Episode 11

The one where Byron gets fired, and Mike Brown buys Bill Cowher's mansion in Strongsville.

Topics: Byron Scott's firing, potential replacements, Cavs' season in review, goals for next season.


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Episode 3

The one where Dion gets buckets and Luke Walton plays 40 minutes a night...


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Topics Covered: Dion's big week without Kyrie...How Kyrie helps/hurts Dion's development...Do any bench guys deserve to start?

Awesome ESPN ad references: Scott referenced this ad when describing some of Kyrie and Dion's passes...

Setting the Break: Luke and the Walton Legacy

“Things turn out the best for people who make the best of the way things turn out.” 

–John Wooden

It’s late November 2007, and Bill Walton’s trademark upbeat mood has turned decidedly melancholy.

“That’s the one I can’t read. It’s too close,” he sighs. “It’s too close.”

As those sentences linger in the air, Walton is finishing up an hour-long interview on Bill Simmons’ “B.S. Report” podcast.

Simmons had brought up David Halberstam’s The Breaks of the Game, a legendary book that chronicled the late ‘70’s Portland Trail Blazers as their dominance was curtailed only by a string of terrible luck. Really, though, the book is about Bill Walton. Halberstam describes an athlete in tune with the essence of the game. A player who learned how to pass, cut, and play team basketball from John Wooden. An NBA champion and league MVP who carried coach Jack Ramsey’s Portland teams on his back until his body completely betrayed him at 25.

When Walton injured his foot during the ’77-’78 season , Portland was 50 and 10. The foot injury was serious, and Walton was done for the regular season. In hindsight, Portland also should have shut him down for the playoffs. Perhaps in 2013, with star players making tens of millions, they would have. But, this was 1978 and the Blazers were trying to repeat as champions. By Halberstam’s account, Walton agreed to take some painkilling shots, and give it a go as the playoffs began. He made it two games before his foot shattered. Walton would never put on a Trail Blazers uniform again.