Tag Archives: upset

April 3, 2010

Easter, Be Thankful

By By

MVP? Yes. Finals? If no Bobcats.

LeBron James is the clear-cut favorite to win the 2009-2010 MVP award.  There’s even talks of a “unanimous” vote –

As much as I am pro-LeBron, I am not sold on Cleveland walking right into the 2010 NBA Finals.  That’s fool’s gold, and I’ve been down that road before, in fact, just last season.  Yes, the acquisition of Antawn Jamison definitely helps the cause, but we can’t just disregard Orlando as if they do not exist, and even Boston to a certain extent.

But, this post is not even about that.  Being that it’s Easter, I feel it is a time to be grateful for certain things.  Wait, or is that Thanksgiving?  Either way, LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers need to send the Toronto Raptors a “Thank You” card.  Why you ask?  Simple, Toronto had a mini-melt down in the latter stages of March and let a hobbled Chicago Bulls team back into the playoff hunt.  More so, Toronto slipped into the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, and allowed the Charlotte Bobcats to move up to the seventh seed.  Why is that significant?  Does everyone remember what happened in the 2007 NBA Playoffs?  Only the greatest upset in NBA Playoff history, that’s what happened!

The Dallas Mavericks boasted the best record in the NBA in 2006-2007 (67-15) and the league’s MVP (Dirk), they were the odds on favorite to represent the West in the 2007 NBA Finals (along with San Antonio) but there was just one problem.  Those pesky Warriors.  Golden State owned the Mavericks that season, sweeping the season series 4-0, including a win on the Warriors 81st game of the season in which Dallas chose to rest their stars.  Big mistake.  We all know what ensued, no need to write about it, but here, a visual reminder:

Now here Cleveland sits, all indications point to an improved team from a season ago, with the best record in the NBA yet again, but – what is their record against the upstart Bobcats?  1-3 with their only win coming on Halloween last year, the first week of the season.  Being that I’m from San Francisco, I haven’t had an opportunity to actually watch any of those games, but the highlights on ESPN’s Sportscenter showed Cleveland’s inability to handle the match-up with Charlotte.  Sound familiar Dallas/Golden State fans.  Guess what?  Stephen Jackson is in the middle of all this again!

(Beware Charlotte fans, don’t invest in S-Jack.)

Anyway, as I said at the top of this post, it’s a time of the year to appreciate things, and the Cleveland Cavs needs to appreciate the fact that they currently won’t have to face the Charlotte Bobcats in the first round.  No monumental upset this time around.  Thank you Toronto.

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February 9, 2010

One Sad Franchise, and One Sad Warriors Fan…

By chappy81

Usually my Warriors posts are on the bright spots with the team, but there’s so much negativity in the organization over the past few seasons, I can’t resist NOT talking about their shortcomings. Sadly, the Warriors are one of the worst run franchises of all time. They still don’t qualify on my list as a top 5 worst all time franchise, because they’ve had some success albeit mostly before I was born. The past 17 years have had as many bright spots as I can count on one hand. With a .374 winning percentage letting numerous stars go just to save a few bucks only to watch them do great elsewhere would have any fan fed up. It feels like over the past few seasons that most of Warriors nation has finally had enough. The most recent news of the Warriors inability to make a good choices was cutting Speedy Claxton’s $5.2 million expiring contract. I can’t even pretend to understand how this helps us, since there are teams drooling worse than Homer Simpson over doughnuts to get some expiring contracts for the 2010 free agent class, so why are we dumping the contracts that seem to have so much value going into the trade deadline? We probably could’ve gotten something of value for the expiring contract we got in the Crawford deal over the summer right? I don’t have an answer for either of those questions and I’m sure management doesn’t either, but it did inspire this great website which I urge all our readers to click the red button in support of the fans vs. Cohan! This move just sums up many years of bad decisions by the front office, and truly shows they don’t care about the team winning. If they tell you it’s to get the team better, they must be breaking into those Marijuana clubs in SF and eating all the cookies. There is no conceivable reason to do this before the trade deadline. If they waited for the deadline to come and go and then cut him, I’d understand. This post is dedicated to what went wrong, and the only real way to fix them is to have a new owner! Continue reading

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August 17, 2009

Yang Tames a Tiger

By chappy81

YE Yang Fist Pump Tiger

Somehow, Y.E. Yang did all the fist pumping and dancing around the greens in front of a stunned Tiger on his huge Sunday charge that made him the winner of the PGA Championship. The ultimate fist pump came when he chipped in an eagle on the 14th hole to take the lead away from Tiger for the first time in this major championship.YE Yang Fist Pump Yang took down the seemingly unbeatable Woods! It was Tiger’s first loss in a major when leading or having a share of the lead in the final round. This was Yang’s first major win, and it was only his second PGA Tour win of his career. It was the second time he beat Woods though, as he took him down in China a couple of years ago. This was far different and there was much more pressure. What made it more amazing was the fact he took down the worlds #1 golfer by playing in the final pairing with Woods, and shot an amazing 5 shots better than Tiger for the day!

During the whole telecast the CBS crew kept waiting and talking about when Tiger would do his usual thing, which is come back and win. This was the first time that it wasn’t his day as the announcers kept inquiring”Is this the putt that gets Tiger going? Was that the drive?” As they hoped they would see some historical shot by Tiger none of them conceded that Yang could really win this tournament, until Tiger missed the green badly on the 18th hole. Honestly, I didn’t really think he’d win either, but on the par 3 17th hole when Yang hit his tee shot it landed inches from a hillside that would have kicked his ball into the water it felt like it was his day.YE Yang PGA Championship Instead of his ball going out of bounds, his ball landed about 10 feet from the hole giving him a birdie opportunity. He had luck on his side, as there were a few other bounces that went his way, but this one was the most pivotal!

Although Tiger was missing putts that he usually makes, Yang was the more aggressive player on the course as he went for all he could on every shot. Meanwhile Woods seemed to lay up on holes, and take the safe route. He looked like he was playing not to win, but just trying to not lose. I think Woods thought Yang would just fade away the same way Harrington did last week. That was not the case, as Yang didn’t care about the huge gallery following Tiger, and played his game aggressively from start to finish!

Yang marks the first time a Major Championship has been won by an Asian, well, I guess the first full Asian winner, because Tiger is a halfer. I along with many felt that KJ Choi would be the first Asian to win a major, but Yang took those honors! The win can only help golf as they are always trying to expand their horizons across the globe. Go asian people!

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