Carr, his playing number retired by the Cavs and one of college basketball's best guards ever, thinks Sessions will take some pressure off Williams. Also, lots of Joe Tait, and other news, including former Cav LeBron James.
Austin Carr likes the Cavaliers' addition of point guard Ramon Sessions.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Austin Carr was the Cleveland Cavaliers first-round draft pick, the first, indeed, overall pick in the NBA draft 40 years ago.
Carr, a guard who could get to the basket with ease or pop the jump shot, went on to a productive career with the Cavaliers, who retired his No. 34 jersey years ago. Carr had developed into one of the league's premier scorers until suffering a serious knee injury during the 1974-75 season. AC remained a Cavalier until 1980, often providing Instant Offense despite losing a step after the injury.
Carr is remembered as one of the best college players ever. In his three seasons at Notre Dame, he averaged 34.6 points a game on 53 percent field goal shooting.
The 6-4 Carr holds NCAA tournament records for most points in a game, 61, and for averaging 41.3 points in seven tourney games. Carr's remarkable numbers were without benefit of the 3-point shot, which was not in effect during his college career and only during his final two NBA seasons.
Now, Carr is a veteran analyst for Cavaliers telecasts on Fox Sports Ohio. On the CavFanatic blog, he writes about the Cavaliers' acquisition of point guard Ramon Sessions; about the team without LeBron James; about new Cavaliers coach Byron Scott; about Cavs' radio broadcaster Joe Tait, who will receive the Curt Gowdy Media Award tonight from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
About Sessions, who comes to Cleveland in a trade with Minnesota and had played with Cavaliers guard Mo Williams in Milwaukee, Carr writes:
Sessions is a good defender, at least from what I’ve seen. He’s not afraid to stick his nose in there. He’s a combo-guard, but at the same time, he’s got enough point guard experience to be able to run the team. He’s more of a point guard than Mo. And I’ve always felt that Mo is more effective off the ball. That’s how he was most effective before he came to Cleveland.
With this new offense, this new style, Mo and Sessions should do very well. But the question is: who’s going to defend the basket? And if you want to run, you have to rebound. You have to keep the offensive players out of the middle – if you can – and you’ll need a guy in the middle to slow things down.
I feel that Mo and Sessions can play on the court at the same time, but maybe not for extended minutes. They need to be staggered in the lineup – kind of like they were in Milwaukee. And we still need some size at two-guard.
Cavaliers coverage
Plain Dealer Cavaliers coverage includes a report by Mary Schmitt Boyer about the Hall of Fame inductions; columnist Bill Livingston's commentary on legendary guard Oscar Robertson's view of James joining the Miami Heat, with more Hall of Fame information from Schmitt Boyer on the same page; columnist "Bud Shaw's Sports Spin," featuring his take on the ongoing spat between former Brown Braylon Edwards and former Cavalier James.
The Hall of Fame weekend has a strong Ohio presence. Besides Tait, there's Akron Central High School's Gus Johnson, going into the Hall of Fame for his brilliant NBA career, mostly with the Baltimore Bullets. And, there's Robertson and Jerry Lucas, to be inducted as part of the United States' 1960 Olympics team. Robertson and Lucas were both long ago inducted into the Hall of Fame: Robertson and Lucas as college greats -- and rivals -- at the University of Cincinnati and Ohio State, respectively; both as NBA greats, the primes of their careers being played together on the Cincinnati Royals.
Way to go, Joe
Tait has been the Cavaliers' radio broadcaster for all but two of the team's 40 seasons. Bill Fitch, the Cavs' first coach, suggested Tait as a broadcasting candidate early into the team's first season (1970-71). Tait plans to retire after the 2010-11 campaign. Rick Noland writes about Tait for the Medina County Gazette and Elyria Chronicle-Telegram:
Bill Fitch, the original coach of the Cavs, was at Coe College in Iowa when he first met Tait, then a student at Monmouth College in Illinois.
To pick up a little extra cash, Fitch also scouted for the Coe football team, which played Monmouth on a regular basis.
“This kid was broadcasting the games and eating up all the food in the press room, but he was doing an outstanding job,” recalled Fitch, now 78 and living in Montgomery, Texas. “I got to know him, and he was good at what he did.”
Joe Tait remembers
Tait has called nearly 3,100 Cavs regular season games and all of the team's 148 playoff games.
Jason Lloyd does a Q&A with Tait for the Akron Beacon Journal. Among Lloyd's questions, he asked Tait what his favorite season was, and the favorite game he announced. Tait's reply:
My favorite season was the ''Miracle of Richfield'' year in 1975-76. Those who weren't here have no idea why we call it that because we didn't win anything. But it was the first time we had a legitimate shot at winning anything. On top of that, had Jim Chones not broken his foot, we'd have won it all. There's no doubt in my mind we'd have won it all.
The four-overtime win over the Lakers (Jan. 29, 1980) would be the one game I remember most fondly. The Lakers were in championship mode. We ended up with Bill Willoughby, who came out of high school directly to the NBA, Bill was guarding Kareem in the fourth overtime. In spite of it, we won the game, 154-153.
Baseline to baseline
A report by the Akron Beacon Journal's Bob Dyer about a billboard, critical of James, near James' Bath Township mansion.
Nick Carrabine writes about Cleveland's pro sports teams for the News-Herald.
George Diaz of the Orlando Sentinel, about LeBron James' controversial tweet: "Don't think for one min that I haven't been taking mental notes of everyone taking shots at me this summer. And I mean everyone! "
On sportsradiointerviews.com, a transcript of Shaquille O'Neal's interview on the Mike Wise Show (106.7 The Fan in Washington, D.C.). Sorry, James, Shaq thinks someone's better than you.