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Lincoln Had A Secretary Named Kennedy

    

     So, in another long line of NBA conspiracy theories, the latest involves the recent slew of 3-year deals signed by some of the NBA’s elite, including Lebron James.  The rumor, as puported by our own Cleveland Plain Dealer, claims the reason that Lebron, Dwayne Wade, and Toronto’s Chris Bosh all signed 3-year deals is because the NBA is trying to line them all up to land in NYC in 3 years.  This has to be fake, right?

     Being insecure and from Cleveland, I have to think this has some merit.  However, if this does happen, the NBA should just come out and say that they are as scripted as the WWE.  Stern & Crew are only kidding themselves if they try and say that it wouldn’t be a dream situation to have them all playing in New York–they only been trying since the Patrick Ewing draft to get a winner in NY. 

     Now, the article doesn’t say that they’d all be playing for the Knicks, just that they’d be all playing in the NY area (including the Nets).  Given that they’ve pulled the strings to land Ewing in NY, and many think to land Lebron in Cleveland, this is entirely within the realm of possibilities for the Association.  The bottome line is, if there’s a conspiracy and Cleveland is involved, don’t expect to win.

Cleveland Still Reigns as Most Insecure City

      

     In a move about as anti-climatic as is gets, LeBron (through his agent) has said that he will re-up with the Cavs when he can do so on July 12.  For some reason this takes a full week to consider, even though he’s known what his options would be all year long.  That’s besides the point. 

     All week long, Clevelanders were subject to reminders of the many times we have been stabbed in the back, or had our hearts broken by our athletes.  You know the list:  Manny, Thome, Boozer, and The Guy Who Sold His Soul to the Devil.  Anyway, so we all revert to our insecure ways and start believing that LeBron could pull the same crap.  Then, then day comes and Lebron finally agrees to sign. 

     Hooray for us right? Of Course Not!  Apparently, Brian Windhorst is reporting that Lebron isn’t going to sign the max contract, but instead a version of the max deal that gives him an out after 3 years so that he can extort our city for more money when there is a new CBA in place.  Effing perfect.  Now we have just subjected ourselves to three more seasons of talk about Lebron bolting as soon as he can go out and make a ton of money, excersize the “secret” clause in his Nike contract that pays him double in big city’s, and basically end basketball in Cleveland once and for all.

 I don’t know what to think.  I guess we’ll know a lot more after he actually signs his deal, but it’s just one more reminder of how insecure we have become as sports fans in Cleveland when we can’t even celebrate the signing of the best athlete in Cleveland since Jim Brown.  I would like to believe LeBron–that he really likes playing in Cleveland, he wants to bring us a championship, wouldn’t want to play elsewhere, etc…But i’ve also wanted to believe Thome who said almost those exact words.  Or the previous Browns ownership who made such quotes as “I would never leave Cleveland, Cleveland is my home”, and “If the Browns don’t win the Super Bowl in 3 years I’ll sell the Browns and get out of football”.

     So, I guess in the meantime, we’ll just continue to hope LeKing can bring us a championship before he bolts town and wins the Super Bowl for the Ravens, leads MLB in HR while playing for the White Sox, verbally commits and then signs with another team (Jazz), Moves the Cavs to Baltimore  he does it for another city.  All the while looking for signs, like him wearing a Yankees hat, that he is leaving.  Speaking of which, why is posing for the Heisman?  Does that mean something?

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The Legend Continues

     

     Tonight is a swing game in more ways than one.  Tonight is the night LeBron can really elevate himself to Superhero status.  If the Cavs can go into The Palace tonight and find a way to win, no one will be joking anymore when referring to someone as a 'witness'.  If Lebron can lead his team to victory against the overwhelming Eastern Conference favorites something very special will be happening. 

     Up until this point, everything he has done has been amazing, but still within team expectations.  Winning tonight (and closing out the Pistons in game 6 or 7) would change everything.  Beating the Pistons was not in the blueprints, but now that it's a legitimate possibility one can only marvel at what might be.

    On the flip side, this is Cleveland.  The only reason websites like this one exist is because things like this don't happen in Cleveland.  The hero is never on our team.  Somehow many of us still hold out hope that LeBron is in some way above all that.  That somehow, he isn't affected by 40+ years of history,heartbreaks, and dissillusionment. 

     So which one is it?  Do we continue our habit in Cleveland of getting our hopes up only to have face the inevitable heartbreak?  Or will this team/player/season turn out different?  We've asked this questions many times before and the answer is always the former.  While we won't know for sure after tonight, another chapter in Cleveland's burning river of sports will certainly be written. 

Welcome to your Weekend of Detroit

                  

Couldn't wait till monday to update, mainly because of LeBron's mastery yesterday.  I said to myself going into the 4th Q that I thought it was one of his best games, mainly because of the way he was using all of his teamates, especially Varejao, to keep the game close.  Then, he goes and blows up in the 4th and pretty much cements my thoughts. 

     I thought this was even better than his game 1 performance against the Wiz.  Especially when you go back and notice how everytime he got the ball, there were at least 4 Pistons with an eye on him and shading his way.  Washington would put two guys on him and let the other three fend for themselves, but Detroit literally has 4 guys on him, or keeping and eye on him, at all times.  Watch when he goes to make a move to the lane, you will see 4 guys all react and collapse.  Ridiculous.

     Then you have the Tribe.  I won't ruin the Cavs mojo by talking about them in this same post.  The only similarities between the two teams right now is that they're both playing Detroit.  That's it. 

More later…

Return to Normalcy

     Yep, that's more like it.  I guess we had our three days of fun basking in the afterglow of LeBron's superman act on Saturday.  I do like how everyone is talking about how the Whiz "contained" LeBron to 26 points.  You know you're good when teams are happy that you only got 26 in a game.  Also, I didnt make it to the game, but was that booing that I heard at one point in the game last night?  If so, that's just ridiculous. 

Then to top if off, as I'm on my way home from the sports bar watching the game, I get treated to a Tom Hamilton home run call of Manny Ramirez's game winning 3-run shot.  And, did we really walk someone to get to Manny?  I'm still trying to process that one. 

Have a great Wednesday Cleveland, we're back to being shitty again.

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     Breaking the no posting on the weekends rule for this one.  Finally got back from the game after fighting the traffic, and Spiderman.  I think this picture pretty much says it all.  Indeed we are all witnesses.  I'm pretty sure this is the guy we'll all be telling our grandkids about years from now like my grandfather has told me about Jim Brown a million times.  Of course, we still aren't going to win anything in all likelihood, but having this guy on your team kinda makes me think we…no, nevermind. 

UPDATE:  Clearly somone from the Plain Dealer is an avid reader of The River, as the Sunday Sports page headline screamed "Welcome to LeShow."  And clearly no one else in the world thought of using a Le____ word.  I rule.