I did not know how much my latest piece in the Independent would bother Dan Gilbert, or his Cavs spokesperson Tad Carper.  Last week, I found out in great detail just how much it does bother them.

The Cleveland Cavaliers share a radio home, WTAM 1100 AM, with Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, an uncomfortable situation I’ve been noting as increasingly problematic for a while now.  I’ve been trying to get comment from the Cavs on this for about a month.  Last week, Dan Gilbert, the Cavs owner, referred my editor at The Independent, James Renner, to Cavs VP of Communications, Tad Carper.  James sent Tad my phone number.

I watched James email Carper my phone number from the table at Civilization Coffee House, got up to walk home along Lincoln Park, and a few minutes later, my phone rang.  It was Tad Carper.  Hey, how are you? I said.  Didn’t expect to hear from you that quickly!

Before I could even ask a question, Tad launched into what I can only describe as a rant, all of which Tad wanted off the record.  He more than once claimed I was trying to “blackmail” the Cavs.  Tad wondered if the Cavs left WTAM, when would someone else say something objectionable?  Where does it end, Tad begged?  You’re making us a pawn in your agenda, Tad howled.  People listen to those two, they’re popular, Tad cried.  I thought Tad might be a Dittohead.

So I interrupted Tad’s rant, repeatedly, to say that all I wanted was comment from both the Cavs and Lebron James.  If they didn’t want to comment, fine.  But why, I asked, are you wasting my time with this if the Cavs, or Lebron, or Dan Gilbert, don’t have comment?

During this entire exchange, I was pacing in Lincoln Park, planning to return to Civilization knowing that James, my editor, would want to know about this call.  My phone started beeping, warning me that the battery was about to die.  That’s how long this rant went on.  I interrupted the rant again to warn Tad my phone would turn off, nothing personal, call ya back.  Phone turned off, mid rant.  Glad that’s over, I thought.

So I walked back to James to tell him the whole thing, after which I walked back to my apartment, which takes about 20 minutes.  In all, it took me about 45 minutes to get my phone plugged in and turned on again.  The phone immediately rang when I turned it back on - it was Tad. Which means Tad Carper must have been hitting redial quite regularly during those 45 minutes.

Tad’s tone had changed dramatically, and he promised me a statement on the record, from the Cavs, by the end of the day Monday.  Tad said they’d talk to WTAM, they’re good people, long relationship, blah blah blah, and they’d get back to me.  Weekend came, weekend went.  I emailed Tad asking for the statement for this blog post, which I put off at Tad’s request.  Monday night, Tad emailed me to say they’d have no comment.  Clever.

Perhaps Dan Gilbert and his spokesperson Tad Carper are nervous about making any sort of statement on why their NBA basketball team airs their games on a radio station that daily airs open incitement to racial hate, even advertises the shows that air that hate during their basketball games - one week before Ohio voters decide whether or not to write Dan Gilbert’s casino proposal into the Ohio constitution.  That’s understandable.  Maybe they can skate on this until election day next week, as they clearly want to.

But neither me, nor James Renner, are “blackmailing” anybody.  I am a Cavs fan’s Cavs fan.   And if this situation is so uncomfortable as to get the Cavs spokesperson to call it “blackmail”, unfortunately, I don’t think the passing of next week”s election is going to resolve whatever bothered Tad Carper and Dan Gilbert to the point of playing this ridiculous game all weekend with some dude who’s got a blog and a column in an alt weekly.

Not by a long shot.

You can listen live online or at 91.1FM from 9am until 10:30am every Monday. Hey, it’s Monday today! You should give it a listen. You can also follow DEFEND Cleveland on Twitter @defendclevo.

Thanks for the video, Andy.

But that’s it.  It’s Derek Anderson’s only throw.  You need more than one throw in the NFL.

You need the deep pass down the sideline, which I have never seen Anderson throw accurately with any consistency.  You need the 20 yard out pattern, which Anderson does not seem to want to throw.  You need the fade into the corner of the end zone…can anyone tell me if he’s thrown that one?  You need the screen pass, you know, the one that doesn’t have to travel at a million miles an hour, the pass that has to kind of float a bit.  The last time Anderson threw that pass, in last week’s game vs. Detroit, it went high, off the receiver’s finger tips, and got picked off.

There isn’t a whole lot more to see from Derek Anderson this preseason.  Against Detroit, Anderson did the best he could do, literally.  He throws that seam pass perfectly.  We know that.  He threw it a lot, completed it a lot, and looked great doing it.  It felt great watching it.

But it was a trap.  I hope Eric Mangini knows it’s a trap.  Because if this catnip, a pre-season rout over a team that went 0-16 last season, largely fueled by Derek Anderson’s one throw, goes to Eric Mangini’s head, the Browns won’t go 6-10, they’ll go 2-14, or worse.

NFL defenses figured out Anderson’s one throw after his pro bowl season, that too on the back of that one throw.  They still have it figured out.  If Anderson is the starter, we may not win a game until October.  At which point, Brady Quinn will be thrown into a hopeless situation.

Let’s go through the motions of the third pre-season game, let Anderson show us his one throw some more, and let Brady Quinn show us how you actually play the position of quarterback.  Then throw Brady Quinn into at least a hopeful situation, make him the starter.

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All the best players leave, all the dumbest management in professional sports never does.

On the football side, I have yet to talk to anyone whose opinion on the Browns I respect who thinks the Browns will win more than 6 games this season, and that includes me.  The quarterback situation on this team could not be murkier, and even if the best case scenario plays out, which means Brady Quinn wins the starting job, and plays well, the Browns are in a division of playoff certain teams.  The Steelers are defending champs, the Ravens are on the rise with a talented young QB of their own, and the Bengals still own the Browns, for whatever inexplicable reason that may be.

That’s the best case scenario.  Let’s say Derek Anderson somehow gets the starting job - that will start a ticking time bomb of Brady Quinn hounding which will reach fever pitch by the time the Browns are 2-5 in mid October.  Season gone, QB situation still murkier, and Browns fans spending their money on things you need in a collapsing economy other than the self imposed torture of watching the Browns play something not football.

So on the football side, why not bring in Vick?  Have him on the bench, play him at various positions, you could even tell Josh Cribbs to take his contract holdout and take a hike.  (By the way, it says a lot about your team when some special teams punt returning flash in the pan thinks he’s your best player to the point he holds out.  I digress.)

On the non-football side, what city should more embrace a redemption story like Vick’s more than Cleveland?  I could give two shits about some guy who did time, for any crime, so long as the guy can play. Seems like Cleveland, a city further down on its luck than any in the country this side of Detroit, ought to be all about redemption.

And Vick can clearly play.  The knock on Vick has always been that he doesn’t fit into a system, and you have to build one around him.  That was before Vick got knocked down a peg by his own actions.  Now, Vick will happily fit into whatever system allows him into it, at whatever position you want to play him.  That makes an offense with Vick on the field pretty damn hard to defend.  Which is a description which has not been used to describe the Browns offense since, oh, 1988?

So I implore Randy Lerner to bring Vick to Cleveland.  Sign him, get him here early, working out.  Call the Cavs, set up a sit down with Lebron and Shaq, who can tell Vick (a) who’s boss in this town and (b)  show him how to act like a human being who’s got something to prove.

Then put him on the field, and see what happens.  Can’t hurt.

Welcome to the NBA’s new Cold War, and like all good versus evil stories, there really are only two giants.  The rest of the NBA watches in horror at the mutually assured destruction of their own title hopes.

The champagne wasn’t even wiped off the NBA trophy the Cavs never got a shot at lifting before the Cavs made the move they knew they had to make since February.  Get Shaq.  Get him now.  This is akin to going from one H-bomb to a multiple warhead intercontinental ballistic missile, and several nuclear submarines equipped with same.

The Lakers have responded the only way they could, by going after the one person in the NBA who has proven he can at least harrass Lebron James - Ron Artest.  Team killer?  No matter.  Bad locker room influence.  No matter.  Artest can keep up with Lebron.  Can’t guard him, mind you!  But can irritate him.

Then, the Cavs made a go at the Lakers themselves, going after Trevor Ariza as he was on his way out the door to Houston.  Counter intelligence.  Spy vs. spy.  Only thing missing was a femme fatale holding a martini glass whispering sweet nothings in Russian across a smoky cavern bar in Stalingrad.  That didn’t quite work out, and on the way out of that deal, Ariza threw a little stink bomb back at Lebron, claiming he’d promised to stay in Cleveland on the QT.

Meanwhile, this summer’s NBA trade and free agent chaos has made all of the other pretenders to the crown worse, not better.  After getting to the finals thanks to an underperforming Cavs, and a Magic team playing way above their heads, the Orlando Magic appear to have lost their minds.  Wave good bye to Hedo Turkoglu and Rafer Alston, and say hello to Vince Carter?  Um…..WHAT?  The Celtics think they can get another ring out of Rasheed Wallace?  Please.  The Rockets worst nightmare may be coming true, as Yao Ming’s foot appears hopelessly injured.

Only two teams have really improved in this offseason.  You know who they are.

The Lakers.  And the Cavs.

The Lakers appear to have decided that the only thing standing between Kobe and more rings is Lebron James.  It’s as if the Lakers didn’t even play Orlando in the Finals - yeah, whatever.   As soon as Shaq made it official, the arms race was on.

We’d better get used to this.  Next summer, after an epic NBA Finals in which I am quite certain Lebron and Shaq will stand astride the sports world like Greek gods holding that trophy, the ensuing free agent spree is going to be like Kruschev and Kennedy, Reagan and Brezhnev.  Total war between the Lakers and the Cavs.

This is gonna so fucking awesome.

Once again, Danny Ferry pulls a rabbit out of a hat.  We lose Ben Wallace & Sasha Pavlovic in the trade, which isn’t losing much.  Wallace has appeared done for a while - even in the playoffs, with loads of rest, Wallace often couldn’t even jump high enough to dunk the ball.  As for Sasha - no one has ever needed a change of scenery more than Sasha.  He looked uninterested, lost, his head was never in the game.  Perhaps in Phoenix, Sasha can get back to being a productive player, but as of now, he’s a big fat nothing.

And if you told me at any time in the last season that we could get rid of two of our least productive players, and get SHAQ, I’d have laughed in your face.  Well, we just did it.  Which begs the question - is Shaq done, too?

Not by a long shot.  Shaq at half strength is a dominant force, even if all he does is defend and rebound.  But Shaq is still capable of putting up 30 points and 20 rebounds on any given night.  Teamed with Lebron, Shaq is going to have plenty of room to roam.

And Shaq can pass - adding another passer to the Cavs will make them look like a precision Platonic Form of Basketball.

Book the Finals.