DeShawn: Still Popular
So, the Vick jersey and its deep meaning? "Uh, actually, nothing, I just put it on," DeShawn Stevenson said yesterday, and I actually believed him. "Michael Vick is--WAS--my favorite football player. I had his jersey, I felt like wearing a jersey, so I put that one on."
(Of course, this requires one to believe that in the past two weeks, DeShawn has "accidentally" worn both a Jay-Z t-shirt AND a Mike Vick jersey, but I wouldn't put it past him.)
Later, he expressed surprise that everyone was asking about that jersey. So, um, he wasn't playfully teasing out his public enemy image in some ultimate symbolic act of defiance?
"No," he said, laughing. "I'm not worried about that. If I did I would have had on a Soulja Boy jersey instead."
Gotcha. So maybe I was wrong about the heel strategy. But the Cleveland fans were buying it anyhow.
"[Bad-word]," one fan shouted after DeShawn's first basket and non-face-feel of the game. "Overrated!" screamed another, who then thought better of it. "Never-rated!" she amended. During one trip to the free-throw line, he was serenaded with the standard "[Bad-Word, Bad-Word]" chant.
But perhaps nothing better proved Stevenson's current standing in this city than a trip he took with four teammates to the Tower City Center, a downtown mall, on Tuesday night. The quintet--Stevenson, Arenas, Nick Young, Dominic McGuire and Andray Blatche--received plenty of team-related comments about the series, mostly along the lines of "you're going to lose." But the primary target all evening was Stevenson.
"Definitely," Dominic McGuire said.
"Of course," Andray Blatche agreed.
"There was no question," McGuire said. "Damn near everybody we walked by said something to him."
"I had five people trying to fight me," Stevenson said. "If I went to the mall by myself, I probably would have gotten jumped."
It's a claim, we must say, that seems somewhat overblown, if not overrated, but still, he clearly attracted more than his fair share of attention. What did the Clevelanders say?
"What didn't they say," Stevenson said.
"Did you hear the Jay-Z diss?" Gilbert Arenas offered as one example of an anti-Stevenson taunt. "You suck," he said, coming up with another. "You know, fan stuff."
The highlight, Stevenson's teammates said, came when they walked past a hat store and were spotted by an employee.
"I know somewhere y'all haven't been," the friendly Midwesterner said.
"We were like, 'where?' "Arenas related.
"The second round," came the answer.
Which, considering the enmity displayed toward Stevenson by the home crowd last night, didn't really seem too bad.
"I guess," Arenas said. "I was trying to see 'Harold and Kumar,' that's what I was trying to do."
"Nick and Gilbert went on a date together," McGuire explained.
Yup, 24 hours before they were playing for their season, and one night before he announced he was ending his own campaign, Arenas and Young went to the mall to catch "Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay."
"It was good," was Gilbert's review.
As for Stevenson, he said he had no regrets about his image in Cuyahoga County.
"It doesn't bother me," he said. "It bothers everybody else. I'm just going out there and playing ball. It's all on the court now."
Which, oddly, wasn't that much different from what doer-not-sayer Antawn Jamison was saying. And I still believe that three more or three fewer anti-Cavs soundbites wouldn't have changed the bounce on LeBron's last shot.
By Dan Steinberg |
May 1, 2008; 10:10 AM ET
| Category:
Wizards
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Posted by: mjwies 11, Washington, D.C. | May 1, 2008 11:04 AM
I could not figure out this Cleveland fan obsession with DeShawn Stevenson. And then I saw the wonderful "women" of Cleveland. They bring a whole new meaning to the term "Dawg Pound." And what exactly does that one "lady" want DeShawn to suck? It seems like it would be a risky proposal for even a wild man like him. I heard you could get a rather nasty STD just by stepping foot in to the Cleveland "city" limits.
Posted by: But you STILL live in cleveland | May 1, 2008 11:09 AM
Wow. The woman in the last picture looks to be wearing two inches of makeup.
Posted by: Max Wass | May 1, 2008 11:10 AM
Woooo, OfficeMaXXX!!!
Posted by: kwamesnani | May 1, 2008 11:11 AM
I'd rather be a common peasant in DC than a "King" in Akron.
Posted by: Jeff V | May 1, 2008 11:16 AM
A**hole chants on national tv are the best way to exude class.
Posted by: Unsilent Majority | May 1, 2008 11:20 AM
If you want to see a noticable contrast, watch the next game in New Orleans. Every time they show the crowd there is at least 1, if not like 5, women that make you say "whoaaaa". Games in Cleveland, they show the crowd and its like "whoa did she get hit in the face with a baseball bat?"
Posted by: CRitch | May 1, 2008 11:20 AM
DeShawn is now boycotting Love and OfficeMax. And that hat store.
Is it troubling to anyone else that Gilbert always seems to hang around with the youngest and least mature players on the team? Can't he hang out with Jamison and Daniels once in a while?
Posted by: | May 1, 2008 12:22 PM
I can't wait to see one of the two girls in the top photo in an episode of 'World's Wildest Police Chases' five years down the road from now.
Posted by: jrp | May 1, 2008 12:27 PM
Cleveland sucks and the Cavs aren't much better. Lebron wants so hard to be MJ yet he comes off as such a phony. MJ never cryed about getting hit or stooping to deshawn's level. He's a corporate hack but still one helluva bball player.
Posted by: Wizzzzzz | May 1, 2008 12:55 PM
Those guys with the signs look hot.
Posted by: underbiteman | May 1, 2008 1:16 PM
I know somewhere y'all haven't been," the friendly Midwesterner said.
"We were like, 'where?' "Arenas related.
"The second round," came the answer.
ONLY 80% OF THE COMMENT IS CORRECT. STEVENSON, YOUNG, BLATCHE, AND MCGUIRE HAVE NEVER MADE THE 2ND ROUND. BUT ARENAS HAS AND IT WAS IN 2005 PLAYOFFS.
Posted by: Tony Reali | May 1, 2008 1:19 PM
They are all team mates so it doesn't matter who Gil hangs with. Besides, AD,Jamison and Butler are all married. We are here to celebrate a win, not find petty stuff to say about Gil. Is that necessary? Go Wiz! Besides, Gil just turned 26 and Young and McGuire are only a couple years younger than he is. I mean really, who cares???
Posted by: | May 1, 2008 1:36 PM
"Besides, AD,Jamison and Butler are all married."
So, on road trips, AD, Butler and Jamison are talking about china patterns? And doesn't Gilbert have a serious girlfriend and two kids? Maybe they've got a few things in common.
"We are here to celebrate a win."
No, that's another blog. We are here to celebrate the random and inane things Steinberg writes about.
Posted by: | May 1, 2008 2:14 PM
All this chatter, you will be home soon
Posted by: | May 1, 2008 3:27 PM
People who love the "statutory rapist" have no class
Posted by: | May 1, 2008 3:29 PM
"During one trip to the free-throw line, he was serenaded with the standard '[Bad-Word, Bad-Word]' chant."
I don't want to get into the bash-Cleveland business, but I cracked up when I realized what the Cleveland crowd was chanting. So, D.C. is "classless" but Cleveland borrows/steals less-than-classless Philly-fan chants? REALLY?!? Oh, man, that's too good. Just shut up already.
And to the lady (see above bog story) with the sign for DeShawn: It's called a direct-address comma. Please learn it and use it. (You DCers, too.)
Posted by: Arlington Pimp | May 1, 2008 5:32 PM
Mayne....this might be the best string of comments that I've ever read on the Sports Bog....aside from the couple uncreative comments from Clevelanders.
Thanks for the entertainment.
Posted by: TruthAboutIt.net | May 1, 2008 6:28 PM
For wizard's fan, they thank god to just be in the playoffs, they dont even dare dream about 2nd round.
Posted by: WW sucks sorry! | May 2, 2008 3:44 AM
yeah, good comments if you are a complete douche bag!
Posted by: | May 4, 2008 6:26 PM
It looks like the lady in the bottom photo is sitting next to Lewis Black and Stephen Malkmus
Posted by: Andrew from Colonial Hoops | May 5, 2008 9:51 AM
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If you are over 12 years old and are making signs to bring to a sporting event (or any event for that matter); it is as sure a "sign" of being an unrepentant loser as there ever was. Clevelanders are so pathetic that one can only laugh at them. The King of Akron? And? Who cares! Ohio Sucks! Lets Go Wizards!