Cavs blog by Bob Finnan/Dec. 14, 2007

Whenever I'm around Cavaliers forward/center Anderson Varejao, I'm immediately reminded of Manny Ramirez.

Both are happy-go-lucky. Both are Hispanic in nature. Both let things roll off them easily.

Of course, Ramirez, an outfielder for the world champion Boston Red Sox and formerly with the Indians, was far better at his sport than Varejao. I once conducted a 5-minute interview with Ramirez, with him never uttering a word. He shrugged, shook his head and nodded. There was one grunt in there for good measure.

Varejao is far more engaging, even though on Ramirez's recent appearance on Jay Leno, he cracked jokes, smiled and talked at length about his father's restoration project on an old car.

All these years, Manny was just being Manny. He didn't speak to the media for years at a time.

But Varejao has never to my knowledge turned down media requests. He talked freely, even when his English was difficult to understand.