Kobe vs. LeBron

First off, let's be realistic. Having either one of these guys on your team would be like winning the lottery. So let's get that out of the way. Secondly, I am a Cavaliers fan. You need to put that aside before you even read this post. Otherwise, don't even waste your time reading it. Know this--this is a 100% UNBIASED post. I am a basketball fan in general. I know when I see a superstar, and I respect them. There isn't a wrong answer to the question as to who is "better."

Now that that's out of the way, I will tell you the least-wrong answer to the question as to who is better. And that answer is LeBron James. I told you to put aside the fact that I'm a Cavs fan. So clearly you haven't done that, otherwise you wouldn't be saying "wow, he's such a homer" right now.

OK. Have you finally gotten past that point? Allow me to explain.

Now, obviously anytime this discussion comes up, there's always an argument. I have no problems with arguments, as anyone who knows me knows that. So let's get down to the facts. Because, quite frankly, anytime your talking LeBron/Kobe, facts will always undoubtedly be brought to the table. Kobe is six years older than LeBron. When Kobe was LeBron's age, his outside game wasn't as good as it is now. So if your gonna try and start the argument with the whole "LeBron can't shoot from outside", don't bother. We all know LeBron's "weakness" (if you want to call it that) is that he isn't a deadly outside shooter. I'll give Kobe credit. He can stroke it from outside. But he hasn't always been like that. LeBron will get there, you have to give him time. His FG% have progessively gotten better over his career just like Kobe's did.

Secondly, if your really gonna play the "Kobe has rings" card, don't waste your time. Kobe has THE most dominant big man in the game every time he won a ring. And I know, your thinking "don't play the Shaq card". Well, you know what? I'm gonna play the Shaq card. Because ever since Shaq left, Kobe hasn't won a Championship. Call it a coincidence all you want, but that's the truth. I'm not discrediting the fact that Kobe has three championships, because he does. But Shaq played a huge part in those three championships. And quite frankly, up until this year, LeBron hasn't had anyone even remotely on the superstar level for him to play with. Z was the closest thing, and as much as I love the guy, he isn't very close. Mo Williams is the closest thing.

Next up, LeBron rebounds and assists much more than Kobe ever has in his career. Last time I checked, basketball wasn't only about scoring points. I was always led to believe that playing a team game will do you better than being selfish and shooting all the time. Now don't get the idea that I'm calling Kobe selfish, because I'm not. Again, just stating that Kobe is mainly a scorer, and doesn't really focus on rebounding or dishing out assists as much. LeBron on the other hand does. Kobe rarely gets triple-doubles. LeBron gets them on a fairly frequent basis. Facts people, facts. LeBron does more all-around for his team than Kobe does.

Next, defense. Look, Kobe is a lock-down defender. Anyone who watches basketball will admit that. That being said, LeBron James plays crazy good defense as well. Now, most of you probably don't even know that. Why? Because you don't expect him to play good defense. But if you actually watch the Cavs on a frequent basis, you'll know that LeBron chooses to take on the best players on the other teams in the 4th quarter, because he knows that he can guard them. A lot of so called "experts" are saying that LeBron should seriously be considered a legit contender for DPOY. Hey, I just call it how I see it.

Kobe has six years on LeBron. When it's all said and done, Kobe, LeBron, and Jordan, IMO, will be considered the three best to ever play the game. In what order, that's debatable. In fact, it'll be debated long past any of us are around most likely.

The fact is this--you can't go wrong with either of them on your team. But based off the sheer fact that LeBron is doing things that Kobe wasn't doing at the same age, biased or not, you have to at least admit that LeBron could be doing stuff in six years that Kobe can't do right now in his career. We've seen Kobe at his best....he's not going to get any better than he is. We still have yet to see the best of LeBron James. And if we haven't seen the best of him, who knows how good this kid could really be. I mean, if he's going off for 52-11-10 now, what could he potentially be doing when he's at his optimal best in a few years?

It's scary to think. And even you, yes you, the huge Kobe fan who read this entire post seeing nothing but biased statements, have to admit that if LeBron is still going to get better, there's a good chance he'll reach heights even Kobe couldn't get to.

Mo is not another Larry.

I'm sure you've at least seen the highlights from last nights Cavaliers game against the Kings. So you already know about how Mo Williams went off for 43 points (including 7-12 from three-point land), 11 assists and 8 rebounds. I'm not going to go into any more detail about that, because, quite frankly, you already know from the highlights that Mo Williams is an absolute beast with one of the wettest jump shots in the history of professional basketball. Now, I could sit here and talk about the fact that he has the hardest tattoo of a cartoon related to food in the NBA, based off a poll of 100 random National Basketball Association players [citation needed], but we could save those stories for another snowy day.

Instead, I want to cover a topic that I had an argument about at work today with a co-worker. (Of course, the fact that this was even a topic of conversation is laughable, but considering the said co-worker is a Michigan fan, you can't really expect much more out of the man.) While I was bragging (like I always do) about Mo Williams' bulldozing of the Kings, he felt it was necessary to start the topic that Mo Williams is exactly like Larry Hughes. He then said that "hell, even Larry Hughes dropped 40 for the Cavs at one point in his career."

While this may be true, I quickly reminded him that Larry Hughes was the biggest waste of money (and still is to this day) in the NBA not named Brian Cardinal. Now, I remember exactly what I was doing and where I was at when Larry dropped 40 last year on Orlando. Why, you ask? Because you always remember where you were at when you had your first kiss. You always remember where you were when you saw a star exploding. (Translation: You remember where you were when you did/saw something that will only happen once in your lifetime.)

Sure, Larry had some good games with the Cavaliers. They typically occurred whenever there were 5 Mondays in a calendar month (roughly two times a year). Now, after laughing profusely for a good 4 minutes straight, I proceeded to tell him how he's either a.) smoking crack or b.) clinically insane.

You see, ever since Mo Williams became an everyday starter for the Bucks, he always had solid numbers. Mo Williams is a legit 17-4-4 a game player. Something Larry Hughes was for one fluke, contract-fueled season with the Washington Wizards. Oh, and who could forget all the Larry Hughes injuries? The pulled groins, the broken fingers, the twisted ankles, the I-got-a-new-tattoo-on-my-face-and-won't-be-able-to-play-for-two-weeks injuries. Larry was NEVER healthy. Mo Williams on the other hand, knock on wood, has been typically a healthy player throughout his career.

Mo Williams is nothing like Larry Hughes. Mo Williams doesn't complain. Mo Williams is a team player. Mo Williams has a sweet house in Avon Lake. Mo Williams is the closest thing the Cavs have ever seen to be considered the robin to LeBron's batman. They feed off of each other so much. I don't think you could get a better fit for LeBron. And hopefully, these two will be in Cleveland, hanging banners from the rafters of the Q for a long time.

And so it begins...

Seriously...what do the sports Gods have against Cleveland teams? It NEVER fails. No matter how good a team is, and how good they're going, something will always happen to de-rail them. Because losing Z wasn't bad enough, now we lose Delonte to a fracture of his wrist? It may not seem like it to the casual NBA fan, but losing D-West is really bad for the Cavs. In essence, this now means that not only Sasha AND Wally will get extended minutes, but the defense goes straight down the drain. Delonte isn't the biggest two-guard in the NBA, but he plays incredible defense against some of the best. His defense will be sorely missed, especially considering Wally and Sasha don't even know the definition of "defense."

Delonte is crucial to the Cavs winning a Championship, and now it looks as if we'll be without him for at least a month. No official word yet on the length of him being out, but fracturing a wrist can't be something that you'll come back from quickly.

What else does this mean? Us losing more games.

And what does that mean? Us losing homecourt in the Playoffs against teams like Boston and Orlando.

And that means? We'll have to not only win all of our home games against one or both of these teams, but we'll also have to go into their building and try and scoop at least one away from them.

And what does that mean? Our chances at the Championship are diminished gratefully.

Cavaliers - Delonte West = a non-championship caliber NBA team.

It might seem crazy, but it's the truth. We can only hope and pray that Delonte gets healthy quick. Guess we'll find out the damage tomorrow, but considering he plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers, it'll probably be bad news.

And the undefeated 19-0 home record will go down in flames against New Orleans tomorrow night. Guaranteed.

New Year's C-Town Resolutions.

Roughly 92% of Americans make at least one New Year's Resolution every year [citation needed]. Considering I have already given up on mine (going one full year without ever stepping foot into or on the premises of McDonalds), I figured what could possibly be better than making resolutions for myself in regards to the Cleveland teams. Let's get to it.

1. I will not criticize LeBron James. Even if it's Game 7 in the Playoffs, and he decides he wants to get into one of those phases where he settles for long-range jumpers that he can't make, which, in turn, costs us the series and knocks us out of the playoffs, I will not say one bad thing about that man. I did it last year after his blown lay-up against Boston in game 7, and I did it earlier this season against Detroit when he got into one of those phases. I will not do it once in 2009. He's human. He'll lose a game doing something stupid. That being said, he's still the best player Cleveland has ever seen, and I refuse to take him for granted. After all, this could be one of his last seasons as a Cleveland Cavalier. (Hopefully not, but after all, it's still Cleveland.)

2. I will never use the phrase "Mangenius" when referring to new Browns head coach Eric Mangini. Even if he makes the most insane call to beat a team such as, let's say the Steelers, I still will not use this phrase. Main reason being--Tony Soprano used it once. And you don't use stuff that Tony uses. Plus, the New York media ran with it, and look where that ended up.

3. I will not allow myself to have any bigger of a man-crush than I already have on Grady Sizemore. Self-explanatory.

4. I will attempt to actually care about the Cleveland State Vikings basketball team. I've tried for three years now, and every year I stop caring as soon as Kent State gets into the NCAA Tournament. I've always had a place in my heart for Kent State--don't ask me why, because, simply, I don't know.

5. I will try, for the first time in my life, to not say "This is our year!" when referring to the Browns. I have said it every year since I can remember, and clearly that over-confident plan hasn't worked out so well. After all, the odds of 2009 being "our year" are about the same as LenDale White losing weight.

6. I will not make fun of Mark Teahen at an Indians game. This might be the most difficult one on the list, but I'm going to try my hardest. I don't know what it is about that guy, but he's just so fun/easy to pick on.

7. I will not reference Jose Mesa a single time throughout 2009, aside from this mention in my resolutions list. Because seriously, it's time to move on and finally let that go.

8. I will not allow myself to actually think that Brady Quinn might finally be the answer at QB for the Browns. I've allowed myself to think that numerous times over the past decade, and every time, I've been dead wrong. This was espically true with Charlie Frye. Speaking of which, I wonder what happened to those two guys who sat in the front row of the East endzone at Cleveland Browns stadium in the McDonalds "Charlie's Frye's" costumes?

New Year, new thoughts.

Well, I see it's been awhile since I've been on here complaining about something. Week 2 of the NFL season? Good God. I can't even remember that far back. (OK, I lied. I remember the power going out at halftime of the Browns/Steelers game because of some old hurricane system that blew through here leaving the power out and the city smelling like salty fish.) Anyways, let's see....what has happened on the Cleveland/Ohio State scene since then?

The Browns managed to go 4-12, while firing Romeo Crennel (finally), the Indians made some solid off season moves (finally), and the Cavaliers appear to look like a true championship contender (finally).

Oh, and the Buckeyes? They managed to come back in the 4th quarter of the Fiesta Bowl, score 15 straight points on Texas to take the lead with a little under two minutes left, and proceed to blow it by giving up a game winning touchdown. Big shocker there.

But I will choose to spend my time talking about the Cavaliers. I mean, hell, they are 29-6. I said, the minute that we traded for Mo Williams, to every single person I know that THIS Cavaliers team will be much different that others. I told everyone that we'd finally have a legit, championship contending team. Of course, I was right. I want to talk briefly about last night's big showdown with the Boston Celtics. Let's see....the Cavaliers dominated the entire game en route to winning by 15. That's all I'm going to say. Everyone says how incredible Boston is, and how they're going to repeat....well, guess what. Cleveland will have something to say about that.

Alright, the one thing I actually DO want to talk about is those Cavs throwbacks they've worn the past two nights. Now, I'm not old enough to remember back to the time that these would have been worn, but I never remember hearing/seeing anything about these blue ones. Were they really worn back in the day, or are they just something they decided to throw together for this season? If anyone knows for sure, please get at me. I'd love to know. Because, honestly....they are HIDEOUS. Absolutely frickin' terrible.

Alright...that's all for today. I want to talk about the Tribe's offseason, so I'll get to that the next time I'm on here. Peace.