One Down, Two to Go

Another out-of-this-world performance by LeBron James allowed Cavs fans to exhale Thursday night as Cleveland topped Orlando 112-102, to stay alive in the Eastern Conference Finals. This ridiculous stat line: 37 points, 14 rebounds, 12 assists.

Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith cautioned on the TNT postgame show that LeBron can't possibly do that every game; it will simply wear him down. In the fourth quarter, he scored or assisted in 32 of the team's 34 points. But as James said to Craig Sager after the game, losing just wasn't an option.

So it's back to Orlando for Game Six on Saturday night. If you're the Cavs, you know you did what you had to do, battling out a win. If you're Orlando, you feel confident knowing you're going home with a chance to close it out.

You have to pay attention to what Barkley, Smith and Reggie Miller said after the game, however. They played in the NBA and know first-hand the rigors of the pro game. Their concern: Have you ever seen anyone do what James did -- dominate the fourth quarter completely and control every offensive play in the period -- for three straight games?

Miller added a great observation about Daniel Gibson, Wally Szczerbiak and Mo Williams: Is their game going to travel? Will they be able to contribute in a do-or-die game against a hot team on the road?

Williams, in particular, was superb Thursday night, with 24 points, including six three-pointers. Can he do it again Saturday? Gibson tossed in three triples. Can he do the same in a hostile arena? If so, the Cavs have a chance. If not, it may be too much to expect James to hoist the team onto his shoulders yet another time.

Speaking of Gibson, it was great to see him finally resemble the player he was supposed to be this whole season. So is it really necessary for him to mug with the three-finger salute and grin on his face after making his shots? Really? We've all gone from expecting him to hit those shots, to holding our breath when he pulls the trigger. He's as relieved as we are when they go in. So, ditch the mugging, Daniel. Win this series first, OK?

And as for Barkley, Smith and Miller on TNT; when you stop and think, they're a living, breathing illustration of how hard it is to win an NBA championship. Guess which one of the three did it? Kenny Smith. Look again. Charles Barkley and Reggie Miller, as great as they were, never won a title. It's not an easy thing to do, and individual greatness only goes so far in such a team sport.

The Indians: Remember Them?

It's been too easy to ignore the Cleveland Indians thus far this spring. A terrible start has had them languishing in the A.L. Central cellar since Opening Day. However, they just completed a four-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays, including an improbable ninth-inning comeback in an 11-10 win on Memorial Day. They're still in last place, but a sweep's a sweep, and they're showing signs of life. Still, it's a little depressing to think about the prospect of the Cavs bowing out right now and our having to endure a long, hot summer with the suddenly feeble Tribe.

Go Cavs. Please.

Best Ever: Otto, or Else...

The analysts who warned that the Cavaliers just didn’t match up well against Orlando (Charles Barkley chief among them) appear to have been onto something. Anything could yet happen in the Eastern Conference Finals, but, if the first four games are any indication, Orlando will advance. Cleveland simply hasn’t devised an answer for the Magic’s incredible three-point shooting arsenal. Seriously: 17 three-pointers in Game Four? That’s ridiculous.

And yet, the Cavs lost by just two points. In overtime. And LeBron James had the ball in his hands for another buzzer-beating attempt that would have won the game. That’s why anything could yet happen. The Magic have the upper hand, but every game has been a battle.

Predictably, with the luster wearing off of James’ star for the moment, people are coming out of the woodwork with the “best ever” banter. The party line goes like this: LeBron is great, but he’s not an all-time great. The true test of greatness is championships. Minus championships, no one can be the “best ever.” Michael Jordan is the best ever because of his six NBA titles. Joe Montana is the best ever because of his four Super Bowl victories. Babe Ruth is the best ever because of his seven World Series titles....

And that’s the sentence that begins to reveal the folly of the argument. No, Babe Ruth is the best ever simply because he was…well, the best ever. He revolutionized the game. He established the benchmarks against which hitters would forever be measured. Not just those 714 home runs, but also an insane .342 lifetime batting average. And, before all of that, he was one of the sport’s premier pitchers, winning 78 games for Boston over a four-year span – 18 of those in 1915, at the tender age of 20! The Red Sox won three World Series titles during that time. Ruth was, by any account, Herculean. Bunyanesque. Did I mention larger than life?

I bring all this up only because I read something this morning that left me scratching my head. A blogger on the ESPN Sportsnation website, who goes by the moniker “Pastor Troy,” blasted away at LeBron – apparently because the good reverend just had to get something off his chest. You can read the entire entry here, but he basically takes James to task (now that Orlando’s up 3-1) for not bringing out the best in his teammates; says Jordan did it, LeBron hasn’t, so ya’ll be hatin’. Something like that. And then he slips back into the championships-are-the-one-true-measure-of-greatness line.

Fine. Then I am here to proclaim, once and for all, that the greatest athlete in the history of professional team sports in the United States is not Michael Jordan…is not Joe Montana…is not Babe Ruth…is not Jose Mesa (ahem)…but is, without question…

…Otto Graham.

The man played 10 seasons at quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. His team was in the league championship game all 10 of those seasons. And they won seven of those 10. He was four-for-four in the brief history of the All-America Football Conference. Lest we be tempted to poo-poo that league as one minor (that’s the first time I’ve ever written “poo-poo” in a sentence), the year after the AAFC folded Graham led the Browns to the NFL title in their first year in the league. And then he led them to two more over the next five years.

Ten seasons. Ten championship games. Seven victories.

Take that, all you title-touters.

Bill Russell’s eight straight NBA championships (and 10 in 11 years) don’t count, because…it messes up my argument for Graham.

But not really. I’ve never bought the championships-as-benchmark line of reasoning. Of course titles matter. But Terry Bradshaw has four Super Bowl rings – and he did it first. Why isn’t he as great as Montana?

The aforementioned Russell’s 10 championships outdistance Jordan’s six (and everyone else's). Why isn’t Russell the greatest?

In hockey…OK, I don’t know anything about hockey.

But you get my point. I have no problem with people taking the Cavs to task for the way they’ve performed against Orlando. But the problem isn’t LeBron. He’s once again exceeded expectations. He’s making 30- and 40-point games routine – routine – and that hasn’t happened since Oscar Robertson was running roughshod over the rest of the NBA in his prime.

I don’t know whether Otto Graham was the best quarterback in history, or even in the top 10. I know he was unsurpassed as a big-game player. And he won more championships than any other.

But the greatest? There are too many factors to consider. And those who insist on titles first are missing out on the intangibles that make the greatest athletes truly great.

LeBron has those intangibles. Yes, I’ll accept that he needs to win a championship or two to fully secure his place in history. But Pastor Troy has jumped too quickly into the LeBron-taunting fray. Number 23 is everything he was cracked up to be, and more. And the series isn’t over, although the Cavs are admittedly on life support.

This is LeBron’s sixth season. He’s 24. Michael Jordan didn’t win his first championship until his seventh season, at age 27. LeBron’s time will come. The fact that he’s accomplished so much so soon is cause for celebration, not degradation – no matter what happens Thursday night, or for the rest of this series.

The Stuff of Legend -- Maybe

It was an amazing shot.

It literally saved the Cavs' season.

It added to the Legend that is LeBron James. Perhaps.

Look, I was as stunned as anyone when LBJ lifted Cavs fans from their funk, and his team from the brink of what would have been a long summer, by nailing a mind-bending, desperation, fadeaway three-pointer as the buzzer sounded, winning Game Two of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals.

It was one of those legend-defining moments, forever etched in the annals of league history. It will be shown on replays over and over and over again.

If the Cavs go on to win the series, it will erase Cavs' fans memories of The Shot, plain and simple.

But that's the catch. Michael Jordan's shot in 1989 won a series. LeBron's simply saved this one.

So there is much more to do before this shot ranks as high.

Yes, it was just as dramatic, just as sensational, and even more improbable than Michael's. But again, Jordan's buzzer-beater drove the final nail into the coffin of Cleveland's Cinderella season.

So here's hoping the Cavaliers can ride the crest of this wave and get at least one win in Orlando, then close things out and advance to the NBA Finals.

Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see how this affects the Magic. There's no question they pose serious matchup problems for the Cavs' defense. Wednesday night, Cleveland led by 17 and lost. In Game Two, they led by 23, and almost lost. That's not good. It's clear that this is a series Orlando can win.

But will the dagger of LeBron's miraculous shot drain the life out of them? If so, that one play may well be remembered as the moment of LeBron's career, the moment that propelled his team to the next level, and his status to one of truly legendary proportions.

Nothing he does surprises anyone anymore. It will be fun to watch the drama of this series, and this wonder child's career, continue to unfold.

But, for one moment: Wow.

(The photos are Getty Images.)

Look! Up in the Sky! It’s Falling!

Dwight Howard may be Superman, but that’s not what basketball fans and the media are seeing up in the sky these days. They see it – the whole sky – falling squarely on the heads of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

A little early, don’t you think? Yes, we can conclude that the Cavs aren’t perfect, after Rashard Lewis's late three-pointer (left) helped Orlando beat them in Game 1 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals, 107-106.

But before the hand-wringing gets out of hand (is that possible?) – and believe me, I’m tempted to wring them digits right along with you – let’s think this through.

1.) Orlando is a very, very good basketball team.

2.) They’ve been playing and in sync. The Cavs had another long layoff, and looked like they wore down a bit toward the end of the game. (That they would be tired strikes me as being nonsensical at this point in the season, considering these are some of the most finely honed athletes in the world. But the commentators said it on TNT, so I’m going with it.)

3.) The Cavs went cold from the field just as Orlando got hot. It made the difference in the game.

4.) It’s one game.

5.) The Bulls of Michael Jordan’s era lost a few playoff games every year.

It’s that last point that I take solace in. Six times in the 1990s, Jordan’s Bulls won the NBA championship. Fewest playoff losses in any one of those seasons? Two, in ’90-91. The most? A whopping seven, the very next year.

The year the Bulls won a league-record 72 games, they lost three playoff games, including two in the finals against Seattle. In ’91-92, when their record of 67-15 was almost identical to this year’s Cavs, Chicago lost those seven playoff contests I spoke of earlier – three in the second round, two in the conference finals, and two more in the NBA Finals against Portland.

In other words, when you win the title, nobody cares how long it took you to do it, or faults you for losing a few games along the way.

The Cavs have now lost exactly one game this playoff season. To a very, very good team. They have the MVP. They have the Coach of the Year. And they have a solid roster that earned the best record in the league.

The sky isn’t falling. They let one get away. They let down in the second half, and they know it. They’d better not let it happen again, and here’s betting they don’t. I think they’ll win this series. I think LeBron James is sick of the doubters and the naysayers. I think his teammates are tired of hearing that the Cavs are “LeBron and everyone else.”

Give Orlando credit. They came in and stole Game 1. But I don't think they're deeper and more talented than Cleveland, no matter what all the pundits keep saying. They were bound to collect at least one victory this series. There’s also a lot of basketball left.

If the Cavs are the championship-caliber team we all think they are, they’ll evaluate this loss, suck it up, and get back to business the rest of the way.

The alarm has sounded. Let’s see what happens next.