As We Dance, We All Dance

I'm keeping with the Cavalier-themed post and would like to wish a happy 32nd birthday to Zydrunas Ilgauskas! Big Z is the most senior member of the Cavaliers and (I just found this one out) has spent the most time with the team then any other player in team history. Here is a player that was injury prone (this is well-documented) during the first half of his career and figured to be a bust. He's been healthy the past 4-5 years and has been an all-star and a consistent contributor to the team. He's seen the low points of the team (2002-2003) and is now here in the NBA Finals. There is a reason LeBron hugged Big Z at the end of the game (at 1:00 of this video) -- LeBron recognized all the hard work that Z has put in and as much as the finals mean to LeBron, it means a lot more to Z.

Since it is his birthday I'll related a couple of Z-related anecdotes. I have met [sorta] Big Z on two occasions. The first was at the Kenilworth somewhere around 2002-2003. I was out with my buddy Teets and we were checking out the scene. He went into the 2nd room (pool table & darts) while I was getting drinks. He came back and said "dude, there's some crazy tall guy in there." I don't think anything of it. Later on, this big guy walks through and I'm like "You know who that is? Big Z!" The guy is huge! Add the fact that the Kenilworth has some short ceilings, he looked even bigger.
The second time was at the West End. He was with two friends and I was at the table next to them. Some girls kept asking his friends if "that was him" while they played it off and said "no, he just looks like him." Right, there are a lot of 7-foot-plus Lithuanians living in Cleveland.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Big Z, hope you can bring this city a title!