A FRONT ROW SEAT



LORD OF THE RINGS

The curtain rises tonight for the debut of The Three Basketeers!

LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, together for the first time, ready to conquer the world for "Not one, not two, not three, not four, not five... "

Whew... not even Richard Pryor could have pulled that joke off.  Ease off the hype throttle a little big fella. The fact that James and Bosh have to date won "Not one, not one, not one..." championship, makes me hold off on getting the popcorn ready.  They're used to the heat in Miami, but fans have been drinking SPF 70 ever since James and Bosh decided to join Wade.

Tonight's game at Boston needs no introduction.  The Celtics have added the Big Leprechaun in Shaquille O'Neal to fill a void in the middle that clearly cost them a championship last season.  That's the same O'Neal who won three championships with Kobe Bryant, one with Wade and zero with James.  The Celtics are long in the tooth with Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, but they are all battle tested veterans who've tasted the ultimate prize as a unit.  You don't have to convince James that experience matters down the stretch.

One of 82.  That's really all tonight's matchup means.  The outcome won't give either squad an edge over the other for later matchups.  Only a number of games will reveal if the Heat's bench is adequate enough to give The Three Basketeers a lift.  Injuries have to be avoided for both the Heat and Celtics.  The same can be said for other contenders.  The Lakers can't lose Paul Gasol and the Bulls can't have Carlos Boozer or Joakim Noah sidelined for any measurable length of time.

It should be an interesting race to the finish and if the Heat manage to pull of a championship, they will have done so before packed arenas and the best even the lowly Timberwolves can muster night in and night out.

So I have a front row seat for tonight.  The beer is perfectly chilled, not six dollars a bottle and there is no line to the men's room.  Bring on the 2010-11 season!

MIDNIGHT RUN

WHEN WINNING ISN'T ENOUGH

Late last night, Mike Brown learned two things. 

One, it ain't easy being Cinderella.  Like the babe with the glass slippers, Brown had to hit the road before midnight.  Though in this economy, I wish someone would send me packing with a severance check of over two million dollars.  If the Cavs had let the clock tick to midnight, they would have been on the hook for 4.5 million.

Brown guided the Cavs to the ball in each of his five seasons at the helm, making it to the big dance in 2007.  Brown's record of 317-177 makes him the most successful coach in Cavs history and he was tabbed coach of the year in 2009.  Guess he forgot how to coach in one season.

The second thing Brown learned is why Phil Jackson is so revered.  It ain't easy coaching superstars.  Jackson has handled and gotten the respect of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant -- no small order.  But championships don't lie, and Jackson has run out of ring fingers.

Understanding that James was one of the prominent faces of the new NBA, Brown was careful not to publicly criticize the franchise.  That street didn't run booth ways.  James had no problem in past years questioning Brown's offensive strategies and during the recent Boston series, when O'Neal sat on the bench except for 49 seconds in the fourth quarter of a Game 4 loss, James openly wondered why.

Knowing Brown was being evaluated by owner Dan Gilbert and General Manager Danny Ferry, James elected to have no input, which in itself was an indictment.  If James wanted Brown back, all he had to do was pick up a phone or in this social networking age, even a tweet would have been sufficient.

 

Again, don't feel too bad for Brown. He'll certainly get another job and has a nice down payment toward the purchase of another house.  And there were times in the series against Boston when he seemed clueless as to how to combat the cohesiveness of the Celtics veteran squad.  Remember, it wasn't long ago that critics said Doc Rivers couldn't coach either.  Talent has a funny way of paving the way for success.  To that end, how much responsibility falls on Cavs management?  They tried to surround James with workable pieces but the Cavs have learned the hard way deficiencies show up in the playoffs.  Why didn't the Cavs for instance go after Pau Gasol when the Lakers snapped him up from Memphis?  I can tell you for a fact the Cavs never thought they had a shot to get the All-Star center, but somehow the Lakers found a way.

While the James sweepstakes chatter continues, perhaps he has learned one lesson.  Magic Johnson did it.  Jordan did it.  Kobe went through it and DeWayne Wade endured it.  All either had coaches fired or sat on the sideline while management figured it out.