A Lament For Tall Guy

Then one day the team came to the Z

and the Z said, “Come, team, feed me in the post and let me drain turnarounds and hook shots and benefit from my passing and rebounding and be happy.”

“We are too good to feed you in the post” said the team.

“We have a new player.

We need you to run the pick-and-roll and the fast-break and hit threes.

We want to build our offense around him and win games.”

“I’m sorry,” said the Z, “but I cannot explode to the basket or hit threes.

Take my 18-foot jumper, my passing out of the high post, and my rebounding.

Use me to defend the rim.

Then you will have a good team and be happy.”

And so the team put Z off the ball

and became an Eastern Conference contender

and won 66 games

and even went to the Finals once.

And the Z was happy.

via The Giving Z « Cavs: The Blog.

Go read the poem.

Paroxi-Wife had to work late, and when she arrived home, I had to deliver the news carefully.

Me: “I have great news!”

Paroxi-Wife: “You canceled League Pass and will now actually spend time and attention on me?!”

Me: “…”

Paroxi-Wife: “What is your good news? If this involves the word ‘trade exemption’ I’m going to stop listening now.”

Me: “The Cavs traded for Antawn Jamison!”

Paroxi-Wife: “…”

Me: “You know, the guy on the Wizards I’ve been ranting about? 20 and 8? Aaaan-TAWN Jamison?”

Paroxi-Wife: “….”

Me: “The guy that apologized after the Arenas thing.”

Paroxi-Wife: “Oh, THAT guy! Cool. What did they have to give up?”

Me: “…”

Paroxi-Wife: “Who?”

Me: “Well… you have to understand, the Wizards are probably going to buy him out and he’ll come back…”

Paroxi-Wife: “Tall Guy?!”

Me: “They had to! He’s an eleven million expiring! They had to give him up to get anything back! Seriously, he’ll be right back!”

Paroxi-Wife: “TALL GUY! NOOOOO!”

This went on for about twenty minutes as I tried to explain the financial realities of the current CBA combined with the economic climate to a woman that doesn’t give a crap about either of those things and spends most of her time reading award winning novels and trying to figure out how to manipulate me into doing the laundry.

But it is striking in that as Ilgauskas made an impact on her even as a casual, one-year-old Cavs fan, you can imagine the impact on lifelong Cavs fans. Ilgauskas wasn’t just a talented player that was around for the bad times and the good, who’s done his job dutifully and without complaint, and who has fought on through personal tragedy (the stillborn death of his twin children, a story which still rips me apart when I read about it, even after Z celebrated the adoption of twin boys from Lithuania). He was the kind of player you want your team to win for.  It’s why I was so outraged when they denied him the franchise record for most games played with his family there. It was an unnecessary, thoughtless slight that was almost cruel in its insensitivity, not just to Ilgauskas but to his fans.

It’s easy to forget that the Cavs did exist before LeBron James came there, before he was born. It’s easy to gloss over that the Cavs are part of the sports history of arguably the most tortured sports city in America, who live in a hard-luck Midwestern town and yet have supported the team through it all. There may only be ten or twelve of them, but still!

Whatever Ilgauskas decides, I’ll respect, be it to stay with Washington, head to Atlanta, Dallas, or most-likely, home. But if he does return to Cleveland and the Cavs do raise the trophy in June, it won’t be LeBron’s dollar-sign tears that leave an impression on me, it’ll be Tall Guy, who my wife summed up quite nicely.

“Tall Guy’s the one guy on that team that deserves the title more than anyone else.”

(I promise I will not subject you to anymore Paroxi-Wife stories this week. Maybe.)

Oster-Tags: cleveland cavaliers, tallguy, Zydrunas Ilgauskas