Cleveland Cavaliers: Mike Brown Ok With Playoff Ouster

Shortly after the crushing Eastern Conference semifinal game seven defeat at the hands of the Boston Celtics, Cavaliers head coach Mike Brown entered a somber locker room.

Moments later the frowny faces were transformed to consolatory grins as coach Brown produced tasty popsicles and Kool-Aid for the bunch.

Ok, so I made that ridiculous scenario up, but listening to the post-game press conference, this is actually the image that came to mind.

Let us all remember which team was the defending Eastern Conference champions in this series. True the Celtics added the world in the form of Kevin Garnett over the offseason; but as good as he is, Garnett, was never able to take any of his Timberwolves teams to the Finals.

Suddenly, the LeBron-led Cavaliers Head Coach is just giddy about taking the Celtics to seven games in the second round of the NBA playoffs.

Here is a brief sampling of Brown's post-game comments:

"First of all I would like to say I am proud of our guys. We dug a hole for ourselves early but...we fought to stay in the game."

"I am proud of our effort and getting ourselves a chance to get back in the game."

"I can not say enough about our team. I am extremely proud of every single guy on this team."

Sitting at home I was flabbergasted to see my official Mike Brown Proud-o-meter at three. I had to go back and check the score to make sure the Cavs had in fact lost the game.

This same Cavalier team took out the heavily favored Detroit Pistons in last season's Eastern Conference Finals in six games. Actually it was not the exact same team, thanks to the midseason blockbuster trade made by GM Danny Ferry in an attempt to win a championship.

Now here was the team's lead man gushing about his players and pride and doing his signature "LeBron's number one fan" act; when all I really wanted to hear was this quote:

"We came into this season with one goal in mind - return to the NBA Finals and this time come home with the ring. We fell short of that goal so now we have a long offseason to correct our mistakes and make another run in 2009."

Unfortunately, you will see Mike Brown make a statement like that about as soon as you will see the Cavs run a motion offense - or any offense that doesn't involve LeBron dribbling and other four gentlemen watching.

Michael Jordan made his Bulls teams championship contenders nearly by himself, but it wasn't until Phil Jackson took the reigns from Doug Collins that the Bulls started to stockpile hardware.

It is universally understood at this point LeBron James is going to need help to win an NBA title. Maybe that help is not in the form of another overpaid, overhyped free agent, but a leader that will actually lead, rather than cheerlead.