1. Zydrunas Ilgauskas’ return to Cleveland (oh, and LeBron’s too!)
After King James made “The Decision” to take his talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat, a lot of people started looking at their calendars for when the Heat go on the road to play the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena. Let’s say EVERYBODY did! Most people believed that since LeBron was announcing his decision on what-turned-out-to-be-a-two-hour “special” on ESPN that it was locked that he was returning to Cleveland. James didn’t have the mean bones in his body to diss his hometown and home state like this.
Or did he?
Even considering the way LeBron handled the decision, where 6 teams met at “LBJ Headquarters” in Downtown Cleveland (Knicks, Nets, Heat, Bulls, Cavs, Clippers) to speak with him, Maverick Carter, and the rest of his “boys”, no one in C-Town cried foul. In fact, you’d think there were still games going on considering the way Cleveland and Ohio were glued to the 24-hour coverage. Even CNN broke from their normal political banter to cover the King.
Cleveland knew what was at stake…so did Dan Gilbert. This was why he wrote that scathing letter on the Cavs’ website shortly after James announced that he was joining Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in South Florida. Local businesses were sure to lose money without the postgame revenue from Cavs games downtown. The relevance of the Cavaliers as a franchise was as well. In their first year minus the King, they’re 7-11 so far.
Who knows, maybe they’ve been eating from 7-11’s as well.
Prior to “Decision Night in America”, LeBron was Cleveland’s favorite son, Akron’s favorite son, Ohio’s favorite son, and Dan Gilbert’s favorite son. After that night, Cavs fans looked at him in the same regard as Art Modell–previously the biggest four-letter word in the Cleveland sports lexicon. Gilbert’s letter looked as if it could’ve been written by the entire Northeast Ohio area.
Let’s remember one thing about Dan Gilbert. As much as Clevelanders love the man for ripping LeBron, he wants to build casinos in Michigan. You know you’ve done something wrong when Clevelanders find it easy to respect a Michigan man.
December 2nd immediately hit the minds of Cleveland after The Decision. In the months leading up to that day, several anti-LeBron campaigns began in the city. Including “Queen James”, “Team Gilbert”, “Cleveland Never Quits” and “Quitness”. On 12/2/10, any time LeBron touched the ball in the first half, James could hear the boos as far away as Argentina and as near as Akron. It wasn’t just Cleveland that saw him in a negative light. The entire basketball world booed LeBron and saw him as a guy who shafted his hometown through ESPN.
I paid 0 attention to these motor-mouths who said that the Cavs have a shot to beat the Heat that night when the Duke Blue Devils can be favored to beat the Cavaliers any night this season. I did wonder if LeBron would answer the bell on a night like that where he should have heard it from the city all night. Zydrunas Ilgauskas was cheered, by the way, when he was introduced.
He didn’t hear it from the city all night since the Heat kicked the Cavs butts–118-90. James had 38 points and only played 3 quarters. The fans couldn’t believe how friendly the Cavs players seemed around King James and that the city wasn’t in their minds. One e-mailer to 850 WKNR-AM in C-Town compared the Cleveland players to a bunch of teenaged groupies at a Justin Bieber concert.
Only Mo Williams and Daniel “Boobie” Gibson seemed to care about what was going on. The day after the fans attention turned away from LeBron and to their own players. Cavaliers fans wanted the team blown up.
So far: LeBron James 1. City of Cleveland 0.
You’d think this was the story of the Millennium if you watched ESPN. But it wasn’t bigger than this 2nd story.
2. Russia ‘18, Qatar ‘22.
Ever since I started writing on Footbasket.com, I’ve done two posts about the United States’ bid to host the 2022 World Cup. In both, I said that the US was probably going to win the thing. They seemed to have the best bid despite snubbing Chicago and the Bay Area. The States didn’t have to build any new stadiums. The continental rotation also made sense for the US as well. I also said in both that Australia could be the biggest threat to the US’ hopes of hosting in 2022. The Aussies seemed to be trying to use “The Rio Effect” to their side. “The Rio Effect” is a semi-sensible phrase I’ve invented to describe countries that bid for international sports events and use the “Long-time-first-time argument” to their advantage.
That’s a common phrase used in radio to describe first-time callers into sports shows. “Long-time-first-time” in this sense means that they’ve never hosted any Olympics/World Cups in the past so it’s only fair that they get it this time.
Then out of nowhere, here comes little Qatar.
Qatar. A name that most people would think sounds like a video game company (or resembles one). It’s actually a small country in the Middle Eastern part of the world that is rich in oil reserves. It also has a very high GDP and is one of the few countries in the world whose money can compete with the Stars and Stripes bill for bill, coin for coin, C-Note for…something.
While Qatar may be rich in money and petroleum, this World Cup bidding process was rich in another thing–scandal which is why I don’t think FIFA will pursue something like this again. The fact that FIFA decided to award two World Cups in one session meant that there would be more back-scratching and bedfellows here than in any other bid process ever in World Cup history. All of these countries acted as if they belonged on Santa’s naughty list.
Qatar’s 2022 bid was seen by many (me) as one hindered by the country’s ridiculous climate and small size and population. Qatar is no bigger than the state of New Jersey and has a population of the city of San Francisco. How will they fit 9 stadia plus teams, fans, and media in such a small place?
Qatar decided to put its mouth where its money is. They’ve pledged to Sepp Blatter and FIFA that they’ll build air-conditioned stadia that will avoid fans and players from being over-heated during the tournament. Most countries would’ve been secretly laughed at by FIFA, but they knew how much money is in this country. The sexiness of Qatar’s bid began to reach Kardashian-esque levels.
With all of the backroom dealings going on (including the one between Qatar and “Sportugal”) there was speculation as to if the bid date would be pushed back. Blatter said it wouldn’t be. But one voter was suspended after two London journalists dressed as Americans reported that he was accepting under-the-table bribes.
December 2nd…Decision Day. A much bigger decision day than the “LeBronathon” since the World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the world. But maybe ESPN wouldn’t know that since they’re in the middle between Boston and New York City.
The US cast of characters that presented included the US’s biggest football star (Landon Donovan), an actor who played Nelson Mandela in Invictus (Morgan Freeman) and former president Bill Clinton who was in South Africa at this past Cup.
Behind the scenes, 22 FIFA members voted (normally 23). 2018 was decided on first. The combatants for ‘18 were England, Russia, Belgium-Holland, and Spain-Portugal. England was initially favored 2 months ago, but Spain-Portugal had seemingly jumped out in front. Russia was seen to be an afterthought especially when Vladimir Putin announced that he wouldn’t present.
No Putin. No Problem. Russia still won while England only locked up 2 votes. 2010 wasn’t a good year for football in England when you put this on top of Robert Green’s “Hand of Clod” moment at this year’s Cup. Cue the tabloids.
2022 was a little bit murkier. Qatar secured the same amount of votes as Australia, USA, Japan, and South Korea combined. Qatar-11. Korea-4. Japan-3. USA-3. Australia-1. This looked like the Qatar Invitational from the start of the vote. Qatar won over the US 14-8. There is already speculation about the US dusting itself off and trying again for 2026.
Considering that ESPN and ABC are the American rights-holders for FIFA’s World Cup (and that the US was involved), the announcement should’ve been covered from start to finish on either network. Many ESPN shows started with LeBron James first and then mentioned the World Cup announcements when it should’ve been the other way around. It can be said that ESPN’s uber-coverage of LeBron is exactly why other countries don’t see us as respecting their sporting interests. Even though David Stern has contributed mightily to the growth of the NBA as a global brand, it is still not international football. The World Cup announcements (and the USA’s bid) should’ve been at the top of ESPN’s despite how many LeBron-athon’s there are to offer on TV.
George Bodenheimer gets both a red card AND a technical foul.
