CLUTCH AND CLEVELAND, TOGETHER AT LAST

Never, have the words Clutch and Cleveland ever combined to equal anything even remotely close to positive. When you think of those two words in the same sentence, you think of John Elway, you think of Michael Jordan, you think of David Justice, you think of Willie Mays, and you think of Edgar Renterria.

What I witnessed on Thursday, May 31st, was hands down the greatest clutch performance in the history of sports in Cleveland. When you break it down, I don’t know how much of an accomplishment that is, because there haven’t been many to speak of. However, sports have been mainstream in Cleveland for well over a half century in some sports, and closer to a century in others.

I’ve never seen one man take over a game for a Cleveland team the way Lebron James did on May 31st. If you look at the stat line, you’ll see he came close to 50 points, but its not necessarily the stat line that impresses you.

Its the fact that he was doing to the opposition, what several other superstars have done to Cleveland in the past. For once, Cleveland gets the clutch performance. He hit big shot, after big shot, after big shot. He went toe to toe with the best team in the conference, the big bully on the block.

Not only did David take matters into his own hands and slay Goliath, he said “fuck it”, threw the rocks down, went to Goliath’s backyard and took down the bully with his bare fists. He took every punch with a grain of salt, and delivered a punch with twice as much impact in return.

Now I understand that its too soon to get excited because the same thing happened last year, and the Cavs lost the series. Growing up in Cleveland, I also understand that you’ve been exposed to the worst before, so why expect anything different?

Having said that, enjoy the moment from game five. Who knows if we’ll ever see a clutch performance for a Cleveland team like that ever again. The stage made it greater, it was on the road, against the big dogs of the conference, a team they haven’t been able to get past, and most of all, it was in the conference finals, a place the franchise has only been twice.

When you think of the Cleveland sports legends, Bernie Kosar, Albert Belle, Jose Mesa, Orel Hershiser, Jim Brown, Calavitto, Otto Grahm, and the list goes on…..did they ever dominate a game the way Lebron did in the post season on May 31st? Answer that honestly.

As far as I’m concerned, its not even close. None of the aforementioned names ever did what Lebron did on Thursday night, May 31st. As my good buddy Paulie said, we’ll be seeing that game on ESPN Classic for the next century, enjoy it.