Okay, we have one Baseball position in this series...Outfield...I've noticed, the biggest factor for the most part seems to be offensive numbers...well, except when 3B...Read More
Bartender, Give me another! Yes, I'm posting late again, but not as late as last week...Things are crazy around here...This week I'll start the hits off with catching you up with the issue at my kids' school...If you read Monday, you know what I'm talking about...If you didn't, go find it...
My daughter's teacher got back to me Monday Morning...She called me at the Fish House, and explained how it was her fault...The policy in the past was not send home report cards to students who had not had their fees paid...But since they weren't informing us of the fees until report card day, this policy wasn't to be carried out...It was a bit of miscommunication on her part...We she spoke to me on the phone she said how she thought the policy didn't make sense, so she understood my enraged email...She also sent emails to all the parents explaining her mistake...I feel kinda bad for her, because I'm sure the bosses jump up and down on her after they got hammered with emails from angry fuckers like me...But I'm also sure she won't make the same mistake...See folks, even teachers can learn a lesson!
Next, Sports Illustrated (kids) decided to run with this cover...
I get it...The Three Musketeers...Funny though, they look an awful lot like Cavaliers...Even stranger, the Cavaliers recently having changed their image model, after LeBron left, have been highlighting their team slogan, "All for One. One for All." Something tells me that LeBron's idiotic PR machine had input in this cover, because it sure seems like any shot they can take at Cleveland, the fans, or the Cavaliers, they do...
What bunch of ass-hats!
ESPN made one of the best moves in their history this week...The let go Joe Morgan...Which had to be tough after 20 years, and because the weight of his ego couldn't have been easy to unload...Thank God, we don't have to hear anymore stories about the glory days of the "Big Red Machine"...No more comparing every catcher to Johnny Bench...Hell, no more comparing every second baseman to himself...No more of his made up, bullshit stories, that he would use, to try and show he knew more than anyone else about Baseball...You don't Joe! Morgan was a hell of a ball player, but he was also a douche...Watching Sunday Night Baseball with him in the booth, was more painful 4 hours of dental surgery with no drugs...Maybe I'll tune in again this season...
Now to the important stuff...I'm going to change it up a bit this week...Last week Cora seemed to be the big winner...
So let's see how she does this week against two new lovelies...On this fine Hump Day, Which of these ladies would you most like to throw a Hump?
Yes, this topic just keeps popping up...But if I could be childish about it...He started it! So we all saw that NIKE commercial LeBron did, that seemed to stick it to the people of Cleveland, one more time...Well some one put together a very good response, in the name of Cleveland...Have a look...
I think that was pretty good...I love it when people have their own words thrown in their face!
Then I saw it was posted on website, and Warren Sapp decided to put his two cents in...Here's a LINK to checkout...But if you don't want to, I'll fill you in...Sapp said, "Nobody Cares What Cleveland Or Ohio Thinks!!! Kill Yourself w/That!!!" I can't wait for big, fat, fatty, fat's heart to stop beating...I've blasted Cleveland many times in the past, and I'm sure I'll continue to, but I fucking live here...This ass-hat has no reason to talk shit...
Hey Warren, after you get done downing another couple Big-Macs, and then finish smacking around another woman, feel free to wrap your big fat lips around the business end of a shotgun...Stupid fat cunt!
Shue was a legend at Maryland University as an All-American guard before the Philadelphia Warriors made him the third overall pick in 1954. He was traded to the New York Knicks after just six games, then was traded to the Fort Wayne Pistons in 1956.
He became a star with the Pistons, being chosen an All-Star six straight years while always being amongst the league leaders in minutes played. He returned to the Knicks in 1962, then joined the Baltimore Bullets in 1963 before retiring.
Getting into coaching, the Bullets asked him to take over for Hall of Famer Buddy Jeannette in 1967. The Bullets were a bad team, but Shue got them to improve their win total by seven games in his second year. It improved an additional 21 games in 1969, as the Bullets won their division.
Wes Unseld, one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history, was a big reason why in 1969. He became just the second man in NBA history to be named Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season. Hall of Famers Earl "The Pearl" Monroe and Gus Johnson joined Unseld and Shue was named Coach of the Year.
In his last five years with the Bullets, the team won over 50 games three times. One of the years they didn't saw them reach the NBA Finals before losing to the Milwaukee Bucks and former Warriors teammate Larry Costello.
Shue was replaced by Hall of Famer K.C. Jones in 1973, but he immediately got a job with the Philadelphia 76ers. The Sixers were struggling during this time. They had won just nine games the season before.
It wasn't long before they started to improve greatly under Shue, and Philadelphia made the NBA Finals in 1977 before losing to a red-hot Portland Trail Blazers. Shue was fired six games into the 1978 season, replaced by Hall of Famer Billy Cunningham. He was back in the NBA the next year, leading the San Diego Clippers to a 16 win improvement over the season before when they were the Buffalo Braves.
He left the Clippers after the next season to take the helm of the Washington Bullets. Lasting six years there, the Bullets made the playoffs three times before he was replaced by Kevin Loughery, the man he replaced in Philadelphia.
Shue was named Coach of the Year again in 1982, making him the second coach to win the award more than once. Don Nelson, Bill Fitch, and Cotton Fitzsimmons duplicated the feat since, but the 12 year gap between winning the award is still a record.
He joined the Los Angeles Clippers in 1988, lasting two years before retiring to become the general manager of the 76ers for two years.
He ended up with 784 wins, which was the second most in NBA history then. It is still the 12th most today. It is amazing Shue has yet to be inducted. Let alone the fact he won two awards for coach of the year, Shue turned around the program of almost every team he took over.
Factor in his six All-Star games as a player, his contributions are unmatched by many and worthy of being honored with induction.
Bill Fitch
Fitch started his coaching career in the college ranks for several years after first becoming a drill instructor for the U.S. Marine Corps.
In 1970, he got his first NBA head coaching job with a expansion Cleveland Cavaliers team that won just 15 times in his first year. Staying there nine years, the team improved each season.
In 1976, known as the "The Miracle of Richfield" to Cavaliers fans, the team made an unexpected playoff run that was also the first postseason appearance in franchise history. Fitch won the Coach of the Year award for his efforts.
Leaving Cleveland in 1979, he was immediately hired by the Boston Celtics and won a league best 61 games with rookie Larry Bird as the star of the club. Boston had won just 29 games the year before, and the 32-win improvement was a record at the time. Bird, who won Rookie of the Year, cites Fitch as a huge influence on his own personal work ethic.
Boston then won the NBA Championship the next year, and Fitch was named Coach of the Year for the second time. Only three other coaches have ever won this award more than once ,and Fitch was the first coach to accomplish this.
After winning a career best 63 games the next year, Fitch left the Celtics after a 56-win year in 1983 and joined the Houston Rockets. After 29 wins in his initial season, Houston won 48 the next year and appeared in the NBA Finals in 1986 before losing to the Celtics in six games.
Fitch left Houston in 1986 despite 46 wins, but resurfaced as the coach of the New Jersey Nets in 1988. The team won 17 games his first year, 26 the next, then 40 in his third and final year before being fired.
After being out of the game several years, the Los Angeles Clippers hired him in 1995. After 17 wins his first year, the Clippers won 29 then 36 over the next two, which also included a playoffs appearance. The Clippers reverted to 17 wins in 1998, and Fitch retired from the game with 944 wins.
Though his win total is the sixth most in NBA history, critics point to his 1,106 losses without looking at his career. Every team he coached was lousy the year before he got there, except the expansion Cavaliers. Every team he coached improved dramatically under his guidance.
Bill Fitch should be in the Hall of Fame for more than his Coach of the Year awards, or his championship ring. The man took franchises out of the graves and into the playoffs. He is the epitome of what a coach should be, which should be more than enough to get him inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Cotton Fitzsimmons
Fitzsimmons first tasted coaching success in college. He once replaced Tex Winters, the man who perfected the Triangle Offense and mentored Phil Jackson, at Kansas State University.
He joined the Phoenix Suns in 1970, replacing interim coach Jerry Colangelo. Colangelo was the general manager of the Suns, and would later buy the team in 1987. Fitzsimmons won 97 games in two years before moving on to the Atlanta Hawks in 1972.
After almost four years with the Hawks, he took over as coach of the Buffalo Braves for one season before joining the Kansas City Kings in 1979 for six years. Fitzsimmons was named Coach of the Year in his first year, the only one where his team won a divisional title, then led them to the Western Conference Finals two years later.
The San Antonio Spurs hired him in 1985, then fired him after 1986. Phoenix hired him in 1989, and the Suns won no less than 53 games over the next four seasons.
He won the NBA Coach of the Year Award in his first season, making him just the fourth coach ever to win it twice. He retired after 1992 to do television, but was coaxed out of retirement during the 1996 season for 49 games. After the team lost the first eight games of the next year, Fitzsimmons turned the team over to Danny Ainge and retired for good.
The 832 wins he had are still the 11th most in NBA history. The only reasons I can think of his still being excluded for the Basketball Hall of Fame is because none of his teams ever reached the finals, and only one won their division.
It is evident to see Cotton Fitzsimmons was a winner, having won 57 more games than he lost, on a lot of teams not many expected much from.
Excellence in coaching comes from getting the players to maximize their talents. Fitzsimmons did that yearly with mostly positive results, having ten seasons of 45 wins or more. He is certainly worthy of induction to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Dick Motta
Despite never having played organized basketball in high school or beyond, Dick Motta got into coaching the game and first worked his way through the college ranks that culminated in six years at Weber State University.
The Chicago Bulls hired him in 1969, and they improved their win total in each of his first four years with the club. Motta won Coach of the Year in 1971, then a career best 57 games in 1972. In his eight years, the team won more than 50 games four times.
He was fired after the 1976 season, but was immediately hired by the Washington Bullets. The Bullets had already been to the finals twice in the decade, but had failed to won in either year. Led by Hall of Famers Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes, the team had talent but had nothing to show for it. That changed under Motta.
The 1978 season saw the Bullets deal with injuries, but they still won 44 games and got into the playoffs. They faced opponents who were favored to defeat them, but the Bullets stormed through the playoffs despite sportswriters continuously predicting their impending end.
While up three games to one against the San Antonio Spurs, a beat writer for the Spurs named Dan Cook wrote "The opera isn't over 'til the fat lady sings". Motta loved the phrase and adopted it for his Bullets as they faced the heavily favored Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference Finals.
After defeating Philadelphia in six games, they faced the favored Seattle Supersonics for the championships. In a closely played battle, Seattle went up three games to two as they headed to Washington. Motta came into town proclaiming "Wait for the fat lady!"
His Bullets responded with a 35-point victory that was a record in margin of victory until 1998. Buoyed by this, Washington then went to Seattle and became become the third team to win the championship in a seventh game on the road.
It was the first championship for the city of Washington D.C. in 36 years, and is the only title the Bullets franchise has ever won.
The Bullets won 54 games the next year, winning their division. They then won two exhausting playoff series against both the Spurs and Atlanta Hawks that went seven games. They reached the finals for the fourth time in the 1970's, but lost to Seattle.
Motta left Washington after 1980 to become head coach of the expansion Dallas Mavericks. After 15 wins in the first year, the team improved each year and won 55 games in his seventh and last season in 1987. It was the most wins in Mavericks history until 2001.
The Sacramento Kings hired Motta in 1990. He lasted just over two years there, then rejoined the Mavericks in 1995 for two more years. The Denver Nuggets hired him in 1996, his last in the NBA before retiring.
The 935 wins that Dick Motta has is the eighth most in NBA history. He showed he could win with a talented team like the Bullets, as well as showed he could improve the Bulls, and take a fledgling Mavericks to new heights. He deserves entry into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Larry Costello
Costello was a great player before he was a coach. A former second round draft choice of the Philadelphia Warriors in 1954, right after Gene Shue was taken in the first round, the point guard went to six All-Star games and won a championship in a 12 year career.
When he retired after winning it all in 1968, he was coaching the Milwaukee Bucks the next year in their expansion season. The Bucks drafted Kareem Abdul-Jabbar the next season, then got Oscar Robertson in a trade the following year and won the NBA Championship over Shue's Bullets after winning 66 games and setting a record with 20 straight wins.
He led Milwaukee back to the championship three years later, where they lost in seven games to the Boston Celtics. Jabbar requested a trade to the Los Angeles Lakers and Robertson retired, so the Bucks won less games. After two consecutive 38 win seasons, Milwaukee fired Costello 18 games into the 1977 season.
Costello joined the Chicago Bulls in 1979 and went 20-36 before being fired. After coaching in women's pro basketball, he later coached at Utica College and improved their program greatly before retiring.
In the 730 regular season games he coached, Larry Costello won 430 of them. He also won 37 of 60 postseason games, and won one of two championship appearances.
When you factor in his six All-Star games, two championship wins as both a player and coach, along with a .589 winning percentage, it is evident that Costello belongs in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Tuesday 10/26/10: BOSTON CELTICS 88 ... MIAMI HEAT 80
Wednesday 10/27/10: CLEVELAND CAVALIERS 95 ... BOSTON CELTICS 87
Yea, I know the Celtics were on the second night of a traveling back to back and I do realize that this will not be the norm as the NBA season moves forward, but so what!
The first two nights of the NBA season have been sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!
The Lebronless Cavs are going to be OK!...And I'm diggin' their new uni's.
These are just a few expressions millions of people across Earth have used to describe LeBron James after he egotistically announced he was "taking his talents" to the Miami Heat on July 9, 2010.
Critics immediately pointed to how he bailed on the Cleveland Cavaliers to band together with All-Stars like Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh to form a Miami Heat team expected to compete for NBA championships for several years to come. While some criticism came in unclassy form, like from Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert attacking the manner of James departure, others pointed out the obvious.
Michael Jordan, who James claims is his idol, said he would not have contacted his rivals to play with him. "I wanted to defeat those guys." Jordan stated.
Earvin "Magic" Johnson concurred those sentiments, and Charles Barkely has stated James departure of Cleveland has forever tarnished his image to the point he will never be mentioned in the same breath of the upper echelon NBA legends by his path and how he handled it.
"He grew up close to Cleveland. He put the city in the forefront by his mere presence. Now Cleveland is back to just being Cleveland again. He owed the city and organization the first word of his decision instead of the way he ultimately did it."
Barkely point of telling Cleveland first, instead of broadcasting "The Decision", has resounding truth. Some thought, since James is just 25-years old, he should have stayed in Cleveland and signed a short-term contract to try to bring the franchise their first title.
The Cavaliers bent over backwards trying to surround James with talent the past few years. Men like Antawn Jamison and Shaquille O'Neal were just a few All-Star players the Cav's grossly overpaid to desperately build talent around him in hopes of attaining a championship.
James responded to those dedicated efforts by saying, I'm going to take my talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat. I feel like it's going to give me the best opportunity to win and to win for multiple years. I want to be able to win championships and I feel like I can compete down there."
When the backlash of his perceived cowardice led to many in Cleveland burning his jersey, destroying any reminder of his time there, and other outrageous methods to show disgust, James reportedly imtimated bigotry over the color of his skin was the real factor for the outcry. Sports writers like J.A. Adande and Jason Whitlock disagreed, pointing out his callous actions towards Cleveland, and "an excuse to avoid dealing with his own bad decision."
Now he is in Miami, where Wade already helped carry a team to a title in 2006. Wade is the heart and soul of the Heat, and his body has taken a pounding trying to win. Bosh, a shooting guard stuck in a 6'10" frame, also joined Miami after years of failing to get the Toronto Raptors anywhere significant.
Miami faces the same problem many NBA teams do these days. They have power forwards as their best post option, and the question of where consistent rebounding will come from is a quandary they will face all year. Dexter Pittman is a 290-lbs rookie who dropped almost 100 pounds in college. Miami will hope he can help, or if journeyman Jamaal Magloire can find a time machine to take him back to 2003.
Otherwise the Heat will depend on Wade to get the rebounds and take the clutch shots, much like he has been doing the past few seasons. That or James will have to adjust his game to banging in the blocks and passing more than shooting, if his ego allows it.
There was a time the New York Yankees could just buy a roster by overpaying for top-tier talent to get a title in Major League Baseball. It worked in 2009, but the formula has generally fallen short of expectations. The Dallas Cowboys have been trying the same thing in the NFL to no success, and most likely saw their 2010 season ruined by another loss recently.
The Miami Heat is another one of those bad examples of trying to buy a ring. The easy path as opposed to building something special. One of the big reasons why Jordan and Johnson are so adored and respected in NBA lore is how they built their once lowly teams into champions and upper echelon teams throughout their careers. They earned their rings without it being bought for them by hiring superstars from other teams.
"I can't say that's a bad thing. It's an opportunity these kids have today." Jordan said.
An opportunity not to respect full heartedly. Though it will take sweat to win, it will almost anticlimatic if Miami actually does win it all. There will be few pins and needles from fans watching them get there, and the term "front runner" will come to mind.
Society today expects it handed to them, preferring to rest on laurels set by predecessors. It is an egotistical approach that has garnered more wrath than envy from the rest of the planet. The term 'achievement' no longer holds the same definition to the modern genre as it once did.
If Miami falls short during James stay, the city of Cleveland will not smile alone. There is a reason he is ranked sixth on a "Most Disliked Athlete" list put together recently. Some view him a follower with the false label as leader. Others find him uneducated, immature, and clueless.
Examples range from his having a video of his being dunked on confiscated by handlers per his instructions, his refusal to sign a petition regarding genocide in Sudan, or his belittling Stephon Marbury as a player by saying his cheap shoe was an indication of his worth. Marbury sold a shoe for $15 so kids could afford it, as opposed to the shoes James represents that get sold by Nike for $160 and get built by sweat shop slaves with less than $2 of materials.
But this is what LeBron James is some. An image with little substance nor depth. Much like how the Miami Heat roster appears to the naked eye. So root on the dime store squad, because it is bought and paid for. That is "The Decision" the leagues corporate headquarters desires, while the rest of the planet will quietly wait for failure.
A failure James tired of and is now clearly ready to join the ranks of champion so that in a few months all can hail the king finally.
