The Sports Guru

Theeeeey’re Baaaack!!! And so am I!!! I have been focusing all my time on the football side, over at The MHR, and have inexplicably ignored this site. But no more, as the Cavs got their 2006-2007 basketball season underway with a virtual repeat of 6 playoff games they played last season with teh Washington Wizards. Let me just say this, I don;t know whether I’ll be able to handle 81 more of these. The game had a playoff feel, and the intensity is definitely there. Everything that was absent from the Miami Heat was evident in the Cavs. Energy, intensity, and most importantly hunger. The Cavs looked hungry. It’s just awesome to have basketball back, especially with expectations so high. here are some of my thoughts about last nights game…

1. LeBron looks as fresh as ever. I was a bit concerned after D-Wade let out that he was fighting exhaustion from all the games he has had to play the past 12 months. Now, LeBron is a bigger guy, more equipped to take the beating that D-Wade endures night in and night out, but still it was nice to see LeBron have a jump in his step. It was also great to see LBJ only play 40 mintues in a game as closely contested as this one was. Last season James would have played 48 minutes without blinking an eye.

2. How good is Larry Hughes? What a night for Hughes, who played like the guy the Cavs gave 60 Mil to last season. Damn near a triple-double and tough as nails defense on Gilbert Arenas(more on him in a bit). I’ll admit, when I watched him limp back to the locker room I was a bit concerned, but relieved when it turned out to be leg cramps. Even more than the points and defense was a calming influence he brought to the court when he was in the game. If Hughes can be an effective force when LeBron is getting a blow that would go a long way towards the Cavs winning alot of games, and LeBron being ready when April rolls around.

3. Gilbert Arena hasn’t gotten over his playoff failures. I can’t say collapse becuase Gilbert was money in that series until he stepped to the line and LeBron psyched him out. Gilbert had that same blank stare in his eyes the entire game, and after starting 0-9 from the field, Arenas finished 2-12, 7 points. Ouch. The Wiz are going to need Arenas to get his head screwed back on if they are going to do anything this season.

4. Would anyone out there NOT want Eton Thomas on their team? A force on defense, not afraid to bang with anyone, and every now and then can drop a 7-7 on ya with 14 points. The anti-Brendan Haywood played well last night, and essentially kept a team with much bigger names and several more zeros on their paychecks, in the game. Withour Thomas, who also blocked several shots around the basket, the Cavs would have blown this game wide open.

5. Mike Brown has got to get this team to practice Free Throws, or else. Less than 50% from the line is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE, and mark it down, I’m saying it now, if the Cavs don;t get the FT woes figured out, and soon, it is going to cost them — BIG TIME. Another reason this game was so close. The Cavs left 15 points at the line. They might have won last night, but I guaruntee you that their record in games that they miss 15 free throws will be under .500

In the end, though, it was a W, and a great way to start the season. Next up is a tough matchup with the Spur in San Antonio, and a true guage as to where this team is early in the season….

Technorati Tags: NBA, Cavs, LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers, Washington Wizards, Gilbert Arenas, Eton Thomas

Ok, so this might not be Broncos specific, but I do have the Samsung ACE and I love the service. Well, according to Money.com, the service will be no more, as soon as today. Hmmm, does that let me out of my contract???

Another Great Idea Ahead Of It’s Time.

Technorati Tags: ESPN, ESPN Mobile

Every year you hear the stories.  For every one guy that makes it in the NBA there are about 50 that don’t.  Only 1st Round picks receive guarunteed contracts and there are always players that stay in the draft based on horrible advice, end up not getting drafted, and find themselves in a foreign country or worse out of the game entirely. 

Lenny Cooke is one such story.  Cooke was a Blacktop Legend in New York City and New Jersey.  He played in AAU tournaments with the best.  Carmello Anthony, Shannon Brown, LeBron James.  Cooke had no problem telling everyone that he was the best.  He once challeneged Kobe Bryant to a game of 1-on-1 at a summer camp that Bryant was attending as a speaker to the players.

Like James, Cooke was a freak for his age.  Rising 6′6, weighing in at 230, mostly muscle, Cooke easily dominated smaller competition.  Unlike James, however, Cooke was relying on bad advice.  He struggled through school.  While LeBron was receiving national attention, with his high school games being played in college arenas, televised on ESPN2, Cooke was transferring through six high schools.  When colleges came calling with scholarships, Cooke refused to listen.  Even LeBron went through the paces and has often said he would have went to Duke or North Carolina had he been froced to go to college.

Cooke and Lebron faced each other often on AAU teams, with Cooke doing all the talking off the court while James used his game to do the talking.  James dominated Cooke, but Lenny still felt he was the better of the two, the people he trusted told him so. 

Too young, too immature for the NBA, Cooke went undrafted in the 2002 draft.  He was invited to play in the summer leagues but had trouble remembering the plays and soon was left behind.  Suddenly Cooke found himself alone, all of people he trusted gone.

Cooke has since bounced around and I had lost track of him until today when I cam accross this article in the New York Daily News.  It seems Cooke was in a serious car accident almost 2 years a go that nearly ended his life.  He has battled back, and at the tender age of 23 is looking for another chance to reach his dream.

We have run out of adjectives to describe LeBron.  To say he is wise beyond his years is an understatement.  LeBron had something else goiong for him.  He had people that truly cared about him watching out for him.  Controlling who came into contact with him.  His mother made sure he satyed out of trouble and he had friends, real friends that were there before LeBron was, well, LeBron.

People also criticized the NBA for putting in an age limit.  They use LeBron as an example for their argument.  For every LeBron, though, there are dozens of Lenny Cooke’s.  Young men that don’t have that support system.  I say the NBA got it right.

Good Luck Lenny, I’m pulling for ya. 

Maybe I am a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to sports, maybe I am just a little weird.  Not getting the chance to get to many games I rely on the TV and Radio broadcasts to make me feel like part of the action.  I become nearly as affiliated to the voice I hear everygame as I do to the team itself.  It’s for that reason the the ouster of Cavaliers TV voice Michael Reghi is so disturbing to me.  Reghi brought knowledge and energy to the broadcast, and his energetic calls of everything LeBron James became a nightly occurrence on SportsCenter.

Maybe more disturbing to me is the replacement for Reghi.  Dan Gilbert FSN Ohio is bringing in Fred McLeod, former cable voice of the Detroit Pistons.  We all know Cavs owner Dan Gilbert hails from Michigan and has been a longtime season ticket holder of the Pistons.  He has copied alot of the presentation and gimmick found at a Pistons home game right down to the annoying P.A. guy. 

Fans talk all the time about loyalty, but everyday we see in the real world that the term is just a P.R. statement used when times are tough.  Reghi has been the voice of the Cavs for 12 years.  Those 12 years have been some of the worst years in team history.  Finally, with the team finally breaking out they dump Reghi in favor of a Detroit homer, just what Cleveland needs….

Though no formal statement has been made there is no doubt that the team grew incresingly annoyed with Reghi’s brash commentary, that at times was critical of the Cavs and the organization.  Unfortunitely the team doesn’t realize that most fans WANT that type of coverage from the TV/Radio team.  Sometimes longevity allows those freedoms, similar to what Joe Tait and Tom Hamilton(Cavs and Indians Radio, respectively)enjoy.  I guess a dozen years wasn’t long enough for Reghi.

Looks like I’ll have to turn down the sound and turn up Tait.  This may not affect them on the floor, but the Cavs got a little worse today.

Thanks to my man Brian Windhorst at the Akron-Beacon Journal and most recently ESPN.com(Hope he stays right where he is at the ABJ), LeBron James’ official birth-certificate has been seen, finally putting to rest all of the Danny Almonte stories.  You can check it out Here.

Great investigative work, Brian.  Now if we could only find out who killed Kennedy!