News, Notes and New Blue Jerseys? - Monday, January 5th
Posted January 4th, 2009 by Michael Curry
Just a few extra things to start your NBA week. Not so much a week in review, more just some things I’ve been wanting to talk about.
- It took a while to get an official word, but yes, the Cavs will be wearing blue “throwback” jerseys to complement the blue-jerseyed Daniel Gibson bobblehead in Wednesday’s game against the Bobcats. I think the red piping is a mistake, but otherwise the jersey gets dangerously close to the old San Franciso Warriors jerseys.
- The team shop has also been selling white versions of the jersey (with blue numbers and letters). Is that look also in the future?
- I’m not sure what exactly LeBron is watching when he says he didn’t travel on that last play against the Wizards. If he had landed with a clean jump stop, maybe I buy it, but a two-point jump stop and two extra steps is a traveling violation. But you have to admire his argumentative skills, calling it a “crab step” almost legitimizes it. I guess that PowerAde commercial wasn’t that far off.
- The Cavs are currently playing without much fire, which I would attribute to too much time in the comforts of home around the holidays. Anyone can get lazy at this time of year, and the Cavs certainly fit that description. LeBron is just as guilty as anyone, as part of being a good leader is getting your team focused when they don’t want to be. Mike Brown has also been a bit soft of late, evidenced by Delonte West’s talk about giggling his way through recent practices. The Cavs need to tighten it up, and they know that. It’s just a matter of doing the work.
- That being said, the Celtics are also scuffling, losing four out of their last six to teams like the Golden State Warriors and New York Knicks. The Celtics, like the Cavaliers, were clearly reading their own press and took the foot off the gas over the holiday season. And I ask, “how is this possible?” I thought Kevin Garnett, that ever-passionate, ever-hungry leader of men was the kind of inspiration that wouldn’t allow his teammates to get complacent and lethargic. I thought he was molding Rajon Rondo into a hall-of-fame point guard, not a guy who scores three measely points in a 12-point loss to the Knicks. How could this be?
- I’m not saying that the Celtics aren’t great; I’m just using this as an opportunity to point out that the so-called common knowledge that the national media assaults us with constantly (KG never takes a game off, Michael Jordan never took a game off, etc.) just isn’t true. Over an 82-game schedule, teams and players go through ups and downs. Players get lazy, they stop practicing as hard, they lose to an inferior team that wants it more. But all of that gets cleaned up in the history books if you win championships. If you win, you’re a winner, if you lose, you’re a loser. Situations and circumstances be damned, we don’t have time for that level of analysis.
- Speaking of the Celtics, the possibility of Stephon Marbury becoming a Celtic is getting a lot of play. Apparently the Celtics are interested, which I guess means that Doc Rivers thinks his team needs to be handicapped by distractions in order to make it fair for the other teams. It’s almost like people don’t remember that Sam Cassell was much more of a hinderance than a help for the Celtics last year, because for every big shot he made, he took two shots that he had no business taking. Cassell was an inefficient scorer on a team that prided itself on efficient scoring - he was the exact opposite of what they were trying to do. Marbury would be the same thing, a guy who is self-centered on a team full of cooperative personalities, a guy who wants so desperately to be the man that is won’t give up the ball unless he is sure it will lead to an assist. And what’s worse, unlike Cassell, Marbury has proven that he cares far more about his own legacy than he does about winning, meaning that you can’t count on him to sacrifice himself for the good of the team just to win a ring. Heck, at the moment he won’t even accept a pay cut to just $17.8 Million to go to Boston. Adding Marbury would be a terrible idea for the Celtics.
- Now, as a Cavs fan, I hope the Celtics don’t listen to a single thing I’ve said and go ahead and bring him to Boston. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen (besides a sexual harassment suit in which he testifies that he’s getting intimate with your interns in his truck)? It’s not like the Cavaliers have ever beaten a superior team because of a headcase player (Wizards in ‘06, Pistons in ‘07).
- Not every LeBron commerical is golden, but those Chris Paul Right Guard commercials are atrocious.
Go Cavs.
