When Cavs general manager Chris Grant was relieved of his duties during the season, it seemed pretty clear that head coach Mike Brown was on borrowed time. And sure enough, the announcement finally came with Brown being released.
You might think about what took so long to give Brown the hook. The realistic answer is that in spite of numerous tales of dysfunction within the organization, the Cavs were, up until the last three games of the regular season, still in the playoff race.
Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling hasn’t really made it much of a secret he’s been in a stiff competition with Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria for being the worst owner in professional sports. His reputation for being a penny-pincher and, to put it bluntly, a jerk has been widely regarded.
What seems to have escaped everyone, though, is that Sterling doesn’t have the best record with race relations, either, which is an odd quality to have being the owner of a team in a sport such as basketball. Just ask former general manager Elgin Baylor, who sued Sterling after he was fired back in 2009 for employment discrimination.
It seems like it’s been ages ago since Dan Gilbert stood up and laid any kind of verbal smackdown. True, he will be forever remembered as the guy who wrote a rant letter using Comic Sans. But we also thought he would be remembered from being the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, a team that stared adversity in the face and overcame it.
That’s hasn’t really been the case.
I don’t live in Cuyahoga County anymore.
Now, when it comes to the issue of the renewal of the sin tax that has been in place to build Quicken Loans Arena, Progessive Field and FirstEnergy Stadium, I kind of don’t have a horse in this race. After all, I don’t smoke and if I wanted to buy alcohol, I wouldn’t have to travel to Cuyahoga County to get it.
At the same time, how many people in Cuyahoga County regularly visit any of those three venues? Judging by attendance at Cavs and Indians games, not many. And in all three cases, most of those visitors are people like me who live outside the county.
It’s always nice to see when the Cleveland Indians have a packed house. Many of us can still remember the 455 straight times in happened during their hey-day in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
And for the Home Opener this season, there will be a full ballpark again, as seats for the Tribe’s first game at Progressive Field sold out in 15 minutes. Even though the Indians sell out every home opener (This will be the 22nd straight year), people are pointing to the speed that these tickets were snapped up this time around.
Now that fans have taken care for the first home game, as they have reliably done every year, what’s the story on the rest of the season’s home stands?
By all accounts, this should have been a Renaissance era for Cleveland sports radio. It started with the acquisition of WKNR from Salem Communications by Good Karma Broadcasting, who, in turn, snapped up additional bandwidth on 1540-AM as well.
Then came the CBS conversion of 92.3 from their awkward “No DJ” format to a sports one, following in the footsteps of their tried and true The Fan blueprint.
We all had high hopes, didn’t we? It was supposed to be a more diverse landscape, and plenty of room for everyone, right?
Wrong.
As much of a level 5 biohazard that the Cleveland Browns are, you have to admit it. You sort of feel pretty good today.
Owner Jimmy Haslam, who’s clearly agitated with being called one of the Three Stooges, jettisoned Larry and Curly today, announcing that CEO Joe Banner and general manager Mike Lombardi were history.
OK, the following is probably going to sound massively biased and more like a propaganda piece, but what else do you expect from a guy who got two degrees from there?
It’s been a rough few months for Cleveland sports fans. The Browns have no direction, and, as it turns out, neither do the Cavaliers. Plus, the Indians aren’t doing anything of consequence until at least April, though we are actually looking forward to spring training for the first time in a long time.
So, with all that misery raining down on Cleveland, what’s a fan to do?
Here’s your answer: What about Cleveland State basketball?
Dear Mr. Haslam:
I hope things are well and you’re getting out of that whole mess of an alleged rebate scam Pilot Flying J has been dealing with. I’m sure you can probably appreciate that we’d rather not see your 100-year old dad have to take over in the event you get hit with jail time.
Anyway, I had a specific reason for writing you, or maybe it’s because you wrote a letter to the fans, I felt compelled, as a Cleveland Browns fan, to respond to whatever it was you were trying to say.
During his tenure as Cavaliers general manager, Chris Grant has had a knack for performing Obi Wan Kenobi-like Jedi mind tricks on other teams to squeeze from them what he can. It started with the unloading of Mo Williams and Jamario Moon to the Clippers for Baron Davis and what turned out to be a No. 1 draft pick, which they used on Kyrie Irving.
While wheeling and dealing, Grant has tried very hard to put a contender on the court, through a variety of deals that involved players most people didn’t even know were in Cleveland. However, the team still struggles.
But in a weak Eastern Conference, the Cavs, inexplicably, remain in the playoff hunt. So, the Jedi Master felt compelled to pull another trick.
Teed Off Redux 