CLEVELAND: Throughout his playing and coaching careers, Tyronn Lue has always been one of the most liked and respected men on the floor.
That’s what made his transition to head coach last season so difficult and why he shed so many tears when the Cavaliers won the championship. Lue concedes now he might cry again Tuesday when the Cavs receive their rings.
“I might cry, but we still have a game to play” opening night against the New York Knicks, Lue said. “It’s going to be emotional and rightfully so. We’ve done something that no other team has done in NBA history, we brought a championship to the city of Cleveland, so it’s going to be an emotional night and we expect that. Guys should embrace that. We still have a game to play.”
The Cavs did not fare well on another emotional night, when they also faced the New York Knicks on LeBron James’ first game back with the Cavs. They seemed to run out of energy during the game and lost badly on opening night. But James is also 2-0 on previous ring nights with the Miami Heat.
“If guys that won a championship, they can’t handle it, then I’ll play guys that didn’t win — [Mike] Dunleavy and guys that are hungry and trying to win another one,” Lue joked. “It’s going to be an emotional night, it’s going to be a fun night and we just have to take it in stride.”
Lue sat on the bench sobbing at Oracle Arena after the Cavs completed the comeback against the Golden State Warriors from 3-1 down. Part of it was the emotion over his mother and grandmother battling cancer. Neither was able to attend any of the playoff games because of their treatments.
Lue conceded Monday the emotion also stemmed from the way he got the job after David Blatt was fired. Lue walked into a firestorm of immense pressure.
“Just the way things happened with coach Blatt, taking over, the negativity that surrounded me when it happened, that was tough,” Lue said. “It was tears of emotion, it was joy that we was able to do it, something no other team had done before. The emotions ran through me.”
Lue’s mother will attend Tuesday’s ceremony, but his grandmother still isn’t well enough to travel. It will be the first time his mother has seen him work as a head coach; the last game she attended was last season at Houston, when Lue was still Blatt’s lead assistant.
Lue’s sister and father will also attend. Lue said he will enjoy looking at the ring for a few days before placing it in his safety deposit box next to the two he won as a player. But this one feels different.
“Going through all the things I had to go through in the second half of the season and our team had to go through,” Lue said, “this meant a lot more to me than the first two.”
Rookie Felder out
Rookie Kay Felder remains in the league’s concussion protocol and has been ruled out for the opener. Felder’s absence leaves Iman Shumpert as the primary backup. Shumpert has struggled with ball-handling duties in the past but the Cavs have few other options right now.
“We’re going to give Shumpert a look and see how he does,” Lue said. “If he’s comfortable with it and feels good when we’re doing it then we will continue to roll with Shump.”
Felder took an elbow to the head at practice from Chris Andersen on Friday. The two were playing on the same team when it happened.
“Working on some switching and trying to keep him out of the post, so Bird [Andersen] was just trying to go and swim him out,” Lue said. “Kay is so little, when he did the swim, he hit him with the elbow across his eye.”
The Cavs waived Dahntay Jones on Monday to get their roster down to 15. DeAndre Liggins, who made the team, will serve as a combo guard in case Shumpert falters at the point.
Ice cream coming
James joked a few days ago that the only thing that could make Tuesday night better is an ice cream truck between Quicken Loans Arena and Progressive Field. So now there will be ice cream, too.
Blue Bunny Ice Cream, based in Iowa, tweeted a picture Monday of a semi-truck driving toward Cleveland with free ice cream for all fans.
“Free ice cream is coming,” the company tweeted. “See you soon!”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.