People called him "Junior," and someday those same people will call Ken Griffey Jr. a Hall of Famer.
Blog: Justice is Served
Now, Danny Ferry must go under scrutiny. Ferry is the last man standing in this disappointment of a season. It was his hands that sculpted these Cavaliers, and his hands that dispatched Mike Brown as their coach.
Looking at the Brown era in its totality, it wasn't as much as it should have been. All the pieces seemed to be there for more, but Brown produced not more with it but less. All of what those pieces will need to go under the same scrutiny as Brown did.
For despite the won-loss record, the team Brown coached didn't achieve what people thought it should. The expectations of Ferry, Brown, the fans here and the players themselves, particularly its star LeBron James, were for an NBA title, a sparkling banner that would hang high inside the rafters at The Q like the sun over San Diego.
But The Q will be absent that NBA banner, and the city, the team and its fans will go without a championship another season. And Ferry will do some introspection, trying to figure out where it all came undone.
To blame Brown, as poorly prepared as he was to coach a team to a title, wouldn't be unjust. His failures were glaring. They played out in front of people's eyes night after night. He was a man who could see no faults, and if he did see them, he didn't have the coaching experience to fit them.
Brown is stall news these days. Whatever shortcomings the man had will play out in the history of the Cavaliers. He will be judged along side Paul Silas, Bill Fitch, Stan Albeck, Mike Fratello, Gene Littles, Chuck Daly, Mike Fratello, Lenny Wilkens and the others who failed to bring a championship to the city.
Ferry survives the purge with his duty remaining straightforward: cobble together a team capable of winning a championship - a team stronger and better coached than the one that took the court against the Celtics during this postseason.
How Ferry does the latter will test his Duke education. For Ferry's isn't an easy job; it's one that borders on mission impossible if he can't smooth-talk LeBron James into staying the course.
His firing is official. The Mike Brown era as Cavaliers coach finds its way into the team's history today as just another coach who couldn't bring this franchise to the "Promised Land."
No one should have been surprised Brown was fired. Rumors about his shaky future swirled around NBA circles like sands in windstorm. The consensus was that he would be fired sooner instead of later, because there was no reason to dangle a good man's fortunes on a tightrope for long.
And Mike Brown is a good man. He was a lousy coach, too.
I once thought Brown was the right man to lead the Cavaliers to glory. He had the support of the game's best player, and other men seemed to buy into what Brownwas peddling.
Yet what did Brown in was his inability to put the X's and O's together. He was a coach who harped about defense, but it was his sieve-like defense that led to the disastrous ending to the 2009-10 season. Endings like this one have become familiar in Cleveland. Promises, promises, promises ... but no good ever seems to come from all of those promises, regardless of how hopeful they appear at first glance.
And plenty of hope was attached to these promises. General manager Danny Ferry had given Brown the expensive pieces that should have taken the team deeper into the postseason.
Say you're leaving, LeBron.
CLEVELAND -- "Dire straits" -- it ain't just the name of a '80s rock band.
The question of what's wrong with the Cavaliers brings a two-word answer: Mo Williams.
Now, the blame game doesn't stop at Williams alone. But some in Cavs colors do deserve more blame than others. Coach Mike Brown fits into that group, and his peculiar substitution patterns make some wonder if Brown's the man to lead this franchise to an NBA championship.
Why does he sit J.J. Hickson and use Shaquille O'Neal so much?
The Shaq situation presents a singular issue of its own. The Cavs picked this incredible bulk up in the offseason to give Brown the muscle inside his team needed. Yet where the heck was Shaq's muscle when victory stood in the balance Sunday? To find the answer to this puzzler, look no farther than the end of the Cavs bench. Brown had Shaq's butt planted firmly next to the butts of Daniel Gibson, Leon Powe and Zydrunas Ilgauskas.
Sprinkle blame on Antawn Jamison for his uneven play, because if Jamison had performed to his pedigree, if he had shown more of the talent that made his midseason acquisition so discussed, the series with the Celtics wouldn't stand at 2-2.
Pardon Jamison for his shortcomings if you'd like, but you can't excuse LeBron James. Throw plenty of criticism his way. James deserves it.
Now, it's a best-of-three series.
General manager Danny Ferry constructed this team to beat the Magic, but Ferry could never have imagined that this Cavaliers team wouldn't get to avenge the playoff loss last season to Dwight Howard and his teammates.
Women just throw sex at star athletes like Lawrence Taylor. He can have all of it he can handle -- with women of no certain age. For star athletes are like rock stars, chick magnets for the groupies, the hangers-on and the sycophants.
So buy sex? Why would Taylor when he could find sexual healing for free?
Yet that's what he is accused of -- and more. Taylor, 51, is facing multiple felony charges that could send him to prison. And if he's guilty as accused, he deserves a cell next to O.J. Simpson's.
Now, I can't get too self-righteous as to question Taylor's visiting a prostitute. Friends of mine have gone that route, and they never have been accused of anything so unseemly. Besides, getting inside a woman who practices the world's oldest profession isn't the crime of the century, is it? Hell, it ain't the crime of the day.
It might be worth noting that the "prostitute" was 16, an age where she couldn't consent to sex. Taylor should no more be having relations with a teenage girl than he should be smoking crack.
Neither is a good bargain.
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