You Can No Longer Hate LeBron James

Chasing the youthful teams. Can’t win without a great #2. Classless. Disloyal. Traitor. He’s still a peasant.

Those were the type of reactions heard last Friday when LeBron announced his Decision Part Deux to return home to Cleveland. He did so in a wonderfully thought out, brilliantly insightful, and selflessly humble letter in Sports Illustrated. The contrast of this year’s choice compared to that of four years ago is stark, emphasized by the irony LeBron employed – you have to think it was purposeful – when writing a letter to announce his homecoming, because of Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert’s seething rebuke following The First Decision.

And, four years ago, Gilbert had every right to be angry.

On a beautiful summer afternoon I sat inside the stuffy living room of a small, Maine cottage  with a group of friends, waiting on That Decision. After commercials, five grueling minutes of Jim Gray during the interview, and more commercials we finally found out: he was taking his talents to South Beach. The whole thing stank. The TV special, the ads, the obnoxious hinting and overuse of the word ‘decision’ throughout the question-and-answer left us all with an overpowering, sour taste in our mouths. Those of us not in Florida hated it. And said so. Rancor cankers. Even the self-centered phrasing of “Taking my talents to South Beach” seemed awkward. He only made it worse by holding parties in Florida and bragging about their impending dominance before any of The Big Three had played a minute of court-time together.

Before LeBron left Cleveland, he was beloved by the NBA and its fan base. The pre-emptive conversation in 2010 was: “Who is the league’s best player? LeBron or Kobe?” not about his tainted legacy. He was a kid who grew up in Ohio, represented his upbringing, his city, well, and played hard for the family. Certainly, a few disliked him, but no one hated the guy.

After the Decision, totally different story.

Cleveland fans…well, they didn’t take the absconding so well. They burned jerseys – James in effigy – and used his bobblehead as urinal cakes.

I sat in the living room of that cottage, outraged he would leave. (Hypocritically, because I’m a Celtics fan, I hated the idea of players dictating rosters and teaming up in “Big Three” scenarios.) Part of my frustration was that evidently LeBron didn’t think he could win on his own. This was a guy who could be an all-time great – in the conversation with Jordan – and he took the “easy” way out. He thought only about winning basketball games now; neither his future legacy nor his past roots.

When he faded in the 2011 Finals in fourth quarter after fourth quarter, social media unleashed a relentless barrage of malice. Sport’s most popular villain had fallen in his quest for world (OK, NBA) dominance, and the country could not have been happier. Anyone who was not a fan of the Miami Heat felt spurred into vocal opposition against LeBron. He tried to soil the integrity of the game by joining forces with friends, but he was thwarted by ready-made protagonist Dirk Nowitzki, a one-team lifer.

Then he won two championships and, fine, the sports world decided, we can still hate him for winning. When the Spurs avenged their 2013 Finals loss the next season by humiliating the Heat in incredible fashion every non-Heat fan maniacally laughed in glee. LeBron was vanquished yet again.

Besides for immediately increasing record sales for Diddy’s track “I’m Coming Home,” in which Skylar Grey sings the hook, LeBron made the PR turn-around of his life when he went back to the Cavaliers. But, just like the biblical anecdote of the Prodigal Son, James was welcomed back home with adulation and joy by his father city. All past grievances were forgotten. My roommate at Syracuse this fall is from Cleveland and he texted me when the alert went out about the return simply, “Strangers hugging in McDonalds”.

In fact, my father, on business in Cleveland that day, went to an Indians game and saw many people in plain, orange tee-shirts, emblazoned with a simple word that held so much significance: Forgiveness. It, seemed to be the open arms of the city, ready to embrace their hero, but also LeBron’s decision to be the bigger man. He saw his hometown burn his jersey, read the rancor in Gilbert’s letter, heard the city cheer his every stumble. Yet, LeBron forgave Cleveland as much as they forgave him.

In his classy letter, LeBron says that coming home is not a basketball decision, but a personal one. How can you hate LeBron now? That decision alone distances himself from Michael Jordan. In Bill Simmons’ phenomenal column about why LeBron left, he points to a conversation he had with Doug Collins. Michael Jordan made every decision based around basketball. He wanted to win all the time, no matter the cost. He used to grimace towards the bench, indicating to his coach to get a certain teammate “The F out of there” because he couldn’t be trusted. LeBron’s decision to go home wasn’t about amassing championships; it was about trying to bring just one to his title-starved home. Quality trumps quantity. People conveniently forget about how Michael tried to extend his career in basketball with the Wizards, crucifying LeBron for chasing winning basketball when His Airness did too. MJ was always about me, this decision by LeBron is about a city. LeBron isn’t chasing rings to see who has the most by teaming up with other greats any longer.

LeBron made a personal decision within basketball, not one about basketball personnel.

You can’t hate him for choosing something that helps others. He doesn’t have the money on his mind, and it’s for the good of everyone.

LeBron has unequivocally righted his wrongs by owning up to the Heat debacle and the Decision disaster from four years ago. This time, he met with all owners, unlike in 2010 when he left Cleveland without a word to Gilbert, and said nothing the entire time. No leaks, no “here’s what LeBron wants if you want to win the lottery”. He kept it quiet and decided within his inner circle. He’s matured. Keeping in mind that LeBron went directly from St. Vincent-St. Mary High School (Akron, OH) at 18-years old to the face of an NBA franchise, he fascinatingly pointed out in his letter that Miami was like college for him. He grew up. Now that he’s matured, his experience has better prepared him to lead his hometown team.

This is good for basketball for so many reasons. They now have the redemption story of LeBron going home to a small-market team in a situation where it’s not about the money. The league-wide feelings for the Cavs isn’t, like Miami, disdain, it’s generally empathetic. After seeing the Spurs play so well for so long, it’s evident a team needs more than three Superstars in a riches and rags roster, but they need depth. San Antonio, not Miami, is the paradigm for success. It also signifies the end of the “Big 3” era, which started with the Celtics.

The Eastern Conference is opened up to provide more competitive playoffs, as well. That helps the NBA fan, too. There’s a balance in the teams, there are no more player-dictated rosters. The NBA and its fans also benefit from the new jerseys to buy (silly Cleveland, shouldn’t have burned them) with diversified plotlines and a general consensus of an unknown NBA hierarchy with LeBron in Cleveland.

It’s good for non-NBA fans, who no longer have to watch SportsCenter – um, I mean LeBron-Carmelo Watch 2K14 – and get text updates from ESPN, frantically alerting you LeBron’s son just caught a fish and the video is on Instagram. That’s the part I despise: the suffocating coverage. It’s not LeBron’s fault that he’s hounded about a decision which he can, justifiably, take weeks to contemplate. It’s ESPNs over-blown coverage and constant updates that make people sick of the NBA. Non-NBA fans will also see less Heat gear this fall.

It’s good for Dan Gilbert and Cleveland because the man gets to keep his job and the city doesn’t have to excommunicate him for his bullish actions costing them a chance at their hero. The city also will undoubtedly grow economically; according to Forbes, around $100 million. Plus, now, Cleveland, good news! LeBron cannot leave. He can’t. If he did, the world would implode from anti-LeBron propaganda and Cleveland’s rage.

It’s good for Andrew Wiggins because he will have a healthy locker-room with which to mature and the best mentor possible in the game; hard to imagine typing that even six months ago.

Anderson Varejao – LeBron has said about 242542 times that he loves Varejao as a teammate, “one of his favorites,” so that means: job for life.

It’s good for Miami because…OK, maybe it’s not great for everyone. But it’s really good for most people. Plus, Miami still has their great weather, beautiful beaches, and good-looking women. It’s tough to feel bad for them.

He even gave them a meeting, a luxury he didn’t afford Cleveland four years ago.

So as LeBron James goes back to try and win “Not four…not three…not two” but just one championship for the city of Cleveland, it’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.

Here’s a player, sacrificing individual awards to make the city that raised him proud. And if Cleveland fans don’t hate him any longer, neither can you.

LeBron James: Better Than Anyone, Including Michael Jordan

What makes LeBron so different than any other preemptive Superstar that’s ever played in this league is the fact that he is forced to evaluate his legacy – where he is and how he needs to get better – every single summer. When Jordan played it was just, “Wow, this guy might be the best ever.” He was never forced to quantify his own legacy, never forced to make a Mt. Rushmore – LeBron is put under such blinding heat of a microscope that he has ever flinch analyzed – unlike Michael.

And Jordan could score, for sure, but could he defend as well as LeBron? I doubt it. Who else, besides LeBron, can hold the NBA MVP to 6.3% shooting in the Conference Finals like LeBron did to Derrick Rose in 2011? James rebounds more (7.3 to 6.2), he has more assists (7.9 to 6.1) – he is the most complete player the league has ever seen. He takes care of the ball, take, for example, that Michael Jordan was in the top ten in turnovers four times. LeBron never has. LeBron is efficient. He plays aggressively smart whereas Michael just played aggressive.

Speaking of aggressive, here’s a question for you.

Who is better, Trent Dilfer or Dan Marino? Steve Blake or John Stockton? Brandon Jacobs or Barry Sanders?

Why do all the guys on the front-end of the question have one or more rings while the second guy has none. And who do you think is better? Rings are not the only measure. Rings are measured by wins and winning is a team statistic. That’s why some all-time greats like Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing, and Cris Carter are ring-less.

Rings, hm. LeBron has the advantage over Michael at this point, too. At 28 years old, LeBron James had 4 MVPs to Michael Jordan’s 2. LeBron held advantage with two championships over one and, accordingly, 2 Finals MVPs to one.

Also at 28 years old, LeBron is in his 11^th season, whereas Jordan played a total of fifteen. That’s on Jordan that he didn’t play as many seasons. He took a hiatus in 1993-94, which is because of his gambling and Commissioner Stern asking him politely to take the year off. That, and retirement, were both Jordan’s fault in shortening his career.

At the end of a career, both these guys are headed for Springfield, so the argument of heard about Michael being in the Hall twice (player and executive) is invalid.

That doesn’t mean a whole lot, MJ being in as an executive AND having picked Kwame Brown with the number-one overall pick during his time in Washington seems ludicrous.

What doesn’t seem ludicrous is comparing them one-on-one. It’s what would inevitably happen to see who’s really better.

LeBron sounds like a daft punk song! He’s bigger, better, faster, stronger. 6-foot-8 versus 6-foot-6. 240lbs versus 195lbs. In one-on-one, there isn’t anyone to set a screen, no space to operate, no one to get your rebound. James’s size advantage and comparable quickness to Jordan gives LeBron the edge.

In their careers, Jordan certainly had the edge in coaching.

Jordan had much better coaching. Phil Jackson is an all-time great while Mike Brown plus Erik Spoelstra is just “pretty good” – at best.

A player getting past pretty good and to their best is about being efficient. Not being a volume shooter and not hogging the ball is essential if you want to win.

Michael Jordan and LeBron James have the exact same total Player Efficiency Rating – 27.9 – throughout their careers. What’s the difference between them two? LeBron will get better. Jordan’s retired. More efficient: LeBron shoots 3% better from behind the arc, despite hoisting triple the amount of threes that MJ did at this point in his career.

Let this statistic sink in. LeBron James, the past three seasons, has been in the top-5 of both points per game and field goal percentage – that’s never been done before, not even by Michael Jordan. If you have a high field goal percentage you are A) a big man that plays close to the rim B) someone who doesn’t shoot a lot c) both. If you score a lot you A) shoot too much B) don’t pass enough C) both. Why does LeBron fit none of those statements which is true for EVERY other player in the national basketball league? Why has he obliterated those standards? Because he’s that good.

LeBron and Michael Jordan are both pretty good; I think that’s fair to say, but to say that LeBron gets preferential treatment from the referees and MJ didn’t is ridiculous.

The NBA has always treated its stars specially. There was the Jordan rule that you could push a guy off to create space for a jumper – as a referee, you don’t let stars foul out. LeBron is a continuation of a rule that’s much older than either of these players, so we shouldn’t use that argument for either of these players.

These players are similar, but also very different at the same time.

Michael Jordan goes hard all the time. I concede he’s the greatest competitor ever. But sometimes he goes so hard that it wears him out and he can’t produce in crunch time. In the 1998 Eastern Conference Finals against the Indiana Pacers, he missed 10 of his final 11 shots – sometimes that constant energy is a downfall.

LeBron is smart, he always plays hard, but he knows when to get out in transition or body up a big guy. He can, quite literally, defend whatever position necessary. Including Point Guards, which are the smallest, fastest, most agile guys on the court – LeBron can still guard them. He said to Chris Broussard in an ESPN interview, that he prefers to “hunt in packs.” He defers defers defers to get his teammates going, evaluating the other team, and then strikes at the jugular.

You know what, don’t trust me. ESPN ran an article and an Eastern Conference Executive said “LeBron would dominate Jordan one-on-one, no question.” Then Magic Johnson called LeBron “The best that’s ever been.” Don’t want to take their words for it? How about Scottie Pippen, who played with Jordan? He said “LeBron will end up being better than Michael ever was.”

Don’t trust them? How about other players.

I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t think Chris Bosh is a hall of famer. His statue might be in a museum or a Land Before Time movie, but not in Springfield. So, therefore, Chris Bosh is worse than Dennis Rodman and I believe Scottie Pippen and Dwyane Wade are comparable complements. Say you don’t think LeBron is better, LeBron still won with Bosh as opposed to Rodman. LeBron has won with less than those Bulls teams.

Essentially, there’s a big difference between MJ and LeBron – and it’s not the years they played. Michael Jordan looked to throttle the game. He hoped to appease the basketball gods by staying in the gym long after the game ended and hustling so hard from end to end that observers might have thought he was doing suicides. Jordan might have conquered the game, but LeBron James solved it. James, between 2010 and today, has decreased the amount of shots he takes per game by 16%, and his scoring has risen 2.1 points per game. How does that happen? LeBron James owns Jordan in APG through the first ten season of their careers, 7.9 to 6.1 – almost a two per game difference. Michael Jordan might have said “There’s no I in team, but there is in win” but no one is more is a better exemplar of that statement than LeBron James. He passes, he defends every position, and he is the consummate teammate.

Chuck Daly and the “Bad Boys” Pistons beat the Bulls in three straight Eastern Conference Finals from 1988 to 1990 by implementing a strategy called the Jordan Rules. If he drove, he’d get fouled hard. If he didn’t have the ball, he was overplayed defensively. If he touched the ball – a swift double team. That strategy stifled Jordan as they beat them in 5, 6, and 7 games those three years. If it weren’t for Phil Jackson’s innovative triangle offense, Jordan may have won only two or three titles rather than six.

That’s the thing, LeBron doesn’t need an innovative new offense focused around him, he can succeed in any style of play because LeBron’s greatest asset is his mind, which is geared towards the game. Michael Jordan may have conquered basketball, but all those subject to conquest eventually rise up again whereas those who solve puzzles can succeed for years to come.

 

Sam Fortier is a 17-year old aspiring journalist from New Hampshire. You can follow him on Twitter @Sam4TR or “like” him on Facebook or add him to your circle on Google+.

The Derision

CHAGRIN FALLS, OH–In a stunning announcement yesterday at 3 PM, LeBron James of the Miami Heat publicly admitted to being a fan of Nickelback, becoming the first professional athlete in North America to do so. The interview took place at the Boys & Girls Club in Chagrin Falls, just 35 miles outside the LeBron-ambivalent city of Akron.

Nickelback, a rock band originating from Alberta in 1995, has released seven studio albums. In November 2011, users of the music-oriented dating site, Tastebuds.fm, voted Nickelback as the number one musical turnoff, edging out Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga.

LeBron James, widely recognized as the most talented player in basketball, recently won his second consecutive NBA Championship trophy as the leader of his squad.

“Yeah man, I really wish that Nickelback would take their talents to South Beach too,” said the back-to-back Finals MVP of the Canadian rock band. “If we could get Chad Kroeger [lead singer] to do the pump-up music before games that would be awesome.”

When asked about the courage he needed to do so he responded, “Coming out from backstage about my feelings toward Nickelback really was the right move, I spent a long time on the phone with my mom. She was on a train heading to The Great White North so the reception wasn’t great, but the sentiment got across: I needed to do this. Both for me and for others who feel the same.” During the meeting, LeBron seemed affable, finally peeling back the final shell of his complex and guarded personality.

Before LeBron won his first ring there were two kinds of NBA fans: those who wanted to see him fail for the inconceivable, incensing notion that he would team up with others as if trying to buy a championship, and Heat fans (whose numbers conspicuously surged after 2010). The situation shared similarities with Major League Baseball and the New York Yankees. In MLB–especially during the early 2000s–people loved to see their team win, but they loved seeing the Yankees lose almost more. That was the dogma that surrounded Miami in the NBA, everyone rooted for them to lose.

In essence, LeBron’s announcement drew every NBA fan, Heat supporters included, together in a robust union in hatred for the Miami basketball team and the face of their franchise. Even Miami Heat players, fans, and management were soured by the news. Pat Riley, the Miami basketball architect and team President, refused to comment on not only LeBron, but his mere existence.

The proclamation comes as a shock to nearly everyone, with one small exception.

Shooting Guard, teammate, and the man who brought LeBron to Miami, Dwyane Wade, spoke on the matter late Sunday night after a congregation of reporters formed under the terrace at his mansion. In response to NBA expert analyst Doris Burke’s question about warning signs toward James’ tastes in music, he had this to say: “You hear him humming around the locker room and at first, I didn’t really pay any attention to it,” Wade recounted, eyes misting. Other teammates, in written statements emailed to us, attributed the sounds to Discovery Channel documentaries on hippopotami fighting or horror movie soundtracks’ with nails on a chalkboard and a cat screech accompaniment. “Then I figured out it was the chorus line from Rockstar,” Wade finished, seemingly devastated. Rockstar, dubbed the second-worst song of all-time by Buzzfeed, was released in 2007 to much critical disclaim.

After the announcement, the alienation was immediate. Cleveland fans who not three years ago burned their number-23 jerseys, James in effigy, rejoiced. Social media and internet message boards were ablaze with taunts and jeering messages towards the man formerly known as the Miami Messiah. A collective cascade of contempt washed over the former-Superstar.

What does this mean for the best basketball player on the planet?

Approximately an hour after what many are calling “The Derision” Nike notified James he would no longer receive sponsorships from the company. In addition, all ten editions of his shoes have been pulled from every outlet nationwide.  Fans, stinging from the betrayal, are calling for a sort of trade-in system, but Miami initially balked at the idea citing that if Cleveland could deal, so could thousands of others.

However, an outcry by the Floridian public, highlighted by a swiftly-purchased billboard Sunday night that simply read: ‘That is Cleveland, this is Miami,’ has prompted Heat executives to offer jersey switches. As of press time there was no indication whose jerseys would be eligible for exchange, but rumors peg Chris ‘Birdman’ Anderson and Joel Anthony to be the likeliest.

Multiple other companies have also decided to revoke their endorsements with James. McDonald’s was not loving his announcement and pulled hundreds of thousands of small-sized, 40 oz. cups with James’ mug on them. In a TV spot for Beats by Dr. Dre, James is shown dunking by himself while listening to an Imagine Dragons’ tune, but people inside the segment leaked different info. “He insisted on listening to Nickelback,” an anonymous source from the production crew told us. “But with audio splicing, we fixed it. We’ve done more difficult work, like editing out the word ‘practice’ from our Allen Iverson interviews.”

In a slightly awkward moment at the press conference a phone could be heard ringing, interrupting the flow of the meeting. As reporters rummaged through their belongings, the noise got louder and source couldn’t be detected. The derivation of the disturbance was from a Samsung phone lying next to James’ forearm. The ringtone rang This Afternoon by, you guessed it, Nickelback. A shocked newsroom watched as LeBron actually let the song play, only bothering to answer just before time ran out and the phone would send the call to voicemail. Samsung, another endorsement deal for ‘King James,’ ostensibly professed that they could not control the content on their devices but pleaded with other users not to judge their products on James’ behavior – they also promised to severe ties with him.

While LeBron James is feeling the Heat from the organization as well as the NBA’s numerous fans, he holds fast to his word. In a mocking Twitter post early Monday morning @KingJames boasted: “How many Nickelback albums up in my iPhone? Not 1…not 2…not 3…I got all seven man!! #MyBeats.” So this how James has chosen to handle this media nightmare, by mockery and disregard.

James’ marketability within ad campaigns and sneaker deals hasn’t been the only financial suffering since the announcement. Rumors of the Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers clearing cap space to sign the former-mega-Superstar this upcoming summer, when he can opt-out of his Miami deal, have fallen harshly and on now-deaf ears. The Cavaliers, looking for an excuse not to pursue James, have taken to the extreme by trying to consume cap-room. They have done so by offering a max contract (5 years at $100 million) to former Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls star Brian Scalabrine, nicknamed “The White Mamba.” Cavaliers GM Chris Grant denied that the signing had any other intention than making the team better. “I am unaware of any person named LeBron James,” were his only words.

It appears for LeBron that even in presently-progressive America, no one is ready to support his Nickelback fandom.

Neglect on Ice

Stuck between “Pitcher gets hit in the head by line drive” and “Spelling error in Omaha” sat a ticker entitled “Boston evens series at one” and that’s the only mention (besides the lead story, which was a paltry fraction of the hour show) of the Boston Bruins-Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup Finals matchup.

The Stanley Cup becomes the most coveted piece of cannikin in June. But for some reason, the network whose motto reads “The Worldwide Leader in Sports” just doesn’t care about the greatest sport on ice.

ESPN’s coverage of hockey classifies as neglectful. The malnutrition of ESPN’s hockey diet comes to prominence on its flagship morning show, SportsCenter. Notwithstanding Barry Melrose, the local puck expert, hockey doesn’t just take the backseat to every other sport – it’s thrown in the trunk blindfolded and totally abandoned with quotidian repetition.

Sunday’s edition of SportsCenter’s “Top 10 Plays” presented no contradictory evidence. The night previous the Boston Bruins had overcome sloppy play and stagnant offense to garner a late, overtime-winning goal from Forward Daniel Paille. That’s how the intense, gritty Game 2 ended – similar to Game 1, which also went into overtime, but Bruins failed to capitalize and lost in triple-OT. But the Top 10 Plays – which hand out the top position with as much ease as Sean Avery delivering career-ending hits – didn’t acknowledge that the Boston-Chicago game even happened. Tuukka Rask’s incredible performance apparently warranted no merit from ESPN. Even Corey Crawford’s athletic glove save, in which his arm moved quicker than John Tortorella when he left New York, got no recognition.

The NHL was foregone to have correspondent Colleen Dominguez talk while a sparse graphic appeared over her. The graphic simply read: Tony Parker hopes to be 100% for Game 5. Really? I always thought athletes hoped to be ailing when big games were on the line. The story lasted one minute and a half.

The two Stanley Cup games, with determined and gallant fervor, failed to capture national headlines. Instead, ESPN and most other news outlets focused on the unceasing pendulum that is the NBA Finals. The favored Miami Heat are taking on the consummate professional winners in the San Antonio Spurs, who embody the name ‘Old Faithful’ even more than the geyser in Yellowstone with their repeated Finals appearances and their equally repeated wins (four titles in four tries).

 But 2013 has presented the Spurs with anything but faith. In four games, there have been three victories by 16 or more points. 16 points actually undersells how the games have been played out, it hasn’t even been that close. All of this including a 36-point pummeling of the Heat by the Spurs that was over even before halftime began. These anticlimactic Finals against the best teams from each conference haven’t been the grind-it-out, best-versus-best matchups that excite like the NHL.

In my distraught nature of wanting to see the highlights from Game 1 to find out the victor (I had Finals of my own at school the next day and after the first overtime, at midnight, I had to call it a day) I was forced to resort to a YouTube video from a drunken Boston man recording off of his low-definition television with his iPhone to see Bruins goals.

So what’s the deal (or the absence of a TV deal) between ESPN and hockey?

Hockey, which has been previously exiled from National TV more shamefully than Napolean from France, took a big step forward this year. The signing of a 10-year pact between NBC and the NHL brought an end of terror in which hockey was broadcast on Versus, a channel which many people didn’t own, and the Outdoor Life Network, which fewer people knew existed. The OLN resembled a precursor to Versus. Djfhsdkafh…as I gather my jaw from my keyboard, I’m just astonished that such a network, only available through DirecTV during its infancy, could hold the rights to a major sport such as hockey.

In an interview ESPN Senior Vice-President Vince Doria talked about how there has never been a better in-house sport. He said during his time at the Boston Globe, he attended far more Bruins games than Celtics. But ESPN has expressed multiple times that they don’t believe hockey brings a telegenic appeal to the room and that on-ice scrambles and intensity don’t translate to the viewer.

Hockey and television also don’t cooperate because it holds a geographical hold, a sort of civic clamp on only certain regions. The sectionalism in hockey is not an isolated occurrence. In the lowest TV-rated series ever, the Los Angeles Kings played the New Jersey Devils to the tune of 2.98 million viewers per game. However, in Los Angeles the series received a 25, which means one in every four males ages 18-49 watching TV was rooting for the Kings. They were eventually rewarded as the Kings took to Cup home, but that shows an alarming trend for hockey. If the two host cities contribute the majority of the viewers, then no other fans are watching. Which in turn means it is regional and partnering with the NHL for every other game they have besides the Finals rewards you with nothing. It also means that the popularity of hockey is still down.

So the chicken and the egg contradiction comes into play here: is hockey not popular enough to be on ESPN? Or is it that ESPN’s refusal to show hockey hamstrings its progress?

And while the argument can be made that a rights holder to a program increases its popularity, take a look some strange sports they’ve had on. Bowling, the Scrabble Championship and Cup Stacking have all presided over air-time on ESPN, mostly on ESPN2, but still there. With the exception of the sweet PBA commercial with Busta Rhymes audio, those three sports make ESPN 8 “The Ocho” from “Dodgeball” look like a good way to couch-surf and waste the afternoon.

That’s the power of other sports. In the NFL, especially with the prevalence of Fantasy Football, nearly every game attracts the maximum amount of viewers because there are so few. In baseball, the likes of Mike Trout and Miguel Cabrera with their all-around prowess on the diamond warrant a viewing on occasion. The NBA can be explained with the allegory of “The Decision.” LeBron James infamous “TV Special” in which LeBron picked which team he would play for drew 9.95 million viewers. That’s more than ANY Stanley Cup Final game since the Blackhawks played the Canadiens in 1973.

So while everyone – myself included – are tired of SportsCenter covering Tim Tebow, Jets Camp, and the Miami Heat, as a TV company they stand to make money, and they can’t seem to do that with hockey.

Understandably, they won’t enter an agreement for TV rights with the NHL, but would it kill them to put some highlights on for more than thirty seconds? 

Let’s Go Streaking

I must give forewarning because the title may have been misleading – what I’m looking at is the Chicago Blackhawks and the Miami Heat winning-streaks – or, in Chi Town’s case – points streak. It’s not looking at the other activity of streaking…at least not in the Shire anyway…at least not until May…at least excluding the Penguin Plunge…

Things have gotten heated on social media as of late, especially on Twitter, when ESPN asked whose streak was more impressive. The question received well over 10,000 tweet responses; all from omniscient, second comings of the Schwab who felt that their answer was correct.

So, whose streak impresses more?

Is it the Chicago Blackhawks who garnered a point in 24 straight games in the NHL (before falling to the Avalanche 6-2 on Friday night) or does that right belong to the NBA’s Miami Heat who had their superstars LeBron James and Dwyane Wade explode, each scoring above 24 points per game and nearly 6 assists during their current, 17-game win streak?

Well, there is a very fundamental discrepancy between the two. Miami hasn’t lost in 17 consecutive games while Chicago has avoided defeat in regulation for those 24 contests. So, really, for Chicago it’s a point-streak, not a win-streak as the Blackhawks have fallen three times in overtime.

How the NHL works is such: that a win rewards the victorious team with two points, an overtime-loss (including shootouts) with one point and a regulation loss warrants zero points. Therefore, to lose in overtime can perversely observed as a win for the defeated team.

It must be taken into account, however, that there is a margin of parity in the NHL, whereas no one pretends that anything of the sort presents itself on the hardwood. To prove that point: the point-percentage (games in which teams gained at least one point divided by the total games) for the Blackhawks was .634 whereas the Heat’s opponent winning percentage during their winning series tallies a .481.Even that number is skewed because of a few teams with absurdly high winning percentages, but there are 9 teams under .500 the Heat have taken on and defeated.

Those numbers don’t tell the entire tale because, of those 9 teams, five were 15 games under the 50-50 line, which is extremely high and shows the Heat have inflated their record with wins such as those. Those numbers are comparable because the NBA does not allow ties and NHL teams Chicago faced can accumulate anywhere from at least 2, to 6 draws. To eliminate draws would reduce the percentage drastically, but it would still be close to the Heat’s opponents winning percentage (.477).

Upon further examination of the two teams schedules would reveal that 20 out of the 24 teams Chicago challenged, the organization had between 10 and 13 wins out of a 24-game schedule and 19 of 24 had above-.500 records. Those near .500 records show that on any given night, anyone can skate away with the W. That’s parity at its finest. The Heat played 7 out of 17 teams with records above .500 – therefore, analytics say that Chicago has navigated a more challenging course this season. Also, Chicago won its first 12 games even, though 10 of them were on the road and their season led-off against the defending-champion Los Angeles Kings. Oh, and the NHL started during a strike-shortened season where many players were out of shape and the teams were not cohesive. There cannot be anything tougher than that.

Both teams play tenacious defense. The pair of goaltenders for the Blackhawks – Corey Crawford and Ray Emery – split playing time and yet both are in the top-four in save percentage and goals-against average. That includes Emery who started a perfect 10-0-0 for the season – a historic milestone for the tendy as Emery is the first ever to accomplish such a feat. A point for Miami is that they allowed less than 100 points in 12 of their 17 games and are averaging a mere 94.9 points per game. Their streak includes making another team from the Windy City – the Bulls – look dismal and stifled their offense as the Heat only gave up 67 points.

The unreal series of wins has been unusual in that there has not been a competitive, alpha-male spirit surrounding the coinciding streaks. In fact, there has been much love between the teams, including LeBron tweeting out that the Blackhawks were “awesome” and Bryan Bickell of the ‘Hawks reciprocating. Everyone has been tossing in their countenance as Mr. Hockey, Wayne Gretzky, offered to debate Mr. Basketball, Michael Jordan, on whose streak was more impressive. That would be more “awesome” than LeBron’s compliment, or even Barney Stinson, if it would happen.

The biggest knock against the Heat’s streak is that it’s hardly the best this season as opposed to the Blackhawks who are doing the best ever. The Los Angeles Clippers became domineers of the Staples Center by winning 17 in a row earlier this season.

It’s safe to conclude that the Blackhawks have the greater streak.

Just to be clear, though. How much do streaks really mean? Ask the 2007 Patriots who went on an 18-game tear but lost when it counted, or the 2002 Athletics who won 20 games in a row (a MLB record), or the 1979-80 Philadelphia Flyers who strung together a North American sports history record by going unbeaten in 35 straight contests. Other than winning a bunch of games in a row, those teams all have one thing in common: They all lost in the championship.

The season becomes nothing without a title, that’s something both the Blackhawks and the Heat should make sure to remember.

 

Pacing Themselves

The Indiana Pacers will win the NBA Championship this season.

There – I said it. In June, kids in Indiana will have more to cheer about than just getting out of school. And at least one kid in New Hampshire will cheer about the same thing.

Remember last year when the Pacers won a convincing Game 3 victory, 94-75, over the offensive juggernaut of Miami in the second round of the playoffs? Remember how they held the Heat to 4-20 from behind the 3-point arc or how they kept the Heat, who averaged 99 points per game, to a mere 74 in that contest OR how about the Pacers’ Tenacious D keeping the Heat to 35% shooting – a full 10% below their normal field goal percentage?

The Pacers can return to that form. Also, when they took that 2-1 lead of the series against LeBron and the Heat, they were in control. Dwyane Wade had fought with Erik Spoelstra, Roy Hibbert was playing out of his mind and Danny Granger’s left knee was still intact.

The Pacers then lost the services of Granger and his left knee to the same injury that claimed Vince Carter in the 2000-01 season. That was detrimental to the Pacers as Granger was their leading scorer for the past five consecutive seasons.

The importance of the Small Forward Danny Granger cannot be understated. He was the leader in the plus-minus category for the Pacers (+6.2), the leading scorer (18.7 ppg) and the physical and emotional General on the Floor for Indiana.

This season Indiana’s defense is just as stingy – tops in the NBA in points per game allowed at 90.2 and best in the league in opponent’s field goal percentage with 41.9% – as compared to a year ago. However, their total team offense has fallen 4.9 points per game in the absence of Granger. Without him, three guards: Paul George, George Hill and Lance Stephenson, have all increased their average scoring output per game by at least five points.

The problem is that even though that trio has increased their scoring the Pacers are only scoring 92.8 points per game on 43% shooting, 28^th and 27^th out of 30 in the NBA respectively. So even though their prodigious defense keeps teams from scoring, their offensive struggles hinder their efforts to win games.

As Danny Granger returns Wednesday to “get his feet wet,” according to Coach Frank Vogel, he will work his way back to basketball-shape. When Granger gets back in basketball shape he will legitimize the Pacers as a threat in not only the Eastern Conference, but in the NBA.

The Pacers – who finished third in the Eastern Conference a year previous – felt that Granger’s injury may have made the Pacers take a step retrograde to their promising future.

It may have been a disguised blessing as Hill and the two 22-year olds (Stephenson and George) have been able to have larger roles in the offense and learn more on their own without relying on Granger. Another note: no need to worry about chemistry that the ‘New-look Pacers’ may have built up, Granger is (unlike most of today’s superstars) in the middle of his prime and remains a team player. In fact, last year the Pacers were 11-points worse per 48 minutes with Granger off the floor than on and shot 6% worse on field goal attempts.

Even without their Captain, they have excelled against good teams. The top-ranked defenders are 2-0 against the Heat, the top-ranked offense in the NBA, with 87-77 and 102-89 victories. That as well as a 105-95 triumph over the fifth-ranked offense in the Houston Rockets should inspire hope in Indiana.

This year, through their first 51 games – all without their Captain – they’re 31-20 and in third place in the Eastern Conference. So when Danny Granger finally is available for the Pacers, they will become even more dangerous.

The biggest part: as Danny Granger – a good, but not great, defender – returns to the rotation he may give up a bit of defense, but will certainly increase their scoring and therefore, chances to win. Also, as Granger works his way back and becomes stronger with every game played he will be reaching his performance peak around the same time the NBA playoffs start in April and will be playing his best ball of the year when others around the League are fighting off nagging injuries and dealing with overuse.

The Pacers shouldn’t have problems with overuse because the average age of the Pacers roster is 27 years old and Granger is the second-oldest member of the team at the ancient 29-year old mark.

Also, with the leadership of Granger and 32-year old veteran big-man David West and the younger, talented members of their backcourt – the Pacers have all the ingredients to cook a winner winner chicken dinner.

When everyone else is straining for breath at the finish line, the revitalized Pacers will still have gas in the tank. And at playoff time, gas in the tank is money in the bank.

So in response to a question as to why the Pacers have started off slowly this year and aren’t living up to the hype, all that can be said is that they’re Pacing themselves.

The Celtics Bandwagon Now Has One Rider

“They are as bad now as they were during the Antoine Walker years!”

‘They’ were the Boston Celtics, the speaker was my gym teacher and Antoine Walker was the sixth overall pick in the 1997 NBA draft that was the leader for a Celtics team that went 15-67 in that ’97 season. Those 67 defeats under Coach M.L. Carr are a franchise record for losses in a season.

It has become fashionable as of late to make disparaging comments about the Boston Celtics and their playoff chances. “They’re old and they don’t play defense!” many yell.
Cue the Celtics bandwagon – if there even is one – emptying out, leaving only General Manager Danny Ainge. Ainge said, before the Memphis Grizzlies game, “This will be the first game where we have our best lineup that played last year, and that was with [Rajon] Rondo and Avery [Bradley] and Brandon Bass and KG and Paul [Pierce]. That lineup hasn’t even played one minute together this year, so I’d like to give that a shot.”

The Celtics were 14-17 when they took on the Indiana Pacers at home and were in the midst of a four-game slide in which they were outscored by a combined 79 points in losses to the Clippers, Warriors, Grizzlies and lowly Kings.

The Celtics drubbed the Pacers 94-75 and set season bests for field goal percentage allowed and for points allowed. For the Celtics, a team that is last (30th) in the entire NBA with 38.6 Rebounds per game (RPG) to outrebound the 3rd ranked Pacers was impressive and the 19-point win supported Danny Ainge’s mentality of patience.

In the latest ESPN.com power rankings, Marc Stein rated the Celtics just behind the Toronto Raptors. The TORONTO RAPTORS, the team that finished 22-43 just a season ago and a club that is currently without Andrea Bargnani, it’s second leading scorer. To make the slight worse, that Raptors team is – at the moment – two spots behind the Celtics in their own division. All of that and this is the same Boston Celtics that were a consensus top-5 team and seen as the main contender with the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference.

Here are reasons to believe the Boston Celtics will rebound, not only on the glass but in the season, and make the playoffs.

The Celtics are not in unfamiliar territory. In the lockout-shortened season of 2011-12 the Celtics were 15-17 after 32 games, just as this season’s team. The Celtics of 2011-12 came off a five-game losing streak to win five in a row and this year’s squad came off a four-game losing streak and now has won two in a row against tough foes in the Indiana Pacers and Atlanta Hawks. In the 2011-12 season, the Celtics finished strong with a 24-10 record down the stretch and made the playoffs. They finished the year 39-27. Veteran leadership of Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett along with the youthful legs and artistic assists of Rajon Rondo led them to the fourth seed in the postseason.

Some say that the absence of Ray Allen will affect the Celtics, but if it does, it will be minimal. With the return of 22-year old Avery Bradley – and he will return to form, however, he has been rusty in his three games back – it gives the Celtics that huge defensive upgrade that it desperately needed. Bradley’s return also allows Jason Terry to move to the Sixth Man spot, which is where the C’s signed him to play. Terry can then focus on being a high energy, scoring man off the bench.

Bradley’s defensive prowess is sure to improve the currently 12th ranked Celtics defense when it comes to allowing points per game, and the C’s are allowing 96.7 points currently.

The experiment of Kevin Garnett at Power Forward is finally over and Jason Collins can finally return to the bench. Don’t get me wrong, Collins is a valuable role player, but the load of being a starter seemed to overwhelm at his time there. The numbers tell about Collins as he contributed 1.1 points-per-game (ppg) and 2.0 rebounds-per-game (rpg) while shooting an abysmal 60% from the charity stripe.

Collins in the starting five helped no one, as it shifted Garnett to starting Power Forward where, this season, he made six appearances, averaged 11.7 ppg, 7.2 rpg, and 0.5 blocks per game. Also, he shot poorly – only 41.5%. Conversely, Garnett appeared to relish the chance at Center where he is excelling in 26 appearances this season he averages 15.6 ppg, 7.1 rpg and shot an impressive 53.5%.

The sample size is small, but the claim that Garnett belongs at Center is furthered by last season’s examples. In 24 games at starting power forward he averaged 14.3 points, 7.5 rebounds and 0.8 blocks. In 36 games at starting center he averaged 16.8 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.2 blocks. Though he is a natural Power Forward and has played the position primarily throughout his time in the NBA, Garnett clearly is a more valuable addition to the team at Center and at 36 years old – having played over 46,000 minutes in his career – every bit of production that Boston can get out of him, they should.

How much does Garnett really mean to the Celtics? With KG on the floor the Boston Celtics are allowing a 3rd-best 99.5 points per 100 possessions, but when Garnett heads to the pine, that number balloons to a gaudy 113.5 points per 100 possessions – good for last in the league behind the woeful franchise of the Charlotte Bobcats. Even though he is not a natural Center, clearly, the Celtics need him there.

Another ray of hope for the Boston Celtics is the come-uppance of former Buckeye Jared Sullinger. The C’s selected Sullinger with the 21st pick in last year’s draft and, at only 20 years old, has averaged 8.5 points and 6.8 rebounds in only 23 minutes a night. If given the starting job, because Brandon Bass has all but played himself out of it, Sullinger could become a 10-10 man every night. It also would allow Garnett to stay at Center and boost Boston’s rebounding production.

That means the Celtics would have Rondo and Bradley in the backcourt and Pierce, Sullinger and Garnett in the frontcourt; to me, that sounds like a fearsome starting five to contend with any team in the West or East.

The Celtics are now on the clock and have 49 games left in the season to turn their year around and this year has a pair of legitimate, contending foes in the revamped Brooklyn Nets and resurgent New York Knicks in the Atlantic Division. Yes, up to this point the Celtics have not been the team they were in the past three or four years, but there are signs and ways of turning it around.

Turning it around is something that the Boston Celtics of today can do, and it is something that the Celtics of the Antoine Walker years could not do. To say that the Celtics are just as bad as they were in 1996 is neither fair nor true. Except for the fact that the Celtics of today have 15 wins and the ’96 C’s had 15 wins, they are not the same team.
Oh, and the Celtics of today have 49 more opportunities to move past that infamous ’96 Celtics team. To put it simply, the Antoine Walker years are not – mercifully – the years of today.