Plain Dealer columnist Bud Shaw calls on Cavs owner Dan Gilbert to apologize for the team's performance and love-in with LeBron James in last night's 118-90 loss to the Miami Heat at The Q. Watch video
Cleveland, Ohio -- Nearly 2,500 of you have voted (as of 2:30 p.m.) in today's Starting Blocks poll on just what was the worst and/or most embarrassing part of last night's 118-90 fiasco at the hands of the Miami Heat.
We put that poll online just before 9 a.m. Plain Dealer columnist Bud Shaw, in a special edition of SBTV, tells hosts Branson Wright and Chuck Yarborough that he voted even before the poll went up.
And he did.
Bud's Facebook status on the heels of the game noted that the Cavs have just lost their fans.
What's with all this making nice DURING the game? The performance -- or lack thereof -- from the Cavs was so bad that Bud calls for Cavs owner Dan Gilbert to speak out and apologize for it.
Bud also expresses disappointment in new Cavs coach Byron Scott saying he didn't have a problem with opposing players -- and yeah, we're talking LeBron James -- hanging around the Cavs bench DURING the game, laughing and joking with his former teammates. Bud notes that if ex-Brown quarterback Derek Anderson can be castigated for laughing on the sidelines with a current teammate during a shellacking on national TV, Cavs' guard Daniel "Boobie" Gibson has some explaining to do, too.
The problem, Bud surmises, is that the Cavs just didn't get what this game meant to Cavs fans, who now probably are going to stay away in droves, as the cliche goes. A Gilbert apology might be a start towards getting them back ... but it's only a start, Bud says.
Oh, and in keeping with Cleveland's tradition of naming bad moments in sports, Bud's come up with a nickname. But you'll have to watch the video to find out what it is.