Hey Lakerboy what your opinion in the remaining series?
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Of course he was a free agent. He wasn't the first free agent Cleveland ever had nor the last. If he would have left like every other free agent in the free world, who would give a shit? Cleveland has had more superstars leave the city on to future greatness than any other city in sports. When have you ever seen Cleveland fans treat players like slaves? That's bullshit. Lebron fukked the team because they built around him with players he wanted then left them high and dry. Had he told them a month in advance that he was leaving, they could have made player moves. He sandbagged them thus leaving the team fukked. The Cavs were too late to get key free agents and ended up losing the coach. Who does that?
Who the fukk schedules an hour long variety show to announce his "Decision". What the fukkk? Cleveland already have been screwed by "The (Jordan) Shot", "The (Elway) Drive", "The (Jose Mesa) Blown Save", now you're going to shit on the entire city by disrespecting it with an hour long "The Decision" in front of millions of people. Fukk that. That was stupid. Lebron made a huge mistake with that shit. He later said that he regretted doing it. His handlers talked him into doing that bullshit and he thought it would help generate money for kids. Horrible move... He made the mistake, owned up to it and it's now time to move on.
Don't blame the city for his bad decision. The prodigal son came to his senses and returned back home.
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Their past stars weren't from Ohio though. They felt he was their homegrown product even though he's from Akron. Who's to say he knew himself what he would do, he was probably torn himself. Not to mention the obvious behind the scenes bad blood between him and owner that somewhat came out, I think he disrespected Bron if I remember correctly. Owner never got Bron any real help either, guy had to carry the team every year, that gets old.Comment -
What the heck does where he was from matter? Was Michael Jordan from Chicago? Magic Johnson from LA? Tom Brady from Boston? John Elway from Denver??? A city will embrace their stars even if they come from China. Where is Steph Curry or Durant from? What behind the scenes blood between him and Dan Gilbert? They were best of buddies until the decision. Do you know the history? I certainly do. You are ridiculously wrong. Gilbert built a multimillion dollar practice facility close to Lebron's house for God sake. He was tens of millions over the salary cap every year bringing in star after star to pair with Lebron. Gilbert never spared any expense to better the team. Gilbert bent over backwards for Lebron and his crew. There was never any signs of trouble until a month out prior to the decision where Lebron went awol and wouldn't answer phone calls.
Lebron never would sign long term contracts which prevented them from getting the big superstars. Go do your research. Lebron signed off on every trade deal made. They brought in guys that were considered best players out there and it still wasn't enough. The Cav's had the best record in basketball several years straight. I still believe that if Lebron would have stayed in Cleveland, they would have eventually won a title. It took him leaving for Miami for him to realize what HE needed to do to win. He was meeting free agents at the airport trying to convince them to join the Heat (he never did that in Cleveland). He got in better shape, developed a mid range and post up moves. Didn't get scared in crunch time. He grew up...
Football is a much higher priority for Cleveland fans. Basketball is not even on the same spectrum as football. Sure it would be great to win a basketball title but football is king in Ohio. I'm not sure Lebron will ever be bigger than Otto Graham or Jim Brown to Cleveland fans. Hell Bob Feller, Ozzie Newsome, Jim Thome, Omar Vizquel, Rocky Colavito (the original Rocky) are just as beloved. Most people are too young to know that Cleveland use to be title town, not Boston. Cleveland use to dominate the sports landscape.
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Told everyone before series Cavs without Love were still better than Chicago. Cavs had the bigger star and the better bench and the best leadership and experience in the NBA. WHAT didBULls have? A black cChinese Mexican with a 15 yr old going thru peuberty voice Rose never done or won shit? Jocakiman't Skoah?Comment -
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Love when Lebron haters go into meltdown mode...Comment -
You better up your medication. When did Cleveland ever "dominate" the sports landscape? Where are all these "titles" from title town?
The city had a great 10 year run in football from 1945 -1955. During that same stretch the baseball club won 1 world series and 1 pennant, while the hockey team was so bad, not only did they never win a title, they missed the playoffs 9 out of those 11 years, despite the fact that 4 out the leagues only 6 teams qualify.
Lets look at each sport, searching for all these "titles".
FOOTBALL : The NFL only started having balanced schedules and title games in 1934, so let's ignore the barnstorming years of the Akron Pro's and the Canton/ Cleveland Bulldogs. Cleveland had it's first NFL team with the Cleveland Rams in 1937. They proceeded to never finish with a winning record until they won the title in 1945 in a war year where rosters were depleted. There was so much excitement in the city that the Rams left for Los Angeles the very next year. The Browns arrived in 1946 with a new pro league called the All- American Football Conference. The Browns dominated this new league, going 47 -4 with 3 draws and winning all 4 titles in the 4 year existence of the league. However, considering they were beating up the likes of the Chicago Rockets, L.A. Dons, Miami Seahawks, and the NY Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers, let's assume it wasn't a top caliber league. The Browns were so good that they they joined the NFL in 1950 and promptly won the league, starting their only golden era with 6 straight NFL championship games, winning 3 of those titles. After that, they got the legend Jim Brown in 1957 and went to another title game in his rookie season but got destroyed by the Lions 59-14. The Browns with Jim Brown had good teams from 1958-1963 but could never beat out the Giants in their division except in 1960 when unfortunately for them, the Eagles had a great year and won the division. In 1964, they had their last NFL glory, getting to host the Colts in championship game, and even though the Colts were heavily favored, the Browns killed them 27-0 in front of the home folks for their last NFL crown. They went back to the championship game in 1965, but lost at Lambeau Field to Lombardi's Packers in a field of mud. For the next 40 years, the Browns never won anything. The mistake by the lake, The Drive, The Fumble, these near misses would define their playoff exits until Modell packed up and left the city in 1996. The NFL created a new version of the Browns in 1999, which has had 1 playoff game in the 16 seasons since. Currently, the Browns are one of only 4 NFL franchises who have never gone to a Super Bowl, and along with the Lions, share the ignominy of having been in the league for the very first one.
BASEBALL : Ignoring the years before electricity, let's just focus on it's only MLB club, the Cleveland Indians. Since it's first incarnation in 1901 to 2015 : 115 seasons, 5 pennants, 2 World Series titles.
HOCKEY : 88 seasons not including this one. 5 Stanley Cup titles. From 1939-2009 they had 1, so I'm assuming you weren't referencing them when you were recalling Clevelands golden years of being "title town".
BASKETBALL : Cavaliers joined the NBA in the 1970-1971 season, hasn't won a league title yet. Won 1 eastern conference title.
So would you care to enlighten me as to when Cleveland was "title town" in professional sports. When exactly did they "dominate" the sports landscape?Comment -
Reread my post. Football is king. Cleveland didn't even have a basketball team in the 50's/60's. Hockey??? WTF? Ohio is a football state. All the best coaches came from Ohio. Ohio made football my friend. And you're mistaken, the Cleveland Browns dominated football from 1946 - 1964. The Browns won the first 4 Championships in the AAFC before joining the NFL where they proceeded to make the title game 6 straight years. You could not say football without mentioning the Browns. They were much more dominant than the current Patriots.
Add The Ohio State Buckeyes, well known as Title town of college sports.
The Indians did have a nice run during that time when they were 1st or 2nd in the league for like 8 out of 10 years but Football is an Ohio thing. Not much baseball in the winter. The Cavs run with Lebron has been great but don't get it twisted, Cleveland is a Browns football city. You may find a lot of bandwagon Cav's fans but there are hundred of thousands of true Browns fans all over the US.
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The Browns didn't "dominate" pro football from 1946-1964. Hard to dominate pro football from '46-'49 when you're not even in the top professional league. Let's face it, the A.A.F.C. was a joke league made up of 8 teams where most of those teams were made up of nothing more than semi-pro sandlot players. Name some of the Chicago Rockets players who went to the N.F.L after the league folded. When they joined the NFL in 1950, they won 3 titles in 6 years and went to the title game all 6 years. Nice, but lets be realistic, they had to beat 5 other teams to get there, and with free agency and trades almost non-existent back then, it was pretty much the same 5 teams they beat over and over in those years. Also, there was just a title game (or a division tiebreaker), so they didn't have to play 2 or 3 playoff games just to get to the title game. Compare that with teams like Pittsburgh in the 70's, and the 49ers in the 80's and 90's who had to beat 13 other teams in their conference, and the Pats who had to beat 14 or 15 other teams just to get to the title game.
From 1958 -1963 they never won their division, even though there was only 5 or 6 other teams in the division.
So you can post propaganda pieces from the Western Historical Society all you want but the fact is, their 4 trophies in the AAFC is only slightly more valuable than something you'd find at the bottom of a cracker jack box. Now that that's out of the way, they have 4 NFL championships in a 15 year span, with an NFL consisting of 12 teams ('50-'59) or 14 teams ('60-'65). And you think this makes them "much more dominant" than the current Patriots?
The Patriots in the last 14 years have 4 NFL titles, but their titles come in a 31/32 team NFL with free agency, not a 12 team NFL. I know you're probably not proficient in math, but it's a LOT harder to beat 31 other clubs instead of 11.
From 2001-2015, the Patriots have had 14 straight winning seasons compiling a phenomenal record of 170-54, They've played in 9 Conference title games, 6 Super Bowls, and won 4 NFL titles. That's quite a bit more dominant than Clevelands 4 NFL titles in 15 years in the 12/14 team NFL. Oh yeah, and their 4 cracker jack AAFC prizes.
Possibly even more impressive was the San Fransisco 49ers run from 1981-1998. An 18 year stretch where they went 207-72-1 with 10 Conference title games, 5 Super Bowls and 5 NFL titles.
Time to face reality. Cleveland had a nice football team in the 50's and 60's and won 4 NFL titles in an era with a 12 team NFL that was just an embryo of what it later became. They were never a dominant force in football, just a real good team, and to say they were more dominant then the Patriots of today really embarrasses you since it's so ridiculous. That Cleveland 1950-1965 era went 6 straight years without a division title. The Patriots missed the playoffs only twice in the last 14 years. The reason Cleveland is so nostalgic about its 1964 team is because they've won nothing in the nearly 50 years since.Comment -
By your logic, John Wooden and UCLA was tainted because they didn't have a 68 team tournament???
More teams don't mean more talent or more competition...
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Lakergirl ftw.Comment
