Welcome to Thunderdome at the Q
We’re still a week away from LeBron James making his first visit back to Cleveland with the Miami Heat and the national media is already gearing up with the anti-Cleveland propaganda.
In the wake of the news that the Cavs are going to ban controversial signs and apparel for the game, ESPN’s Chris Broussard took that rather predictable news and ran it off in a ridiculous direction:
“… the Cavaliers and the NBA are doing all they can to make sure the emotional and hostile scene does not turn ugly,” Broussard wrote.
Hostile scene? The game hasn’t even taken place yet, what “hostile scene” are we talking about here? Are we no longer allowed to boo?
Broussard continues:
“The Cavaliers have been one of the few NBA teams to have metal detectors at every arena entrance since Dan Gilbert bought the club more than five years ago, but they will go beyond that on Dec. 2.”
Yes, let’s make sure to bring up that the Q has metal detectors. Has no relation, really, to the story, but it feeds Broussard’s preconceived desire to make attending a game in Cleveland akin to walking through a combat zone.
And as we learned during LeBron’s free agency, no Broussard story would be complete without an anonymous quote:
“Honestly, I’m a little bit afraid,” one member of the Cavs organization said. “Some people don’t care. Their mentality is ‘‘I’ve got to get this off my chest.’ There’s so much negative energy around this game. People aren’t excited about the game itself. They’re just like, ‘‘I can’t wait to do something.'”
Oh, c’mon. Since when did attending a game at the Q turn into an Italian soccer game?
Thankfully the Cavs have things under control:
“We don’t want to create a police state,” said Tad Carper, the Cavaliers’ senior vice president of communications. “We’ve always had a real energetic, super-charged home crowd and we want to encourage that for every game, including Dec. 2. We want people to enjoy themselves and express themselves, but we don’t want fans to cross the boundaries of decency. We’re not going to allow profanity and things like that. We’ll have no tolerance for anyone trying to cross those boundaries.”
We probably shouldn’t be surprised by this type of sensationalized garbage from ESPN,; after all they are the same group that brought us Rob Parker’s nonsense following the Browns-Jets game.
And the worst part is the game is still a week away.
Look, we’re Cleveland fans; we know how to handle this. We didn’t burn down Jacobs Field the first time Albert Belle came back with the White Sox. There wasn’t looting and rioting in the streets the first time the Ravens came to town after moving to Baltimore. We’ve been through this before.
Unfortunately the national media won’t recognize that no matter what happens next Thursday.
Red Right 88 