ESPN.com columnist Bill Simmons has a fun new column online about riding around South Beach with Cavs’ guard Damon Jones.
(A quick aside, in case you’re not familiar: Simmons, a.k.a. the Sports Guy, is simultaneously the best example of why online journalism is great and the best example of why it sucks. He’s great because he doesn’t pander to retirees in Seven Hills. He sucks because he has unlimited space, and tends to go on forever. Today’s column is no exception).
Anyway, Simmons rides around in an Escalade with D-Jones, and makes some pretty fun insights about the NBA. He also gives a little insight into how much Jones misses Miami — a tune DJ was singing when I talked to him a year ago:
Damon’s top-four reasons that Miami is the best NBA city to play in: Great weather, great fans, no state taxes, and South Beach is the “icing on the cake.” (Now you know why guys like Eddie Jones keep accepting the veteran’s minimum to play here.) Smartly, he said some nice things about Cleveland as well — kinda like someone who once dated a supermodel, then felt obligated to tell his pedestrian girlfriend that she was just as pretty in her own way — but finished the rant by giggling, “I love Cleveland … BUT IT’S NO MIAMI!”
The South Beach sight-seeing will apparently be featured on ESPN2’s After Dark, a Super Bowl special to air Saturday — once again proving that no one in pro sports gets more air time out of limited playing time than Jones does. — Joe P. Tone
This article appears in Jan 31 – Feb 6, 2007.
Having lived in Cleveland and living now in South Florida, here’s the deal. If you’re young, fabulously wealthy, and marginally talented, like Damon Jones, there’s no place better place on the planet than South Beach. But I guess the question for Clevelanders is this: Do you really want your city to be the type that appeals to guys like Damon Jones?
That’s what I thought.