Sports Thread #1 For 5/14/10: It Starts And Ends With The Coaching

It's really facile and lazy for one to say "LeBron James choked again, LeBron James showed that he is overrated and will never be Jordan" comments that have certainly emanated from last night's latest and arguably most devastating blow to a Cleveland sports fans psyche.

But anybody who has watched the Cavs the last two years, knows the NBA deeply, and isn't on their obsessive "Hate on LeBron just because I will hold him to the Jordan mantle" perspective will know full well that Mike Brown was the reason why the Cavaliers are not even advancing to the East Finals, let alone winning the title like they should have done this season.

Now there were several factors causing the Cavaliers to succumb to the pressure and crash out to a Boston team, though fully restored to their championship pedigree best, should not have defeated them in this series.

The play of Antawn Jamison, supposedly the #2 that LeBron needed to get over the top, was just simply atrocious in this series as a whole, especially last night.

To score just 5 points out of 2 for 10 shooting was simply unacceptable, atrocious, and downright embarrassing for a player of his caliber. Making Jamison's egregious display more stomach aching was the fact that he wanted a title so bad, and was hungry to play for a legitimate contender for the ring.

Instead, Jamison was the embodiment of how nervous and disappointing the Cavs were in this series (and I haven't even dared to talk about his paltry 5 rebound total in this game, further evidence of how dreadful he was.)

But all the negative connotations simply fall on the much maligned and soon to be fired head coach Mike Brown. Even at his supposedly specialty, coaching defense, Brown couldn't even mustered cohesive schemes against a team whose point guard can't shoot, whose small forward resembled half the offensive force he was two years ago, and a bench who's spark plugs were a still disinterested Rasheed Wallace, a perimeter challenged Tony Allen, and their six man, an undersized 6'8 post player in Glen Davis.

This one tidbit of Game 6 says it all about how asinine and just downright sad Mike Brown's coaching was in this series. Instead of even thinking about using JJ Hickson (who he seriously must have gotten traded to the Wizards overnight because he became about as invisible as Adam Smith's economic hand as the series progressed), Brown decided to start Shaq defensively on a reinvigorated and healthy Kevin Garnett.

"The Kid" went on a hot start thanks to the obvious mismatch given to him on a platter, setting the stage for his dominance in the paint all night, especially in the crucial final quarter.

A final quarter that for sure is Mike Brown's last one as coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers. It cannot end fast enough.