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Cleveland's Little Big Man
Gibson's Emergence as a Scorer Has Come at Just the Right Time
By Michael Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 4, 2007; E01
CLEVELAND, June 3 -- The face of destruction and mayhem has innocent, puppy dog eyes, appears stuck in a permanent, Joker-like smile and barely has enough hair on its chin to be called stubble. It belongs to Daniel Gibson, the Cleveland Cavaliers' rookie guard who scored 31 points in the Eastern Conference-clinching victory in Game 6 Saturday, which might have signaled an end to the Detroit Pistons' supremacy in the East.
On the surface, there is nothing intimidating about Gibson, whose baby face and slight build make him look as if he jumped from junior high school to the NBA. The second-round pick who left Texas as a sophomore even has a soft nickname: "Boobie," which his mother gave to him when he regularly came home crying after getting beat up by the big kids in the neighborhood.
"She kinda called me 'Crybaby Boobie,' " Gibson said, explaining the name that was chanted throughout the fourth quarter of the Cavaliers' 98-82 home victory. "It all kind of ran together."
But Gibson said getting roughed up as a kid made him tougher and prepared him for his unlikely heroics in the conference finals, when he stared down the vaunted Pistons and all-star Chauncey Billups -- a player he used to mimic in his back yard -- and asked, "Why be afraid?"
Gibson had been a cute sidebar to the LeBron James coronation until the fourth quarter of Game 6. That's when Gibson propelled the Cavaliers to their first NBA Finals in franchise history by hitting four three-pointers and outscoring Detroit by himself, 19-16. The scoring spree was even more startling considering Gibson never had scored more than 19 points in a game before this series began.
"I was excited, feeling good, and happy for my team," Gibson said.
Gibson took the highest-stakes shots of his career -- and buried each one, turning Quicken Loans Arena into Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras when his last three-pointer splashed through the net to give the Cavaliers a 15-point lead.
"Boobie is a guy with a lot of poise and a lot of heart," Cavaliers Coach Mike Brown said. "He's a scorer and a shooter. You leave him alone you better watch out, because it's Boobie for three."
The Cavaliers indeed believed that they pulled off a coup when they drafted Gibson with the 42nd overall pick in last year's draft, but they had no idea he would grow at an accelerated rate in the playoffs. Gibson averaged 13.5 points in the conference finals after averaging 4.6 points in the regular season and 4.1 points in the first 10 games of the playoffs. Through the course of the season, he has gone from afterthought to starter to afterthought to legend. He likely won't have to pay for a meal in Cleveland for years.
"Gibson had a phenomenal series for them," Pistons Coach Flip Saunders said.
Gibson, 21, could be changing the definition of "boobie prize." When he declared for the NBA draft after two uneven seasons at Texas, Gibson was slated to go anywhere from the late first round to undrafted. But he was focused on playing in Cleveland. After working out for the Cavaliers last May, Gibson and his father, who was acting as his agent at the time, canceled his remaining workouts. Gibson even shunned his hometown Houston Rockets.
In the Cavaliers, Gibson saw an opportunity for playing time. In Gibson, Cleveland saw a player who could spread the floor for James. It didn't hurt that Cavaliers assistant general manager Lance Blanks, a former standout at Texas, has been a friend of Gibson's family for years.
The Cavaliers had intended on drafting Gibson with the 25th pick, but instead snatched up Shannon Brown (they were stunned he had slipped so low). But Gibson hung around for the Cavaliers because no other teams had seen him in workouts, and they had questions about his position and his height. Gibson is generously listed at 6 feet 2; "He's 5-5 or 5-6, whatever he is," Mike Brown joked when asked about Gibson.
James, who joked that he should be a general manager because of his ability to identify talent, said he believed Gibson would be an asset after seeing his work ethic and drive to get better in training camp.
"When we got Daniel in the second round, I believe we got a steal," James said. "One day we had a sit-around in the locker room when we were struggling, and Daniel said, 'Man, if every guy in this locker room just plays as hard as I want to play on this basketball court, we're going to be something special.' And for a rookie, a guy that really is not even supposed to say something or say nothing at all . . . I stayed on him from there. I just knew he was going to be something special."
With James pushing behind the scenes, Gibson began to see some action in December and was a starter by late January. He started 16 games at point guard before suffering an injury and eventually losing the job to former Washington Wizard Larry Hughes in March. But when Hughes suffered a torn plantar fascia in the first quarter of Game 3, Gibson was thrust into a pressure cooker and refused to sweat. He scored nine points and hit two three-pointers in the fourth quarter, which seemed like more of a fluke than a sign of the future. In Game 4, though, he stunned the Pistons with 21 points, then a career high.
After James scored 48 points, including Cleveland's final 25, in Game 5, there was more talk than ever that the Cavaliers were a one-man show. The theory held up again Saturday; only this time, Gibson played the lead role, providing a much-needed boost on a night when the Pistons were committed to double- and triple-teaming James. Mike Brown called Gibson's performance "LeBron-esque."
"There is no way we would be here in the Eastern Conference finals or winning the Eastern Conference finals if it was a one-man show," James said. "It's never happened in NBA history; it would never happen in the NBA where a team has one guy and he does it all."
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06-04-2007, 10:27 AM
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