrite this story in an hour. Things change so quickly around here.
But really, I think this kind of proves that people in LeBron’s hometown aren’t quite as mad as everyone thought they might be. Sure, there were definitely some people who were heated, but the vitriol never approached Cleveland levels. Even if he did leave the Cavaliers (I checked and it’s true that he did), they still love the fact that there’s an NBA champion with three MVPs and two gold medals who grew up there.
And why wouldn’t you be proud of that? That’s totally something to be proud of. All my hometown has is that it’s the birthplace of the automatic corn harvester and it served as the set of Smallville in the new Superman movie. Yeah, the last one might be pretty cool, but after dead Marlon Brando showed up in “Superman Returns,” I’m going to wait until next summer before really being happy about it.
If you were thinking that nearly two years after he left the Cavaliers for the Heat, LeBron James wasn’t such a bad word in Ohio, you’re wrong. My evidence for this assumption is that picture you see up there, which doubles as an online ad from a worker rights group called Workers’ Voice.
My further evidence comes from their website.
As Game Four of the NBA finals tips off Tuesday night, Workers’ Voice has released the content of a new advertising campaign that highlights US Senate candidate Josh Mandel and the FBI investigation into contributions to his campaign. The ads play off the famous Nike “Witness” ads that featured Lebron James during his tenure as a Cleveland Cavalier. [...]
The ads will also be targeted toward people searching on Google and Bing for information on Game 4 and/or Lebron James who, like Josh Mandel, has been accused of being unable to do the job he was hired for in Ohio, and wanted to take his “talents” elsewhere.
Oh man, double zing right here. Not only did Josh Mandel get zinged, so did LeBron James. Now anyone who searches for LeBron on Google or Bing (haha, Bing) will forever associate him with a guy who may have accepted questionable contributions to his campaign. That is a deep burn.
I have absolutely no familiarity with the political landscape in Ohio, except that it is always important in presidential elections. That being said, I think everybody who can should vote for Josh Mandel’s opponent, Sherrod Brown, because his side is the side that is using a basketball joke for political gains. Either that or learn about “the issues.” Your call, Ohioans.
(via Waiting for Next Year)
From the people who brought you last year’s fantastic “Let’s Go CMavs” shirt, GV Art and Design, comes another anti-Heat t-shirt, this one backing the Thunder with a smart mashup called “OKCLE.” High fives, again, for this one.
Just like last season’s shirt, this year’s design puts a quality spin on the Heat hate, tweaking it just enough to make the design not entirely negative. Of course Cavalier fans are going to root against the Heat, but if they can do so by rooting hard for another team, that’s way more fun. Only catch I can see is that the “we are not going to steal your Thunder, only borrow it” tagline might be misinterpreted as a Seattle dig, when I really just think it’s trying to say Cavs fans are backing OKC without trying to be over the top about it. Tough line to toe.
The shirts are available from GV Art and Design’s online store for $25, if you’re so inclined. The shirt might be entirely pointless in a couple weeks, but I feel like it’d be pretty easy for a Clevelander to get 25 bucks worth of use out of it. Here’s hoping the Heat keep making Finals appearances because these shirts are excellent.
