LeBron James’ words to his mother: “Sit yo ass down.” Sure, she didn’t have to be as involved in a LeBron-Paul Pierce off-the-court, wrap-up-foul scrum. And of course LeBron was in the heat of the moment. Still, he barked at Gloria with the command of a bread-winner. The thing is, any mom might have been concerned and up in the mix, but not any son would tell her to sit her ass down (perhaps moms was simply under the influence). Even K.G. was like, “Hey man, you can’t be talkin’ yo mama like that.”

Back to the baby who needs to be put in the corner.

Them folks at WIZZNUTZZ got the whole L-Baby-J tee-shirt thing going on….check them out and get you one. My fav:
LeBron’s dunk over Kevin Garnett in Cleveland’s game four win, tying the series, will no doubt be part of NBA playoff lore, especially if the Cavs go on to win the series.

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Antawn Jamison has gone about his whole career being the consummate pro. He doesn’t say much, but gets the job done. Want him to come off the bench his first year as a Dallas Maverick, just as he was coming off three straight seasons in Golden State where he started all 82 games and averaged 22.3 per? No problem. Antawn Jamison will be the best damn 6th man he can be….in fact, he went on to win the NBA’s 6th man of the year for that 03-04 season, ironically his 6th in the league. Jamison can be described with many distinguishing terms, yet he is the man with no nickname. Who knows if it will stick, but I would like to dub Antawn Jamison, “The Gentleman.”

[Basketball-Reference.com needs to drastically alter their Hall of Fame Probability equation. Currently, among "active" players, Jamison is #29 while falling behind the likes of Vince Carter (#8), Stephon Marbury (#18), Steve Francis (#19), Antoine Walker (#22), Chris Webber (#13), and our Gilbert Arenas (#15). Hmm...guess you can't measure heart with math.]

But why doesn’t Gilbert Arenas get it?

Fans of the Washington Wizards should undoubtedly be proud of the recent leadership doled out by Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler. Sure, we are used to seeing them lead by example, but it’s rare that they speak out, at least to the media.

“All this talking through the media about this or that is really beneath me, and I’m kind of disappointed that my teammates kind of bought into it. We’ve got to do more of letting our game do the talking. I’ve been saying that from day one. So nothing has changed in my corner. They know what to expect out of me when I come in that locker room. So nothing has changed at all.”
Antawn Jamison before game 5 via DC Sports Bog

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Waiting For Next Year is a blog dedicated covering the Cleveland Sports scene. During this series, we’ve had some amicable and some not so amicable discussions with their team members…..mainly on the Bullets Forever comment sections. In the spirit of good blogsmanship, Rick from WFNY and I exchanged some Q&A on our teams and this tumultuous series…..here goes:

WFNY: Are the Wizards really a better team without Arenas on the floor?

TAI: The short and sweet answer is yes, right now they are (his injury factors in heavily on my answer). The question everyone will ask is what about Gil and next year (if he stays true to his word on opting-out). I like Gilbert Arenas, he’s a card. I enjoy his charisma and his killer instinct on offense…a prerequisite if a team ever expects to have championship hopes. However, Gilbert has many hills to climb in terms of gaining maturity. I’m optimistic that it can be done, but I just hope his quirkiness doesn’t hold him back.

TAI: In your post after game 5, you were pretty pissed at Mike Brown. To myself, and then Prada on Bullets Forever, this seemed like an unfair knee-jerk reaction. Do you feel the same today? The reason I ask is that I’ve been a supporter of Eddie Jordan from day one….but Wizards fans have been back and forth all year….most recently expressing their desire for Mike D’Antoni or Avery Johnson after the Wizards loss in game 4.

WFNY: Absolutely. You have to understand this is more than a one game reaction. Mike Brown is a very good defensive coach, even though the Cavs have given up more points this year than in previous years. Brown took over a team that couldn’t spell defense, and turned them into one of the better squads in that area. But this man is probably the worst offensive coach in the league. Take a look at last year’s finals. No creativity what-so-ever on offense. All season long the Cavs have struggled getting into their offensive sets. They are constantly having to throw up bad shots because the clock is running out. He has one of the most prolific scorers in the game, and he can’t figure out how to get him the ball unless West hands it to him at the top of the circle. Post LeBron up down low, have him catch balls off of screens, for goodness sakes run a pick and roll! Zydrunas can hit an 18 footer with regularity. Why can’t he and LeBron work on a 2 man game that would be deadly….

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Don’t know who Scott Templeton is? Shame on you……as you’ve missed out on one of the greatest television series in history. Templeton was the quintessential douche-bag reporter, a character on HBO’s The Wire. To be clear, I’d like to separate this from associating Templeton with or making any stereotypes or judgments on real journalists…..at least those from DC. [I understand there is some type of blogger-MSM war going on] — in any case, I could estimate that I do not have a problem with 75-85% of journalists out there (I feel terrible as that is such a crude guesstimation……and yes, I used the “word” guesstimation — so what!!). In any case, what made Scott Templeton such a d-bag on The Wire was that he was wrought with lies, plagiarism, and staunch, unsupported defense of his despicable acts.

While I am sure that Cleveland journalists are no where near the reprehensible nature of the character on The Wire, they sure have been adept in displaying skills of hackery as of late.

Tales of Hack Jobs:

First, there was this excerpt for Brian Windhorst’s blog (he’s also the Cavs beat reporter for the Akron Beacon Journal)

After the game, LeBron said DeShawn Stevenson hit him with a closed fist on the flagrant foul in the first half. I have since seen some photos that support that but it was not clear. Also, he seemed to go for the ball. I suspect the Cavs will push hard to have him to have the foul upgraded but it probably won’t happen. Here is the thing, people who know DeShawn have told me they think he’s crazy enough to attempt to go head hunting for LeBron in Game 5 if he thinks it is over just because of how personal this has all gotten. We’ll see.

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To ironically quote a Jay-Z song title….”What More Can I Say?” — meaning, the way Jake put it on Bullets Forever, “the rivalry just keeps getting weirder and weirder,” would be an understatement.

Taking a rewind, I tried my best to keep away from this internet thing for the past 24ish hours….for no particular reason as I did get a 10 minute check yesterday afternoon. I took in a pitiful Nats loss against the Cubbies, did some drinking, which unfortunately involved tequila shots, and justifiably found myself with a mini-hangover this morning. The usual antidote would be the tragically tasty grease of McDonald’s. Since one is not convenient to my Mt. Pleasant/Columbia Heights location, the next best bet was the Marx Cafe on Mt. Pleasant Street. You usually don’t have to deal with Sunday morning crowds, the food hits the spot and the service has all the international neighborhoody friendliness one could want. [by the way, for you're a Redskins fan, I stumbled across this City Paper article about Vinny Cerrato...interesting suggested reading]

Feeling slightly better, perhaps not 100% as I opted not to chase the hair of the dog (that bit me) I came back to do some reading on what I thought would be the life and times of Gilbert’s knee injury……NoPE!

As I’m sure you are aware, all of this happened instead. What unprecedented craziness…..leading to columns and rhyme droppings from the distinguished Mike Wise and nationwide ABC mentions of nightclub fodder by Stuart Scott and Mike Tirico.

I’ve never been to the Park and I’ve only been to Love once when one of my boys from college, an ex-Harlem Globetrotter, was in town (name-dropping without name-dropping, huh?) — I really hadn’t had the desire to go back since, as I would call Love the LeBron James of clubs…..Over, Rated. So yea, why not join the boycott?

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TAI: Uh oh….if you’ve somehow found your way to this blog, that means that SB Nation still has Bullets Forever held hostage with technical difficulties…..I smell hints of a Cleveland conspiracy (just kidding….maybe). Now begin the game 3 thread from BF’s Jake The Snake:

(Hey guys, sorry about the technical difficulties over at Bullets Forever today, I can assure that all the SB Nation tech gurus are doing their best to get things back to normal as soon as possible. Until then, many thanks to Truth for graciously allowing us to host the game thread for tonight’s game here. -Jake)

The Essentials:
Eastern Conference Quarterfinals Game 3 (Cavs up 2-0)
Verizon Center
8 p.m.
TNT

Key Links (drop any others in the comments)
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This is not so much a game 3 preview as it is a festival of related links and the best words from them. I’ve read them all and can vouch for each and every one. Enjoy.

flickr/wizardsdotcom

Good Words to Start
>> “We have to channel all of our aggressiveness, all of our excitement and all of our bravado into being organized within the team framework.” [Eddie Jordan via WashingtonWizardsBlog]

>> “Discipline first is self control. Discipline second is The Enforcer. If you can’t control yourself, The Enforcer must control it, and that’s me.” [Eddie Jordan via DC Sports Bog] – Oh yea, same link….Caron Butler shaved a message in the back of his head.Advocating to use Roger Mason Junior as the “enforcer” because of his “super human strength.” [Basketbawful]

>> Great piece on the upbringing of Roger Mason aka The Silent Assassin [Jon Siegel, Washington Times]

>> “Caron seems to be farely healthy, Gil’s far from behing Gil. And we know that. But look, they don’t have Sasha Pavlovic and they’ve got some guys banged up. LeBron’s got a bad back. So, you know, we can’t use that as an excuse but, Gil’s flat out not healthy. He’s not nearly the Gil we’re going to see in October.” [Eddie Jordan via Wizards Insider]

>> “The Cavaliers, meaning Mike Brown and James, have successfully created the perception that the Wizards are playing dirty basketball and are out to hurt one of the game’s biggest stars. The Wizards maintain that they simply want to play clean, hard basketball and not give James easy layups, dunks and three-point plays. [Ivan Carter, Wizards Insider]

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Put yourself in this all too familiar situation: You see a player on the team you root for commit a foul on an opposing player going for a shot…..but the foul isn’t strong enough. Actually, the foul is rather clement as the opposing player brushes it off and scores the basket, And 1. What do you say to yourself? “If you’re going to foul the guy, don’t let him get a shot off!”

My truthful opinion: Brendan Haywood’s foul on LeBron James deserved a flagrant 1 and not a flagrant 2.

But…..I understand why the referees felt the need to toss Haywood from the game. And don’t worry, I’m not pulling the “Superstar Call/David Stern Conspiracy” card. At that point in the 3rd quarter, the refs had to do something, as they were well aware of the situation….. from the war of words off the court to the blade cutting tension on it. A message needed to be sent to both teams: crossing the line beyond ‘physical play’ will not be tolerated. Do I like being on the losing end of that message, and the game? Of course not.

I will contend that the act of Brendan Haywood’s foul was no worse that Anderson Varejao’s arm swipe at Andray Blatche’s head.

However, the subsequent result of Haywood’s foul appeared much worse, especially in the surroundings of an impassioned crowd and an emphatic protectionist coach. I blame neither Mike Brown nor Cleveland fans for their emotion, as many of us in Wizards Nation should admit that we would have reacted in a similar fashion.

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Remembering history? Doomed to repeat it? Well, let’s hope these react quotes reverse karma in the direction of the Washington Wizards. Oh yea, a muzzle on Gil and DeShawn wouldn’t hurt either……..especially because I really don’t feel like putting together an ‘Egg on Our Face’ photoshop in the future.

If you dare, here’s the Wizards-Cavs game two blog on Bullets Forever.

React Quotes

“Last night, Washington decided to value physicality over skill, and in the process managed to lose the ability to do either effectively. [JakeTheSnake, Bullets Forever]

“For the second straight game, the Wizards lacked the offensive punch needed to overcome LeBron James, who added to his mastery of Washington with 30 points, 12 assists and 9 rebounds before taking a seat with the Cavaliers comfortably ahead by 24 points in the fourth quarter. [Ivan Carter, Washington Post]

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flickr/T.SC

Hindsight is always 20/20, right? (Actually, 20/20 is not “perfect” vision, but we’ll just stick with the saying.) If the Wizards “talk trash”and then lose, well, it’s confirmed, they are the dumbest team in the history of civilization.

Now, I won’t detract that bulletin-board material can provide effective examples of motivating opponents in the history of sports. Deadspin has pointed to Chuck Person in 1991. But I find it hard to draw direct lines of comparison between the #7 seed Indiana Pacers talking smack to the #2 seed Boston Celtics, and one of the greatest trash talkers of all-time, Larry Bird.

So, it’s easy for someone like Charles Barkley to assume that what was said prior to yesterday’s Wizards-Cavaliers game would be the equivalent of prodding a sleeping giant with a hot poker. But maybe we should use a new word, assyouhim….because Barkley has just made an ass out of you and him (assuming you are in the thought contingent that Gilbert Arenas should never have opened his mouth).

LeBron James is right. He does not need simple words to motivate him. LeBron James is good. He’s the real f-ing deal. Kobe Bryant may be the better entertainer, and that’s why people mistakingly refer to him as the best player in the NBA, but LeBron Raymone, father of Maximus, James is the best player….let me repeat slowly….play…yer…..in the National Basketball Association. To call LeBron a sleeping giant, to simply think that he needs the motivation of words from others, is an insult to him.

Gilbert Arenas….yea, he came out hot. Nailed some threes. And then, towards the end of the game, he seemed to do the right thing in trying to drive to the basket, get FTs, or mid-range jumpers (he only attempted and missed one 3-pointer in the second half). But as Arenas said, he’s not the “old Gil” just yet. He didn’t have the legs to complete a solid game résumé. Read more »

Matt from Hardwood Paroxysm recently posed some questions to a round-table of Wizards and Cavs bloggers. Here are my initial responses, stay tuned for the rest.

1. How is this time around going to be different from the other times you’ve met the Cavs in the playoffs? Last year was obviously a joke with the injuries, but the year before that was a pretty entertaining series. How confident do you feel right now going into this matchup?
Yea, I’m not counting last year. For the Wizards, injuries and lack of depth sealed their fate. So, I’ll compare this year to what happened in 05-06 when the Cavs took out the Wizards 4-2 in a thrilling series:

In the 05-06 playoffs, the Wizards struggled to field even a seven man rotation. Arenas, Butler (before he really came into his own) Jamison, Haywood, and Jared Jeffries were the series starters. We all loved the defense of Jeffries (at times), but that dude was soft like goo and couldn’t finish a layup to save his life…..not to mention that he wasn’t opening a damn thing inside with any sort of outside presence. Insert DeShawn Stevenson, the Lock Smith. Not only has DeShawn been a warrior, playing through a multitude of injuries this year, but he’s played great defense against some of the toughest match-ups in the league. Did I mention that Stevenson has drained 157 threes this year…only about 30 more than DeShawn made in his previous seven NBA seasons combined.

Bench please. In 06, it basically consisted of Antonio Daniels and several square pegs trying to fit into round holes: (total series minutes played in parens) — Billy Thomas (13:55), Etan Thomas (18:20), Michael Ruffin (69:36:), and Donell Taylor (3:12). You’re putting yourself behind the 8-Ball when Michael Ruffin is your key 7th man. And yes, I do realize that the bench time shortens during the playoffs, but that should not detract from the need to have kick-ass relief.

This year, you have Roger Mason Jr. aka Mase-ON, aka The Potomac Rainmaker, aka Dr. Trey, coming off the pine to confidently make buckets son. You also got your Darius Songaila, the Lithuanian Brawler, hitting jumpers, driving to the hoop, getting boards, and helping the offense tick. If up and coming Andray Blatche can stay out of foul trouble, he can contribute with energy, rebounds, blocks and passing. Oh yea, that Gilbert Arenas fella….Eddie Jordan has said that he’ll continue to bring Arenas off the bench during the playoffs — we’ll see if that lasts. I’m all for severely limiting the minutes of Nick Young, Dominic McGuire and Oleksiy Pecherov in the post-season.

After typing all that, it’s safe to say that I’m much more confident. I give the Wizards a 65% chance of taking the series.

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We all know what transpired the last time the Washington Wizards and Cleveland Cavaliers really faced each other in the playoffs on May 5th of 2006. LeBron James talked trash to Gilbert Arenas before two crucial free-throws. Gilbert missed both. Damon Jones hit a deuce with four seconds left and the rest is history. Cleveland won 114-113 that night and took a very hard fought series in six games. Leaving the Verizon Center, my buddy Chris and I had only one choice: drink our troubles away in Chinatown with a boatload of scotch.

Even last year when the Cavs swept the Wizards without Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler in the playoffs, all seemed quiet on the Eastern Conference front between Cleveland and Washington….until 2008. Below is the time-line of the trash talk that’s gone since.

flickr/wizardsdotcom

February 22, 2008
The Cleveland Cavaliers faced the Wizards fresh off completing a blockbuster trade, a minute before the 3pm NBA deadline, and were left with only eight players. Two of those eight were signed from the NBDL to meet the NBA roster minimum. Of course the Wizards, without Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler, only suited up nine players. With 15 seconds left, the ball in his hands and Cleveland down one, 89-88, LeBron James drove to the basket and received a superstar call. James’ two made free-throws and a DeShawn Stevenson missed layup at the buzzer gave the Cavaliers the 90-89 win. Some of the Wizards took exception to Cavalier attitudes during the game. I’m sure LeBron’s ball toss up to the scoreboard, celebrating like he just won a championship, was a contributing factor.

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