Sometimes you get an offer you can’t refuse. That happened
to me earlier this week when a good friend of mine flew in from Las Vegas and had an NBA
Finals Game 4 ticket for me. Admittedly, I am not a big Cleveland Cavs fan. In
fact, I was throwing shade at LeBron before it was cool and long before he took
his talents to South
Beach
It’s not that I have anything against the Cavs, necessarily,
I just don’t have an affinity for the NBA and there’s probably a certain level
of jealousy there. The jealousy lies in the fact that the Cavs play in a league
in which 16 of the 30 teams make the NBA playoffs and the NBA Eastern
Conference is a joke. It also lies in the fact that the Cavs are in the Finals
and the Indians have not made one since 1997. I was 11 years old and I don’t
have a strong recollection of the series. The Cavs have made two Finals since
then, due in large part to some fortunate Draft Lottery luck. Major League
Baseball isn’t quite that simple and it’s very hard to build a consistent
winner in baseball.
Regardless, I understand the desire for a championship in
this city. Just because it’s not the one that I want, most fans will take any
championship, and this is exactly the one that some people want. Knowing that,
I was excited to go. Not because I was emotionally invested, but because the
atmosphere was easily worth experiencing. My Indians fandom runs so deep that I
am emotionally invested in regular season interleague games on Tuesday nights,
let alone the key weekend matchups or the rare playoff game. It’s a major
departure from my feelings on the Cavs. I had been to one game since eighth
grade prior to going on Thursday night.
It lived up to the hype from the start. The Gateway District
and the surrounding bars were full of palpable excitement. After years of going
down to sporting events with no buzz, no hype, no crowd, and no enthusiasm, to
see downtown energized like that filled me with pride in my city. We’ve endured
a lot on a lot of different levels. Cleveland
fans wear sports disappointments like scout merit badges. Like they are
accomplishments that have been unlocked in a video game. Like they are part of “the
Cleveland fan
experience”. Red Right 88. The Drive. The Shot. The Decision. The Stop Sign.
The Overnight Departure. The trading of consecutive Cy Young Award winners. If
the Cavs lose the NBA Finals, who knows what we’ll call it. Somebody will have
a name. It will stick. It will be the epithet for all self-deprecating sports
commentary until another chance to be disappointed emerges.
As I’ve gotten older, it’s been increasingly disheartening
to see Cleveland
fans play the roles of cynics and pessimists. It’s understandable, given that
the Cleveland Browns have been the laughing stock of the NFL basically since
they returned. The Indians have not consistently strung together much of
anything and have exactly five playoff wins since 2001. The Cavs have been Cleveland ’s best hope, a
fan base dragged behind the last car on a roller coaster since 2003 when a
wunderkind named LeBron James fell into the organization’s lap. But
Clevelanders use their sports disappointments as a crutch and as a predictor of
future performance. To me, it’s no longer a badge of honor. It’s an addiction
to pain and suffering that is easier to fall victim to than to persevere
through by supporting the teams in the city. There is only one winner in each
league. It hasn’t been Cleveland
since 1964. That doesn’t mean that everything is a failure. That doesn’t mean
that Cleveland
is cursed, irrespective of what the anecdotal evidence states. It simply means
that a Cleveland
team has not been great enough. There have been good teams. There have not been
great teams.
Right now, the Cleveland Cavaliers are barely bordering on
good. Injuries have decimated the lineup and the team’s depth, so much so that
the world’s greatest player can’t make it through one half of basketball
without looking like he just ran a marathon. While nobody has been paying
attention, the Indians have made it a point to piss away the league’s best starting
rotation by not being able to field or get hits with runners in scoring
position. Somehow, it’s almost a microcosm for how Cleveland wants its sports. One team experiences
success, though they may ultimately fall short, and one team, serving as a fallback
option, is struggling and could allow fans to utter the “wait ‘til next year”
expression we’ve all come to know and love/hate. That way Cleveland fans can spend the summer lamenting
the close call rather than getting lost in another playoff chase.
Deep down, I feel like there are segments of the Cleveland sports fan base
that secretly want the Cavs to lose. What will those individuals do without
their “woe is us” attitude to fall back on? I don’t think any of those people
were in attendance on Thursday night. In today’s highly-polarized society,
finding even 10 people in a room with a common sentiment is hard to do. On
Thursday night, probably 20,462 of the 20,562 in attendance were “All In” for
the Cavs.
Even the dormant Cavs fan in me got caught up in the moment
before the game and during the 7-0 run to start the game. Unfortunately, that
was about all the excitement that the game provided since the Cavs trailed the
vast majority of the night and got within three at 73-70, but got no closer.
The crowd gradually sensed what was going on and started to sound and feel as
defeated as the team looked.
I spent most of the game analyzing, because that’s my
nature. I appreciated the environment for what it was, though I certainly felt
a sense of emptiness in the fact that I wasn’t as engaged in the game the same
way that the other people around me were. On a different level, I was content
with that because I was able to process the game in a much different manner. It
wasn’t a “here we go, again” mindset like most people probably had, especially
after LeBron went down in a heap after getting domed by a camera. My mindset
was more pragmatic. Fans held out hope. I wanted LeBron and the other starters
benched much earlier than David Blatt sat them down because Game 4 had clearly
gotten away. It’s a tough sell to openly punt a game like that on the home
floor, but it would have been the right decision.
The experience was undoubtedly worth it for all involved,
even if the outcome didn’t live up to the atmosphere. The Cavaliers may lose
the series. They’re tired. Circumstances have put David Blatt in a bind. He
cannot adjust the way that Steve Kerr can. They may also defy the odds and win
the series, adding to LeBron’s legacy and snapping the title drought in one fell
swoop. Whatever happens, this is a team to be proud of and a city to be proud
of.
On Thursday night, I saw the best of Cleveland . I saw the optimism. I saw the
hope. I saw 20,000 foam light-up sticks waving around a dark arena before the
game. I saw Jason Kipnis and Michael Brantley supporting their Gateway District
neighbors. I saw businesspeople. I saw children. I saw young couples and old
couples. I saw all races and all ethnicities. I saw over 20,000 people brought
together by a common interest.
It was exhilarating. I won’t remember the game, per se, but
I will remember my presence. I will remember Usher’s national anthem and the
unnecessarily detailed, two-sided card that was used to color the stands red,
white, and blue during the anthem and wine and gold afterwards. I will remember
who I went with, where I sat, and the feelings I had when the arena crowd
reached peak decibel levels.
I won’t watch the remainder of the series. I’m just not that
interested. It’s nothing against the Cavs. It’s nothing against the city. I
have strong opinions about being a fan that include being there through the
good times and bad and I practice what I preach. If they win it, it will be the
stuff of legend and Cleveland
will be one giant party.
If they don’t, Clevelanders will dwell on the negative. They
shouldn’t. They should celebrate the positive. It’s human nature to want more.
It’s fair to wonder when a Cleveland
team will come this close again. It’s fair to wonder what could have been with
Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love on the floor. But, it’s also fair (and deserved) to
applaud the efforts of a team that was 21-20 midway through the NBA season.
They were 32-9 over the final 41 games and are 14-4 in the postseason so far.
Unfortunately, that’s not the way it works. It will simply
be another loss. Another disappointment. Another badge of honor. Another
nickname in Cleveland sports lore.
Whatever happens, don’t take this playoff run for granted.
(Take it from a diehard Indians fan.) That’s not the way to go “All In”. That’s
the way to fold. Calling this season a disappointment if the ultimate prize
went to somebody else is unfair. Cleveland Cleveland
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