Monday, June 04, 2007

All's Right In The Sporting World.....

I am sure you are surprised that I would write a post about sports. As you may know, I am NOT a huge sports fan but I probably know more about sports than you think I do. In fact....I know I do. Either way - Since I am from the Cleveland area, throughout my life, I have become accustomed to "the let down". The Browns....they are the big joke. The Indians are usually not far behind and the Cavs have been invisible for years. That is, until we got Lebron. Many of you have only known Lebron for the last few years. If you are from the Akron area you have been hearing about Lebron for many more. He was all the buzz beginning when he was in the 8th grade. Can you believe that????? The eighth grade. He was a kid from the hood who lived in government housing. He got a free ride to a private school in the area and began to gain national attention for his talents. He also played football through part of his High School career and from what I understand he is also very talented in that sport but he choose basketball. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated while he was still in High School (I do have the copy). It is funny...most everyone in Akron has a "Lebron" connection. When we did respite I can't tell you how many kids would tell us they were Lebron's cousin or neighbor or best friend's sister's neighbor three houses down. I used to work with Lebron's HS coach's wife. Her son, Drew Joyce, is also a very good basketball player and currently plays for Akron University. See....even I have a story. So, why am I talking about Lebron? If you have been following the NBA finals you would already know, The Cleveland Cavaliers have made it to the Championship game. They won the Eastern Conference Championship! Do you know how big that is???? The Cavs have NEVER been there - EVER. So this is a big deal. During the last series against the Pistons the Cavs struggled at first and lost the first two games. After that they started to win. The excitement grew. You have probably heard about game 5. Lebron scored 49 points. The game went into double over time and it was crazy. Lebron was unstoppable. Even I thought it was exciting - I don't get that excited over sports....seriously. After the game all the new media went on and on about how Lebron carried the team on his shoulders. I'd have to say, that night he really did. During any normal game Lebron is a passer. He doesn't steal all the glory for himself - he always shares. During game 5 he proved he could win the games all himself if he wanted. And that night he did. But during game 6....well, the Pistons must have been listening to all the Cavs critics and they decided to basically only cover Lebron. Ha ha ha. The entire game was neck in neck. We were up, they were up. Kinda boring if you ask me. But during the last quarter the Cavs took off. Each time Lebron got the ball there was three guys on him. He would pass the ball to Daniel Gibson, a rookie unknown until these finals, and he was shooting 3 pointers like nothing. He hit 5 in a row. And the Pistons never covered him. They were too worried about Lebron. Of course we know if they had went to cover Gibson, Lebron would have razored through to the basket and scored himself. So, the Cavs won. How exciting.
In other sporting news, the Cleveland Indians are doing amazingly well. They have the best at home record they have EVER had (in 107 years). Now if we could get those Browns to do something. Cleveland may never be the same................

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do I have a new buddy to watch the games with next year?? Didn't realize you paid that much attention.

Stephanie Appleton said...

Tim is loving it too. You can take the boy out of NE Ohio, but can't take the Cleveland sports out of him!