Monday, May 8, 2006
NBA Playoffs: Where Are You, Craig Ehlo?
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The euphoria brought on by Damon Jones' last-second shot against the Washington Wizards sent Cleveland fans into a complete frenzy.
It wasn't only the fans, but the players, too, as they celebrated on the floor by tackling Jones and piling on top of their last-second hero.
That was Friday night.
The award for advancing to the second round ended up being a Sunday afternoon matchup against the Detroit Pistons on just a few hours rest in between flights.
What a reward.
Saturday, though, was a day during which many Cleveland fans probably did the same thing as me — dream of a second round shocker against the Pistons. It was a day for ridiculous daydreams of LeBron pouring in 80 points and driving Detroit fans from their seats and back into their cars. It was a day when anything seemed possible.
By the end of the first half of Sunday's game, however, those dreams were dashed in an all too real way.
The Cavs got shellacked, yes, that is the right word, shellacked, by the Pistons. It's depressing to even think about the details anymore. Perhaps embarrassing is the right word for that, too.
The question is, what were Cleveland fans really dreaming about on Saturday afternoon as they enjoyed the Cavs' first round victory and eagerly anticipated the start of the second round?
What made them really think that any of their wildest dreams were possible in any sense?
Shouldn't they have known better after The Drive, The Fumble, the 1997 World Series, and The Shot that all fairy tales end badly if you happen to live in Northeast Ohio?
Well, The Shot, in fact, is the very reason that Cavs fans have reason to believe in this team and organization.
The Shot, of course, refers to the game-winning, series-winning shot made by Michael Jordan over the outstretched arms of Craig Ehlo on May 7, 1989. (I can still see the tears in my dad's eye that day.)
For more than any other reason, this moment was important because it was the first time that the Bulls, led by Jordan, made it past the second round of the playoffs.
Three of the previous four years they had bowed out in the first round, and it wasn't until their fifth try (against the best team in the NBA at the time to boot) that they got over the early round hurdles and on their way to the pantheon of great NBA teams.
As much as The Shot is a remembrance of everything bad that has happened in Cleveland sports, at this moment (especially with the impending doom at the hands of the Pistons just in the horizon), The Shot has to give Clevelanders hope in the future.
Ironic, isn't it, one of the darkest sports moments for a city also being a bastion of hope? It is a little funny, as Cavs fans, we have to believe in what Jordan did for the Bulls, just as we have to believe in what LeBron is going to do for the Cavs.
It was for the 1987-88 season that Chicago got Horace Grant and Scottie Pippen, clearly two of the most important players in the early Bulls' championship runs. Even with the addition of these two, it still took Jordan and Chicago another year to make it to the Eastern Conference Finals.
What does this mean for Cleveland?
After getting Damon Jones, Donyell Marshall, and Larry Hughes during the offseason, it is going to take more than just one season for them to gel with the rest of the team. LeBron is always going to be LeBron, and, who knows, he could end up being better than Jordan by the time his career is done, but in the moment, he can't get the team to the Finals by himself.
It is going to take a consistent team effort (a la Detroit and San Antonio) to get there. And whether Jones, Marshall, Hughes, Drew Gooden, Eric Snow, or Flip Murray are with the team in a year or two, or whether GM Danny Ferry makes moves in the future that shake up the base of the team in an effort to surround James with the right personnel, Cleveland fans can't look at this season and not feel good about the next.
Cavs fans can be reassured by looking at the number of championship rings that Michael Jordan has, and then realizing that they didn't start appearing on his fingers his first season in the NBA, or even his first time in the playoffs.
The comparisons between the two teams should give fans a reason to believe, from the time the superstars were brought on board to their first trip to the playoffs.
In the meantime, I do encourage everyone to join me in writing to Gatorade to express anger and dismay at making a commercial that taunts Cleveland fans with the question ... what if The Shot was off by an inch?
Then again, if Cleveland fans start looking at history with a sense of hope for the future, maybe everyone should start looking at The Shot in a different way.