Published: May 24, 2009 12:30 am      

No next; nor other

Just when you thought we were this close to waving off the Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron Jordan — er LeBron James — does something like Mike and makes what was about to be a 2-0 Orlando Magic Eastern Conference semifinals lead, a 1-1 series with a big momentum swing going Cleveland’s way as the series resumes tonight in Orlando.

No. 23’s 3-pointer from (if you can believe this) 23 feet at the top of the key with one second left provided further evidence as to why when David Stern hits his knees at night, a Cavs-Lakers NBA finals is mentioned in a not-so roundabout way. Maybe Orlando and Denver really are the better teams. They both certainly appear to be the deepest teams remaining, but the one player both the Lakers and the Cavaliers have — Kobe Bryant and LeBron James — will give the finals so much star power fans will head into June forgetting for a moment there even is such a thing as March Madness.

OK, let’s not get carried away, but King James’ bucket is the stuff of legend that will help define a career of clutch game-winning shots he will no doubt continue to make in the years to come. Twenty years later, how often do we still see LeBron’s hero Michael Jordan torch Craig Ehlo at the buzzer to eliminate the Cavs from the 1989 playoffs? Well now Cleveland has a shot of its own, and though it didn’t end a playoff series, it pretty much prevented this one from ending as the Magic would have been tough to beat up 2-0 and going home.

So does this send LeBron on his way to becoming The Next Jordan that everybody seems so eager to see? No way. There’s no such thing as The Next Jordan. There’s never going to be another Jordan, including the Cavs star who unashamedly wears No. 23 in tribute to Jordan.

No, as we’re seeing more and more every day, the proper way to describe the current No. 23 is he is The First LeBron, and the only one there’s ever going to be.

Ballpark chatter

There are some who can’t bear to listen to Jim Palmer do color analysis on a baseball game, their reason being they tire of the subject of how good a pitcher he was in his playing days somehow always finding its way to the forefront of the discussion.

Well Palmer was a great pitcher — the best in what used to be a pitching-rich Orioles history, kids — but I don’t hear that from Palmer when he does a game. What I hear, for my money, is the best TV analyst in baseball.

The only reason I even bring this up is Friday night Palmer just nailed one on the screws when Washington Nationals play-by-by man Bob Carpenter (yawn) asked the Hall of Fame pitcher what kind of player he sees when he looks at the Orioles’ hot outfield prospect Nolan Reimold.

No sooner had Palmer said, “He reminds me of (Nationals third baseman) Ryan Zimmerman with the way he stands at the plate; and like Zimmerman, if you misplace a fastball he’s going to hit it a long way,” did Nationals pitcher Jordan Zimmermann misplace a fastball and Reimold hit it a long way for his second big league home run.

If that wasn’t impressive enough, two innings later Orioles starter Rich Hill misplaced a fastball to Ryan Zimmerman and the Nats third baseman hit it a long way for a two-run homer.

In yet another woeful baseball season for this area’s closest teams — hey, we’re two hours away from 48 wins and 77 losses no matter which direction we turn — at least the announcing is good. We mentioned before the fine work of Tim Neverett, the Pirates’ first-year play-by-play man, but the MASN crew of Gary Thorne, Palmer and Buck Martinez is as good as it gets in the booth.

As for MASN’s Nats announcing team during games, the veteran Carpenter knows what he’s talking about but sometimes it’s just hard to stay awake to listen to it. Hey, former Orioles and Cavaliers play-by-play yutz Michael Reghi was so hilariously bad, he might be what MASN needs to spice up their dormant Nats broadcasts, the lowest-rated of any in the big leagues.

With Reghi, they wouldn’t be the Nationals, they’d be Skipper Manny Acta’s two-thousand and nine Washington Nationals ballclub!

As for former Nasty Boy Rob Dibble, who is in his first season as Nats analyst, let’s just say it’s quite a step down from Hall of Famer Don Sutton, who had served as the Nationals analyst before returning to Atlanta to do Braves radio games.

I could never understand how Sutton found his way to D.C. to begin with, but it was certainly a pleasure to listen to him. You actually learn something from a broadcast Palmer or Sutton do.

Dibble has to lose the “we” when he refers to the Nationals. Not only did he not play for the Nats, it’s just really disconcerting to the point that you feel he’s trying too hard to fit in. Which is not such a nasty thing to do, but it just doesn’t sell. Neither does he seem to have an idea that some baseball history took place in the 120 or so years before he played in the big leagues, and like ESPN NFL analyst Stink Schlereth, Dibble really seems to be pleased with what he has to say.

But then, I guess there are a few of us out here who have that same problem.

Contact Mike Burke at mburke@times-news.com.