Chris Bosh his last year in TOR: 24 ppg, 10.8 rpg, 1 bpg, 52%, 25.11 PER Kevin Love last year: 26 ppg, 12.5 rpg, .5 bpg, 46%, 26.97 PER Love's numbers are better than Bosh's were, but it's not by some huge margin. It's far closer to a wash than Wade was to Irving now. And Love will be 26 when the season starts. Bosh was 26 when his first season in Miami started.
Bosh plays defense at an elite level Fin-O. Love...well... They are essentially the same player at same age..diff. Skill sets. Bosh will put up numbers now..love will drop...and narratives will start.
It really wasn't. Akron was selected because it's where the "Welcome Home LeBron" rally is being held. The great irony in all this is that Le Batard doesn't think LeBron needs to say thank you to anyone. That's what really makes this trolling hilarious.
It just seems incredible to me that he would put up billboards specifically to tweak one person in this spirit of 'fun and anarchy' as he put it, if he really did like and respect the guy and wasn't miffed at him at all. Le Batard is a smart guy, so I find it hard to believe that he did this thinking Lebron would be laughing along with him. Just my two cents.
I'm much less concerned about the Love / Bosh comparison as I am the Wade / Kyrie part of this. Love's ability to knock-down threes will make him as good if not better fit on offense. The defense is obviously an issue, though it appears the Cavs are chasing guys like Mozgov who can roam the paint and cover for some of the defensive issues. Kyrie's game doesn't really fit with LeBron / Love at all to me. He shot well on spot-ups his first 2 seasons but was terrible last year. His main weapon is his elite ball-handling, but in a ball-movement system with 2 scorers better than him, he won't be on the perimeter trying to make And 1 highlight videos like he has the last 3 years. I'm also interested to see how he handles going from media darling and main guy on his team to being the third wheel who will probably get the Bosh treatment. There's been a lot of smoke around his attitude and it'll be interesting to see if there's anything there. (I'm also super excited to see Dion Waiters - dude shot 43% on spot-up 3s last year. He's not Wade - but if he can model his off-ball game to what Wade did in Miami but also have a 3-ball, he could be really fun. He's a really fun player / character.)
It's not, but he's still the person named in the boards. The more I think about it - having a personality take out boards in a player's hometown specifically naming him is probably a bad situation for ESPN. The suspension is dumb, but Le Batard put them in a dumb spot.
No, it's complete BS and simply the latest confirmation that ESPN is just a shill for certain partners/athletes. Mike Wilbon is allowed to go on ESPN tv and spew vile crap about Heat fans. Skip Bayless called Chris Bosh, Bosh Spice and refused to stop even after Bosh went on his show and told him he was offended to his face. I have seen no suspension for these tools. Check out Michelle Beadle's twitter feed sometime. There's a word I'd love to use to describe her but my wife my kill me. And she's a rising star. Or how about when ESPN itself broadcast the Decision and then spent years trashing LeBron for it? No, this is about Miami, and ESPN simply having no respect or concern for the fans here. I wish Lebby would quit ESPN. He didn't need them. If anything, he should go on Sirius or something.
Oh and when LeBron has his "pep rally" today, I'm sure it will be celebrated. But we did it here, and got trashed.
Oh yeah, I hate ESPN. Employing Skip/Cowherd and sometimes even Whitlock is a joke. Didn't mean to defend them. Just meant if you take this on face value, someone from a news organization taking out billboards specifically naming a player in that player's hometown is a weird situation for them. As for the Akron thing - I want to see how this looks before deciding if it should get the same scrutiny. I have a strong feeling this is going to be very Akron-focused and have very, very little to do with Cleveland or the Cavs. We'll see. LeBron has made it pretty clear in the past that he loves Akron and hates Cleveland.
ESPN Radio isn't really a news organization. It broadcasts sports talk programming which is not journalistic. Every show they broadcast features opinions and debate. When they chose to syndicate LeBatard they knew (or should have known) exactly who he was. He had 10 years of tape they could've listened to. He talks to a zoo keeper during the NBA Finals. He talks to pro wrestlers. He talks about race very candidly. And despite all that, they are upset about an innocuous billboard, that contains no profanity, and isn't even really a slam on LeBron the person or the player, but merely highlighting that he didn't thank the fans. Even the 790 GM said that they approved the bit because the fans were upset/offended and Dan took up the mantle for publicity. But because the station is partners with ESPN she is forced to keep him off the air. Ethan Skolnick is filling in for Dan today and I hope he trashes the hell out of ESPN. He is always calling out most of their on air talent as "carnival barkers" anyway
It's mind-boggling to me that ESPN continues it's dominance in the face of horrible, horrible ethics. Their brand name is just so strong people won't leave it.
No choice. I actually don't mind their event coverage. They know how to televise a live sporting event. It's their commentary that is horrible.
In this specific instance, ESPN said they didn't know Le Batard was doing this; he's only been talking about it on his show for 2 weeks.
Right. I'm sure they knew he was talking about it. I imagine they didn't think he would actually do it.
Pep rally in Akron=Awesome Per rally in Miami=Abomination Super team in Cleveland (or anywhere other than Miami)=Awesome Super team in Miami=NBA killing travesty Am I missing anything?
ESPN is ruining sports, imo. I've thought for a long time that, in addition to live games, they should just go back to airing Sportscenter pretty much all day, with the occasional pregame or wrap-up shows like 'NFL Countdown' or 'Baseball Tonight'. Those have always been good because they have experts reviewing games with a bit more elevated analysis, and they have insiders or reporters on-location who they check in with. That's good one-sport-specific coverage. Their 'opinion' talk shows are mostly trash. It's a bunch of blathering people who don't understand the full breadth of sports at an expert level. I like the half-hour PTI for the most part, and it's no surprise they were one of the first daily shows like that. But First Take, Numbers, and SportsNation...ugh. It's awful. It's just overblown debates about a handful of athletes and teams who've they've decided everyone should care about and watch debates over for hours. Even some of their national radio shows are total controversy-driven ****e (Herd). And their magazine isn't half as good as SI. They spread themselves too thin, imo, and are stuck having to fill a ton of channels with 24/7 coverage. To make it worse that coverage can only be generic repetitive national stories because not everyone knows or cares about the intricacies of one city's sports culture/business. So what you get is the star treatment and faux hot-headed debates about who the best-ever is, or how someone's 'legacy' will be remembered, or if someone is a 'man' or a 'competitior'. It's a joke. And it's so dumbed down. People should go back to giving their attention to local talk radio. That's where real sports culture is.
ESPN radio is horrible outside outside of LeBatard. Mike & Mike are the epitome of hacky sports radio; Cowherd is an absolute idiot who makes vast pronouncements about socio-economic stuff that he has no idea about. I never listen to anybody else on there so I can't even comment. Even Sedano has shelved most of what made him interesting to fit in there. He still has a bit of his edge, but when he fills in for Mike & Mike, he essentially just does the Mike & Mike show, which is disappointing.Sedano once did a live interview with Dennis Rodman while Rodamn was banging a chick. Howard Stern got the clip and played it and praised Sedano. Now he's doing Mike & Mike radio teases. Dissapointing
No you aren't missing anything, and as a born and bred Miami sports fan it really sickens me. Brian Windhorst, the Cleveland Fluffer he is, was being poked fun at because he was saying "what an awesome thing its going to be" when 30,000 people fill Akron Stadium for this stupid LeBron celebration. It's going to be so cool and its such a good thing for Cleveland, Cleveland fans "deserve" this. It is the biggest pile of trash I have ever heard. This notion that Miami didn't deserve it and Cleveland does, WHEN THEY ARE DOING THE EXACT SAME THING that Miami did 4 years ago really pisses me off. What did Miami do to any of these jerks? Cleveland fans were the ones trashing LeBron and acting like buffoons and now they DESERVE all this. Give me a break. Also the idea that players WANT to go to Cleveland is utterly ridiculous. NO ONE WANTS TO GO TO CLEVELAND. Kevin Love is leaving Minnesota for Cleveland because LeBron is there with a Championship pedigree he learned from a REAL organization. James Jones and Mike Miller are glorified Bench Mob players with little left, and Shawn Marion is a minimum level vet player with a year or two contract max. How quickly do we forget that the best LeBron could do before leaving Cleveland in 2010 was Antawn Jamison and Shaq when he was a blob. He couldn't even get Chris Bosh to leave Toronto for Cleveland. No one wants to go to Cleveland... rantend/
InfoCision Stadium. I'm not sure there's been any link to the Cavs organization with this rally. Additionally, I'm not sure Kryie will be there (I honestly haven't looked much into it), and Kevin Love definitely won't be, so it won't quite be the same as what Miami did. And I agree that no one wants to go to Cleveland (except Wiggins ironically).
I get why you're upset but you know that's simplifying it too much. Let's see what happens. LeBron saying "not 1, not 2" and "it'll be easy" is very different than an event totally focused on Akron. I'm a Cavs fan in Cleveland - this event hasn't been marketed to Cleveland or Cavs fans in any way. It doesn't appear to be about basketball at all. This isn't a pep rally about the Cavs. Hell - city says the event will “focus on LeBron’s positive impact on his hometown.” And he's made it very clear his hometown is Akron and not Cleveland. It's not a pep rally about the Cavs.
http://www.cleveland.com/akron/inde...e_lebron_rally_university_of_akron_party.html It definitely looks like it being about Lebron being back full time in Akron, not at all about the Cavs.
The ole Stone Cold Steve Austin routine. Wrestling was never better than when Austin was butting with the McMahon family!
ESPN, ofcourse, Is known for its 'correctness' and being 'right' about damn near everything, right? So easy to agree with them when it fits your agenda.
Wow. What a grasp. Just because it got 'approval' for said reasoning doesn't mean it was the 'main consensus' among fans. you know what the 'main consensus' among cavs fans was circa decision #1? the idiocy and butthurt you're alluding to.
Kiddo, atleast you keep your posts mature. Don't think i've heard of any self respecting person in their 30s carrying on with the "you mad bro"s and all that on the internet. Pretty funny. Also - why wager on 2016? scared? PS- good to know youre such a staunch supporter of ESPN and its validity. Can't wait to necro this post when you contradict yourself.
