If you are not moving forward, then you are going backward. And if you stand still, you will get run over. Those are two of my “Gonzoisms.” We are one month into the NBA season, and in my opinion the Cleveland Cavaliers need to take some risks and make a move or they will not get where they are trying to get. You want to win a championship in that town for the first time in any sport since 1964? You
Over the weekend, LeBron James called his slumping, underachieving Cleveland Cavaliers “a fragile team.” James is partially right. As a group, the Cavaliers aren’t dealing very well with the lofty expectations put upon them by pundits like me. Right now, they look like a typical front-running team that lacks mental toughness and gives in at the first sign of trouble. That was evident Saturday, when the Cavaliers sprinted to a 26-8 lead in the first eight minutes – and were overwhelmed thereafter
After having missed the playoffs for the past four-straight seasons—ever since four-time NBA MVP LeBron James left home for the warm beaches of Miami to join Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade and the Heat, and after surprisingly good luck in the past two NBA draft lotteries gifted the Cleveland Cavaliers with back-to-back top-overall picks, there may have been little hope for any monumental improvement entering the summer of 2014. That was, of course, before James made the decision to go home, rejoining
The New York Times brought the front page news recently that more people watched The Walking Dead and NCIS; New Orleans last week than Game 1 of the World Series. Which leads me to Prediction No. 1 for the 2014-15 NBA season: Commissioner Adam Silver is going to take on the national pastime, move up the start of the season by a week and see what happens. Which leads us to prediction No. 2: When Silver does this, his league will outdraw the
Today was media day for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and understandably everyone was crowding around LeBron James. They asked him the patently obvious questions. What’s it like to be back where it all started? How much do you know about new coach David Blatt? Can the Cavaliers win the NBA championship and finally end Cleveland’s 50-year sports title drought? Here’s a question they might have wanted to ask: Hey, LeBron, which fourth star would you like to add to the roster next summer?
New Cavs head coach David Blatt has amassed his fair share of European hardware. The NBA has plenty of Euroleague athletes among its teams’ rosters. Now, it has its first head coach. Last year, as the Boston Celtics began searching for a replacement for Doc Rivers, who was essentially traded to the Los Angeles Clippers, Blatt was mentioned by some reputable basketball writers—including our very own Chris Sheridan—as a possible candidate. However, the job went to Butler coach Brad
The Cleveland Cavaliers have chosen David Blatt of Maccabi Tel Aviv as their new head coach. They will not be disappointed. I have known Blatt since 2007, when he led the Russian national team to a victory over Spain in Madrid in the gold medal game. I dined with him in Shanghai in 2008 in the prelude to the Beijing Olympics, and our paths crossed again in Istanbul in 2010 when I was covering the world championship. That was when Blatt
I recently moved to Ohio, a couple hours down the Turnpike from Cleveland, and a couple hours (but a more complicated drive) from Detroit. I’m not sure how this is going to affect my NBA allegiances. When I lived in Baltimore, the obvious choice was the Wizards, but sharing with Washington people goes against a lot of the things I believe in. In Halifax, the Raptors were the de facto local team, but they played halfway across the country, and