Tag Archives: cleveland cavaliers

LeBron Says “I’m Sorry.” Cool.

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

LeBron James is well on his way to his goal. After “taking my talents to South Beach,” James has been absolutely instrumental in the Miami Heat’s destruction of the Boston Celtics. Now it’s off to the Eastern Conference final and it’s very likely the Heat will win that one, too.

On Wednesday night, James scored 10 points down the stretch as Miami finished up on a 16-0 run to come back from an 87-81 deficit in the fourth quarter to beat the Celtics 97-87 and eliminate Boston from the Eastern Conference semifinal in five games. In the end, it was a whuppin’.

Dwyane Wade had 34 points and 10 rebounds, James had 33 points and seven rebounds and Chris Bosh had 14 points and 11 rebounds as Miami got another 81 of 97 points from “The Big Two and a Half.” Miami will now await the winner of the Chicago-Atlanta series.

It was local basketball expert and former national basketball team star, Rick Watts of Winnipeg, who came up with “The Big Two and a Half.” We’d been calling them the Big Three all season, but after watching Bosh for a few games in the playoffs, Rick determined that the former Raptor  was only half of a James or Wade and I couldn’t agree with him more. As Rick went on to say, “the best thing the Heat could do for its future is win the NBA Championship this year and then trade Bosh to get a legitimate big man.” He’s dead right again.

The Heat was terrific in this series against Boston and in the end, James was more gracious than many people might have expected. In fact, he told ESPN the following:

“I knew deep down in my heart, as much as I loved my teammates back in Cleveland and as much as I loved home, I knew it couldn’t do it by myself against that team. The way it panned out with all the friends and family and the fans back home, I apologize for the way it happened. I knew this opportunity was once in a lifetime. To be able to come down here and pair with two guys and this organization — in order for me to move on with my career, that team that we just defeated, we had to go through them.”

James is not a stupid man. And those who know him well will say he’s a decent guy. After beating Boston you can see why he did what he did last summer. And even he knows now that he was duped by Jim Gray and ESPN into that stupid TV show.

It was not a mistake to leave Cleveland. It was a huge mistake to leave Cleveland the way he did. He knows that. Wednesday night, he manned up.

Now it’s time to watch him go ahead and win a championship.

 

 

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A Week in the Trenches.

Posted on July 11, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

The past week sure was fun.

1) LeBron James announced he was leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers and was going to play with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade in Miami. Interesting choice. Wade and james play exactly the same game and Bosh did nothing in Toronto unless he had the ball. The Heat have no Rajon Rondo and no Pau Gasol. It will be fun to watch which one of these guys breaks down first.

If James really wanted to win, he’d have signed in Chicago. Gibson, Rose, Noah and Boozer with LeBron? That’s a winning combination.

In the meantime, his news conference was uncomfortable and embarrassing and it might just have been a little too foreboding for his own good.

2) Watched all or pieces of about 25 Major League Baseball games on MLB TV this week. Saw about 30 bad calls and four ejections. Why baseball is against replay is a question that just can’t be answered.

However, it feels good to be involved in the Northern League. The next time anyone says that umpiring in the NL is lousy, I can just point out how truly dreadful the umpiring is in the majors. Not one of those guys could call their dogs.

3) Had a chance to talk to author Jerrad Peters, the man who wrote, “We Call it Soccer,” about his impression of this year’s World Cup. A gigantic soccer maven, Peters had this to say about the final between the Netherlands and Spain coming up in about four hours:

“Hmmm… Am I happy with World Cup. Good question. I’m not sure whether this is a legendary World Cup, or an extremely sub-par one. I do know this—I am not at all excited for the final. It will be 0-0 after extra time and Spain will win on penalties. I will be shocked if it is an exciting game.”

Thanks, Jerrad. If you’re looking for excitement, the Goldeyes face Joliet at 1:30 p.m. CDT. If you can’t get to Canwest Park, the game will be live, with me and Kenny Wiebe, on Shaw TV Channel 9.

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Chasing the Circus Trucks…

Posted on May 24, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Like a puppy, it’s always fun to chase a circus wagon, just in case something pops out.

This week, all sorts of things have been popping out…

1) Check out http://tgcts.blogspot.com/

Great post, but in many ways, it’s sad but true.

2) The folks I know who attended Sunday night’s final of the Memorial Cup hockey tournament tell me it was one of the great experiences of their lives.

Terrific, now that we have that out of the way, let’s get to the ugly truth. Any tournament, in any sport, that sets up so a championship game can finish with a lopsided 9-1 score is a bad tournament.

The Canadian Major Junior Hockey League needs to quit being so greedy and play a true national final. Just like the Stanley Cup, find two good teams in the East and two good teams in the West (or four and four) and play best-of-seven series to determine a winner.

A four-team tournament in which one finalist can play on Tuesday and not play again until Sunday is stoo-pid.

3) So LeBron James quits and head coach Mike Brown gets fired. No wonder the Cleveland Cavaliers will NEVER win an NBA championship.

4) There was a time when I thought Texas Rangers/Dallas Stars owner Tom Hicks was an over-leveraged fraud. He had a pile of money on paper, but not enough of the real stuff and he was running around signing hockey players like Mike Modano and Brett Hull to ridiculous contracts. Meanwhile, he was signing baseball players to contracts that made absolutely no sense. Unless, of course, you were the player in question.

Not surprisingly, Hicks had a real supporter in a former Winnipegger who moved to Dallas and used to write me the nastiest e-mails defending Hicks as a wonderful owner who knew how to treat players and fans. My e-mail pen-pal didn’t think idiot owners were pricing pro sports out of the realm of the average fan. He thought owners had every right to overpay players and then overcharge the fans. And so what if ridiculously high contracts meant that small-market teams in places like Winnipeg and Quebec City would have to re-locate? Just the cost of doing business.

Well, the recession came and, of course, a paper tiger like Hicks went broke. As many fans know, Hicks has been trying to sell the Rangers to a group headed by Nolan Ryan, but the sale has stalled and yesterday, Hicks had to put the Rangers into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

In a 21-page filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Fort Worth yesterday, the top 30 unsecured creditors were listed. Included on the list were a number of Rangers players who were all paid w-a-a-a-y too much. According to the list, Alex Rodriguez is still owed $24.9 million in deferred compensation, six years after he was traded to the Yankees. The next five people on the unsecured creditors list are also current or former players: Kevin Millwood ($12.9 million), Michael Young ($3.9 million), Vicente Padilla ($1.7 million), Mickey Tettleton ($1.4 million) and Mark McLemore ($970,000).

Wonder if the Stars will be next? Bet Gary Bettman, who just finished with the bankruptcy of the Phoenix Coyotes, is looking forward to that prospect.

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A Week’s Worth of Stuff.

Posted on February 21, 2010 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

After eight days of Olympic watching (and yes, I’m still watching most of it with the mute button on), Ohio State basketball watching, Cleveland Cavaliers watching and Tiger Woods watching, here are some thoughts on well, stuff.

1) New Blue Bombers head coach Paul LaPolice told the Winnipeg Sun this week that he’s going to take telephone calls on his radio show again.

He’d better go 18-0 or he’ll regret that decision.

2) Here is the typical response I’ve received from e-mailers on Canada’s Own the Podium program.

Scottie

Own the podium my expletive!  I am not your typical apathetic Canadian….I’M EXPLETIVE PISSED OFF. Just watched the Koreans sweep the short track speed skating. GIVE ME AN EXPLETIVE BREAK…KOREA?

Outside of Nesbitt…the entire speed skating program long and short…along with the alpine skiing program has been a total joke and a disgrace. Especially on Canadian soil. What the expletive have they been doing for the past four years? Smoking dope?Are these people not in shape? Do they not train properly? Or is it just the laid back attitude of accepting LOSING IN CANADA. Or maybe it is just Canadian genetics? I don’t know!

Well, I won’t accept it. NO OTHER NATION ON EARTH SHOULD BEAT US ON ICE…we should be the expletive ICE KINGS OF EARTH.

These programs have to be revalued and heads must roll. I don’t mind my tax dollar going to support our athletes….BUT YOU BETTER START SHOWING SOME RESULTS.

Korea…GIVE ME A BREAK…!

And If I hear that ‘I Believe’ song one more time….my expletive head is going to explode….or I’m going to kill somebody!  So I guess I will be using the mute button on a regular basis from now on….as you can’t turn on your TV or change the channel without it bellowing from the speakers.

I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this expletive any longer.

Ted Arichteff

Winnipeg.

For a lot of Canadians that pre-Olympic TV hype combined with the $118 million Own the Podium program was just a little too much to take.

We should win four medals in hockey and curling so we’ll easily get into double figures in medals, and for me, that’s about as much as could have hoped for. I think Canada will look back on this experience as a good one, but we over-promised and that’s never good.

3) Tiger Woods didn’t owe me an apology. I don’t care what he does with his own life. None of my business.

I just want to know when he’s going to play golf again because the overwhelming boredom that is today’s PGA Tour is for mavens only. Ian Poulter vs. Paul Casey in the Match Play final? Zzzzzzzzzz.

4) Why are VANOC officials making excuses for bus troubles at the 21st Winter Olympic Games? The buses never, ever run smoothly at the Olympics. Ever.

Of the nine Olympics I’ve covered, the only one I enjoyed was Salt Lake City because I had a rental car and there were places to park at the events. If you expect the buses to run properly, you have no idea what you’re involved with and you’re whining about something that will never change.

5) Just in case you’ve forgotten, hockey fans, the NHL trade deadline is March 3.

Maybe the Leafs will make enough deals to finish .500. Or not

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