Jun
6
If James and Cleveland Pull Off the Upset of the San Antonio Spurs, The Answer is Yes after What Michael Jordan Did to the Cavaliers in the Eighties and Nineties!
The Cleveland Cavaliers are in the NBA Finals with this team. No offense to Cleveland and their championship-stricken fans, but this Cleveland team is not very good. It’s Lebron James and a whole bunch of misfits and rejects. Chauncey Billups expressed his disbelief after the Pistons lost to the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals by saying that Detroit was the better team and that he would not want one guy on Cleveland over any one of his Detroit basketball teammates. Looking at Cleveland’s roster, it’s easy to see what Billups means.
? Prior to signing with the Cavaliers after the 2005 playoffs, guard Larry Hughes had already played for three different teams (Philadelphia, Golden State and Washington) since being drafted in the league in 1998.
? After being drafted out of Kansas in the 2002 NBA Draft, Drew Gooden was traded during his rookie season with the Grizzlies to the Orlando Magic, and has had not had the type of pro career that many expected after his three solid seasons in college.
? While a decent ballplayer, reserve forward Donyell Marshall has been on poor teams throughout his career, from his early years with terrible Minnesota Timberwolves’ and Golden State Warriors’ teams to his time with an over-the-hill Utah Jazz squad, a young cast of Chicago Bulls and a boring Toronto Raptors’ team.
? Damon Jones has been on 10 teams in his career and still doesn’t have any perspective of how crappy a player he truly is.
? Reserve point guard Eric Snow is over the hill and couldn’t even crack the lineup in Seattle as a young player with the Sonics in the mid-nineties (the league wasn’t as bad then as it is now, but it wasn’t that strong). While Snow went on to team up with Allen Iverson in a Philadelphia backcourt that reached the NBA Finals, he is past his prime.
The fact that this Cleveland team was able to beat the Pistons is a testament to James’ physical skills and ability to make his teammates better, and Detroit’s own tendencies to make things harder on themselves.
Cleveland enters the Finals against the San Antonio Spurs with no idea of who’s going to score besides James. The Cavs signed Hughes with the intention of him being their number-two scorer, and the guard from St. Louis University has been inconsistent on the offensive end to say the least. Center Zydrunas Ilgauskas may have a couple of solid games but will also put up some stinkers. Gooden will play hard but is going to have his hands full with Tim Duncan. Sasha Pavlovic will also be aggressive but needs to be able to hit the three with consistency in order to offset the guards of the Spurs, who can get points from Tony Parker, Manu Ginobil, Michael Finley and even Brent Barry on occasion. Rookie Daniel Gibson went nutz in Game Six of the Eastern Conference Finals and played well in the last couple of games in the series, but the Cavs would be complete fools to expect similar efforts from him against the Spurs.
Without James, this Cleveland team would have been competing in the Greg Oden lottery. The fact that Cleveland is in the Finals not only demonstrates James’ amazing talent but also shows how weak the Eastern Conference truly is.
With that said, the fact that James has led Cleveland to the Finals in only his fourth year can’t be discounted, even when considering how weak the pro game is nowadays. James is exactly doing what I feared he would do when I learned that the Cavs landed the number-one pick in the 2003 NBA Draft Lottery.
He has led a less-than-impressive Cavs team to the NBA Finals. My worries were that James and the Cavs would be to the current edition of the Chicago Bulls what Michael Jordan and his Bulls’ teams were to the Cavs in the late eighties and early nineties. Call it reverse karma for all the time Chicago held back those talented Cavs’ teams featuring Brad Daugherty, Mark Price, Ron Harper and Larry Nance among others.
Chicago Tribune basketball writer Sam Smith recently wrote how those Cavs teams were more talented than the Bulls but unable to overcome less-talented Chicago teams because the Bulls had the most dominant player on the court in Jordan.
Chicago knocked out Cleveland in 1988, slayed them again in 1989 when Jordan hit the famous shot over Craig Ehlo at the buzzer of Game Five at the Richmond Coliseum, sent the Cavs packing in the 1992 Eastern Conference Finals in six games, and then finished them off for good the following season with a four-game sweep in the second round that was capped by the shot number two, with Jordan hitting a fadeaway this time over Gerald Wilkins.
Could the tables be reversed some 14 years later? While the Bulls are the better team on paper, Cleveland has already reached the Finals with the more dominant player in James and a bunch of less-than-impressive parts.
Now if the Cavs are able to shock the Spurs, I know the Bulls’ chances will be slim-to-none for years to come. After a couple of years of recognizing and understanding James’ great talent but not being sold on his ability to be a true leader and a fiery competitor who will not accept losing, I’m starting to worry that he is finally turning the corner unlike players like T-Mac and Kobe (at least on his own).
As Jordan said the other day in an interview, the question remains whether James will be able to perform at this level every night with teams sending a couple of guys at him and totally throwing their defensive game plans at him? James can start to provide an answer with a stunning victory over the Spurs, who are obviously more talented but nothing spectacular in my opinion.
If James and the Cavs were able to pull this series upset off, I will know for sure that Chicago is not going to win another championship until Lebron is out of the game. Granted that he’s not only 23 years old yet, that means the Bulls may be shut out for the next 15 years or so. Yikes.
Coming in the next couple of days, I will be providing a preview of the NBA Finals and also expressing my opinions why the San Antonio Spurs are not yet a dynasty. I see that Yahoo Sports! writer Adrian Wojnarowski has done a similar piece tonight on the Spurs, but I’ve got to get my own opinions on the subject off of my chest.
Related Posts
- HAVING PROBLEMS SLEEPING?
- WHAT THE CLEVELAND CAVS MUST DO TO WIN GAME THREE OF THE 2007 NBA FINALS!
- 2007-2008 NBA Season Preview: Cleveland Cavaliers
- 2007 NBA FINALS PREVIEW: CLEVELAND CAVALIERS VS. SAN ANTONIO SPURS
- 2007 NBA FINALS: TWO STEPS FORWARD, ONE STEP BACK!
I agree with you! Lebrons Team is the Bulls! Its time for Cleveland. History always seems to repeat itself and I personally think the Cavs are too much for the Spurs, and you know Mike Brown has chip on his should to beat his mentor. http://joshperez.wordpress.com/
I would agree, but i have to disagree. Their will be no other MJ. As far as Chicago goes, come on, they just need one more piece. Personally I would offer T-Mac an offer to come to the windy city, and enhance his career. Or KG among others.
JC, thanks for the comment. I would never compare Lebron James to Michael Jordan, who is the greatest player of all time. I absolutely hate those comparisons.
You are right. There will never be another M.J. I was just saying that I fear that Lebron is going to be the thorn in the Bulls’ side for years to come because of his dominance. I think the Bulls need a legitimate point guard (I would like to see them package Hinrich) and a legit low post scorer. It won’t be Garnett as he doesn’t seem to want to come to Chicago.