So most of my blog posts lately have been about my kids. And you would think that with today being Father's Day, I'd write something about that. But I'm going to take a change of pace for a moment and reflect on something else - my love for the Cleveland Cavaliers and the emotional roller coaster I find myself on today that I've been trying to avoid all year.
For those of you who know me, you know I had Cavs season tickets, either a partial or a full season plan, for 10 seasons. When I moved to Cleveland in 1996, I knew NOBODY and was trying to find things to occupy my time and meet new people. So I started out with a partial season ticket plan and after a number of years upgraded to full season tickets. Kept them until I had what I thought would be a once in a lifetime chance to take an African safari in Kenya (the rest of that story is history ....) and they started jacking up the prices more than I could afford.
At the time, the Cavs SUCKED. It was pre-Lebron, pre-Eastern Conference titles, pre pretty much everything in the post Richfield Arena era. I think we did a have a year or two that we made the playoffs during my 10-year tenure, but I am one of those people who maintained my loyalty through the tragedy that was the 17-win season, the year we landed in absolutely last place in the league with one of the worst records in the history of the NBA, and landed the #1 pick in the draft, the year we were begging for that so that we could draft the hometown kid Lebron James. I was there through the bitter final seconds of every single home game - me and about 7 other people. I was even President of The Rebounders, the only booster club the Cavs had at the time. I was in charge of a very tiny group of people who had basically no support from the Cavs organization, responsible for planning events and hoping people would help us support this team that SUCKED. No one wanted to admit they were Cavs fans at the time. The organization reeked of desperation, so much so that at our annual autograph party, the ENTIRE active roster showed up even though it was totally voluntary for them to be there. In years prior, we were lucky if 3 or 4 guys showed up and the ones who did show up were the end of the bench players and the retired guys who were still hanging around and liked to throw the booster club a bone once in a while. But we were basically the only support they had, so when they all waltzed through that door, one at a time, I thought I was going to cry. And I was PRESIDENT of the booster club that was trying to do something to make people's $15 annual booster club membership fee worth anything at all. That autograph party was the highlight of my 2-year tenure.
Here we are now, Lebron back at the helm after a brief hiatus in Miami, getting ready to play Game 7 of the NBA Finals against Golden State, the defending champions who just had a record breaking year of their own. Two weeks ago, I'm sure millions of people never thought there would be a Game 7. Last year there wasn't a Game 7. Yet here we are, just a few hours from tipoff. This city has been desperate for a championship for over 50 years. Yeah, the Lake Erie Monsters just won the Calder Cup last week, but it's not the same. In fact, you're probably sitting there saying "Who are the Lake Erie Monsters? What's the Calder Cup?" and firing up your Google machine. When Lebron came back to Cleveland, he said it was because he wanted to bring an NBA championship to this city. The Golden State Warriors just finished off a season where they broke the NBA record for the most wins in a season. They are the defending champs. They have the league's unanimous MVP. They have never lost three games in a row under the realm of Steve Kerr. No team in league history has ever come back from 3-1 to win the championship. It's been close to 40 years since the visiting team has won Game 7 to win the title. Odds are not in our favor. But we are the first team in history to come back from being down 3-1 to force a Game 7 in the Finals. Lebron and Kyrie are the first two teammates to ever both score more than 40 points in the same game in the NBA Finals. Stephen Curry was ejected for the first time in his NBA career. The Warriors also are playing without one of their significant big men who suffered a season-ending knee injury. And everyone watched them literally fall apart during Game 6 in Cleveland. So there's hope. All of the hype up videos being shared on Facebook give us hope, along with all of the memes making fun of Curry and his wife, who can't seem to stay off Twitter, igniting a firestorm of revolution that it's OUR turn now. But I keep reminding myself this is Cleveland.
I expect this game to be brutal. I expect it to be heated and tempers are going to flair up easily. I expect my husband to come THISCLOSE to throwing things at the television. I expect that I will cry. In the meantime, this is what I leave you with - This Moment - We Own It - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYQ1Okyi3g4&list=RDtYQ1Okyi3g4#t=0
Go Cavs!
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