The Starting Five

Black people don’t usually watch the Academy Awards, aka the Oscars, unless their own are being nominated. Sunday night Facebook was buzzing, like it usually does on important awards or Obama night. We all were tuned into to see if supporting actress favorite Monique did the expected. The woman whose “fout filtt mouth” (as my mom would describe) was once the reason I couldn’t watch “The Queens of Comedy”, took the stage in Hollywood to accept the award most blacks were crossing their fingers for.

Beating out the likes of the foreign beauty Penelope Cruz and others, Monique, with her Baltimore-bred self, accepted the statue in style thanking her foremother Hattie McDaniels and gave her speech minus the Halle Berry sobs. Monique’s clean sweeping her category at other awards ceremonies over the last couple months and while I don’t remember any of those speeches, but this one stuck out. She opened up by thanking the academy for honoring the performance. Not being swayed by politics, she turned around, thanked Oprah and Tyler Perry. Had they not touched Precious, no one would have saw it. So with this brief speech I had to change my FB status to agree with Ms. Monique and her own contradiction because baby, it is about politics.

Just like sports.

Don’t worry the relevancy of the opening paragraph is coming.

So while Monique had to step outside her comfort zone of comedic movies to play an abusive mother in “Precious”, it was because of that performance that she received the notoriety. And it’s because of the recent loss of Shaquille O’Neal that Big Z aka Zydrunas Ilgauskas is much needed and will more than likely re-sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Despite GM Danny Ferry’s decision to up and trade the 7’3 center for Antawn Jamison of the Washington Wizards, it was a foregone conclusion that Z was going to return to the city of Cleveland. The plan has to be executed as planned by the big men in the bigger offices…or else the wheels will fall off the bandwagon before the NBA Playoffs begin. Either that or LeBron will be forced to put up 40 on a consistent basis. In a March 4th article Big Z’s agent, Herb Rudoy, admitted, “He’s got a big emotional investment in Cleveland, in the city and the team. Yet, on the other hand, he was not happy to be used as a pawn in the trade.” And what grown man, who’s comfortable being a valuable player on a team wouldn’t be (Note I didn’t say most valuable, so don’t get salty Cavs fans)? So Ilgauskas will do as secretly desired (after being traded by the Cavs and bought out by the Wizards) because the sports world knows the “King” wants a ring, Mike Brown needs a ring and Jay-Z and the New Jersey Nets are just one Roc signal away.

And it’s sad.

A man that once had worth to his team wasn’t immediately being missed as long as the paint was being covered by the only man in the league who gives himself nicknames. His absence wasn’t too much of an issue as the wins were racking up and the C’s stayed atop the league. Oh, but things change. This is the NBA for Christ-sake. Where season ending surgeries randomly happen or you can wake up in another color uniform two days after playing your heart out in DC. Just ask Jamison. (Sorry if that felt a little personal).

See, Jamison’s on court consistency was all the Wizards had left of late owner Abe Polin’s team that hadn’t been damaged by former franchise player Gilbert Arenas and his locker room gun foolery. And while Abe might be rolling over in his grave a little you can’t blame the deceased. Ilgauskas never suited up in a Wizards uniform after the trade on February 17. The Wizards didn’t benefit from the Cavs send off. Instead they had everybody’s favorite owner Mark Cuban to thank for sending Josh Howard East and providing Washingtonians with a little more breath to survive the rest of the season.

See, this hasn’t been tagged as the Wizards’ year, so the organization didn’t have much to lose or gain. Everyone wants to see LeBron and the Cavs take what could have been theirs last year. However, let’s keep in mind, it’s LeBron and the Cavs, not Ilgauskas and the Cavs. But in order for them to do damage against the West, aka the Lakers, all the pieces have to fit nice and snug.

No room for error. No room for adlibs or another take. This isn’t a movie.

This is the NBA where your feelings and love for a team and city really don’t matter, unless you’re being profiled in a soft news story. And waiting for the day when you finally get the award of the night is no laughing matter until your name is called and the movie critics are stunned you beat out the vets in the game. Teams are starting to bite at Zydrunas Ilgauskas but is he really biting back? Or is he teasing the Cavaliers, fans and the media for more than 15 minutes of fame? Big Z’s role was decent when he was sent packing by Cleveland…now it’s the role to portray when the real production and outcome of the movie’s success relies on you—the supporting actor/actress.

Please, by all means just ask Monique.

Because after all, it’s about the performance and not the politics, right?

This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 12:49 pm and is filed under Blogroll. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.