Epistle on Cleveland Culture of Losing

No doubt my comments will not make everyone in this region happy but I have some distinct thoughts underscored after watching every game of the now concluded NBA finals with Golden State clearly the better team.  Let me first say that I played a great deal of basketball in my life and understand the game, the rules, the logic of team-based sports and will add that the ability of each of these men are beyond belief from my personal perspective.  LeBron James is a superman no doubt but what I watched closely was the he is not a team-based player. We saw it in Miami and we have just witnessed it in the GS series.

 

Yes, some key Cleveland players were MIA thus more of the load fell on Mr. James but he is perfectly capable of shouldering that load and did admirably. However, when Mr Naismith invented this game of basketball and its evolution to 2015, team-based means just that, it is TEAM that wins championships and the Cavs did not display much semblance of grasping this golden ring of reality; no pun intended.  GS outgunned, out manned, out played and played as a cohesive band of brothers was my scouting report of the six games.  The shooting skills were astounding but not only of Curry but several others. They were a team of hustle, class, driven, take no prisoners and I loved that for that is basketball in its purest form. The MVP Award for the series was absolutely correct with Mr. Igloudala as the recipient.

 

Cleveland's offense was, well, LBJ; period. He controlled the ball far too much for far too long and in far too many instances.  Mr Smith will undeniably and rightly will be traded for his performance was sketchy at best and his appearance of attitude was a downer.  The Big Russian center, for me who played center, was wonderful to watch. Big, strong, agile, tough, driven, soft shooter; he was my personal hero on the Cavs.  The Cavs not only lost; they were beaten but I think they pretty much beat themselves for not utilizing all the tools in the bag thus relying far too heavily on Mr. James.

 

So this season is over, thankfully, and there will be much trading, whining finger pointing in the three weeks before the 2016 season starts (smile.) but fact it, to me, what we witnessed was a capsule of the Cleveland sports culture be it football, baseball, basketball, badminton or horseshoes; there is not a culture of winning.

 

Culture is defined as the sum total of the behaviors. Given that, one would say the issue and focus of my epistle is that the behaviors that exude themselves in Cleveland sports for whatever the reason does not spell or smell WINNER. Remembering that there is no change until there is a measurable change in behavior, then behavior is the culprit, right?

 

The sad part for me is I have never seen a more avid, hungry, desirous fan base that want and deserve to be satiated with a championship in something but year after year after painful year the season ends with ducked heads and angst.

 

I will close with the fact that Golden State absolutely deserved to win that championship for every Warrior that took the floor played not for themselves but selflessly to make the team look cohesive. The shooting skills I saw were beyond amazing surpassed only by the passing skills of each of the players; that is team-based sport at its best.  And to add to the joy I feel for GS to know Steph Curry is a publicly open professing Christian only adds to my savor of that great championship team.  We got to watch class and classic professional basketball in Golden State that soundly beat a weaker, hurting, too-LBJ dependent enterprise.

 

In other words, to change a culture, behaviors must change dramatically beginning at the top and it works its way down to the floor operator. Mind you I am speaking to the Cleveland professional sports enterprise; it is broken and has been far, far too long!