There are no links this morning.  I just don’t feel like doing it.

I’m upset with LeBron James.  Go ahead, close your fucking browser and leave this page, I’m sure you’re tired of hearing about it.

As a Cleveland Cavaliers fan, I am distraught that LeBron James figured it all out.  He’s there, one game away from reaching the summit that has eluded him for this long.  But this isn’t even necessary about the bigger prize, it’s about the way he is doing it.  With every completely focused defensive possession and every completely unstoppable post-up move, a little bit of my spirit dies.  Unless something catastrophic happens in the next three days, LeBron is going to do the one thing I wanted him to do when he was in Cleveland: figure it out.

This isn’t some bullshit about me hating LeBron because he is lacking as a player.  I’ve always known he was great.  Many well-reasoned Cavs fans, like myself, understood that besides all the anger about The Decision, we were really just mad that LeBron was taking some of our joy away.  He was just so fucking good that Cavs basketball would become less enjoyable to watch with him gone.

For a year?  It did.  Watching the Cavs’ epic losing streak the first year after LeBron left, coupled with much of the success the Heat had, it made it painful to watch basketball.  Then Cavs fans were delivered two little slivers of sunshine: the Dallas Mavericks and Kyrie Irving.   The latter is easy to understand.  To explain the former, I offer you this: To this day, I will still say fuck all the people who mocked Cavs fans for being happy when the Mavs won.  They could never understand how cathartic that was for a Cleveland fan.  Miami was given something great and it failed.  Cleveland has endured an eternity of losing.  We just didn’t want anyone to have it easy.

As long as that failure and the “LeBron fails again in a pressure situation” narrative went on, it made me feel good.  Fuck that guy.  Through his actions (whether he meant it or not is inconsequential), he stole the heart of a fan community.

Then this season something changed.  He became focused and stopped saying stupid shit.  His brand took a back seat to his real brand: his on-court ability.  LeBron has always put up numbers and that was never my argument against him.  Just in the past his numbers didn’t come with focus and drive.  Now they did.

I know this might be a ridiculous argument, but I feel like angry Cleveland fans, Kobe “COUNT DA RINGZZZZZZZZZZZZZ” fans and just general run-of-the-mill haters have pushed LeBron to this level.  Without the hate, I’m not sure he would get to this place.  When you’re a pro athlete at the top of your game, you need to find the motivation to push you to do better.  You have money, fame and a perfect off-the-court life, but need something to drive you in the games.  Brady and Manning had each other, Magic and Larry had each other too and Jordan had the anger he carried from perceived slights.  These are a few brief modern examples, but the list certainly goes on.  There came a point where LeBron had to put all the bullshit aside and just fucking destroy people to shut the angry mob up.  He is doing that now.

It hurts.  It honestly stings.  I’ll be watching the rest of the series to see if he can pull it off.  If he does, it ends all of this.  Cleveland fans and LeBron both goes their separate ways and move on.  Cleveland fans lose the one dumb argument they had against him on the court (LeChoke, LeBrick, etc.) and LeBron can finally figuratively say ‘how my ass taste?’.

Honestly?  Both of us are probably better for it.

A lot of people have taken the Bobcats to task for hiring a guy who nobody has ever heard of, has limited NBA coaching experience and didn’t even have a Wikipedia page at the time of his hire (he now does).

Look, maybe this guy blows.  He could be terrible and show us the reason why the Bobcats are still the Bobcats.  Or maybe he is awesome and it will lead to a bunch of “I TOLD YOU SO”s from people who didn’t even endorse his hiring in the first place.  Either way the fact remains: bloggers, fans and most journalists don’t know shit about basketball.

You can pretend like you have some deep insight into the draft, or what it takes to build a team the right way, but at the end of the day you don’t know shit.  The same goes for a head coaching search.  So according to fans/bloggers, the only good hires are guys that they have heard of?  Fuck that.

In summary, bloggers/fans/certain media members need to lay back and remember their lot in life.  Writing about basketball is a lot of fun and can be rewarding from time to time, but you don’t have to live it.  A team’s general manager gets paid very well to think about basketball decisions 24/7.  The same decisions you go over in your head an hour a day.  So just chill out.  Let teams do their thing and stop acting like you know more than the professionals.  You don’t.

Thunder Can’t Match the Resolve or the Hunger of LeBron James and and the Heat (from Yahoo.com)
I agree with every word of this, except for the part about Scott Brooks being a pedestrian coach.  I mean this is a guy who ended the Spurs incredible run this season and arguably out coached Pop.  I’ve actually made some arguments in the past about Scott Brooks for being kind of shitty, but I think this is going a little far.  Give the man some credit.

Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland, and Ours (from theclassical.org)
Really awesome look at Harvey Pekar’s “Cleveland” and how it mirrors the real life thoughts about where we live, by our good friend Scott Henkle.  Just seriously, read it.

Roy Hibbert Takes Fans to See Prometheus (from Eight Points, Nine Seconds)
Yep, Roy Hibbert is pretty much the coolest basketball player ever.  Now I need to know if he hosted a post film discussion when it was over.

Morning Hardwood has a one-track mind this morning: The Dream Team.  I definitely checked out the documentary last night and really found it fun.   For years, the practices against the college select stars and themselves became the thing of myths, but now we saw actual footage of it all unfolding before our eyes.  As a basketball fan, it was just hard not to geek out over the whole thing and loved it.

However, as a film fan, I wasn’t terribly impressed.  The hour and a half documentary felt rushed and while it told the stories of individual situations really well, I never felt like I understood the personalities behind the team.  Guys like Mullin and Drexler got less screen time than Christian Laettner and John Stockton (who barely played because of an injury).  The players we did get a glimpse of (MJ, Barkley, Magic and Bird) were guys that the general public are already hyper aware of.  No basketball fan was shocked that Magic and Jordan got hyper competitive… that’s who they were.

Another issue was the audience for the documentary.  While there were nods to basketball nerds in there (giving us a taste of practice footage, some of the Isiah stuff, etc.), the documentary was really geared toward the general basketball fan (because there was a lot of matter of fact ‘here’s what happened’ stuff).  This was odd because the documentary was heavily promoted and shown on NBA TV,  a very nitch network geared toward hardcore basketball fans.  I know NBA TV is owned and run by Turner Broadcasting, but I would be curious how much the NBA was involved in the production (I assume a lot).  You’re telling me they couldn’t have got this on a bigger network for a broader audience?  And if it was intended for basketbros, then give us more!  Blow this thing out to two hours!  Give us extended game footage and some more in depth on all of the players on the team.

I’m probably just being overly critical of the documentary because the Dream Team was such a huge part of shaping me as a basketball fan.  I was 11 and at the perfect age where I had nothing better to do than to daydream about sports.  My brother and I used to play basketball in our bedroom with a hoop over the door, staying up late and pounding the floor with moves pretending we were Pippen, Robinson and Barkley (NEVER Jordan… we were Cavs fans for god sakes).  For the entire year of 1992, I remember drinking up EVERYTHING Dream Team.  I just couldn’t get enough.  The Dream Team didn’t only shape the future of the league from the standpoint of influencing international players, it created mini basketball-obsessed robots.  I was hooked.

Overall, I am just glad I live in a world where this documentary exists.  It took way to long to get something like this out and at some point in the next week I will probably go back and rewatch every minute of it, if only to relive that summer of 1992.

I know this is a links column, so check out the NBA’s “Represent” page with an insane amount of ancillary material to the documentary.  It really adds some of the things that I wish made The Dream Team in the first place, so I guess it existing online is better than nothing.

Let’s just say I enjoyed Game One of the Finals A LOT and leave it at that.  Ok?

NBA Finals: Kevin Durant Scores 36 to Power Thunder Past LeBron James’ Heat (from The Oklahoman)
There isn’t a ton to recap here, but just a really well-written game story.  Love the lede.  This might just be some journalist freak out, but I think it sets the tone for what Durant was up to last night.

Russell Westbrook: 11 Different Kinds of Smoke (from Hardwood Paroxysm)
Aka: Russell Westbrook: An Appreciation.  Love this post because through game video from last night, it shows the things I love about Russell Westbrook.  I will also add that I felt like he wasn’t even at his best last night.  Especially early in the game, I felt like he was doing some weird stuff, but that’s Westbrook – you take the good with the bad.  OKC wouldn’t have been able to pull off that game without him.

Scott Brooks Loves Russell Westbrook’s clothes, body, style (from the Basketball Jones)
When I read this, I LOLed.  Can’t get any higher praise than that.  Big ups to Trey Kerby for the “swaggy adult” reference.  I’ve been using it at home and it’s one of my favorite things ever.

BASKETBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111111111111 FINALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111111111111

2012 NBA Finals Preview (from Basketball Prospectus)
Great preview of the NBA Finals from the THE resource on the web for basketball stat nerds.  I love their prediction of OKC in 7, so at the end I can slice myself open and let the hate flow out… but honestly I just want an awesome series.  We have come way too far (dumb lockout) to not be rewarded with a totally awesome finals.

Fun with 2012 NBA Draft Scouting Reports (A Mock Draft Supplement for Lottery Picks) (from Hardwood Paroxysm)
Really cool post comparing/contrasting similar players in the draft here… WITH CHARTS INCLUDED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amin and Angelo Appear on NBACookBook.net (NBACookbook.net)
Yep, two of IGHN’s many food-centric people make an appearance to showcase their culinary skills.  Dope site too that you all should check out.  Chill bros on a chill site, killer combo.

God, it feels like forever since I’ve gotten it hard, you know?  Last week I just didn’t have any time to get it hard because I was traveling on business, so I had the other guys I know on the blog get it hard for me.  It’s feeling really great to be up in the morning and to go hard again!

Still Waiting to Witness (from Hardwood Hype)
Remember all the way back to last week when the LeBron “clutch” narrative still existed?  Well Emile wrote this right before Game 6 of the ECFs.   I think this woke the beast.

My Cyber Dinner with Emile (From Searching for Slava)
You know… just two bros, getting together for dinner, talking about the Lakers… OVER THE INTERNET.  So much fun and a really great piece from Dave and Emile.

Some Things Never Change: The New Thunder Era (from DailyThunder.com)
I really enjoyed this piece because of how much the OKC situation reminds me of the LeBron/Cleveland situation.  Not for the chance at a title, because OKC has a team that Cleveland could have only DREAMED about during the LeBron run.  No, this is for exactly how things changed for a smallish city making a prolonged run at a title.  Patrick couldn’t have put it better here: when you are THIS good, it’s a completely new era.  Enjoy it OKC, I sure wish I did during the LeBron run.

A Moment in the Making: OKC Wins in Six over the Spurs 107-99 (from Daily Thunder)
A great breakdown by a blog that is run by not only fantastic writers, but legitimate fans.  Totally agree with the comment here that Scotty Brooks now can tell the haters to fuck off.  Turns out I was wrong about him.  Everyone was wrong about him.

The Margin: Oklahoma City Thunder 107, San Antonio Spurs 99 (from 48 Minutes of Hell)
It’s not the words here that tell the story, it’s the tone.  You can tell this is written by a Spurs fan who has been disappointed, and I totally get it.  Tons of people are being gracious toward this Spurs team and saying how great of a year it was and stuff.  All of that is true, but let’s be real: this one hurts Spurs fans.  It was (probably) the last chance for Duncan.  You had a REALLY likable team that looked unbeatable at one point.  And it went to shit.  So goes life, Spurs fans.

Russell Westbrook Shirt, Hat after Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals (from Thunderous Intentions)
Nice to see Russ swaggin it out after the big win.  Big ups, bro.

-Here’s an article bravely speaking up against tanking… While I think he picks and chooses his points/stats a little to benefit his point, there is a good argument in here against perpetual tanking. I’m all for tanking a few seasons to gain assets, but a team like Golden State (and others!) who hasn’t been back to the playoffs since their 2007 run is a little sad. Long term tanking is where the system fails these teams… or bad GMs fail these teams, I guess. I tend to think that teams that aren’t run well only hurt themselves (if you mess up your high first rounder, that means the player you SHOULD have drafted falls to a team that won’t mess it up – your team doesn’t get rewarded for having a dumb GM), so arguing against tanking is pointless… but what do I know.

-I like any mock draft that has my Cavs drafting Bradley Beal, so I definitely like this one.

-This is the type of mix of weird/awesome I love seeing from The Classical. Also… THE FUTURE!

N7 Nike Zoom KD IV’s, Reebok Question, and Immortality by @YucciMane (from Digital Refrain)

I’ve never really understood the whole sneaker collecting thing. I’ve got a pair of Crazy Lights that I play in, a pair of Jordan’s that I’ll very rarely wear out, and then the rest of my shoes which generally veer towards being more dressy. That said, after reading this write-up from @YucciMane about his quest for a pair of KD IV’s and the re-release of Iverson’s Question, I think I get it. Maybe I should finally dive in and grab myself a pair of Dunks sometime this summer.

The Semi-Official 2012 Hardwood Paroxysm Donut Mock Draft by Danny Chau (from Hardwood Paroxysm)

I’m posting this for three very good reasons:

1. It’s an in-depth donut draft and I love donuts
2. My home-town Cleveland Cavaliers draft the glazed donut, which is represented by Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
3. Danny Chau runs the single best Chick-Fil-A blog on the internet and needs to get some I GO HARD NOW love for that fact

The Best of Coach Pop (from YouTube)

I love this man so much.