Gordon Hayward's injury puts what's important in sport in perspective
Opinion by Tim Shirer
I I was recently watching a Cavaliers game, it was either the first or second round of the playoffs and as usual the ESPN broadcasters criticized everything the Cavaliers did while praising the team (Indiana Pacers or New York Knicks) the Cavaliers eventually eliminated. Of course, listening to this irritated me, but then a thought hit me, and it made a world of sense.
I thought to myself, how can we as Cleveland sports fans expect the national media to respect our teams (Cavaliers and Indians) when our local media and fan base doesn't? Let's face it the Browns do not deserve any respect right now, until they can win more than one game in a 32-game span. But the Cavaliers and Indians not getting the respect of Cleveland sports fans and the local media is mind boggling.
It seems any time there is a bump in the road, no matter how small the Cleveland media and fans base are willing to pounce on the Cavs and Tribe. There are many examples I could use here, but I will stick with a couple blatant ones.
Tristan Thompson for example and I am not excusing his behavior or his infidelity but, how much did the Cleveland media enjoy talking about how he cheated on Kloe Kardashian. Especially the crew at Channel 3 sports, led by Jim Donovan. Weeks after the incident had come out and had been dealt with, Donovan and his cronies were pushing the narrative that the incident is probably the reason Ty Lue was not playing Thompson early in the playoffs. How stupid and pathetic does that sound? I mean to think a professional coach's playoff decisions are being made due to if a player was faithful to his girlfriend or spouse. More than half of the players in the NBA would be benched on a nightly basis. But for Jim Donovan it was a chance to take a shot at one of the good teams in Cleveland that take the spotlight away from the team he is employed by.
The fact that Donovan and other members of the Cleveland media fawn over the loser and criticize the winning team is really the root of the problem. Some fans who enjoy arguing with me about this issue or any other issue because love to "get me going" will deny this is the issue. I love when they say they have a mind of their own when it comes to Cleveland sports but constantly answer to the dog whistles of the Cleveland media, like the "Dolans are cheap" is probably the most ignorant narrative the Cleveland media has ever come up with. To compare the Dolans with Dick Jacobs is about as dumb as saying Donald Trump is passive, honest and hates making money. The two owners, Jacobs and Dolan owned the Indians at two completely different times in so many ways. But most fans who were around in the mid 1980's and enjoy praising Jacobs seem to forget that he owned the team for eight full seasons before they signed a big name free agent. But these same people enjoy ripping the Dolans for going one offseason and not signing a high priced free agent. It seems like a large chunk of the Cleveland media especially radio and tv don't seem or want to understand that Cleveland is a smaller market and in baseball that has a large effect on free agents you can sign. So, since the media portrays the Dolans as cheap the so called "free thinking" fans of Cleveland fall right into the trap and believe it. I hear all the time "____ on 92.3 said that the Dolans are cheap." What these people don't understand is a station like 92.3 is so geared toward the team that loses 31 out of 32 games that they don't spend much time or effort to know what they are talking about when it comes to the good teams, the Indians and the Cavaliers.
So, until we change the narrative in Cleveland and stop ripping the good teams in our city, please stop expecting respect on the national level..
tshirer@lakecountysentinel.com or Follow us on Twitter at SportsSentinel
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