It’s official: LeBron James will not be the only Akronite selling out arenas in 2012. In fact, with headlining gigs lined up at cavernous venues like the Q and Madison Square Garden, The Black Keys have created a bizarro scenario in which America’s biggest sports star and biggest rock n’ roll band both hail from the same downtrodden little metropolis in Northeast Ohio. Call it a pop-cultural fluke, if you will. But the stranger part is how the unrelated career paths of a basketball phenom and a garage band can start to look more like perfect parallel lines—casting long shadows over the very hometown they were supposedly shining a light on.

The saga of “King James,” of course, has been well documented—okay, probably severely over-documented. But whether you’re the embittered Scott Raab type or a devoted LBJ apologist, you at least can agree on the astronomical star power of the man in question. By comparison, the Black Keys’ blues-rock juggernaut is really just beginning to enter the public consciousness (if you haven’t heard of them, you’ve definitely still heard them). Still, these dueling Akron success stories make for a nice case study on how the egocentric world of pop music pretty well mirrors that of pro sports—where achievements are greatly amplified by (a) where they happen; and (b) who's talking about it.

This week, for example, the Black Keys are promoting their eighth album (El Camino) by gracing the cover of Rolling Stone magazine for the first time—a longstanding rock n’ roll rite of passage that still carries weight, even if it says far more about your famousness than your talent. From the Akron perspective, the headline “Black Keys Rising” on the RS cover works almost like a complementary bookend to LeBron James’ first appearance on the cover of Sports Illustrated back in 2002, when the then 16 year-old was famously anointed “The Chosen One.” That was the same year, incidentally, that a pair of scruffy Firestone High School grads named Dan Auerbach (singer/guitarist) and Pat Carney (drums) made a presumptuous statement of their own—naming their first, self-recorded album The Big Come Up. Basically, everybody was getting a little ahead of themselves.

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Exactly like this season, the Cavs were 5-6 after 11 games last year.  It wasn’t long after their decent .454 start that the wheels fell off and the team began to play historically bad.  Social media and sports talk radio have Cavs fans debating on what is best for the team.  There are those who feel that the Cavs need to get another high lottery pick and others who believe that the Cavs making the playoffs is what is best.  Even though the Cavs are playing much better, it is probably too premature to be printing first round playoff tickets.  In other words, it’s probably a moot point.  What can and should be discussed are real, tangible improvements that the team is making.  

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After 11 games in the 2010-2011 season, the Cavs had a record of 5-6.  That was probably the highest point for the Cavs during that miserable campaign.  One of the more memorable games came against the Lakers at the Staples Center.  The Cavs lost by a score of 112-57.  The Lakers were one measley field goal away from doubling-up on the Cavs.  Only 2 players scored in double figures for the Cavs and they shot 29.9%.  It was one of those performances that really makes one have to question why they even bother watching the games.

In a black-and-white world, January 11, 2011 and January 13, 2012 are the same exact thing:  Cavaliers losses.  Sometimes, a loss is not simply a loss.  Looking at it more closely, it is easy to see how much progress the Cavs are making.  When the final buzzer sounded, the Lakers had won by a score of 97-92.  When it takes over 40 minutes and 42 points from Kobe Bryant to beat the Cavs by 5 points, it is entirely reasonable to feel optimistic about the direction of the Cavs. 

The optimism starts with Kyrie Irving and his impressive play.  Some pundits and fans did not want anything to do with Kyrie Irving and thought that the Cavs made a mistake drafting him instead of Derrick Williams.  Irving is making the “but he only played 11 games!” crowd look silly.  He played a fearless brand of basketball and scored 21 points on 8-16 shooting.  Having a point guard who is not afraid of the big moment who is also a willing passer is going to be very fun for Cavs fans.  

Not everything was pretty for the Cavs.  If you want to pinpoint why they lost, you can probably look at the second quarter when they shot 20% and were outscored 27-13.  It was during this stretch that created what resulted in an insurmountable lead for the Lakers.  If the Cavs could have made three more baskets and improved their shooting to  35%, they would have been in a position to win the game.    

    
Kobe Bryant was phenomenal and continued his streak of 40 point games.  Bryant may be getting up there in age and minutes played throughout his career, but he is still the most polished offensive player in the NBA.  His ability to fake out his defender and get an open shot despite being played closely is a real treat to watch.  I hope NBA fans enjoy Kobe Bryant because we do not know how much longer he will be able to play at this level.  Many people give Kobe Bryant credit for refining his low-post game and his offense, but it is something that needs to be seen to truly understand how impressive it is.  Bryant has his flaws, but all is forgiven when he is performing at a high level.

A telling sign about this game and the improvement by the Cavs is that Kobe Bryant had to play over 40 minutes and he had to score 42 points to get the win.  If Kobe Bryant would have played that many minutes against the Cavs last year, it would have been seen as an irresponsible coaching decision by Phil Jackson.

Speaking of Lakers coaches, Mike Brown made his debut against his old team.  The Lakers played a very “Mike Brown” game by keeping the opponent’s field goal percentage low and scoring efficiently.    

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Kyrie Irving was five days short of his first birthday the night Steve Nash, as a short-haired freshman guard, made his first appearance on the national scene in Santa Clara’s 1993 NCAA Tournament upset of Arizona. Nineteen years later, matched up against the now-long haired wizard from Canada, Irving was the best player on the court. Kyrie’s sensational evening got the Cavaliers back to .500 with a 101-90 victory over the Suns at the Building Formerly Known as America West Arena. Cleveland is now 2-3 on this grueling road trip, with a quick turnaround Friday night in Los Angeles.

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