The Cleveland Cavaliers beat Golden State in game seven to take the 2016 NBA Championship in a very exciting seventh game at the Oracle Area in Oakland. To say that it has been a long time coming for Cleveland sports fans is the understatement of the year. The drought has been over half a century. The last time any Cleveland professional sports franchise won any kind of championship was 1964 when the Cleveland Browns football team beat the Baltimore Colts for the 1964 NFL Championship. Jimmy Brown was still playing for the team. All three major franchises: the Cavaliers, the Indians, and Browns have been mired in mediocrity for so long that Cleveland fans have developed a complex about being at the low end of the sports stick and can be very feisty about their sports reputation. So the hope is that maybe their over half century of bad sports karma is over.
After the movie Major came out The Indians started playing better, more watchable, baseball and reached the World Series in 1997. With one inning and the series tied at 3-3, the Indians looked like they were going to be the new champions. They were ahead going into the bottom of the ninth inning and the championship t-shirts were already being printed up. However, the Marlins pulled it out in the bottom of the ninth and won the championship. This is the only time in series history that this has happened
Golden State was the defending NBA champ and were favored to win the series. After losing game six the Golden State fans felt the referees had deliberately caused the Cavs to win the game and tie the series with some biased foul calling. You hear this every year from the losers after the series, but there is some truth in the complaint. It’s in the refs best financial interest to keep the series drawn out. They make a lot of money per game and drawing the series out as long as they can will make them that much more money.
The 2015-16 NBA season is now history and I congratulate the Cleveland Cavaliers and their fans on their hard-won championship. Finally!
Vince Bares It All
Vince Wilfork, the 34 year old nose tackle for the Houston Texans Football Team, will be among the athletes posing nude for the ESPN Magazine body issue. Vince is six foot two inches tall and weighs 325 pounds. He is either going to look like Hercules or the Stay Puft Marshmallow man. But I would never tell him that to his face.
Last year Colt offense linemen Anthony Castanzo, Jack Mewhart, and Todd Herremans posed as a group for the 2015 body issue. They looked great in the magazine pictures but you remember how they played once the season started? Not so pretty!
Indy Car this Weekend
The usual suspects will be at the Road America Road Course at Elhart Lake, Wisconsin for the Kohler Grand Prix this weekend. It’s been a while since the open wheelers have competed there so there is some homecoming excitement among the teams as they want to put on a good show for the folks, particularly after the disappointing weekend two weeks ago in Texas where rain delays caused the Firestone 600 to be postponed until August 27th
The Ed Carpenter Racing Team has announced that J.R. Hildebrand will replace Josef Newgarden in the cockpit of the Fuzzy’s Vodka #21 Dallara Chevy until Newgarden’s injuries heal. Newgarden broke his clavicle and wrist when Conor Daly spun and took him into the retaining wall during the discounted attempt to run the aborted Firestone 600. Hildebrand was the Rookie of the Year in the 2010 Indianapolis 500 when he came within 1,500 yards of winning the race before spinning out while leading on the last lap. Hildebrand finished 6th in this year’s 500.