Sports Page

By Mary J. Russell
DENVER -- At the start of the 2007 baseball season, I can vividly recall the sports "experts" in my hometown of Denver, Colorado, proclaiming the Colorado Rockies to be the "very worst organization in sports." The critics were merciless as they ripped the team's owner and management: "'They could very well be the worst organization in the history of baseball,'" a Denver sports radio personality charged.
     Stingy, woefully ineffective ownership and poor player personnel decisions were cited as the main reasons for the team's lack of success. Fans were asked to wait it out, to wait for a young, home-grown team to develop and mature into a contender. In a few years. Or longer. Hopefully.
     Denver sports fans had become accustomed to the Rockies being a losing team, and had accepted this bitter reality as a price to be paid for having a young franchise. 
     As a fan who doesn't follow baseball but still has a place in my heart for an underdog, the Rockies' sad story was one of those "someday" scenarios. Someday, the Rockies will be a competitive team.
     Someday, the Rockies will make the playoffs.
     Someday, they may even make it to the World Series! 

     And aliens might land their spaceships on the White House lawn! 
     The Rockies in the World Series? Sure! I also believe in Santa, unicorns, fairies.......
     Las Vegas set the Rocks playoff odds at 75-1 at the beginning of the season, meaning in professional sports analysis: AS IF!!

     The simple fact is that nobody on the planet saw it coming. "It" all started back in August. The Rockies were entertaining far-stretched playoff aspirations. My son explained it to me like this: "They could make the playoffs. Of course, they won't make the playoffs, but it's mathematically possible." 
     The Rockies had to jump over four teams to make it in as a wild card. Sure. I recall a particular day in August, after the Rocks suffered a 10-2 home loss to the Florida Marlins. Whatever. Just another failed season, no big deal, that's what we expect from this team. The next day, however, they wiped out the Marlins 12-0. I remember at that time thinking, 'Great, at least they aren't going to lie down without a fight!' The impossible run continued in San Diego, where the Rockies swept the Padres, who were the wild card leaders. Hmm. Well you had to give it to the Rocks at that point for making the end of the season interesting. Thing was, it wasn't the end of the season, it was the beginning of the most amazing playoff run in the history of professional sports. The Rocks went into Los Angeles and swept the Dodgers in four games. Now eyebrows were being raised. The season ended with a tie. The Rocks and Padres would have to play a one-game playoff to determine the Wild Card.
     On a cool late September evening in Denver, Colorado, something so improbable, so unthinkable, happened at Coors Field. The Rockies played the Pads' even for 13 innings. In that final 13th, Matt Holiday slid head-first into home plate, dragging his face and a mouthful of Coors Field dirt into home plate, giving the Rockies an astounding 9-6 victory. Coors Field went nuts. The Rockies were in the playoffs! 
     Now we can all accept that miracles DO happen. UFO's are real. The Easter Bunny too! It all makes sense now!

     The streak to end the season: The Rocks won 11 straight games, including 14 of 15 to end the season. They won 7 straight against NL West rivals San Diego and Los Angeles.

     The streak continued, unfathomabley, against a Philadelphia Phillies team that was expected to rock the house with their hot bats. What happened instead is that the Rockies' young pitchers, including unlikely heroes Jeff Francis and Ubaldo Jimenez, clamped down the Phillies with enough pitching to enable the Rockies to win their first playoff series in franchise history.
      This evening the Rockies face an exponentially more difficult opponent, the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League Championship Series. Are you serious? Is this really happening?
     I hope Rockies fans don't have to wake up from this incredible run. The Rockies are making history. They have won 17 of their last 18 games. America is looking at the Rockies and asking, "What the heck is going on out there in Denver?" There isn't a baseball analyst, however, who can figure it out. Nobody can. Not even the players. They just say that they want to keep this run going, and will try not to "overthink" it. Let's hope Rockies manager Clint Hurdle isn't overthinking it: He announced a lineup change this morning that will bring an injured player back into the lineup, and place Rookie of the Year candidate Troy Tulowitzki in the 7th position in the batting order. Let's hope Hurdle's not going to tweak the delicate chemistry that's obviously playing in the team's phenomenal success!
     Too bad that Arizona fans couldn't even manage to sell out their stadium for the NLCS. If the Baseball Gods can be so convinced, that's just another reason the Rockies deserve to make it to the World Series! That as well as the fact that this is a great story: It's great for baseball, and great for America! Everybody loves an underdog, and the Rockies are perhaps the biggest underdog to appear in championship series, in my lifetime.
     GO ROCKIES! Happy Rocktober to all!

July 27, 2007 -- The Summer of 2007 will long be remembered as the "summer of scandal" in sports, with shocking and lurid stories of death, doping, animal cruelty and illegal betting smeared in the headlines.

     The series of events began with the murder-suicide of pro wrestler Chris Benoit. That tragedy revealed a very dark side in the world of professional sports that is unprecedented in pro sports history.

Mary J. Russell Sports Blogger

     Among major sports leagues, only the NHL has been untainted by scandal this summer.

     And just yesterday, the cycling world, which has been fighting a doping scandal for years, was rocked when the Tour de France race leader was suspended by his own team for policy violations. Danish cycling star Michael Rasmussen was booted for failing to inform his team of his whereabouts so that banned substance testing could take place. Earlier in the week, a German racer was kicked off the tour along with his entire team, after testing positive for an illegal blood transfusion.

     Fans’ confidence in the integrity of professional sports and its competitors has been completely shaken, not only in the U.S., but worldwide.

     After the latest Tour de France fiasco, a French poll conducted by Journal du Dimanche revealed that 76 percent of respondents doubted that any Tour de France winner did so without doping. In fact, respondents indicated doubt that any race stage winners were clean.

     It appears this year’s Tour de France winner will pedal his victory lap around the Champs Elyses with a “Winner by Default” banner draped on his back.

     Back in the U.S., the commissioners of the three major sports leagues face the challenge of restoring fans' confidence in their product. Is it merely a case of removing the leagues' bad apples, or are these scandals indicative of a more widespread, inherent problem?

     Though no one ever claimed its sport's legitimacy, it‘s disturbing nonetheless that the very gruesome history of World Wrestling Entertainment has been exposed by the Chris Benoit tragedy. A long and very decisive pattern of premature death among pro wrestlers, relating to steroid and other drug abuse, was revealed.

     In baseball, there is little warmth in the celebration for Barry Bonds, who is a swing away from breaking Henry Aaron’s home run record. Because of Bonds’ steroid scandal and the possibility that his record could be tainted, the greatness of his achievement will be overshadowed. The Bonds saga continues to hang unsettled and inconclusive. Commissioner Bud Selig will be present when Bonds breaks the record, sending mixed messages to fans. Major League Baseball has both condemned and supported Bonds: What are fans to conclude?

     In the NBA, Commissioner David Stern said that referee Tim Donaghy’s case is the worst situation that he has faced in his professional career. Donaghy is the NBA ref being investigated by the FBI for betting on games, including games that he was officiating. Donaghy reported to Florida police over the weekend that he had received threatening phone calls, and the Manatee County Sherrif’s office dispatched police units to Donaghy’s home in Bradenton, Fla. Meanwhile, Donaghy may have been working in cahoots with organized crime in New York City, who offered him a way out of his personal gambling debts this way: By possibly helping to fix games by making calls that would affect the point spread.

     Finally, NFL quarterback Michael Vick was formally arraigned on Thursday with three other men in connection with a dog fighting operation which took place in Richmond, VA. The indictment contains charges that Vick and his accomplices routinely and in the most inhumane way, executed dogs (injured or deemed unfit to fight) by hanging, electrocution, shooting, and other forms of abuse.

     The conduct of professional athletes in these cases has been suspect at best, savage and unconscionable at their worst. Big-money pro athletes, like Vick and Bonds, know what they’re signing up for when they agree to their multi-million dollar contracts. Like it or not, they represent their leagues, their teams and their communities. They are expected to do so with a standard of integrity that the NFL, MLB and NBA commissioners must now work to restore.

July 21, 2007 --- Tim Donaghy has been identified as the NBA referee at the center of an FBI probe into illegal betting on games, some of which Donaghy had officiated.

     Donaghy is at the center of an investigation into an illegal bookmaking operation with ties to organized crime in New York City.

     In a story first reported by The New York Post on Friday, the investigation has been ongoing for the past year, and the suspected ref may have been involved in making calls that would have affected the point spread in games during the past two seasons.

     Sources indicate that Donaghy, a 13-year NBA veteran, is expected to turn himself into authorities next week. He resigned two weeks ago.

     The investigation will determine if Donaghy was wagering with bookies who may have used him to call games for fixed payoffs. Reports indicate that Donaghy may have been struggling with a gambling problem of his own, had fallen into debt, and thus had become involved with the illegal bookies.

     NBA Commissioner David Stern issued a statement acknowledging the investigation:

     "We have been cooperating with the FBI in their investigation of allegations that a single NBA referee bet on NBA games that he officiated," Stern said.

     "We would like to assure our fans that no amount of effort, time or personnel is being spared to assist in this investigation, to bring to justice an individual who has betrayed the most sacred trust in professional sports, and to take the necessary steps to protect against this ever happening again."

     It is not yet known if the NBA will initiate an internal investigation of its own. Meanwhile, if federal indictments result from the investigation, Stern will have a worst-cast-scenario to contend with in the NBA, which has struggled with image problems, player scandals and highly-publicized brawls, though no incidents of this magnitude have taken place previously.

     Sports betting is legal only in Nevada.

 

July 20, 2007 --- The FBI is investigating an NBA referee for allegedly betting on games, including ones he was officiating, as part of a probe of organized crime in New York City. The investigation has been ongoing for the past year, and the suspected ref may have been involved in making calls that would have affected the point spread in games during the past two seasons.

     The investigation will determine if the NBA referee was wagering with illegal gambling bookies who may have used him to call games for fixed payoffs.

     A law enforcement official told the Associated Press, on the condition of anonymity, that the referee is aware of the investigation and plans to turn himself into authorities next week.

     The NBA declined comment on the story, issuing only a brief statement: "We have been asked by the FBI, with whom we are working closely, not to comment on this matter at this time."

     The federal probe is expected to result in the arrests of the referee, as well as a number of others involved who are suspected of organized crime activity relating to the fixed games.

     Reports indicate that the referee may have been struggling with a gambling problem, had fallen into debt, and thus had become involved with the illegal bookies.

     NBA Commissioner David Stern is said to be aware of the probe and has reviewed a full report of the FBI’s investigation of the suspected referee.

     The New York Post first broke the story on Friday.

CLEVELAND -- In nature, there are predators, and there is prey. Like a gazelle in full stride, the Cleveland Cavaliers raced blissfully into the NBA Finals, celebrating the team’s first such appearance in franchise history. Once there, they found themselves standing in dead-aim of the proverbial Big Bad Wolf, or more fitting, the Texas Wolf --- aka San Antonio Spurs, who snuck out of “The Q” in Cleveland Tuesday night with a 75-72 victory that was controversial for what didn‘t happen.

     The victory gives the Spurs a 3-0 series lead and puts them in a position to win their third NBA title in 5 years --- and their fourth title in 9 years --- Thursday night in Cleveland. San Antonio has lost 3 times in sweep situations, most recently in the 2005 Western Conference Finals against Phoenix. 

     What didn’t happen in Tuesday night's game is a foul call on the final play: Bruce Bowen swiped LeBron James’ arm as he made his move for a 3-point shot that would have sent the game into overtime, and would have given Cleveland a better chance in OT.

     But James was more inclined to blame Cleveland’s decision making on the previous possession; if the Cavs’ had converted on the prior play, with James double-teamed and forced to pass off to Anderson Varejao, who missed a layup, the Cavs could have tied the game before James’ desperation 3 became necessary: Woulda, shoulda, coulda….

     “Incidental contact,” said James of Bowen on the final shot. “It didn’t affect my shot, I had a good look at it and missed.”

     The contact didn't look incidental.

     “He did take a stab at him and we talked about it,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “We’ll keep what we said to ourselves, it might happen again. We’ve seen every crazy thing happen, positively and negatively, so our experience in that regard does help. That was the best defense we’ve played all season, without a doubt.”

     Tony Parker is a game away from being deservedly named Finals MVP. With Cleveland down only 2, Parker hit a critical 3-point shot with 1:00 remaining to put the Spurs up by 5.

     “He’s not really a 3-point shooter,“ said the Spurs’ Tim Duncan of Parker’s long-range shot in the clutch. “On the release, I was questioning the shot, but I was happy with the result. He’s just playing so confident right now.“

     “I just go out there and try to be a difference and just play my game,” Parker said of his MVP possibilities. “If it happens I be the first one to be very happy, and if it goes to Timmy, I be happy to win a third championship," said the soft-spoken French all-star.

     The “Big 3” for San Antonio had their lowest scoring night of the playoffs. Parker led the Spurs with 17 points, Duncan added 14 points and 9 rebounds, and Manu Ginobili, who put up 25 in Game 2, scored only 3 points, but they were the only 3 points he needed: All free throws in the game’s final 10 seconds, to account for the Spurs’ final margin of victory.

     It was Bowen who was the workhorse Tuesday night for San Antonio: On the floor for 43 minutes, Bowen snagged 9 rebounds, blocked a shot, scored 13 points and added an assist.

     “Bruce did everything for us, he was unbelievable,” Duncan said. “He made some big shots, rebounded, played great defense…I can’t say enough about him. What he does defines our team.”

     LeBron James did all he could, leading Cleveland with 25 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. The Cavs’ young superstar, however, missed on three straight attempts at one point with under 4:00 remaining, that would have pulled the Cavs even.

     “We dug ourselves a big hole, but we put ourselves in a position to win tonight. We can’t live on history (facing a possible sweep) so we just have to go out and win 4 games straight,” James said.

     The Spurs went on a 10-0 run to end the first half to take a 40-38 lead into the locker room. Both James and Duncan got into first-half foul trouble, getting 3 calls each by the second period.

     If the Spurs go on to win this series, they will become only the fourth NBA franchise to have won four or more titles: Boston, Chicago and the Los Angeles Lakers are already in the record books. San Antonio has a 21-7 record in closeout games. The Spurs are unbeaten in closeout games in the 2007 playoffs.

SAN ANTONIO -- Following Cleveland’s 103-92 loss to San Antonio in Game 2 of Sunday night’s NBA Finals, the Cavs were using jargon like “play harder,“ “make adjustments,“ “mental errors.“ Perhaps the Cavs are still in denial, clinging to some speck of hope as they head back to Cleveland down 2-0 in the series. From Cleveland’s side there was no mention of being outplayed, outmanned, out cold. The Spurs’ only cause for concern was that Cleveland would show any signs of life after administering such a beat-down through the first three quarters. The Cavs trailed by as many as 29 points, but cut the lead to 8 with 4:53 remaining, perhaps more due to a lack of Spurs’ focus than any magic bullet from Cleveland.

     “I am concerned that we’re not putting it together for 48 minutes,” said Cleveland coach Mike Brown.

     The Spurs hardly needed 48 minutes to put away Cleveland Sunday night. They only needed 12, in the first quarter: San Antonio built an 11-point lead with LeBron James sitting on the bench with a pair of fouls. San Antonio continued the punishment through the first half, running out to a 58-33 first-half lead.

     Anybody who has been watching the Spurs dominate throughout the playoffs is aware that San Antonio has a successful formula that it uses game in and game out. There’s a pattern here. Talent yes, experience, sure; but how does Spurs’ coach Gregg Popovich manage to put it all together?

     “We are not doing something special,” said Spurs’ guard Tony Parker, who has sparkled in the series so far, and had a game-high 30 Sunday night. “ We’re doing a better job taking turns, we’re taking great shots. But we need to remember, Cleveland played good against Detroit (down 2-0 in that series) and came back, so we need to be aware of that.”

     Parker is the early front-runner for Finals MVP, but he defers to his 3-time Finals MVP teammate Tim Duncan:

     “Tim is still the man,” Parker said.

     The Spurs “Big 3” combined for 43 points; Parker led with 30, Duncan scored 23 and Manu Ginobili came in off the bench to add 25.

     “I wish I had the answer, I’m not that smart,” said coach Brown. “We’ve been through this before, down 0-2. They didn’t look down going into the fourth quarter,“ he said, despite what seemed to be an insurmountable deficit for Cleveland.

     “We’re still confident,” said LeBron James, who improved his Finals scoring from 14 points in Game One to 25 Sunday night. “It don’t matter if you lose by one or by 30, we just have to get a better effort, pick up our intensity and carry what we did in the fourth quarter into the next game.”

     As they always seem to do, the Spurs had the answer and slammed the door on Cleveland’s comeback late in the fourth. After the Cavs pulled to within 9, Ginobili pulled up and dropped a long 3 and was fouled on the play by Cleveland rookie Daniel Gibson. Ginobili hit the free-throw to convert a 4-point play and push the score to 101-89 with 2:24 remaining.

      “I was feeling good with my shot,” Ginobili said. “I had time enough to finish the shot and of course it was a big play and I was very, very happy for it.

     “We play such a great game for 3 quarters, seeing the team just stop in the fourth….we got to finish the games. We are more humble by that. We are going to look for one win away, but not be too overconfident, we can’t get so relaxed.“

     The Spurs put the game away straight out of the starting gate, taking advantage of a 9-minute stretch in which James sat on the bench in foul trouble.

     In the 2005 Finals against Detroit, San Antonio won the first two games but had to go 7 games to beat the Pistons and win the championship.

The Cavaliers have never been in the Finals and the atmosphere for Game 3 Tuesday night in Cleveland promises to be electrifying. It will be a further test of the Spurs’ experience in difficult situations; they have been unfazed in the playoffs thus far.

SAN ANTONIO -- The Cleveland Cavaliers winning the NBA Eastern Conference title and making it into the NBA championship series against San Antonio is a great story. Cleveland, a sports town starved for success of any kind, had dreams of an NBA title and ABC television sports executives had dreams of huge prime-time ratings with LeBron James’ name in lights for Cleveland. Thursday night, however, the series became “Reality TV.” The San Antonio Spurs apparently didn’t read the Hollywood script that had been written for a Cleveland upset in the series, defeating the Cavs 85-76 to take Game One and a 1-0 series lead. In doing so, the Spurs continue to loop playoff victories, replaying the same methodical victory over and over again: The Spurs are in a playoff run in which they have defeated Denver, Phoenix and Utah for a 13-4 postseason record.

     It doesn’t seem likely, given the Spurs’ exceptional team defense and playoff experience, that there will be any “made-for-TV” Cinderella story for Cleveland in this series. The Spurs are just too strong and play too well together for there to be a realistic upset scenario taking place. The Spurs' leading player, Tim Duncan, has been league MVP twice, and is a 3-time Finals MVP. None of Cleveland's players have such impressive credentials, or have anything even resembling the Spurs' playoff experience.

     Given that the Cavs employ LeBron James --- a player of nearly superhuman athletic ability who proved in the conference finals that he has the special character of a winner too --- there is still some hope remaining that Cleveland can make a game or two in the series interesting. But Thursday night, the brief chaos created by Cleveland’s stunning conference finals victory days before, was over --- the world as we know it resumed normal orbital rotation; the Arctic ground squirrel emerged from its hole after winter hibernation, the stock market remained steady, the barometric weather pressure stabilized, Paris Hilton was released from prison --- and the Spurs restored order in the NBA, proving that they are without question the league’s most dominant team.

     “It felt like we played a month ago, so we had to get the rust off,” said Duncan, who finished with 24 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks. “We played well all around and on the defensive end we did a heck of a job tonight,” he said. (The Spurs were off for more than a week after defeating Utah in a 4-1 Western Conference Finals victory.)

     “We were discombobulated to start offensively,” said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. “LeBron didn’t have a great shooting night.”

     James was 0-7 shooting in the first half and though he hit on consecutive 3s in the fourth to pad his scoring sheet, he appeared merely mortal offensively, finishing with 14 points.

     “I didn’t play extremely well,” James said. “They (Spurs defense) were shrinking the floor and that’s something that I will have to adjust for and be ready to counter on Sunday. Six turnovers is uncharacteristic for me. I forced some passes that looked open and I have to play better in order for us to have a chance,” he said.

     James was able to overcome Detroit’s defense in the conference finals; Richard Hamilton covered James well early in that series but James ran away from everybody later in the series. For San Antonio, Bruce Bowen played shut-down defense on James, and this post-season, Bowen has had a hand in the Spurs’ completely shutting down two of the Western Conference’s top offensive teams, Denver and Phoenix, the NBA’s leading offense.

     “He’s so good at finding guys,“ said Duncan of James’ passing. “We have to keep hands in there every time he gets the ball.

     “To play defense like we do it takes a lot of mental discipline and it takes five guys understanding the game plan and sticking with it. You have to give credit to our coaching staff. We just get good play from different people, even guys who aren’t usually there continue to step up for us,” Duncan said.

     Guard Tony Parker had a superb night for the Spurs, scoring 27 and adding 7 assists.

     “Coach told me to be aggressive and make quick decisions,” Parker said. “It’s timing, think ahead; in the second half we had more energy, we were more intense. He (James) scored two tough threes, but we’ll take that. We are trying to contain him, no easy layups, no dunks, we make every shot tough. We were focused on our transition defense so that we got back and he didn’t get any easy stuff,” he said.

     “This is the best team we’ve faced,” said Cavs’ forward Drew Gooden. “Their experience overcame us in the first game.”

     Cleveland was offensively-challenged throughout the game. The Cavs put up 15 points in the first quarter, 20 in the second, then a 14-point third quarter enabled the Spurs to run out to an 18-point lead. Cleveland had cut the lead to 8, 80-72 with 1:48 left, but that’s as close as the Cavs would get. James threw up a 3 that wouldn’t drop and Duncan came back to dunk on the other end to put the Spurs up 10 with just under one minute remaining.

     Game 2 is set for Sunday night in San Antonio, with games 3 and 4 (and 5 if necessary) in Cleveland.

CLEVELAND --- For those who are old enough to remember --- and for those who weren't even born yet, the most popular song in 1964 was The Beatles’ “I Want To Hold Your Hand.“ Back in ‘64 Lyndon Johnson was President, and the first Ford Mustang rolled off the assembly line in Detoit. Though it seems unbelievable, it was back in 1964 --- some 43 years --- since a Cleveland team has won a major sports championship.

     On Saturday night the Cleveland Cavaliers became the NBA Eastern Conference champions in a Game 6 victory over Detroit. Before the work crew is finished sweeping confetti from the floor of Quicken Loans Arena, we should pause to reflect on the black hole that is Cleveland’s sports history to fully appreciate the Cavs‘ achievement. For starters, this will be Cleveland's first appearance in the NBA Finals. Prior to Saturday, the Cavs have earned only one title, a 1970 division title. That’s it!

     For the record, Cleveland does hold No. 1 ranking over every other sports city in America! It’s a rather dubious distinction, however: In 2004 Cleveland was named “The most cursed sports city” by ESPN.

     Therefore, congratulations are well-deserved for Cleveland, a city to whom the sports gods have been unmercifully cruel. At least for the moment, the clouds have parted and joy overflows in the hard-luck Midwest sports town. The Cleveland Cavaliers, led by their young superstar, superhero forward LeBron James, have broken through to the NBA Finals to face the San Antonio Spurs. James could well be the most coveted player in any sport today. His heroics in Game 5 --- which may be regarded as one of the greatest individual performances in NBA history --- almost single-handedly put the Cavaliers in a position to win the series at home in Game 6.

     Before organizers in Cleveland call for a parade, however, let’s remember that the Spurs have put down each of their Western Conference challengers --- Denver, Phoenix and Utah --- in dominating fashion. And most analysts would agree that the Western Conference is 10-teams deep overall, making the Spurs even more formidable. From here, the Cavs’ work becomes exponentially more difficult. The Spurs have a smothering defense and a cohesive offensive unit that works with mechanical efficiency. More on the Spurs later. Until Thursday when the NBA finals commence, let’s savor the Cavs’ success. To fully appreciate how deserving of success Cleveland is, from any of its sports franchises, let’s take a look at Cleveland’s history of sports agony.

      Cleveland has the longest-running titles-drought of any other American sports city (43 years). The last major sports team in Cleveland to win a title was the 1964 Cleveland Browns. Prior to that, the Cleveland Indians won the World Series: in 1948.

     Cleveland’s football history has been particularly dark. To end the 1995 season, Browns owner Art Modell packed up the franchise and moved it out of Cleveland and into Baltimore. At the time, Browns fans feared that they may have witnessed their last NFL game in Cleveland. The NFL did return to Cleveland five years later, but it was a sad and wretched period in the team’s history.

     The Cleveland Indians were just two outs away from winning the World Series in 1997. But a blown save in the 9^th for Cleveland enabled the Florida Marlins, an expansion team with just 5 years in the major leagues, to win the World Series and continue Cleveland’s suffering.

     Say the name “John Elway” and how do most Cleveland sports fans react? In the late 1980s the Cleveland Browns lost NFL playoff games in 3 out of 4 years to the Denver Broncos, including two AFC Conference Championship games in unforgettable fashion. There was “The Drive” and “The Fumble.” Anyone who witnessed “The Fumble” would have to agree that there might be some truth to the "curse" on Cleveland sports teams. Either way, a Cleveland team was turned away again with nothing but a stake through the heart.

     All things considered, maybe America is ready to embrace a championship team representing the city of Cleveland! America is certainly excited to see LeBron James, the 8^th Wonder of the World, make it this far. So the Cavaliers have not only history, but a very daunting opponent in the Spurs, to overcome as the NBA Finals begin Thursday night in San Antonio. The Spurs are perhaps the league’s most experienced team. Call them old, slow, boring, whatever you want --- the fact is that the Spurs are an incredibly strong team that has tremendous depth on the bench and a deadly 3-point shooting game.

     Who knows though, maybe not even the Spurs can hold off destiny. We don’t yet know what story shall be written in Cleveland’s history this time.

AUBURN HILLS, MI --- Greatness. It’s what the NBA and the media said we could expect from one young player named LeBron James when he entered the league 4 years ago as an 18-year-old rookie. A week ago that “greatness” label was in serious doubt. LeBron was struggling with his late-game confidence, searching to find himself. Thursday night in Detroit he found that intangible something that separates great athletes from great players. No cliché would be adequate to describe James’ performance Thursday night. He was unstoppable. He cut, sliced, spun and soared over Detroit’s defense to score 29 of Cleveland’s final 30 points ---- it has never been done --- and 48 points in all, to lead the Cavaliers to the greatest win in franchise history, a 109-107 double-overtime victory in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals in Detroit.

     The victory gives the Cavs a 3-2 series lead with Game 6 coming up Saturday in Cleveland.

     As James walked off the court, a towel draped over his head, the crowd of 22,076 in attendance at The Palace of Auburn Hills was remarkably quiet and subdued. The double-OT had been exasperating. James was exhausted. It wasn’t only his athletic brilliance, but his dogged, fearless determination that characterized the classic nature of this performance. He had been pecked, swiped, shoved, slapped, tripped --- dogged constantly by the Pistons’ defenders --- an elite starting 5 --- but nothing they could do would stop James, or even slow him down. He hit turn-around, off-balance, twisting jump shots; he cut through Pistons’ defenders for running slam-dunks; he launched improbable 3-pointers with regulation clock running out. He had every offensive move you can think of, and he used every one of them to simply torment Detroit. All the Pistons could do was watch it happen.

     “I feel terrible right now,” James said with a laugh, wiping his face with his towel --- physically spent from the effort. “I’m just blessed to have the athletic ability to do what I did out there tonight.”

     “That’s the single best game I’ve ever seen from anyone, hands down, and I’ve been around some great players,” said Cleveland coach Mike Brown.

     Surely the Pistons helped to dig their own grave in the game, committing a list of fatal errors that couldn’t all be attributed to LeBron James. Detroit turned the ball over and went scoreless for a 3 minute stretch to end the first overtime. At the end of regulation, Cleveland cut away an 86-81 lead after Detroit had gone on a 7-0 run. James drilled a 3-pointer with 2:00 remaining to pull Cleveland within one, 88-87. Chauncey Billups hit a clutch 3 from the left side with 22.9 in regulation to put the Pistons up 91-89, but James countered by dancing down the lane, elevating for a one-handed slam dunk to tie the score at 91 and force overtime.

      In the second overtime, it was all James for Cleveland, until he missed with 6.6 seconds left and the Cavs up 100-98. The Pistons somehow survived a scoring lapse in which they relied on free throws to keep it close. Billups finished 2-2 at the free-throw line to tie the score at 100 at the end of the first OT.

     James appeared to be tiring and losing steam, but he kept on going, appearing more and more like a heavyweight fighter heading into the final round. Perhaps it was his final shot in the second overtime, with the score tied at 107 with 11 seconds left, in which he simply blew past Billups for a lay-up to put Cleveland ahead for the win, that will forever make this game special for the Cavs --- and a horror for the Pistons, who were simply bystanders on James’ final driving lay-up.

     We've seen Kobe Bryant have games like this. And Dwyane Wade did it in the finals last year to lead Miami to its first NBA title. Thursday night LeBron James showed he is no longer hype, no longer a player of the future, he is all about this team, right now. Now we'll see if he can carry the Cavs' franchise further than it has ever been, into the NBA finals, with an elimination game coming up against Detroit Saturday at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.

 

 It has been been only three short months since we last heard news of the tragic death of a young NFL player. Never before has the league lost three young, active players in a five-month span in the off-season. On Sunday, New England Patriots defensive end Marquise Hill, 24, died in a watercraft accident in Lake Pontchartrain. His death was ruled an accidental drowning.

     Friends at the scene told the Boston Herald that Hill died a hero, helping a former high school classmate, 17, who could not swim to safety, before he himself met his own death in the water. Hill was described as a good swimmer, but even his strength as an NFL lineman was no match for the sharp, swirling currents near the south shore, where a shipping canal runs into the lake and the depths reach 80 feet.

     Friends of Hill described him as a “hero until the end.” Hill is remembered for having spent most of his free time and his own money towards efforts to rebuild his hurricane-stricken hometown of New Orleans. His acts of charity were many. Two years ago, for instance, he built a wheelchair ramp at the home of 60-year-old multiple sclerosis victim Barbara Jones, who remembered Hill as a “very sweet, individual” who was “happy to do anything that would help somebody.”

     “He thought of others first,” Hill’s cousin Elaine Blackshire told the Herald. “He was just that kind of person."

     Also that kind of person was Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams, another young NFL player whose life also came to an abrupt end at age 24. Williams was gunned down in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day in a stretch limousine, the victim of a senseless gang shooting that occurred just a block away from a trauma center at one of Denver’s largest hospitals. Williams was a lovable figure and a colorful personality who always had a smile on his face. He was remembered in the Denver community and his hometown of Fort Worth, Texas, as a light that was extinguished from this earth much, much too soon.

     Tragedy struck the Broncos again in February when backup running back Damien Nash, also 24, collapsed and died after a charity basketball game, due to unknown causes.

     For these young men, not even the gifts of their youth, strength or athleticism served to protect them from the mortality that makes us merely human after all. It gives us pause to reflect about how trivial those Sunday afternoon games really are, in the grand scheme of things. Still, the joy that the players give their fans each Sunday afternoon is important, make no mistake about it. It’s impossible to try to make sense of how these young men, whose own kindness and generosity helped to improve the fortune of others, met such misfortune to end their own lives.

     In an age when player misconduct always plays in the headlines, no drugs or alcohol played a part in any of these deaths. The 6-foot-6, 300-pound Hill was heralded as one of Louisiana’s all-time greatest high school football players. There was tremendous excitement and promise in the young NFL career of starting cornerback Williams, who played on the opposite side of one of the NFL’s greatest defensive players, Champ Bailey.

     The Williams murder investigation is ongoing. If Williams’ death served any purpose, it was a wake-up call for the city of Denver to deal with its gang problem --- despite the efforts of city leaders to repeatedly ignore it. Other deaths that had been attributable to gang violence in the city remained off-stage; Williams’ shooting brought attention --- and law enforcement response --- to the gang issue. Local and federal law enforcement agencies recently completed a roundup in which 50 suspected gang members were arrested and currently await possible federal indictments for gang-related activity and drug trafficking. Although authorities declined to make a direct connection with the arrests and the Williams case, one of the suspects, Brian Hicks, is suspected in the fatal shooting that took Williams’ life on a New Year’s that the city of Denver will never forget.