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And a Californian shall lead them...back to the abyss?
Post-LeBron James, the Cleveland Cavaliers turned to a West Coast guy named Chris Grant to start their rebuild. Cavs fans, not blaming Grant for The Decision or the ears of corn and sacks of oats he inherited, ignored their new general manager during the team's 19-63 season this year.
It wasn't until the NBA Draft last week that the spotlight found Grant.
The revelation: Chris Grant may have a bland name and a low media profile, but the tall bespectacled man has a bold streak.
Grant's selection with the fourth pick of Tristan Thompson, a University of Texas forward, surprised many NBA draft experts and created a stir in Flyover Land. However Thompson turns out, Grant got his belated welcome to Cleveland.
A sampling of fans' Draft Day comments in the Plain Dealer:
"Chris Grant crapped the bed."
"Now I know why the Cavs kept quiet about their draft plans -- they didn't want the fans of Cleveland to kill them before the Draft!!!"
"This is absolutely HORRIBLE."
"Typical of Cleveland sports. No wonder there are no championships in nearly 50 years."
West Coast Bias saw Grant in his playing days as a forward at the University of San Diego. Grant shot like a blacksmith but lived to defend and rebound. The same describes Thompson. The freshman shot 49 percent on free throws this season. Closer to the basket, the orange ball looked like hot coal in his hands, this millionaire-to-be throwing it at the rim as if distressed. But the Cavs ranked Thompson third among all draftees, Grant said. They loved his defense, his rebounding, his fullcourt dashes.
So, reviewing here, our guy Grant, who got two degrees from USD, decided that a forward who doesn't make half of his free throws is the fourth-best player in a global draft.
West Coast Bias applies a rule in these curious instances: watch the feet..
Come to find, 6-foot-8 Tristan moves east-west like a point guard. He jumps faster than the little guys. He also outruns some of them down the floor. A trowel suits his shooting hand, but the feet -- they are a soccer player's feet. You expect Tristan to speak Portuguese, Brazil's tongue.
Maybe Grant knows what he's doing. A few months ago, he got the jump on the rest of the NBA when he wrangled a draft pick from our West Coast Clippers. Because of the Clipper Effect, which can only appreciated by Californians, that pick bounced to the top of the draft, from where Grant plucked Duke guard Kyrie Irving.
WCB will be curious to see if Grant's new forward can make half of his free throws. If nothing else, Thompson will have plenty of time to work on his shooting during the NBA lockout. A 20-year-old can learn how to shoot; he can't learn how to run and jump the way Thompson does. The hunch here is, Flyover Land, Ohio province, will grow to like its bold GM and his love for defense.
Photo: jrandallc, Creative Commons 2.0