Thursday, December 07, 2006

Daugherty appears ... sort of

At Wednesday night's game, Brad Daugherty reached out to Cavalier fans in the form of a recorded video message that was played on the scoreboard during the first half.

He noted that "you have an exciting young team" in Cleveland, and said he hoped to "see you all soon."

A step in the right direction, in a greeting card sort of way.

Whether Daugherty came up with the idea, or whether he was pestered into doing it is not known by the general public. It was nice to see Daugherty try to re-connect with the fans to some degree, but he can't stop there. He needs to appear at a game, and I still think that's miles from happening.

It bothered me that Daugherty, on several occasions, referred to the organization and city as "you." To me, it says that Daugherty does not consider himself a part of the Cavs family in any form. It was as if Patrick Ewing or Hakeem Olajuwon had appeared on the scoreboard screen and told Cavs fans, "you have an exciting young team."

I wasn't expecting Daugherty to use "we." That would be too patronizing for someone in his position. But it would have been nice if he would have uttered the team name even once, and not act like Woody Hayes describing "that school up north."

The verdict: Daugherty saw fit to show his appreciation to the fans, which is good. But he is still icy toward the Cavs organization, and I think the "see you soon" comment is a hollow salutation until some bridges are mended.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

FSN Ohio said that Brad would be coming to Cleveland in March and that he had a scheduling conflict last night.

Who knows how much of that is true, but it looks like things are getting better.