The Futon Report

Friend of the site and, more to the point, Akron Beacon-Journal columnist Brian Windhorst hasn’t been doing his usual cerebral coverage of the Cavaliers and this week’s NBA Draft because he’s been sick in the hospital. Once he gets out, he’ll no doubt return to his stellar work, and until then, please keep him in your thoughts.

Honestly, I’m not at all sure how I missed this one as it happened. I vividly recall the foul. The not-letting-go after the whistle. The centrifugal force into the bleachers. The fans yelling back. And for some reason … LeBron James yelling at a fan.

But what eluded me was who the fan was — his mom, Gloria James. There she is, on the left. Remember her? Well, she apparently gets great seats at Cavaliers home games, and Paul Pierce (the Celtics man on the left) almost got Glorified on this night, featuring a Cavaliers 88-77 win.

Thankfully the graceful son shouted some sense into Momma. Read more

You might’ve heard the story last week about Papa John’s apologizing to LeBron James and the Cavaliers fans for sponsoring “CRYBABY 23″ t-shirts during their series against the Wizards. As part of their self-flagellation, they agreed to give Northeast Ohio discount pizzas at 23 cents each. As strange as it sounds, looks like they’re gonna run out of pizza.

Earlier this afternoon, the chain warned that stores could run out of ingredients by dinnertime.

Officials later huddled and determined that “we are hours away from running out of product” and stores expect to stay open through dinnertime.

Read more

Call this the biggest slap in the face in the world, but most people still aren’t giving the Atlanta Hawks much of a chance to win Sunday’s Game 7 that they forced last night against the Boston Celtics.

This is a No. 8 seed that finished 37-44, pushing the 65-16 Celtics to the edge of the first round, even though Boston swept Atlanta in the regular season series. So can you blame traditional logic? Either way, the Cleveland Cavaliers have to freakin’ love this series. Read more

In points, rebounds, and fouls.

Also, I’m not sure if that final score is an error. 108-72? Could be Congress voting to override Bush’s latest veto. (Topical humor!)

HT: Maureen

I mean, sure, we’d all like to find some way to stop James from breaking out in the second half, finishing with 32 points. But is a tranquilizer dart in the back really the most humane method of basketball sedation? Perhaps they could have tried … defense? Or … scoring points of their own? ◼ ESPN.com

Trades are funny in the NBA. In baseball, you can build for the future by dealing a veteran for unheard-of prospects. In football, the roster is 53, so there’s a good chance of being able to trade one position for another. But in basketball, rosters are maxed out at 15, so options are limited. (Read: draft picks.)

During the NBA season, we see normally one big trade (last year it was Allen Iverson to the Nuggets), and this year it could be Nets point guard Jason Kidd to the Cavaliers. Actually, let me retract that. It probably won’t happen, but LeBron James did in fact publicly pine for the point guard when asked about it during a road trip in Portland. Read more