Great Fan Support Not Enough, Poor Effort Sinks Cavs

I am completely and utterly repulsed. I am embarrassed. I am angry. And I am just downright disgusted.

Each and every player on the Cavaliers said the right things this week. They did not hide the fact that Thursday night’s game was huge for this franchise. Mo Williams called the match-up “epic” and Daniel Gibson, who is probably my favorite player on the team this season, said a few times that we would never know that him and LeBron were friends. I, along with many of you, were actually excited about this game. We mistakenly thought that, after everything we went through this offseason, these guys were actually going to go out and play a game we could be proud of.

Silly us, huh?

Let’s start right from the beginning: Cleveland fans all over packed the Quicken Loans Arena. Drew Carey, Bernie Kosar, Shaun Rodgers, Josh Cribbs and Travis Hafner all sat courtside and, in my eyes, came to show their support for the city of Cleveland. The minute LeBron took the floor, he was showered with boos and seven-letter chants. Yet, Anderson Varejao somehow found it appropriate to run up to LeBron and give him a big hug. Did he forget that quickly that LeBron James got on national television, slapped the city right in the face and, more or less, let every member of our current roster know how much they suck? How in the world do you forget something like that?!

He, then, walked right over to the Cavaliers bench and gave assistant coach Chris Jent a nice little handshake. I like Chris Jent as much as anybody but, if I was Byron Scott tonight, Jent would have been fired on the spot. That is how serious I am about this crap. You’ve got an arena full of loyal, passionate fans; that is not the right way to respond. It’s just not.

And then, to make matters worse, LeBron James spent each and every one of the breaks in action laughing and joking around with players on our bench. Most disappointingly, Daniel Gibson was right in the middle of the conversation. What happened to everything he said before the game? I was a big fan of the way he answered questions from the media this week. And, like I said, he is my favorite guy on this team. But don’t laugh and joke around with the guy during the game. Especially when he is kicking your @$$!

I just don’t understand how any of those guys can go out there and pretend like nothing happened. Perhaps, as a fan, I’m a tad more maniacal. But that made me sick to have to just sit and watch. It was disgusting. Absolutely disgusting.

As far as the game goes, I was equally irritated with the effort the Cavaliers played with. Mo Williams, Anthony Parker and JJ Hickson should not have bothered showing up. They were all horrible. When they weren’t turning the ball over and hugging up on LeBron James, they were missing jumpshots and getting burned on defense. All three of them should have stayed home. But, unfortunately, they didn’t so we were stuck watching their garbage for 48 minutes.

Joey Graham, Anderson Varejao and Antawn Jamison were equally disappointing. Aside from Varejao’s pregame hugging, he was a non-factor. Grahama was a non-factor. And Jamison, too, was a non-factor. I just have absolutely nothing good to say about any of these guys tonight.

The Cavaliers got their butts kicked by LeBron this offseason. And they got their butts kicked like LeBron on Thursday night. Same old story, different day. And, just like the last time, I was foolish enough to believe that the Cavaliers might actually prevail. Silly me, huh?

The one good thing to take away from tonight’s game was that, fortunately, Cleveland fans were very classy. Aside from some edgy, yet hysterical, chants, fans were very well behaved. All of the current and former Cleveland sports figures, along with every Cavaliers fan in the arena, represented the city very well. They were certainly passionate. But they didn’t let things get out of hand. My hat’s off to you.

Tomorrow’s a new day, Cavs fans. They’ll visit Minnesota on Saturday night where they’ll look to right the ship after a miserable performance.

All together, Cleveland.