Yes, it really happened.

Much to the dismay of Cleveland fans, Nike, network officials, some of the refs, and many in the national media, the Orlando Magic knocked off LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers 103-90 in Game 6. Now they face the LA Lakers in the NBA Finals.

Dwight was amazing. Rashard Lewis, Hedo Turkolu, Mickeal Pietrus, and Rafer Alston kept raining in threes. Everybody played defense. King James played great, but the rest of his team failed to step up. The better team won.

Now there is more talk about how sad it is for Cleveland. How the poor fans of Cleveland have suffered since 1964. How bad things are in the “Mistake by the Lake.” How Cleveland fans worry that their superstar will leave for the bright lights of New York.

Puleeze! Orlando needs this more or as much as Cleveland does. We don’t have a 1964. We had a 1995, where we went to the Finals, only to get swept by the Houston Rockets. Instead of developing a dynasty, our superstar Shaquille O’Neal left town for LA the following year. Next came Penny’s meltdowns, Grant Hill coming on crutches, and a hockey GM.

Cleveland has the Indians, the Browns, and the Cavs. We only have the Magic. Cleveland may be ugly, cold, and feeling the recession. Orlando is definitely a better-looking town, but there are some very ugly tacky parts. And for every high-rolling fans in the stands of Amway, there are five working at minimum wage jobs in a hotel, theme park, or restaurant. Not a lot of great union jobs here!

But the biggest reason is that Orlando needs the Magic to bring it together. Most of us are transplants from other places. The Orlando is just a tourist spot or a stopover, and the home office is elsewhere. Most of us here keep our hometown allegiance.

The Magic remind people that we actually live here. We can come together to make this a home instead a layover. We can have good schools, nightspots, and culture right here.

We took care of the storied and defending champion Celtics. We overthrew King James and the Cavs. Now we need to finish Kobe and the robbing Lakers.

That would be Magical!

Allonzo is quite a talent as the clip below shows. He works hard at the game, practicing by himself and with his AAU team for hours each day. His mother, who raises him alone, sacrifices to help him work on his game.

Needless to say, a lot of men want to help him. A high school coach gives him private coaching. Others want him to play for their AAU teams. Allonzo already has all the basketball shoes he needs and his own line of clothes. College coaches send him questionnaires, the only way the NCAA allows them to contact kids not yet in high school. Allonzo has dyslexia, so he gets tutoring help paid for by NBA star Brandon Roys’s foundation.

Of course, what do these people want out of it? Do they really want to help the young man, or do they want a piece of whatever NBA fortune that comes Allonzo’s way? Henry Abbott of ESPN’s TrueHoop casts doubt of everyone’s motives, including Roy’s.

It could be a little of both. If Allonzo’s talents were in music, would anyone question the motives of people buying him instruments and lessons? Would you not want to help out a budding Mozart or Stevie Wonder?

Yet basketball attracts its share of handlers looking for prodigies to hang onto until they make it to a major college or the NBA. Most basketball phenoms come from lower economic classes. The contrast between where they come from and the minimum NBA salary is night and day.

But unlike other sports, basketball prodigies are easier to spot. At 12-years-old, baseball players have not faced curve balls or anything close to major league pitching. Football players risk injury, and their true size and skills do not appear until high school.

But look at Allonzo in the video. Most 12-year-olds basketball players can only dribble and shoot effectively with one side of their body. Although Allonzo still favors his right side, he can do layups from both sides of the basket. He has tremendous peripheral vision and zips right past taller players.

So what do you do with a phenom like Allonzo, who seems unspoiled by the attention? Wish him well. Tell him there is more to life than basketball. Help him like Roy does with his reading skills. And cheer him on as he plays.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

The Magic sold the rights to carry most of its home games to FSN, which has the Magic games that Sunshine does not. Negotiations between Bright House and FSN are going nowhere. FSN wants to be a first-tier network (channels 13-71) like ESPN. Bright House wants to offer FSN on its digital tier, in the 100s. While ESPN is the national cable leader, few networks offer the state coverage that FSN has, such as the Tampa Bay Rays and the University of Florida.

It’s bad enough that Bright House doesn’t carry all the Magic games and to ignore the angry calls of sports fans. But to run commercials saying how you are carrying games is insulting.

So-called Orlando Sentinel columnist Andrea Adelson shows her complete lack of college football knowledge when she suggests that Michigan try to hire Florida coach Urban Meyer. First, it will never happen. Adelson even admits that. If Notre Dame couldn’t land him, do you really think Michigan has a chance?

Let me count the reasons why this is so ridiculous:

• Yes, Michigan has a nice program and a great football tradition. But what has it done lately, except lose to Ohio State – the same school Meyer’s Gators creamed in the national championship game.
• Florida’s weather is definitely a factor. There is a reason why Big Ten football is “three yards and a cloud of dust.” It’s hard to run Meyer’s spread offense in snow and ice. It’s also easier to land a recruit when it’s 70 degrees in January.
• Florida recruits well nationally, but it has much more talent within the state than Michigan could ever have. Consider Florida’s big three (UF, FSU, and Miami) have won 9 national championships in the past 25 years. Most of that talent comes within the state’s borders. Michigan has to raid Ohio for much of its talent.
• Michigan could never compete in a bidding war with Florida. Meyer is already well compensated. Michigan may have money, but Gator boosters have very deep pockets.
• Florida AD Jeremy Foley is one of the best in the country. Why do you think Billy Donavan stays?
• Tim Tebow is only a sophomore. By the way, Adelson once said that Tebow would be a washout.
• Adelson points out the tradition and national recognition. If those really were a factor, Meyer would already be coaching Notre Dame.

If Adelson wrote this to get a reaction like talk radio jocks do, she succeeded. By day’s end, she had more than 100 comments. Most questioned her capabilities as a sports writer. Many were quite chauvinistic about women sportswriters in general, which was unfair. There are many compentent female sportswriters. Adelson is definitely not one of them.

But Adelson works for a newspaper, not a radio station. Even a sports column is supposed to make sense. If she even tried to call in on a sports talk show with her arguments, most radio jocks would hang up on her.

A quick writing tip, Andrea. If half your column refutes your main point, you need to trash the column. If you want to engage in a battle of wits with your readers, don’t come into battle empty-handed.

I’m hiding my diploma and changing my name. OK, I’ll ask George O’Leary to change his name instead – maybe change careers.

Actually, I do think George is a good coach. He just needs to recruit better locally.

The big difference between the two progams was speed, pure and simple. A perfect example is the play when USF’s George Selvie breaking through the line and knocking the ball out of Kyle Israel’s hand before Israel could hand the ball off.

USF has faster players. USF also has more local players. Selvie is a Florida High School product, one of 99 on the Bulls. Israel is a local, but 32 players on UCF are out-of-state.

In a previous life, I covered high school football for the Tampa Tribune, particularly Polk, Highlands, and Hardee counties.  I saw the talent that comes out of South Central Florida, and it’s impressive. The towns of Frostproof, Pahokee, and Immokalee have produced more pro football players than New York City. They are not particularly bigger in South Central Florida than other places, but they are much faster.

Former Miami assistant coach Art Kehoe  gleaned this area of recruits who would help the Hurricanes win five national championships. Florida State cleaned out the area in recruiting back in 1988. Four years later, Bobby Bowden won his first national championship. After years of  neglect, Florida started rebuilding ties with high school coaches in the area when Steve Spurrier arrived, and Urban Meyer continues that trend.

Jim Leavitt has been the only football coach at USF. He has found most of his players in a 100-mile radius of Tampa and forged relationships with most of the local high school coaches.

In fairness to O’Leary, the UCF coach has had to play catch-up to Leavitt, partially because his predecessor, Mike Tomzak, treated local coaches horribly. O’Leary still has great relationships with high schools in the Atlanta area from his days at Georgia Tech, but he has yet to build the relationships Leavitt has even among the Orlando area schools.

If O’Leary is smart, he will stop on the way back to Orlando and visit Lakeland coach Bill Castle and Lake Gibson coach Keith DeMyer. Later on, he might take a trip down U.S. 27 and check out the small towns around Lake Okeechobee. Because of the size and length of his contract, it’s unlikely O’Leary is on the hot seat. But after three straight losses to USF,  it became a lot warmer.

I have very mixed feelings about the Yankees. I actually admire the professionalism of Joe Torre and the players, and how they conduct themselves in the fishbowl of the New York media. Considering how many immature jerks there are in baseball, the Yankee clubhouse seems to have a lot less than most teams.

But whenever I hear an obnoxious Yankee fan spew about how great his team is – how it’s the Yankees’ destiny to win the World Series each year – I start rooting for whatever team is playing them. Now that the Yankees are done, who do I root against now?

This past series, however, I found myself pulling for the Yankees. I wanted A-Rod to smack a grand slam over the wall to shut up his critics and Johnny Damon to deliver some defensive gems. I’ve met Johnny, and he really is a nice guy. But what I really wanted was another New York-Boston series.

With the Yankees gone, it looks like Boston will be the heavy favorite to win the Series. The other three teams are simply too young. Nothing against the Red Sox, but I have a feeling that if they win, Red Sox Nation will become a creature far more obnoxious than any New Yorkers. We will all have to remind them of the ‘87 series to keep them in line.

UCF leads East Carolina 28-17 at the half and loses 52-38. ECU scores 28 points in the third quarter alone. You would think that with Kevin Smith and the size of UCF’s line, the Knights could just run all second half and eat up the clock. But no! they make five turnovers in the third quarter.

At least I am not a Cubs fan.