By Larry Durstin
About a month ago it was definitely not beginning to look a lot like Christmas for Cleveland Cavalier fans. The NBA lockout was in full force and the basketball season was on the brink of being cancelled. This would have been a disaster on many levels, not the least of which would be the economic damage done to the workers and businesses that depend on the revenue from games to help get them through these particularly tough times.
But alas, Commissioner David Stern and his plutocratic bosses – the team owners – sobered up from their drunk-with-power hard-line stance just in time to make enough minor concessions to the players union to salvage the season, which now opens on Christmas Day with approximately 12 hours of televised games featuring the league’s most high-profile teams and stars.
Unfortunately, the Cavs are not among the squads being spotlighted on December 25, having been kicked to the curb by the networks following the stabbing in the back both the team and the town took at the hands of the treacherous LeBron James in July 2010. Still, Cleveland fans should be appreciative for the gifts the Cavs will present them this season, if for no other reason than their bag of goodies arrives absent any trace of the toxic stench that emanates from “The Whore of Akron.”
For starters, what’s not to love about Dan Gilbert, the transplanted gift that keeps on giving to Cleveland. The Cavs owner has put his money where his mouth is and his mouth where angels fear to tread in fierce financial and emotional support of the Cavaliers and their fans. He’s the best Cleveland sports team owner since another outspoken and relentless force of nature, Bill Veeck. In addition, his business ventures have created a couple thousand new jobs for Northeast Ohio.
Not only has Gilbert done almost everything humanly possible to benefit the Cavs franchise, he also struck a blow for fair-thinking NBA fans everywhere recently when he sent an explosive email to Stern pointing out that the Los Angeles Lakers were being given a sweetheart trade deal by the NBA that put them in the position to acquire two superstars, Chris Paul and Dwight Howard. As a result of Gilbert’s cleverly crafted missive, the normally unshakeable Stern took the unprecedented step of vetoing the trade, thereby delivering a groin-kick to the storied Lakers and giving the struggling New Orleans Hornets a chance to be competitive in years to come.
But back to the Cavs and the gifts this season should bring. Due to some shrewd maneuvering by GM Chris Grant, the Cavs were able to garner the number one pick in the draft, point guard Kyrie Irving. Though only having played 11 games for Duke last season, Irving was the most highly touted player in college and has already shown enough in training camp to prompt the normally skimpy-with-praise coach Byron Scott to use the “superstar” term in reference to Irving’s potential.
Also, as part of the same deal that brought Irving on board, Grant acquired veteran point guard Baron Davis, whom the team just waived from their roster via the “amnesty” provision of the new collective bargaining agreement. This particular move has freed up around $25 million in salary cap space that can be used over the next year or so to acquire free agents and make trades for the kind of young players and extra draft picks upon which a championship-contending team can be built. Already, the Cavs could have as many as four first round draft choices over the next two years, including their own number one in 2012 (which should be in the top three or four picks in a draft that some experts have said contains as many as five or six “franchise-type” players.)
Among the other things Cavs fans can be appreciative of is that they have a coach who knows what it takes to win three NBA championships as a player and has already guided a lowly team to a pair of NBA Finals; that they have a healthy Anderson Varejao back to wreak joyous havoc all over the court; that first round pick Tristan Thompson is the kind of super athletic player willing to run through walls; and that 22-year-old Christian Eyenga miraculously grew two inches to 6’7” in the off-season and will now be able to rocket his newly elongated frame where few have dared to go.
A special nod of gratitude from the fans needs to made toward Boobie Gibson, the five-year vet who did not go gentle into the night last June when the shameless James – apparently intoxicated by his success in the early playoff rounds – chose to take a swipe at his former team by whining that he went to Miami “because I wanted to be with guys who would never die down in the moment.” Gibson fired back by pointing out that it was LeBron who quit the year before against the Celtics. Rattled by Boobie’s truth-telling, the psychologically fragile James proceeded to “die in the moment” against the Dallas Mavericks, delivering such a miserable Finals performance that he became something of a national punch-line.
The near-biblical nature of the justice meted out to James coupled with the Cavaliers finding themselves in position to rebuild the team into a contender over the next few years may not qualify as a Christmas miracle, but it will probably have to do until one comes along.
In the meantime, Cavs fans would be wise to turn their backs on corrosive cynicism and instead humbly count their blessings and continue to hope. ‘Tis the season for it, isn’t it?
[Photo: Dan Lippitt/NBA/GettyImages]
Larry Durstin is an independent journalist who has covered politics and sports for a variety of publications and websites over the past 20 years. He was the founding editor of the Cleveland Tab and an associate editor at the Cleveland Free Times. Durstin has won 12 Ohio Excellence in Journalism awards, including six first places in six different writing categories. LarryDurstinATyahoo.com