Playoff Live Thread: Cavs vs Magic

Welcome to the ‘offs Cavalier fans! First off, I know things have been pretty sparse around here content wise of late, and I just wanted to thank you all for keeping the community going in the comment section. I’m truly grateful for the loyalty and camaraderie. Second off, the Cavs take on the Magic today! Orlando comes into this game with no one on the injured list, and run a deep team that could give the Cavs fits, especially against the bench lineups. The Cavs will be missing Dean Wade, Craig Porter Junior, and late scratch Ty Jerome.

I know I was pretty down on the way the Cavs backed into the fourth seed, and I haven’t really had a chance to explain myself, but I’ll try in the short amount of time we have here. I think something broken in me when it came to the Cavs this season, and a lot of it came from my frustration with the world at large. This year, as the NBA has become an on-court roulette wheel, with 60 percent of the ads we see being for legalized gambling, the NBA has felt like more and more of a scam: an emblem of American grift culture.

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I loathe sports gambling. It’s not just because I have close family members that suffer from gambling addiction: a disease that can destroy both lives and families. It’s because as it presented by major American sports gambling corporations, it’s not even a fair enterprise. it’s a barely regulated scam industry meant to siphon your bank account. Why do I say this? Because you literally can’t win. If you win too much, they ban you. If you have wisdom that allows you to prognostic who’s going to win and how, better than the house, the powers that be will figure it out and cancel your account.

So it’s pretty frustrating to watch what the NBA has become: a nonstop corporate siphon designed to entice you into losing your money. To top all that off, the NBA has cheapened their games to the point where regular season games don’t even matter anymore. What is the NBA selling that an average American family can get behind? Are the only people that will be watching these games, the gamblers chasing a dopamine hit? How is one supposed to take a family to a game, or get their children interested in the sport if literally every commercial is about how to have your money siphoned away?

Some context here: my best friend, a casual Cavs lover, and not a hoops head, had taken his six and five-year-old kids to the last game of the season, their second Cavs game ever, how exactly am I supposed to explain to him the logic behind J.B. Bickerstaff calling timeout with the Cavs up six and with about six minutes to go, and telling his team to lose? And make no mistake, that’s exactly what he did. Anyone who watched that game isn’t being honest if they tell you differently. And of course, the argument is, “well the Bucks did it, and the Pacers did it,” but everyone else being fraudulent doesn’t excuse your own lack of ethics and judgment. If we’re not teaching kids to try your best and to execute with excellence and integrity, what the hell are we doing here?

It’s all part and parcel to the scamification of America, and the promotion of corporate grift culture. I wanted the team and city I root for to be better. It’s pretty rough to have it shoved in their face that they’re not.

With that in mind, I’m more torn about rooting for this team than I ever have been. My heart wants them to win. My soul is mad at them for being organizational shit-asses. And most concerning, my head is telling me they can’t win. I don’t trust J.B. I don’t trust the likes of Darius Garland who is talking the talk after not walking the walk most of the season. It’s hard for me to believe in them. Magic in six as the Cavs struggle with their ability to put size on the perimeter and their deeper bench. I hope I’m wrong. The hope for the Cavs is that their experience trumps the young Magic’s who seem like they might be where Cleveland was a year or two ago.  Go Cavs.