Rock Bottom for the Rockers

(Get the reference? Cleveland Rockers...the old WNBA team. They clearly have the same talent level.)

55.

The Cleveland Cavaliers really lost by 55 tonight to the Lakers. On the bright side, at least they didn't lose by 55 to the Pistons, Timberwolves, Kings, or the Nets.

The Cavs are now 8-30 and currently hold the worst record in the NBA. Rock bottom? Yea, I think that's a safe assumption. It's not humanly possible to get much worse. I think the worst part is the fact that the only person that seemed to care tonight wearing Wine & Gold was Alonzo Gee.

No, I don't know who he is either.

The only thing left to do now is trade away Antawn Jamison and Mo Williams for any type of prospects or draft picks we can get, and start the rebuilding process with (hopefully) the #1 pick and a nice chunk of other picks. There's only one player on the team I'd actually want to see the Cavs keep, and that's Anderson Varejao. I honestly see no reason to keep anyone else. If there's a team out there that wants anyone not named Varejao, it makes no sense to not trade them away. There's not a single promising young guy on this team anymore. JJ Hickson doesn't care, Ramon Sessions is terrible, and the rest of the roster is either filled with veterans (Parker/Moon) or D-League talent (Gee/Samuels/Harris/Hollins).

And if Dan Gilbert doesn't think rebuilding is necessary and actually keeps Jamison or Mo going into next season, then it's pretty clear this team needs new ownership. Or contracted. Or moved.

There's really no hope left for this team. No one on the Cavs cares, so none of the fans really should either. It's basically impossible to watch the team even play anymore. The lottery can't come soon enough. Maybe if we can at least get the #1 pick, the hope will go from 0% to around 2%.

Never thought I'd say this, but Spring Training can't come soon enough. Hell, even the Indians are closer to a Championship caliber team than the Cavaliers are now.

New Year, No Hope

What better way to start off a new year than by coming to the realization that all three of Cleveland's sports teams officially have no hope for the future? For the first time in a long time, I can't even really say 'there's always next year', because in all reality, there's absolutely nothing to look forward to in 2011 from Cleveland sports. The Indians are coming off yet another 90-loss season, with owners who aren't willing to spend any money to bring in OR keep talent around. The Cavaliers are the worst team in the NBA, as evidenced by them being 0-1 against the only team with a worse record than them (Sacramento). And then there's the Browns, who finished the season on a four game losing streak, and in the process managed to lose to two really bad teams (Bengals, Bills), and get throttled 41-9 in the season finale against the Steelers.

A few months back, at least the Browns were showing some signs of hope. They seemed to have pieced together a respectable defense. They seemed to have found a great running back for the future in Peyton Hillis, and Colt McCoy was playing well enough for many people to think he was the quarterback of the future for the Browns. Then, in the last 4 games of the season, the Browns defense couldn't stop anybody. Hillis managed to rush for a whopping 165 total yards over those 4 games, and Colt McCoy looked as lost as he did in the preseason, as he managed to toss 7 INT's in the final two games.

From the looks of it, the Browns are right back to square one all over again. A suspect defense, a shaky quarterback situation, and (hopefully) and entire new coaching staff.

Add all that up and what do we have? A terrible Indians team, an even worse Cavaliers team, and a typical Browns team that seems stuck in neutral for the 12th season in a row.

Hey, there's always next year.

See, I said it after all. Besides...the sad reality is this: the best thing Cleveland fans have going for them is 'next year'.

Now that that's over...MOVE ON

I'm sitting here reading all these articles, tweets, comments, whatever by media/owners/fans/players, and they make it seem like we lost the championship tonight in losing to the Heat. While I can understand why people would feel like this game was 'our championship', it wasn't THAT important. It was a meaningless regular season game.

Am I not as big of a Cavs fan as everyone else or something? Am I missing something? Because I'm already over it. I've been over it. Yet I still see people talking/acting like it's the end of the world. I saw a man take the BROWNS away from me. This is nothing in comparison. It's just another superstar who's ego became too big for little old Cleveland. With tonight's game, we got a lot of pent up stuff off our chest tonight, and the outcome wasn't that important. Now let's MOVE ON.

The clingy-ex stuff needs to stop. Tonight needs to be that last hurdle in completely forgetting about this guy and moving on. Yes, the off-season sucked. Yes, the first game seeing him wearing the Heat uniform was really awkward and annoying. But watching them lose on opening night (as mentioned in a previous blog post) was a big step for the city of Cleveland. Watching us beat the same team that beat Miami the next night was another big step. And hopefully, after tonight's massacre handed to us (like I said, the outcome really shouldn't be that important), we can all finally get past it.

There won't be another game as hard as tonight's was to watch. For lack of better words, it was the first time we saw our ex with a new guy. Now that we've seen him play for Miami against our team, we can start to move on. We got all the pent up hatred off our chests during tonight's game. (By the way, I'm proud of how the fans handled it...nothing too out of line, nothing to make the city look bad, just good natured ribbing and mean chants. Nice work guys.) Now, there's no sense in talking about how bad he did our team/fans/city anymore. We've covered it to death. His comments about how much love he has for the fans, yadda yadda yadda, are the closest thing to an apology our city is gonna get with regards to HOW it was handled.

There's nothing left to talk about on the situation. Try to look on the bright side of things. No one took a team away from us this time. We still have the Cleveland Browns who actually are showing some signs of promise. We have an owner for the Cavaliers that is willing to do whatever it takes to win. He'll get this team turned around/rebuilt sooner rather than later. We have some young talent on the Indians. We're gonna be alright.

There might not be any championships for us in the near future, but on the flipside, LeBron James sure as hell didn't bring us one when he was a Cleveland Cavalier, either.

I've already moved on. I hope the rest of Cleveland can sooner rather than later. Let's forget about the player that left, and focus on the teams and city we all love.

Believeland

Since the name of this article carries the same name of my blog, it's only fitting that I link you guys to one of the best Cleveland-based articles I've ever read in my life.

On ESPN, no less.

Believeland

Wright Thompson did an absolutely phenominal job encompassing exactly what the city is all about, including all the ups and downs over the past 50+ years.

The Drive, The Fumble....The Trade?

For two teams that only play each other once every three years in the regular season, the Cleveland Browns and the Denver Broncos sure have some history. Mention the word 'drive' or 'fumble', or the names 'Elway' or Byner' to any Clevelander, and they'll want to punch something. Most NFL rivals are your division opponents, but if you ask most Browns fans what team they hate more than anyone not from Pittsburgh, and they'll tell you Denver. Denver took out Cleveland in the AFC Championship game in three straight seasons in the late '80's, and the pain still lingers.

Now, halfway through the season, the Denver Broncos are last in the league in rushing, while the Browns have a running back on pace for 1,300 yards and 14 touchdowns that they were gifted from Denver. Finally, it appears that the Browns have stuck it to the Broncos for once.

One of Mike Holmgren's first duties when he took over the Browns in the spring was to overhaul the roster. His first move was trading Brady Quinn (currently 3rd on Denver's QB depth chart--yes, he's even behind 'Hair Gel Jesus' Tim Tebow) for two draft picks and Peyton Hillis.

At the time, most Browns fans didn't really care Quinn got traded, but most did care that 'all we got' for him was 'a couple draft picks and a white running back'. I guess we all needed to understand that Mike Holmgren is a lot smarter than all of us. This deal has easily been the most lopsided trade of the off-season for any team, and all Denver fans can do is watch in disbelief as Peyton Hillis keeps punishing opposing defenses while their team can't run the ball to save their lives.

For once...the Browns have stuck it to the Broncos. And damn does that feel good.