Nurse the Hate: Hate The Sinking Feeling

The all too familiar sinking feeling has hit the city of Cleveland as the "This is our year!" belief in the Cavs has faded into the "Whoa is us..." self pity. Residents of Northeast Ohio do have a reason to feel this way. It's not exactly unfounded. I was in my living room when Brian Sipe threw the Red Right 88 interception ending the Browns Super Bowl dreams. I was standing in the Dawg Pound during "The Drive", and walked out of the quietest football stadium of all time afterwards. I was sitting in a party gathered around a little color TV the next year when "The Fumble" derailed the Championship Game comeback, and everyone struggled to understand how it had happened again.

The best baseball team I ever saw, the 1995 Indians, went meekly into the night in the World Series thanks to the Braves pitching. The 97 Indians were a mere out away from spraying champagne around when Jose Mesa imploded like everyone watching knew he would (except automaton manager Mike Hargrove apparently) and gave it away to the Marlins. And let's not forget the 3-1 ALCS game lead the Indians choked out a few years back. It always happens, and now it feels like it's going to happen again.

As I write this it is halftime of Game 5 in the Cavs series vs Boston. The Cavs are down by six, and LeBron James (a.k.a. The Chosen One) has ZERO points from the field. Ummm, if you tattoo "Chosen One" across your back, you may want to win something besides an Ohio High School Championship. You may want to sack up, and take a Do-or-Die Playoff game on your back and win it. As I recall, that was you that had your PR team set up a 60 Minutes story about how great you were and how sponsors should buy into the "LeBron Brand", no? Perhaps you should drive to the hoop on occasion as opposed to clanking up a 30 footer off the rim. I would like to "witness" an MVP Big Game instead of you dropping 50 on the Knicks in November.

Maybe they'll come back and win this thing, and LeBron will score 35 in the second half. Maybe even if they lose tonight, they'll win two straight and keep rolling through the Playoffs. Or maybe that sinking feeling is here for a reason.