Z Ilgauskas - Most Games Played as a Cav

[Fresh8]

So Ilgauskas became the most capped player in Cavs history. I was reading the other night that he got a DNP against Dallas and did not realize why that was so important until tonight. From the article below, it doesn't seem like he is happy in Cleveland and I think Mike Brown did a dickhead move if he didn't let Z play his milestone game in the last one against the Mavs.

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Anyways, as Hollinger puts it, Z deserves praise because he's been with Cleveland for 13 years and was there through all the shit times.

[Fresh8]

Can someone move this to NBA Talk?

[Andrew]

It was (unsurprisingly) mentioned during the game today and I recall reading a piece on Yahoo! NBA about LeBron's displeasure with the DNP the other night along with fan reactions that called it everything from non-news to another strike against Mike Brown to an example of LeBron being more interested in personal goals - his or someone else's - than the more important task at hand. It's probably a mixture of all those things, in the long run it's a non-issue but at the same time I wonder if little things like this will end up influencing LeBron's decision to stay. Brown probably should've put Ilgauskas in there briefly when he had a chance but at the same time he's trying to coach the team to victory. Ultimately I think it will blow over, though if I'm the Cleveland Cavaliers I'm wary of a rift developing with LeBron. At least they're winning, that smoothes over small wrinkles like this.

Meanwhile, congratulations to Ilgauskas on his longevity, especially in the face of all the injury problems he's had. He's had a very respectable career, the most successful of the four Cavs rookies from the 1997/1998 season that were grabbing some attention along with a then in-shape Shawn Kemp.

[Fresh8]

Yeah, I'm not too privy as to how much of a factor Z is this season but I would have thought he was good enough to get off the bench against the Mavs.

[JaoSming]

yea i had read about that too, seemed pretty messed up

oh well, cograts to big Z

[Kenny]

Congrats to Big Z. Showed true tenacity to even still be playing after his run of injuries

[Rip32]

Yeah congrats to him. I remember I was really happy for him when he made the All-Star team in 2003.

[cavs4872]

I totally agree with Mike Brown's decision to not play him against the Mavericks. Zydrunas is a very slow player nowadays, and he really struggles to defend the pick and roll. This shouldn't have been made as big of a topic as it was by the media, as it was obvious that he would play in the next game.

[Andrew]

It probably wouldn't have been if LeBron hadn't spoken out about it. If people are going to speculate about his plans based on the baseball cap he wears, then they'll speculate on whether matters like this are signs of a rift between LeBron and Mike Brown, which is more likely to affect his decision to stay than the baseball team he follows. Largely non-news, but there's another free agency angle that can be spun out of it.