DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Cavs Offseason Continued Continued

one note I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere....

remember David Stern ridiculing these 3 last month about their 'summit' (believe the quote was something of the nature: "what are they gonna do, sit around and look at Wade's ring?")

i'm starting to think Stern knew something was up back then...

some guy on knr called in and said joe tait was on some radio show and said in 7 years lebron never said hi or anything to him. wow.

i feel horrible that he never will get to call a title, as next year is going to be his last. a shame. he's one of the best of all time.

Well I admit you're probably right if push comes to shove. My only question is what does a sign and trade get us that's in our best interest? Beasley is gone, and unless I misunderstand (quite possible), any trade exception we'd get is negated by the fact that we're under the salary cap. At this point, wouldn't the only thing we'd get be draft picks?

I'm not saying picks aren't worth it, I'm just trying to understand what it is we'd be looking for in a sign and trade.

i'd rather not give lebron all that money than get a pick that will be 27-30 for a few years.

thanks but no thanks. lebron, you had a chance to get that 125m, and you stabbed in the back and walked away.

how would you even have the stones to ask the cavs?

jc...

No way in hell does Gilbert do a sign and trade. For starters, we would get absolutely nothing. Additionally, I can see Dan Gilbert doing everything within the bounds of local, state and federal law to put the screws to LeBron whenever possible.

Regarding needing championships to cement his legacy, its going to take more than chips for LeBron to do that. He would need multiple rings and multiple Finals MVPs to ever be considered one of the all-time greats now.

Also, a lot of people are calling him "Scottie Pippen", but Scottie's got 6 more rings than LeBron and me both

Page 2

by the way, great read from a guy i've never heard of who works at page 2

As Cleveland fan, I will persevere

By Geoff LaTulippe
Special to Page 2


I know you're hurting right now, Cleveland.

I know this sucks.

I know it seems like we're the Phil Connors of the sporting world, waking up every day knowing we're just going to get our teeth kicked in again … and then watching helplessly as the universe does indeed deliver a steel-toed boot to our mouth.

I know it seems bleak. Maybe it is.

Maybe this is the thing that finally breaks us.

Probably, though, it isn't.

This is who we are. This is our master plan, our foundation, our milieu (look it up). What Picasso did with paint and canvas or Rodin did with bronze and marble, we so do with misery and failed expectations. Our skill with disappointment … we've crafted pain and suffering into an identity like no other. It's nothing short of pure, unadulterated artistry.

Add Thursday night to our legacy. Add it to the long list of heart crushers, fury espousers and tear inducers. Log it. Tally it up. Take a few minutes and let it sink in.


In the aftermath of a historic sports day, you can always count on Page 2 to put everything in preposterous perspective:

And then do what you always do: Pick yourself up by your bootstraps and shuffle on. Because Cleveland's identity is not merely that of the city that continually gets beaten.

It's of the city that, time and again, stands up from a beating -- knowingly risking further punishment and abuse -- and keeps going anyway. Why? Because, at the end of the day, it's not the number of fists you eat -- it's the resilience it takes to spit in the face of the guy throwing the haymakers. Knowing that you'll still be standing long after he's punched himself out. And you know what? We've been getting pummeled tirelessly since about 1964. The universe is bound to break sooner or later. You really want to give up now?

Nah. You don't. You can't tell me this is more gutting than all the other crap we've been through. Let me put this into perspective for you: Think about how you felt during and after Red Right 88. After the collapse in Game 7 of the 1997 World Series. After the Drive. After the Fumble. For God's sake … after the Move. You're going to tell me losing one guy is worse than losing a season? A decade? An entire franchise?

It's not. The sting might seem impossible to bear at the moment, but that's because it's fresh. It's not going to last. It might leave a mark. It won't leave a scar.

By the way, this is not some fatherly pep talk. This is not a post-loss locker room morale booster. This is an objective look at the way things are, the way things have always been. We've suffered through way worse. We've come back from way, way worse. I wanted a win for the city this time -- very badly. I don't care about basketball, and although I wish the Cavs success in the greater NBA arena … I don't hang on the balance of their fates. But I know some do, just as much or more than they might for the Browns and/or Indians. And, whether you're a basketball fan or not, you feel the Cavs fans' pain as part of a greater whole. Guess what? Surprise -- it sucks. Par for the course, that.

But Friday morning, when the whole debacle started to really careen downhill, I thought of an athlete who really defined the city's spirit: Steve Everitt. Everitt played a thankless, invisible position on a mediocre team. He was an odd cat who never cut his headbanger hair, reportedly skipped showers for days on end and spent his free time hosting a local radio show during which he played only death metal. And for God's sake … he went to Michigan, a fact that's turned lesser individuals into veritable plague bearers in Northeastern Ohio. Many Browns supporters applauded him for what he was: a hell of a hard worker who wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty, literally and figuratively speaking. But with the general Cleveland public, he didn't make much of a splash.

There were no candy bars named after him, no news conferences where he was introduced by the mayor, no building-wide posters erected in his honor. So it's not much surprise that he exited town to little fanfare when Art Modell stole the Browns from Cleveland following the 1995 season and moved them to Baltimore. Everitt quietly went from quasi-invisible Brown to quasi-invisible Raven. But what a lot of people took for granted was that Everitt had fallen in love with the city, with the team, with its fans. He bled Cleveland through and through. And, lest anyone had forgotten that fact, he decided to publicly show everyone just how much.

At halftime of the first regular-season Baltimore Ravens game, many Browns fans watching in tortured agony, Everitt calmly walked over to the sidelines, took off his Ravens helmet and tied a Browns bandana around his head. The gesture cost him $5,000 in the form of a fine from the NFL. It also immediately and irreversibly cemented him as a legendary figure in the annals of Cleveland sports.

In November 2007, reporter Mike Klingaman of the Baltimore Sun caught up with Everitt and asked him about his poignant, if largely silent, shot across the bow. "I had nothing against Baltimore or its fans," Everitt said. "But I'd left so many friends in Cleveland that I thought [the bandana] was the best way to thank them and to get in a dig at the owners. The Modells can burn in hell for all I care."

That's how you leave Cleveland, kids. That's how you brand yourself a hero. Without theatrics. Without buying into your own hype and nickname. Without a one-hour middle finger of a TV exclusive thinly disguised as a charity promotion.

Hey, maybe this sounds like sour grapes. I get it. It'd be easy to cast this off as if it's rolling right off our backs, our arms crossed and our attitude petulant, exclaiming falsely, "Eh, we don't need him anyway." The fact of the matter is that you don't lose one of the best players in the history of a sport and then try to pretend you're somehow better off. Because you're not, really.

Except when you are.

A lot of sports pundits spent Friday not only mewling over the NBA free-agency process, but speculating that this might be the ice pick sunk into skull of the Cavaliers franchise, the wave of the wand that would vanish the NBA from the shores of Lake Erie. And if this were a lesser kind of town, a place that hadn't already been hardened and buffered by defeat and loss, it's possible that might be the case.

Not in Cleveland. You think Cavs fans are going away? Whooooo, brother … you've got another thing coming. The fans who filled up Quicken for the past seven years will fill it up again next season, practically begging for you to take another shot at them, to rip something else away, to do your worst. And go ahead -- do your worst. They can take it.

Because, plain and simple, being a fan of a loser means more than being a fan of a winner. It takes a bigger person. It takes a better sports fan. Even though every loss, every bad break, every pang of heartache feels like a step backward, it's really just another plank in the path toward something no Yankees fan, no Cowboys fan, no Lakers fan will ever feel: a championship that erases eons-long suffering. A championship paid for with blind, oft-thankless loyalty. A championship that its fan base truly earned through unwavering devotion to a seemingly hapless cause. No, it hasn't materialized yet -- but it's coming. Oh, man, is it coming. And it's financed in moments like Thursday night's. Trust me.

And trust me on something else: We lost a battle, but we didn't lose the war. We wanted to keep a leader, an icon, a warrior who would put the city on his back and give his all to win at any cost. Instead, we were rejected by a spoiled kid who was more concerned with goofing off with his buddies and proliferating his image for financial gain.

We deserve a Legend. All we missed out on was a Brand.

And if you want my opinion … you gotta come with some bigger gloves than that to knock out Cleveland.

Geoff LaTulippe is a Libertarian, Phil Collins lover, Libra and writer of the upcoming Drew Barrymore film "Going the Distance." Follow him on Twitter at geofflatulippe.

Great read.

Forgot to add in my last post...

Dan Gilbert ought to contact the Akron Boys & Girls Club, tell them to refuse LeBron's charity offer, and then match it out of his own pocket.

that'd be funny if dan gilbert opened up some quicken loans offices in akron and turned that place around and became the king of akron.

one other thought that jumped into my head.

while i say don't show up to cavs v heat.

show up to cavs v lakers. and when kobe goes to the line for his first free throw of the night, chant mvp louder than you ever have.

kobe's not the perfect dude. he cheated on his wife. he may have mailed it in in game 7 against pho (not as bad as lbj game 5, cavs were favs in that series, lakers didn't have anyone but kobe) but that guy is 10 times the competitor lebron is.

Great read LBJ. We have persevered and will this time as well. I honestly think Gilbert will do whatever it takes to keep the Cavs competitive.

What saddens me more than anything is the way the "Queen" treated Gilbert and the Cavs organization. He doesn't owe you nor me anything, but he did owe imo the man that had paid him for 7 years a phone call letting him know his decision. The "Queen" was free to leave and go wherever he chose, and I have no problem with him for that. However, the chicken S way he left town and left the organization leaves me to have little or no respect for him.

Thank you Delonte West...........at least you screwed him (well mama James anyway) before he could screw us

I say give him all the money he wants and then sign-and-trade.

Doesn't that screw over Miami and Lebron with signing the rest of the roster? Lebron is going to make money either way.

Have there been any official announcements about the contracts of the 3? I'm trying to find it, but I've banned myself from using ESPN, and I need to establish my new sites for sports news.

BTW, I posted an anti-ESPN thread earlier today, but I can't find it. Weird...

It's going to suck to be a Heat fan...

I mean like a lifelong ACTUAL fan of the Heat...

It's going to be like Pittsburgh in March of 2005, suddenly you look out your door and there seem to be ALOT more people wearing jerseys and t-shirts. Brand new ones too...

Last I heard, Windhorst was reporting the Heat have contacted both Toronto and Cleveland regarding possible sign and trade scenarios. That leads me to believe they're looking for max money, contrary to their prior statements. That's just my read of the situation, however.

Ha! While that would be fun to watch, I'm fairly certain they work the terms of the trade into the contract. That way, if the Cavs did refuse to trade, they'd be in breach of the contract and it would be nullified.

Nice thought, though.

I'm sure the contract he would sign would have a stipulation that he would then be traded to Toronto for the contract to become effective. He would have to have the poorest written contract in the world for that to happen.

... Then again, if he has the same 20 year old kids from his PR firm acting as his lawyers.

Even if they slipped that by, I wouldn't want him. I say sign him to the max and trade him to Italy.

i'm also sick of hearing about how it's lbj putting winning over money.

bs.

this is about money as much as it is about winning.

lebron knows his "brand" takes a hit if he continually comes up short. he took the easy route. for his "brand"

there was so much backlash after game 5, i remember hearing some guy on mike and mike on my drive in, who had knowledge of how it works with athletes and endorsements and says that he's pretty sure nike contacted lbj and said you can't do that and then turn around and make more money in endorsements than every other player in the league.

Heres what kills me about Dan Gilbert....he brings up the fact that LeBron James absolutely quit in the playoffs.....
if that was the case,why is he so bitter about LeBron leaving? why would he want to give millions and millions to a "quiter"?
something to ponder.

Quote:

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how can you not at least speculate that this was conspired months, if not years ago?

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I can see months, but year's? who know's? but the last 24hrs. have been an eye opener!

If you want to throw up, turn on ESPN2

can't even look at the guy without thinking what a fraud he is.

10 seconds was enough, How do I block channels so I don't flip to BSPN by accident?

I want to see this Heat team collapse so freakin bad.

i hate the miami tv announcer, that guy sounds like the biggest weener i've ever heard.

i used to hate having to listen to him on the league pass when they played the cavs.

j/c

Check out Youtube The New LeBron Commercials, there not safe for here, but worth it for the laugh......and we all need that.

"Hey LeBron, This is Delonte..........." Done like the nike Tiger ones where his Dad is talking to him.

Lebum just said they are going to win 7 championships.......WOW......Please God make him eat his words....

My God the world is coming to an end. A message board poster named LeBron James made this statement:

Quote:

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show up to cavs v lakers. and when kobe goes to the line for his first free throw of the night, chant mvp louder than you ever have.

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I definitely agree Kobe is the best player in the NBA but just a week ago you would not have said that!

Cavs fans are losing it.

Dude, this is what Cleveland does!!! We produce talent for those who can pay. Sure it's a new concept to B Ball, and we wouldn't dare with foot ball, but look at the tribe! We draft them, train them and sell them.

This is an ill advised post after too many beers, but I'm getting sick of this.

The media wants to say Cleveland isn't as great as other cities???? BS, S. Beach is just a dot on the map. Sure it's on fire with stars, but it's not "physically" better than Cleveland. Chicago is cool, and has awesome food and entertainment, but you can do that in Westlake. I dunno, I just think this whole deal was planned for the last two years.

Oh, and I hope the heat pay for this debacle. In my heart, I think the pairing of these three, with no supporting cast, will fail.