"Please stay LeBron, we really need you..."

Well, did The Return meet everyone's expectations? I only made it to halftime before I bailed. I was rather disgusted during the 16-0 run by the Heat in the first quarter that was fueled by, I don't know, at least 6 Cavalier turnovers. Without a shot, I might add.

Buy why did the Cavs pick that particular game to lay an egg? Everyone has a theory and here's mine. In the days coming up to the game, we heard from Coach Byron Scott on numerous occasions say that he wasn't here with LeBron. I got the sense he was in John Cooper mode. Meaning he was going to treat this Return game just like any other. Hey, he knows his team better than me.

My feeling was when the Cavs actually hit the floor, it was even bigger than they had imagined. And they just weren't prepared to play. As Charles Barkley said, they'll never have a crowd behind them as they did last night. It was also their only appearance on national TV all year. To treat it as just another game seems to have resulted in the wrong approach. But listen, there should be no apology from the team or anything like that. Let's move away from this debacle as fast as we can. Besides, how many apologies can Dan Gilbert give us?

I'm not going to go crazy on the idea of player fraternization, but that was definitely dominating the airwaves today. This has been a problem of mine for a long time and was part of the reason I didn't have a problem with LeBron not shaking hands after the Orlando series loss a couple of years back. Although I see how people are upset with LeBron chatting up the Cavs bench during free throws, it doesn't bother me because these guys are all buds. Not just LeBron, all of 'em. And, if the majority of the Cavs players had not had any contact with LeBron since he left, what are they to do exactly? Hey, I'd have preferred the handshakes and hugs to take place off the court. Seemingly, Chris Jent was not enthralled with LeBron trying to engage in some talk right before tipoff. Would have been nice to see some of the players have the same reaction. Especially after the thumping they got later.

All in all, it turned out to be a big nothing. And before the game, I'd never thought it would be the Cavs who would be the ones most relieved that this game was finally behind them.

Once again, a major disappointment for Cleveland fan.

Meal of Links

Ron Santo died and Chicago weeps. It really is a mystery as to why this guy isn't in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Here, he talks about his diabetes.

Stephen King picks his Top 10 Movies of 2010. I saw "Kick-Ass", "The Social Network", "Inception" and "The Town".

Paste lists its Top 25 videos of the year. Some good stuff here.

Michael Vick is perhaps THE story in the NFL this year. Some people, like Nils Lofgren, aren't buying it.

"Faster" did no box office. So, CBS Films canned its COO.

WTF? NYC just found 200,000 votes from its past election. That's only 17% more than originally reported. Again, WTF?

Why are some Republicans still on the wrong side of DADT? Christ, McCain said today, "I will not agree to have this bill go forward. Because our economy is in the tank." And this from a guy whose chief-of-staff is gay.

Exercise Yard

The other disappointment yesterday was the announcement of the winners of the World Cup bids. We already knew Brazil has the 2014 tournament, so the bids for 2018 and 2022 were announced. Keep in mind, England was bidding for 2018 and the USA was up for 2022.

England was stunned as the 2018 World Cup goes to Russia (note: 9-hour time difference to the Eastern Time Zone). Now England has lots of items on its world sporting menu coming up. They have the 2012 Olympics, the 2011 Champions League final, the 2013 Rugby League World Cup, 2014 Commonwealth Games, 2015 Rugby Union World Cup, and the 2019 Cricket World Cup. that's a lot. And Russia, at least, does have a respectable past in soccer. However, England has not hosted a World Cup since 1966, it's only one. They are kinda pissed.

But no one was more shocked than I when the 2022 bid went to Qatar over the USA. Qatar? Man, it's hot in the summer, drinking is hard to come by, and it's tough to get there, plus there is an 11-hour time difference with the Eastern Time Zone. Seems like three strikes right there, let alone getting consensus on its pronunciation. FIFA apparently did not want a well-run tournament that makes money by having it here. So, that makes three sites out of four (South Africa, Russia and Qatar) that are pretty shaky by normal standards. That means the earliest the World Cup could return here (the only one in the USA was 1994) is 2026.

I guess I'll be watching that at the Really Old Angle.

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