Cleveland Cavaliers Birds of the Week: Volume 4

Birds of the Week is a weekly column cooked up by RDE senior writer Zak Kolesar. Every Friday, Zak will dig through the depths of Twitter to find what you may have missed regarding your Cleveland Cavaliers and the League as a whole. Wondering about the name? Think of Austin Carr’s famous “bird” calling (it’s something you missed!). If you find something interesting on Twitter that you want to see discussed on this column, tweet your ideas to Zak at @ZKoltrane or @RDECavaliers. Enjoy!

Cleveland’s Birds of the Week

1. Blatt will face familiar foe in the preseason

Things will come full circle for new Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt on October 5 when he’ll have the opportunity to face the team that he left in order to make the jump to the NBA. After being confirmed a job by the Golden State Warriors (as an assistant) and/or the opportunity to head the Cavaliers, Blatt decided to leave the club that he had experienced great international success with over his tenured coaching career. Although it is just a preseason game, it is still neat that Blatt will be coaching a friendly against a team he had just got done coaching.

2. New Cavaliers open Activity Center at Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital

Anthony Bennett, Andrew Wiggins, David Griffin and David Blatt headed to the Cleveland Clinic on Friday following Andrew’s introductory press conference. I love when a team can show its true colors whenever they help out the surrounding community, and the Cavaliers are very good at putting smiles on the faces of those who haven’t grinned in a while. And it’s also nice to see Anthony Bennett looking slim.

3. Draft day, A. Wiggins

Drake’s a prophet. After dropping a song called “Draft Day” that namedropped both Johnny Manziel and Andrew Wiggins, both players were selected by Cleveland teams in their respective sports. Both players are extremely polarizing, and Cleveland managed to nab both of them in one summer. Maybe this means that Drake will be a sideline staple at Cavs’ game this year or he’ll be buying a timeshare here. Any way, it’s exciting to have two young, eclectic athletes in our town.

NBA’s Birds of the Week

4. Parker snaps pic with Embiid because he’ll be making more money than him

It was probably a gesture of kindness, but one couldn’t help but think of how much more money Jabari Parker would be making because of Joel Embiid’s recent foot injury/surgery. Expected to be out four to six months (maybe five to eight), the Cavs decided to pass on Embiid, which most expected after news of the injury leaked, after giving the big man a good hard look. Parker was thought to be the No. 3 pick in this draft, but Embiid’s injury most definitely helped Jabari make the jump up to the Milwaukee Bucks. So, as a good friend, Parker had to stop by, give Embiid some medicine and dap him up for the “favor.”

5. The Philadelphia Franklins?

A week following the Charlotte Hornets’ unveiling of their new uniforms, the Philadelphia 76ers announced a slight alternate change to their uniforms. As a secondary logo, the 76ers will be bringing in patriot Benjamin Franklin to represent liberty town. The shot is of Franklin dribbling down the court, possibly making a move to the basket. Which has me wondering/thinking what kind of handles Ben had back in the day. He had to be a Team USA starter.

Make sure to stop by next week for more birds, and remember to tweet Zak at @ZKoltrane or @RDECavaliers!