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John Zant: From Dead Last to Living It Up in the NBA Finals |
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By John Zant
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Monday, June 04 2007 |
From a slab in the basketball morgue to the NBA Finals, 25 years and one great player have transformed the Cleveland Cavaliers.
"I nicknamed us the Cleveland Cadavers," said Don Ford, who played for the Cavs when they were the NBA's worst team. "The papers picked up on it and called us the Cadavaliers."
Now the papers are calling them the Eastern Conference champions after LeBron James carried Cleveland to a surprising 4-2 series triumph over the Detroit Pistons.
Ford missed out on his own trip to the NBA Finals - and a championship - when the Los Angeles Lakers traded him midway through the 1979-80 season.
Still, the 6-foot-8 forward from Santa Barbara enjoyed his two years in Ohio.
"People thought, poor Don, he's going to Cleveland," he said. "I had more fun there than in Los Angeles. The people were outgoing and friendly. There was kind of a college feeling there. I don't talk to the old Lakers, but I keep in touch with Randy Smith and Campy Russell from the Cavaliers."
Ford spent four and a half seasons with the Lakers, who took him in the sixth round of the 1975 draft out of UCSB. He previously starred at Santa Barbara High and played at New Mexico before transferring to the Gauchos.
The Lakers traded Ford and their 1980 first-round draft pick to Cleveland for guard Butch Lee and the Cavs' first-round pick in 1982. With the pick they acquired, the Cavaliers drafted Chad Kinchen, who played only 41 games in the NBA. The Lakers wound up with the No. 1 pick in 1982 -- after Cleveland compiled a dismal 15-67 record - and took future Hall of Famer James Worthy.
"People say the Lakers traded me for James Worthy," Ford said, "but it was actually Chad Kinchen for Worthy."
Ford played two years in Torino, Italy, after the Cavaliers released him in 1982. He returned to Santa Barbara, where he has been a long-time real estate agent. He is a color commentator on UCSB basketball radio broadcasts, and Saturday night he did the same duty on the broadcast of the Santa Barbara Breakers' 161-149 overtime victory over the Eugene Chargers in the International Basketball League.
"That league is all about scoring," said Ford, who saw Fred Vinson of the Breakers shoot 14-for-21 behind the three-point arc and score 56 points.
It takes a balanced approach to survive in the NBA playoffs, Ford said, and that's why he expects the San Antonio Spurs to win the championship.
"You have to play some defense," he said. "San Antonio is not flashy on offense, but it's great defensively. San Antonio against Phoenix was the true championship series. Phoenix was more entertaining, but look who's in the Finals."
Ford said his experience in Italy made him realize that some great basketball is played overseas.
San Antonio has tapped that resource with Tony Parker from France and Manu Ginobili from Argentina. And then there's Bruce Bowen, who went undrafted by the NBA out of Cal State Fullerton and honed his game in France. Since breaking into the NBA, Bowen has become a standout on defense and will most likely be guarding LeBron James in the Finals.
Don't expect James to go off on any 25-point runs against the Spurs like his magnificent finishing stretch in Game Five at Detroit.
The aforementioned Worthy was known as "Big Game James" with the Lakers. Cleveland teammate Drew Gooden declared LeBron should be known as "Video Game James."
"I was rooting for the Cavaliers against Detroit," Ford said. "I enjoyed watching LeBron develop as a player. He's still really young (22 years old, to be exact). I just don't think they're ready to win it all. The Western Conference is much stronger. San Antonio does not have a weakness."
STATE MEET HIGHLIGHTS: From the NBA playoffs to the CIF State Track & Field Championships is not such a leap -- the preps put on a fast breaking show Saturday in Sacramento. Jeshua Anderson of Taft High (Woodland Hills) ran the 300-meter hurdles like LeBron James flying down the lane. His time of 35.28 seconds broke the national record of 35.32 set by George Porter of Lompoc's Cabrillo High in 1985. San Marcos High junior Lyndsay Pearson took fifth place in the girls 300 hurdles in 43.04, the second fastest time of her career. Jamesha Youngblood, a Hercules senior, won impressively in 41.08. Finally, little Jordan Hasay of San Luis Obispo Mission Prep won her second straight 3,200-meter title in 10 minutes, 6.76 seconds. She's only a sophomore, so expect to see the blue uniforms and flowing blond hair of both Pearson and Hasay racing around the track next year.
AVP UPDATE: It's strange to think of a man who's won 148 beach volleyball tournaments as a giant killer, but Karch Kiraly is 46 years old, and he and Kevin Wong were matched up against the AVP's most dominant team in the semifinals of the Tampa Open. Kiraly scored match point as he and Wong upset Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser, 21-14 and 21-19. But Kiraly did not notch his 149th title. Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal, who had been unable to beat Rogers and Dalhausser this year, overpowered Kiraly and Wong in the final. |
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