Charles Barkley Goes Off On Cavs For Treatment Of Beilein; Props To Charles - Someone Had To Say It
February 20th, 2020 at 11:01 PM ^
Care to summarize or provide a clickable link?
February 20th, 2020 at 11:32 PM ^
Copy
Paste
February 20th, 2020 at 11:35 PM ^
Took me 5sec to copy and paste to read the article. Took you at least 6x that long to click reply and type a complaint about his post and seem bitter in a public space. Thanks for the link, OP!
February 20th, 2020 at 11:58 PM ^
BUT IT WASN'T BLUUUUUEEE
February 21st, 2020 at 7:11 AM ^
It also takes 5 seconds to post a clickable link in the OP.
February 21st, 2020 at 7:35 AM ^
Not once he's posted the non clickable link it doesn't. Thanks to our good friends at Huel the edit functionality will take somewhere between two years and infinity.
Apparently adding the ability to edit a post is the single most complex, difficult and time consuming piece of code writing known to man.
February 21st, 2020 at 8:01 AM ^
At what point do people realize that at this point stuff not working isn't on HUEL anymore. Brian is the one who is supposed to be fixing that shit, but he can't/won't because of life and not actually knowing how to do it.
February 21st, 2020 at 11:45 AM ^
It also something that happens automatically when you post a link on 99% of sites.
February 21st, 2020 at 8:10 AM ^
The article link literally transcribed the 1 minute and 30 seconds worth of commentary. WTF
February 20th, 2020 at 11:03 PM ^
He said "I would have told them you're a bunch of damn losers and I'm happy to be leaving" if he were in Beilein's position. That's hilarious
February 20th, 2020 at 11:22 PM ^
I could be wrong but I doubt it. Good read.
February 20th, 2020 at 11:25 PM ^
"Just seeing him being vulnerable and treating us with respect and empathy, I thought it was super powerful," Kevin Love said.
Umm no Kevin. I don't think John was trying to appear vulnerable nor weak. More like bold and professional. You and your teammates, however, might do well to learn to be vulnerable as you are a collection of bums and as a team, a heaping pile of dog shit. Pitty, was the more likely emotion directed at you slugs.
February 21st, 2020 at 7:59 AM ^
Yeah that’s funny coming from the guy who was supposed to be the leader of the team but instead was the biggest baby of them all.
Glad Charles called out the players. Beilein may not have been the best fit but he had the best intentions. And I believe he sincerely tried to make the Cavs better. The players just acted selfishly.
February 21st, 2020 at 8:46 AM ^
Steaming. A steaming pile of dog shit.
February 21st, 2020 at 9:28 AM ^
That's the most effeminate statement I've read from a professional athlete in a long time. He should go on the Bachelor
February 20th, 2020 at 11:46 PM ^
According to Charles how the players acted was just....
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February 20th, 2020 at 11:51 PM ^
To have worked, the Cavs would have needed to completely dismantle the roster of everyone they thought didn't need to put in the work. I'd rather have the worst NBA team with scrappy players trying to improve than the worst NBA team with guys who think the only thing they need to win is someone to let them relax & do whatever they want..
Should have tore the roster apart & loaded up on guys who wanted to play for him. If you don't want to do that, get a different coach.
So it will be fun watching the Cavs eat themselves now.
February 21st, 2020 at 6:38 AM ^
I agree with this, but I think that Beilein showed an uncharacteristic lack of foresight in taking that particular job and how he approached it. The post-Lebron Cavs job was going to be a ground-up rebuild. Those guys weren’t going to want to hear about fundamentals, almost to a man that roster was filled with players waiting to get somewhere else.
Beilein’s only job in year one was to make it to the 2020 draft. I agree that the players didn’t do him any favors but I don’t think he approached the situation with tenable expectations. Not making it past the All-Star break of year 1 indicates that for as good of a basketball mind that he has, he was not remotely prepared to coach in the NBA.
February 21st, 2020 at 7:42 AM ^
Bingo. The cavs players behaved like lazy, self-entitled assholes AND Beilein did himself no favors in his approach to the team from the outset. Both can be true.
There is plenty of blame to go around in this mess on both sides. The Cavs may be a cultural disaster but I'd hold off on commissioning the painting of St. Beilein the Innocent for the Vatican right now.
February 21st, 2020 at 8:39 AM ^
Beilein was naive, that's not a sin.
February 21st, 2020 at 9:03 AM ^
Chuck Daly, a good college coach turned great pro coach said his primary job was to manage a locker room comprised of 12 multi-million dollar corporations. That was never going to be John Beilein.
February 21st, 2020 at 9:15 AM ^
Probably the truest thing said and in relation to Beilein, probably his blind spot in the whole thing.
I hope his health (and heart) are strong and not compromised by the whole affair.
February 21st, 2020 at 9:17 AM ^
Thanks Robbie that was kinda my point. There is a world of difference in how you need to deal with and communicate to a 30 year old multi-millionaire versus a 17 year old incoming Freshman. John didn't make that distinction early on and it cost him. That's not naivete, IMO, and I don't think you can absolve him of responsibility for failing to recognize the difference.
February 21st, 2020 at 10:15 AM ^
But this line of thinking implies that there actually was a way to get through to that locker room and get them to play better. That may not be the case. They actually had a better winning percentage this year (.259) than last (.232).
Cleveland seems to be a completely dysfunctional organization, from Gilbert on down. Beilein's successor (J.B. Bickerstaff) just happens to be the son of their senior basketball advisor (Bernie Bickerstaff), and it's been rumored that one (both?) of the Bickerstaffs was leaking things out to the press. If true, Beilein really had no chance no matter how he coached. How can you coach if your own front office and lead assistant are stabbing you in the back?
February 21st, 2020 at 10:15 AM ^
Double-post.
February 21st, 2020 at 11:25 AM ^
Hard to tell a guy like Beilein to just cool his heels for a year though. I think he would have been fine if the organization had his back, but instead they hamstrung him by preventing him from using playing time as a disciplinary tool. Hard to motivate pro players who want out, but even harder when you have no leverage at all. All the players could basically tell him to fuck off and have zero negative consequences, either in their current role or on their market value to other teams.
February 20th, 2020 at 11:52 PM ^
I have always loved what Charles has to say.
Rarely do I disagree with him.
February 21st, 2020 at 12:16 AM ^
I agree with Charles, the way the players treated Beilein was disgusting. Beilein took the high road and exited with class and dignity...no surprise there.
February 22nd, 2020 at 10:42 AM ^
Hey Durham Blue, have you ever been to the Duke Homestead Museum? I’m not a smoker but loved the “Thank you for Smoking” sign in the lobby...
We lived in the “D” (the other D) many years ago.
February 21st, 2020 at 12:22 AM ^
Re-name them the "Cleveland Sluggos"
February 21st, 2020 at 5:32 AM ^
easy enough. team mascot here:
February 21st, 2020 at 9:48 AM ^
Here's an interesting little parallel in Cleveland sports history:
In 1940, the Cleveland Indians were managed by Ossie Vitt, an old-school type whose managerial style was described as "abrasive," and who'd had several clashes with the players. The Indians were in a pennant race with the Tigers, but the players grew tired of Vitt, and many signed a petition asking the owner to fire him. Word leaked out in the press, and the team was branded the "Cleveland Crybabies" for the rest of the season. (They lost the pennant to the Tigers on the season's last day.)
It might be 80 years later and a different sport, but the spirit of the Cleveland Crybabies lives on.
February 21st, 2020 at 12:59 AM ^
I mean Beilein didn’t mean to call them thugs but he sure wasn’t wrong with that statement either
February 21st, 2020 at 6:13 AM ^
In hindsight they ARE thugs and deserved every bit of that label. But they were so busy being offended that they chose to be thugs instead of do any of the things they were paid to do.
Congrats, Cavs, on the Streisand Effect. We all saw you and it's clear you're a thug team full of thugs who behave like thugs. Y'all are thugs! But you won, you drove out the only good man in the entire franchise, so fucking own it at least.
It ain't a slur if you worked so hard to earn it.
February 21st, 2020 at 6:39 AM ^
Eh, "thug" may not be a compliment but it still implies a certain amount of toughness. People called the Bad Boys "thugs". This Cleveland team sounds like a bunch of utter losers who don't compete and won't put in the time and effort to improve. Oh no, Coach wants us to watch film of the game so we can see the mistakes we made! That will hurt my fragile self-esteem!
February 21st, 2020 at 9:28 AM ^
In general, sure. But they apparently hate being called thugs. Given how they behave, I'm all good with calling them thugs. Again, they've earned it.
February 21st, 2020 at 1:30 AM ^
This was a month or so ago when this story first broke. Charles and Shaq were behind 100%.
"I'm just disappointed in the Cavs players trying to get this man fired cause they think they are working too hard & they stink. Plain & simple." -Barkley
February 21st, 2020 at 8:17 AM ^
Basically the NBA is just a carnival show, fun to watch in person, but rarely competitive until the playoffs. Not really JB's style being a carnival ring master. He is headed back to college and will have tons of choices.
February 21st, 2020 at 8:35 AM ^
I don't know who any of the Cavs are post LeBron, but "thugs" was probably the best thing Beilein could have called them. Barkley is right calling them a bunch of losers. Props to Beilein for taking the high road on his exit. (as you would expect from him.)
February 21st, 2020 at 8:36 AM ^
BTW--Thank God Juwan is as awesome as he is. How much would it suck for Beilein to be fired if we had a lousy coach replace him?
February 21st, 2020 at 10:02 AM ^
I was just talking that with another Michigan fan last night.
I said in an other thread that we need to just move on from JB, it’s Juwan’s show now. But if JB’s replacement (Juwan or otherwise) was shitting the bed at this point, we talked how the Michigan fanbase would react and try to get JB back. It was an interesting discussion no doubt.
February 21st, 2020 at 8:38 AM ^
I was always torn, because I wanted Beilein to do well because he's Beilein, but I wanted Cleveland to do badly for stealing Beilein. That's about as mutually exclusive as you can get right there. Now I hope every one of those sorry bastards ends up scraping a living playing in like the Bulgarian second division and being miserable. That includes the two useless putzes the Pistons acquired for Drummond for no other reason than it made the salaries match.
February 21st, 2020 at 9:01 AM ^
I hope those dipshit players are happy. You could have taken advantage of having a coach who legitimately cared about your development as a basketball player, and used that to improve and get a better contract in the future, but instead your dumb ass will probably be out of the league in a year or two. Have fun toiling in Europe or the G League for the rest of your career.
February 21st, 2020 at 9:10 AM ^
1) Beilein enters a bad Michigan team in 2007. Some of his players hate him. He wins 10 games.
2) Beilein fixes the culture and wins a lot for over a decade.
3) Gilbert hires Beilein to fix the culture in Cleveland.
4) Beilein enters a bad Cavs team and some of his players hate him. He wins 14 games.
5) Beilein quits.
I guess it's a combination of being older and not having the same kind of control in the NBA as you do in college. I don't know, I don't know what he was expecting. This was all EXACTLY what everyone else expected but he appears to have been blindsided or at least surprised at how he can't deal with it any longer. Maybe a Lethal Weapon Danny Glover. "I'm too old for this shit."
Sorry JB. Like, the whole world warned you.
Barkley is of course right, but it also was predicted.
February 21st, 2020 at 9:15 AM ^
Good for Sir Charles. I've always liked him. No nonsense, says what he means point blank. I have a lot of respect for that.
I was just watching old clips of Charles and MJ last night. I miss the old NBA.
February 21st, 2020 at 9:17 AM ^
What's amazing is if you look at all the comments to this story on the Cleveland.com website, they are 100% unanimous in their agreement with Barkley's comments. Not a single homer taking the side of the players or organization. I think this is probably the best thing that could have happened for Coach Beilein - to get the f out of that completely poisonous environment, no matter how much money he was giving up. He must feel a tremendous weight lifted.
February 21st, 2020 at 9:29 AM ^
Wow, powerful comments. At the very end before it cuts out, a few of them go off hard on the Cleveland players. Sounds like Kenny Smith joins in the bashing too.
February 21st, 2020 at 10:11 AM ^
Good on Barkley for calling them out for what they are: a bunch of losers. I do still stand by the belief that Beilein shouldn't have been offered the job in the first place, and Beilein just wasn't suited to being an NBA head coach to begin with. But in his defense, he was set up to fail by having to coach the absolute worst team in the league. A disjointed bunch of bottom-feeders. Had he been coaching any other team, I'm still not sure he makes it to the end of his first contract, but he definitely at least finishes out his first season and gives himself the chance to truly build his team.
And Kevin Love is so full of shit. His statement could not have been more disingenuous, especially since he was one of the headliners who clearly wanted Beilein out of town. Sure easy to say you love and respect the guy as he's on his way out the door.
Face it, Love. You're nothing without LeBron. You're just another guy making more money than you're worth.
February 21st, 2020 at 10:13 AM ^
He never should have gone to Cleveland, but it's refreshing to see most people defend him and point out that the Cavs are a hot mess who lucked into having a top-3 player ever born nearby and wanting to play there, and how they treated Beilein in the end was more par the course for a shitty organization.