4 Quarters Radio: October 7 3rd Quarter

Click to Play

The third-quarter curriculum for October 7:
--Scott ponders why people who know nothing about baseball seem to usually support the Cubs, then segues smoothly into his predictions for each playoff series. Hint: the Attack of the 50 Foot Payroll did not get love.
--The NBA preseason got started, and a pair of high-profile injuries get compared.
--The UFC announces the Ultimate Fighter finale card...and it's uglier than a baby jackal. Bobby tries his best to analyze.

Excised music: "Shake a Fist" by Hot Chip.

Jimmy Kimmel Calls Ron Artest an Idiot

Well, okay, not in so many words.

Below is a video of Dwyane Wade appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live. I'm not the world's biggest Ron Artest fan, but Ron-Ron doesn't deserve the heater that Kimmel launches at him at the 3:00 mark.



Of course, Ron knew the Lakers won the championship, because he spent the next month obnoxiously bigging up his own psychic abilities for writing a single called "Champions." The guy's goofy, not stupid.

Now, if you'd told me that Adam Morrison still doesn't know the team won a championship, that I'd believe. At this point, he's forgotten what one's even supposed to do with a basketball.

4 Quarters Radio July 12

Click to Play

Solo as usual on the July 12 edition of 4QR, Scott weighs in on the 800-pound gorilla in the Miami Heat locker room, wondering how long it's going to be before Chris Bosh realizes that he's a very highly-paid caddy. Another NBA free agent signee could turn out to cripple his franchise, and he also gets called out. Also, the prospect of three 20-point-per-game scorers gets exposed for the fool's gold that it is. In the second, it's time to give some midseason shoutouts to MLB's best, plus Scott doesn't bother to contain his glee that the Spankees didn't get their grubby paws on Cliff Lee (yet). In the third, Bobby calls in to marvel at Brock Lesnar and join in a truly epic series of Epic Fails. Plus, what's the street value of a World Cup made of cocaine? Excised music: "Don't You Want Me" by the Human League, "One More Minute" by Weird Al Yankovic, and "F*** It (I Don't Want You Back)" by Eamon.

Cleveland Seether: Cavs Get the "Business" End

First thing's first: LeBron James made himself bigger than the league with his University of Phoenix infomercial. Michael Jordan dealt in press conferences, and when he really wanted to get some tongues wagging, a fax. Cloaking sports history's most shameless self-promotion to date in the altruistic robes of charity is simply polishing a billboard-size turd of narcissism.

That said, Dan Gilbert needs to get over himself. The only differences between Miami poaching LeBron and Cleveland trying everything possible to poach Chris Bosh are that Bosh was blatantly obvious about his desire to get the hell out of Canada and that the Raptors were bound to get something for their pain. (Surely, Anderson Varejao's hot Brazilian blood would have greatly enjoyed Toronto in the winter.) Congrats, Danny, you've now scared the ever-loving shit out of every potential free agent/draft pick that may ever end up there, as nobody wants to feel like they're running for the door before the owner starts shooting.

All this bitching and moaning from Gilbert makes him look every bit the enabler, since ever since the day he bought the franchise, he's the one who's been green-lighting every move that's given LeBron this big a hammer in the first place. No one's said no to this guy since he was in about seventh grade, and you're surprised that he's not terribly concerned about your bottom line and your team's well-being? You dug this grave, don't begrudge someone else for throwing dirt on you.

Cleveland fans have fallen into the same trap that every small/medium market fanbase has since the advent of "big/small market" distinctions: they convince themselves that their athletes are theirs, they own their athletes, and they demand unconditional devotion from their athletes, even when those same fans reserve every right to boo and slam an athlete when his effort flags. When he leaves, you'd swear he'd bombed the Federal Building on the way out of town.

It's time for the city of Cleveland to get over themselves, as well. It's business. Always has been, always will be. Take it personal and decry the evil athlete all you want, just remember that no one's really listening.

What I'm more interested in, far more than how this new hydra in Miami will keep its three monstrous heads from eating each other, is what the Cavaliers decide to do from here. Frankly, the fans need to be glad that Chris Grant is in charge of the process instead of Danny Ferry, and let's examine why.

June 27, 2005: Danny Ferry hired as GM
August 2, 2005: Signed Larry Hughes to 5-year deal for more than $60M
--Hughes was coming off a 22-PPG season in Washington, and it was expected he'd be LeBron's caddy. In two-and-a-half seasons, however, he averaged 14.3, and his career's never really recovered.
December 5, 2007: Matched 3-year, $17M offer sheet for Anderson Varejao, including player option for 2009-10
--File this away for later.
February 21, 2008: Acquired Ben Wallace, Wally Szczerbiak, Joe Smith, and Delonte West in three-team trade
--This deal waved the white flag on the Hughes and Drew Gooden era, bringing in a 33-year-old offensive albatross, a one-dimensional shooter, a guy who Seattle (20-62 that season, mind you) mysteriously gave up on after only half a season, and a former number-one overall pick who even then was standing on highway overpasses with a sign saying, "Will warm bench for food."
August 13, 2008: Acquired Mo Williams in three-team trade
--The Cavs only gave up Joe Smith and Damon Jones, so that part of the price was right, especially for a point guard who'd averaged 17 points and six assists for Milwaukee the prior two seasons. Unfortunately, Mo was only one year into a six-year, $51.5M contract.
June 25, 2009: Acquired Shaquille O'Neal in trade with Phoenix
--So, you've got a young, athletic, up-tempo team that you think may be on the threshold of a title, but you've got an aging, undersized albatross of a center. What to do? Oooh, how about trading him for an outrageously oversized albatross of a center who's two-and-a-half years older and has just gotten done weighing down the offense of another athletic, up-tempo team? Fair for all sides, sure. It simply reeked of two teams making a move for the sake of saying they were making a move.
July 9, 2009: Re-signed Anderson Varejao to six-year, $50M contract
--Eight points, seven rebounds, and 61 percent from the foul line apparently earned you $8.5M per year in Cleveland. Considering the Cavs were adamant about turning down a host of trade offers for J.J. Hickson (who had extremely similar numbers per 36 minutes), wouldn't it have made sense to remove the main obstacle from his path to the floor? The only way this deal would have made sense would be if every man, woman, and child in the greater Cleveland area bought Sideshow Varejao wigs to pay for it.
July 23, 2009: Christian Eyenga signs three-year contract with DKV Joventut of the Spanish League
--Who? Oh, yeah, their 2009 first-round draft pick. Sure, you had the last pick of the first round, number 30 overall. But if you're drafting a guy with absolutely no intention of seeing him come to camp that season, why not make a trade? Guys like DeJuan Blair, Jonas Jerebko, and Sam Young turned out to be fine picks in the second. San Antonio's won multiple titles not just because of the lottery luck that brought them David Robinson and Tim Duncan, but because they also don't punt the late picks. Blair slid to them at 37, Manu Ginobili was the next-to-last pick in 1999, and Tony Parker was the last pick of the first round in 2001. Cleveland hasn't even taken the draft seriously these last two seasons, and at least this year, they were smart enough just to not show up.

Cleveland fans, do you want a sign of optimism? Ferry's gone.

Unfortunately, the stink of some of these deals will linger on for a while.

Your team's got about $9M in cap room, but unfortunately, all the guys worth that kind of scratch are spoken for already. Asking you to get excited about the prospect of a J.J. Redick (a possible Wally 2.0), a Josh Howard (who's completely misunderstood all the talk these days about "going green"), or a Brad Miller (one of my Purdue boys, but he's kind of long in the tooth these days hisownself) is actually sort of insulting.

Still, LeBron has to react to his surroundings, and honestly, his surroundings aren't all that attractive. You wanna blame somebody? Blame the deals that came before and handcuffed your team's payroll. If this team looked good enough to stay with, maybe he might have done so.

These were LeBron's options: 1) playing with two Olympians and going to one of America's primo women-in-thongs destinations whenever he saw fit; and 2) playing with a guy in a fright wig and another who (allegedly) banged his mom in one of America's primo women-in-parkas destinations.

Tell me you'd make a different decision, and I'll call you a liar.

This isn't The Shot...



or The Drive...



or The Fumble...



...where the sports gods tempted you with thoughts of glory and then cruelly dashed your dreams. This was a business decision. A poorly played business decision that wipes excrement all over the decision-maker's "brand," but a business decision nonetheless.

LeBron's Lament: Does the King Need to Stand By Someone Else's Throne?

What's the difference between LeBron James and Ken Griffey Jr.?

Junior has the decency to go back to the clubhouse to catch himself a nap (allegedly). LeBron was seen several times during last night's Eastern Conference Semifinal Game 5 standing off by himself near the three-point line, totally uninvolved in what was happening with his team's offense or defense.

When he tried to involve himself, it was usually by way of a 20-foot jumpshot rather than trying to assert himself at the rim.

Is he injured, distracted, or overwhelmed? Any of the three are understandable.

His elbow's probably painful, he's got the entire future of the NBA clinging to his summer travel itinerary, and he's got all the questions coming his way for whatever failures occur with the Cavaliers. And he appears to be getting tired of the questions.

The elbow will heal, his decision will come and go, but if he stays in Cleveland, he'll still have all the questions.  There's only one place he can go to escape some of them.

Contrary to everyone's expectations that LeBron and Dwyane Wade are destined to ride off into the sunset on twin bullet trains to New York, that won't get either of them where they want to be.

If LeBron's getting annoyed with the tone of the questions he's getting in his hometown, what the hell does he think is going to happen in New York? The Post, Times, and News will all line up to take whacks at him just as enthusiastically as New York Magazine is trying to woo him right now. He'll be the three-swings-for-a-quarter derelict car that every writer will be smashing with a verbal sledgehammer.

No one will feel sorry for a guy whose nickname is "The King" and whose interest in becoming that rarest of animals, the billionaire athlete, is well-known. Nike won't be able to save him from the press in New York.

But Miami? Miami is D-Wade's town. So why would LeBron go there?

Precisely for that reason. It's D-Wade's town. D-Wade will get a great deal of the questions when things go wrong, much like Michael Jordan shouldered most of the burden in Chicago. Anywhere else, even including D-Wade's hometown of Chicago, it's still LeBron and Wade, in that order.

Most of the free agency speculation about this summer has focused on LeBron going somewhere with a guy like Wade or Chris Bosh who can be Robin to his Batman, Pippen to his Jordan, Baba-Looey to his Quick Draw McGraw. Now, if he's tired of having all the disappointment and vitriol laid at his feet, maybe LeBron's more open to being the Pippen to Dwyane Wade's Jordan.

James has said often that a championship is the ultimate motivation. With as little energy as he showed in Game 5, it certainly seems that he's doubting his current team's championship potential. What he needs is a player who's strapped a team to his back and knows what it takes to get a ring. A player with the killer mentality to dominate a game singlehandedly, and still do it on the biggest stage of all. Right now, there are only two such players in the NBA.

One is Kobe Bryant. No, LeBron's not going to be a Laker.

The other is Dwyane Wade, who's had firsthand experience of carrying a team to the top of the mountain, practically by himself.

As good as LeBron is, we've got to go back to 1994 to find a team that was able to win the NBA Championship without two or more players who could be considered "stars." Even then, it's not unfair to say that Hakeem Olajuwon's Rockets won because they were in that trough while Michael Jordan was hitting pop-ups in Birmingham, and they were winning the Finals over an equally one-man Knicks team. So, him winning a championship with the likes of Mo "This Guy Was an All-Star? Srsly?" Williams, Antawn "Wait, There's a Second Round?" Jamison and Shaquille "Twitter Gives Me Another Excuse To Not Practice Free Throws" O'Neal may have been recklessly optimistic.

All of this is predicated on the thought that "The King" is no longer comfortable with the accountability that fans and media demand in return for his claim to the throne. His words after Game 5 sound like those of a man who wants to let someone else carry the load for a while.

He knows where he can find somebody who knows how.