Upon further review, the fact that the players are running the NBA these days isn’t nearly as offensive now, in these parts, as it was post-The Decision.
In the now – post-The Homecoming – since the best player in the league, world and galaxy has chosen to play for the Cavaliers, I don’t know about you, but I have no problem with the players running the league.
I think the players are doing a great job running the league. Excellent work, all the way around. Aces.
Yo, fellas! I see ya! Keep up the good work! Right back atcha!
Who knew the players could run the league so well? This is working out great, and for that we have the players themselves to thank. For my money, the NBA players are the most right-thinking body of professional athletes in these United States.
They have commandeered their league. For the most part, the players now decide who plays where, when, and with whom. And I have absolutely no problem with that at all.
A smattering of people in these parts were somewhat mildly upset when the players decided four years ago that it would be a good time to stack the Miami Heat with a bunch of really good players so all those loyal Miami fans, who sometimes have to endure January temperatures that dip into the 70s, could have a little sunshine in their lives.
Knowing, as I do, that the players always put the fans first, I was all right with that.
If the NBA players say ‘it’s time for Miami to win’ who are we, the lowly commoners, to argue?
Especially if, four years later, the NBA players are saying, ‘OK, now its Cleveland’s turn.’
See?
The NBA players are always looking out for us. Even when we’re sleeping.
Now that we’re awake, we can see what the players have in mind and, quite frankly, I think it’s sheer genius.
What better way to take the NBA to new, unimaginable heights than to elevate the league’s most downtrodden franchise? Who are we to argue if the players think that now is the time to end Cleveland’s half-century drought without a professional sports championship?
How many ‘E’s’ in Dellavedova?
These are just some of the questions the NBA players are going to answer for us this season. A finer bunch of humans you would be hard-pressed to find anywhere in the pantheon of sports.
LeBron James made a proposal to do it four years ago, but the learned, sensible NBA players gently reminded The King, ‘No, not yet. In four years, D-Wade is going to be 50 years old, so we need to get him one or two more rings before then.’
So they did.
LeBron, for the greater good, went to Miami to help Wade win those rings. This was permitted because players of a certain group, service time in the league, and talent level, can pretty much go anywhere they darn well please to ply their trade.
There were even some short-sighted critics who, after James, Wade and Chris Bosh agreed to gut it out together through four years of those harsh Miami winters, referred to them as an AAU team.
It didn’t seem fair at the time, stacking a team like that. But it seems much fairer now, especially since the players have decided to assemble a stacked AAU team in Cleveland. Because let’s face it. Stacking teams is the new reality in the NBA, and if the stackees want to stack here, who are we to tell them to stack elsewhere?
To the contrary, I say we say to the players: Stack away!
Besides, when was the last time Cleveland ever had a stacked team? The mid-1990s Indians? The Browns, back when they wore leather helmets?
The Cleveland Orchestra?
If any city deserves a stack o’ stars, it’s this one.
So LeBron is here. So is Kyrie Irving. Kevin Love could be on the way.
You have to like the way this stacking up.
Generally speaking a three-pack o’ stars is enough to win you an NBA title. Love, who intends to escape from Minnesota, where the Timberwolves have been a long time fixer-upper on the same desolation boulevard as the Cavaliers, has let it be known that he wouldn’t mind playing with James and Irving in Cleveland, even if Cleveland is Cleveland.
Better yet, Love, like James, has enough clout, enough leverage, to make it happen.
Why? Because the players are running the NBA right now.
How crazy is that? This crazy: Players like James, Love, Mike Miller and maybe Ray Allen all want to play in Cleveland, while Carmelo Anthony came this close to abandoning New York.
Say hello to the new NBA.
Where the inmates are running the asylum – and I say long live the inmates!
n So let me get this straight. Josh Gordon is going to get suspended for a year by the NFL for using marijuana, but Ray Rice gets suspended for just two games for beating up his wife?
Interesting strategy by the NFL for courting female fans.
n The Minnesota Twins, who clearly get it more than the NFL, canceled plans to induct former second baseman Chuck Knoblauch into the team’s Hall of Fame after Knoblauch was arrested for allegedly assaulting his ex-wife.
Had NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell been running the Twins, the Knoblauch induction ceremonies would have merely been pushed back a couple of days.
n It’s not often you see a baseball team give up a run because an outfielder ran 100 feet for a fly ball, dropped it, then picked it up and threw it back to where he was originally standing.
It has been that kind of year for Ryan Raburn – batting average: .198 – and the Indians. And of course it happens while Corey Kluber is pitching another masterpiece.
There have been times this year, when Kluber has been on the mound for the Indians where it’s looked like Beethoven sitting in with Weird Al Yankovic.
n Serial party boy Johnny Manziel admits that he’s ‘made some rookie mistakes,’ although it seems more likely that he has made all of them. At least Browns officials hope so.
JIngraham
@MorningJournal.com
@jitribeinsider Weak of the week
Ohio State University marching band director Jonathan Waters has been fired amid charges that he was aware of but ignored ‘serious cultural issues’ that included sexual harassment within the band.
You can research the rest yourself, but here’s a hint: It’s your basic script ‘Uh-oh!’
Weak. Very weak.
