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Boyer at the PD came out with a piece on Z tonight with some interesting notes, including the imminent blocks record as well as some legal/community work he's involved in.
Great to hear that the team was able to get a practice in today for the first time in quite awhile.
Source
Great to hear that the team was able to get a practice in today for the first time in quite awhile.
Cleveland Cavaliers' Zydrunas Ilgauskas shrugging off bumps, bruises as wins mount
by Mary Schmitt Boyer/Plain Dealer Reporter
Monday March 16, 2009, 7:25 PM
CLEVELAND -- Zydrunas Ilgauskas figures it's all Anderson Varejao's fault.
"I need Ben [Wallace] back," Ilgauskas joked after the Cavaliers practiced on Monday. "I told Andy, 'When I started with Ben, I was fine.'"
Ilgauskas was sporting a heavily taped left thumb, which he jammed when Al Harrington tried to block his shot during the second quarter of Sunday's game against New York. It hurt so much, he thought it was broken. But the officials did not call a foul.
"They said the hand was part of the ball," Ilgauskas said. "I disagreed. I said the hand was part of my arm."
The 7-foot-3 center, who missed 16 games earlier this season with a sprained left ankle, already is playing with a broken nose, suffered at Phoenix on the team's recent West Coast trip.
"I'm falling apart," Ilgauskas said, laughing. "It's just something you go through during a season. Fortunately, it's nothing serious that will keep me out."
Of course, it's just his luck that the Cavs will host the Orlando Magic and All-Star center Dwight Howard on Tuesday.
"It couldn't be at a better time," Ilgauskas said with a smile. "What are you going to do?
"When you talk about strength, power, quickness and athleticism, [Howard is] right there at the top of my list," Ilgauskas said. "Obviously we won't be able to stop him, but we'll try to slow him down, keep him off the offensive boards, limit his easy opportunities, make him work for everything."
Ilgauskas is nearing two milestones. Already the team's all-time leading rebounder, he needs four blocked shots to become No. 1 in that category and 34 points to become the fourth player in Cavs history to score 10,000 points. The others are LeBron James, Brad Daugherty and Austin Carr.
"Records like that don't come along very easy or very often," Ilgauskas said. "It's something that I worked hard and a long time for. I'll enjoy it when the time comes, just like I did with my rebounding record, and then I'll move on."
Good cause: Ilgauskas and his wife, Jennifer, have joined with the Northeast Ohio law firm of Dworken & Bernstein to encourage lawyers, judges and corporations in class-action lawsuits to direct millions of dollars in unclaimed class-action settlements to charities.
At a press conference with the couple on Monday afternoon at the Cavs' practice facility, Irving Rosner and Patrick Perotti, partners at Dworken & Bernstein, announced they are establishing a national non-profit organization to encourage the use of cy pres, a legal doctrine that turns unclaimed class-action settlements into creative philanthropy.
Dworken & Bernstein already has secured more than $19 million in cy pres funds for more than 50 charities, including the Boys & Girls Clubs of Cleveland, which has helped youths like Deon Smith.
Smith has a 3.4 grade-point average at John Adams High School and plans to attend Tuskegee University to study computer engineering and play basketball.
"Without that [donated] money, I wouldn't have a safe and positive place to go after school," Smith said. "If I could, I'd take my pillow and blanket and sleep at the club."
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