We tepidly watched the Seventy-Sixers beat the Jazz last night, waiting for the inevitable moment when Carlos Boozer would come up with some small hamstring tweak or hangnail – anything that would allow him to dodge his return to Cleveland for the third straight year.
Thankfully, it didn’t happen, and the showdown everyone in CLE has been waiting for is upon us all. Tonight. Oh, yes.
(If you have no idea what we’re talking about, go read CarlosLoozer DOT COM, or this quickie recap: Carlos played for the Cavaliers, who at the time were owned by a blind man, Gordon Gund. Carlos (and his wife) asked if he could be let out of his contract, so that he could re-sign with the Cavaliers a year earlier. A handshake agreement was made, and immediately thereafter Carlos ran off to sign with the Utah Jazz.)
The lapsed time actually makes this a unique situation where the venom and hatred is gone – the door is open to heckle purely for fun. People are pumped up for this, as indicated in the most understated headline of all time from this morning’s Beacon Journal: Fans likely to have boos for Boozer.
Gee, y’think? In addition, today being St. Patrick’s Day will surely only help calm people down, right?
Anyway, we’ve had many an email asking for our thoughts on what people should do, and while we appreciate the suggestions of Monopoly money, batteries, etc, those are all obvious and easy choices. They won’t rattle him – that’s exactly what he expects.
As we posted on a Cavaliers message board elsewhere, the goal here should be to confuse and distract Carlos, to the point where he truly has no concept of what’s going on around him.
If I were right behind the bench, I would say something completely ridiculous over and over. Anything else would be too obvious – this would confuse and annoy him.
“Oh my god, Booz! You think hamburgers are so good, don’t you?!?!”
“HAHAHA!HA! Look everyone! Boozer likes hamburgers!”
“Hey Boozer – do all your teammates know how you eat all those hamburgers every night?!?!”
“Carlos! Why don’t you eat another hamburger! Put pickles on it, Carlos! Yeah, you like that, huh!!!”
“Boozer loves hamburgers! Boozer loves hamburgers! Boozer loves hamburgers!”This would be far more interesting in terms of potential reactions than anything else, plus you’re technically not saying anything offensive, so you can’t really be shut up or asked to leave.
This distracts him for sure, and moreso distracts his teammates, who probably can’t help but start laughing at that. Extrapolate it out to the entire crowd chanting “BOOZER LOVES HAMBURGERS!” and you have a legendary night for the city of Cleveland.
Of course, they absolutely must win this game, as well. Without fail, no doubt about it. With LeBron even saying he’s behind the fans on this, you can be sure he’s gonna put on a show, too.
Whatever the case, you should fire up some NBATV and catch this – Carlos is probably the #2 most hated sports figure in the city’s history behind Art Modell, and Art is too afraid to even step foot inside Cleveland again.
(One last thing – we don’t know if he’s the type to be down with being paraded like a monkey, but having Gund there tonight and intro’ing him before the game would be awesome.)
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The due factor is in full effect… this Jazz team is too good to lose all these games in a row.
Carlos Boozer 14 rebounds!
(LeBron James 17.)
solid game by Hughes tonight… that idea of him running the point is beginning to not look so good.
Just an update for everyone about the NBX contest:
after a strong day – 5 bets, 5 winners. I have vaulted YAYSports! back into contention. After starting off the 1st round with a 2-5 record (thanks to Gonzaga, Arkansas, and VA Tech winning by 2 instead of 3 when the line was 2.5), YAYSports’ record is now 7-5, and I am $4,000 in the positive for a total bank of $104,000. I regret not putting down more money on Butler (I only bet 1000 to win 974), but tomorrow I will make up for it.
I bet the over on Southern Illinois vs. VA Tech (119 points).
I bet the over on Purdue vs. FLA (135.5 points).
I took the Oregon Ducks laying 3.5 points to Winthrop.
I took the Memphis Tigers laying 5 points to Nevada.
I bet the over on Kentucky vs. Kansas (137 points).
I took the Texas Longhorns laying 3 over USC.
I bet $5,000 on each game.
The Southern Illinois/VA Tech over/under is intriguing. My site is 118.5, and I’m leaning towards over as well. I am also leaning towards the over for Kansas/Kentucky (also 137).
I do not play the spread, only money and over/under.
It’s pretty easy to consider the over/under on these games. There have been overtime games that have guaranteed a win on the over… really the only game that hasn’t been close to over is the UCLA and Indiana game last night.
Ok, so I upped the ante today after finding I could bet on halves instead of just whole games.. With that said, I made the following bets:
TEXAS (-1.0) over USC – 1st Half
OREGON (-1.5) over Winthrop – 1st Half
OVER 62.5 first half – FLA vs. Purdue
FLA (-6.5) over Purdue – 1st half
VA TECH ( 0.5) over Southern Illinois – 1st half
OVER 55 first half – VA Tech vs. Southern Illinois
OVER 58.5 first half – UNLV vs. Wisconsin
I’ve got 14 bets going today with a possible upside of $65K . The only questionable pick was the over 58.5 in the UNLV game because of the problems WIS is having scoring.
I took the over for Fla-Purdue 1st half as well. Am tempted to take the Kansas money line but have not pulled the trigger yet.
Really want to take Texas as well. We’ll see.
Gah, lost the over! That was my first loss of the weekend, and the least amount I’ve wagered so far. Now, do I take Kansas or Texas?
“Are they booing me, Deron?”
“Uh, no, they’re yelling ‘Boo-zer!’”
I would take Texas
I do not think there is any way they can stop Durant. I think the Kansas-Kentucky over might be a better play though. Still have a few minutes to decide.
Dallas 92 Detroit 88.
UHU!
I laid off any bets at the last second. Ended a wash because I would have lost money with Texas but made money with Kansas.
I backed off at the last second. Ended a wash because I would have lost money with Texas but made money with Kansas.
renaldo was huge today… but he may be worse at free throws than rip hamilton…
What? Hamilton is money.
i guess you didnt watch todays game…
good game today zack k.. I think with Chauncey the game would have been different, but no excuses.. hopefully this is the start of another win streak by the Mavs and it continues against the Cavs..
an update for everyone… as I feared as I was making wagers this morning I finished the day 7-7 2,149. I fell back to 15th I think, but I will be making some solid plays come sweet 16. Overall record is 15-12… Texas screwed me today.
It probably would have been different with George & Buckner too, so yeah, no excuses. The starters played 400 minutes.
Oh, and the Rockets blew out Philly alright, 124-74.
I doubt Devean George and Greg Buckner would have done all that much, considering Buckner would have been guarding probably Hamilton who didn’t do anything anyway except miss free throws. I saw the same argument over at ESPN.com in the comments section, and considering Billups is an all-star and should have been an MVP candidate last season (for the same reasons Dirk is a candidate this season) and those other 2 are just bit players coming off the bench, it’s a big difference. Billups can control the flow of the game better than Flip, so the game would have probably been slowed down a lot more than it already was simply by having CB in there…
Now, I know… zack k will probably come on here in all caps and argue with me or you will argue with me… I already said no excuses until you came up with your 2 cents about Buckner and George. As far as I’m concerned, the Pistons already stomped the best the west has to offer on Friday, the other teams out west actually play to Detroit’s strength and that is they play defense and they don’t really run the floor like PHX does.
“I think with Chauncey the game would have been different, but no excuses..”
Ummm…the way to do that correctly is actually to say “no excuses” without giving an excuse along with it.
Yeah. Pluss Flip had his second big game in as many nights with 18 points, 6 assists & 4 steals. I’m not saying Dallas would have manhandled the Pistons with George & Buck or anything, but you can’t make an excuse and then say “no excuses”. They game would have been different with the aforementioned players also. They are after all Dallas’ two best defenders.
no i think if billups would have played the mavs would have lost…. but i do agree if billups and george and buckner all would have played the game would have been alot different with two of our good perimiter defenders in the game… all in all my conclusion to the game is that the mavs are better than detroit
and the “best in the west” sure looks great… getting blownout by det and a crappy denver team… nice job best in the west….
now if the pistons would have won yesterday… boney would probably proclaim that the pistons beat the best in the west without chauncey… but since they lost…. no love
Now would be a good time to point out the Cleveland has the best record against the West of any East team, and that includes awesome losses to the Sonics and Blazers.
They also have the longest win-streak in the NBA, proving that the regular season really means jack.
Now would also be a good time to point out that Cleveland also has Fred Mcleod as TV play-by-play. And he sucks. you gotta be kiddin me, ahhhh he rubber-rimmed it. Additionally, the mistake by the lake lacks killer instinct. and Fred Mcleod sucks
Freddy McL does indeed suck. Honestly though, I don’t think we’d mind as much if he wasn’t brought in to replace Reghi. Mike raised the bar so high that no mortal man can really see it. But gawd, it’s endlessly disappointing to hear the lackluster exclamations after dominant plays by LeBron. Super-alley-oop from Hughes to BronBron? “That’s filthy!”
That’s filthy? That’s it? It’s pathetic.
But I have to disagree about the killer instinct. They’re blowing bad teams out and beating the good teams, making big comebacks in the 4th quarter. What instincts do they have right now that aren’t killing the other teams?
Pacifism
Carlos Boozer for MVP.
gooden is a poor man’s carlos boozer
sideshow is a poor man’s ben wallace.
the cavalier is a poor man’s scoop jackson
noooo heeeee dinnnnt
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