The game today between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Orlando Magic turned out to be a pretty good game – as it should have. A game with Lebron James, Dwight Howard, Vince Carter, Shaquille O’Neal should at a minimum be an interesting game. That is plenty of badassitude packed on the same court. Cleveland lost the game.

The Cavaliers, you can tell, want the NBA championship very, very, badly. One suspects that somewhere in the deep recess of their brain-trust, they have come to the conclusion that the only way they will hold on to Lebron James for the long haul is a) to surround him with enough talent to win the championship like now, and b) to surround him with the team that has the potential to win more championships a la Michael Jordan in Chicago. As we all know, once star players are associated with a championship team in one city, particularly a championship team team with the potential to win more championships, they tend to stay put. No one wants to mess with a good thing.

They went out, the Cavaliers, and brought in a lot of beef and badassitude down low (about 325 pounds of beef by way of Shaquille O’Neal) where last year in the playoffs, they were abused by the Magic. Then just for good measure, they added some more size and scoring by way of Antawn Jamison. Antawn is a badass – in a calm, do your job every day kind of way. As an aside, I always take an interest in following the careers of players traded from Washington. They generally tend to win championships after they have left Washington. At one time in fact, the Wizards had 4 starters in an NBA championship team – with the Detroit Pistons.

In the fourth quarter, James already had 30 points, Shaquille and Jamison were closing in on 20 each. You would think with that score line that they were winning the game but Orlando was kicking their ass. That Jameer Nelson is a badass. I don’t think there are too many better expressions of badassitude than a point guard who comes out up with the ball, pulls up at the three and hits the three. Pure stone-cold badassitude! And that Vince Carter does entertain when he get going. When this game is done though, one wonders what else the Cavs need. You look at them on paper and you think they should have a clear path to the championship. Maybe they still will if they pick it up some more in the playoffs.

They have the personnel. Do they have enough badassitude?

For a good while, we thought Gilbert Arenas of the Washington Wizard was, or at least if he was healthy, could be a real badass on the basketball court. There was no dispute about his ability to be a badass. But a badass isn’t worth Jack unless that badass has badassitude. It is sort of like a kid who was taught all the right things and how to behave but does not know how to be a gentleman. You see, badassitude is the quality of being a badass – how you carry your badassedness. Gilbert Arenas didn’t understand that. He thought it was enough to be a badass and that being a badass in basketball made you a badass in other places and everywhere. Not true. Badassitude is what allows you to understand how and where and under what circumstances to deploy your badassedness. Arenas didn’t get that and in the end, he scored a zero on the badassitude scale, on his way to jail. Punk at this point is a generous description.