A Pivotal Moment

I’ve been a fan of the Cleveland Cavaliers for as long as I can remember. While the Indians were easily the dominant team of my childhood (my family made a lot of trips to Old Municipal, which was about four miles from my house), I have a lot of fond memories of the Cavalier teams of Price, Nance, Daugherty, and Williams. These were great teams that had the misfortune of repeatedly running into the buzzsaw that was Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. I was ten years old when Jordan hit The Shot in Game 5 of the first round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs. Before he did, I remember thinking that the Cavs were going to win that game. After all, there were just three seconds left, and everyone knew Jordan was taking the shot. Just stop this guy for three seconds. Easy, right?

Wrong.

As we all know, Jordan made what was one of the most iconic shots of the most iconic career in basketball history. The Cavaliers remained competitive with the Bulls over the next few seasons, but they never again came that close to vanquishing the beast that was Michael Jeffrey Jordan. At the time, it felt to me like the Cavs were the better overall team, but the Bulls had this singular force that covered all of their flaws. I imagined what it would be like for the Cavaliers to have a player like that, but never thought that day would come.

And then it did.

I was in college when LeBron James burst onto the national consciousness as a high school star. At first, I just thought it was cool that a kid living in Akron (where my father was from and my grandparents still lived) was this highly anticipated NBA prospect. A few years later, when the Cavaliers selected James first in the NBA draft, I was happy they took him, but unsure that any 18-year-old should be seen as the savior of a professional sports franchise. When he became just that, I was ecstatic. There were times I didn’t care for how LeBron conducted himself during his first run here. He seemed annoyed when he had to share the spotlight with others, openly fed into rumors about his future, and seemed to intentionally antagonize the fans at various points. The incident in which he showed off his Yankees hat during the Indians’ 2007 American League Division Series against New York seemed to showcase all of his flaws at once. Still, I appreciated his greatness on the court, and knew Cleveland sports would likely never see another like James if he ever left.

When Dan Gilbert bought the Cavaliers from Gordon Gund in 2005, I was a bit nervous. Gund had been a good owner who had saved basketball in Cleveland from Ted Stepien, and had conducted himself with class. The Cavaliers were also usually competitive during his ownership. Gilbert quickly fired coach Paul Silas and general manager Jim Paxson, moves that showed he was willing to shake things up with the team. When he presented new head coach Mike Brown with a clock upon hiring him, Gilbert came off as the kind of impatient owner who can damage a sports franchise, but he backed it up with an unbridled willingness to spend money, which cast him in a far more positive light to most people (myself included).

Five few seasons later came The Decision. When LeBron announced via an ESPN special that he was “taking his talents to South Beach”, I was among the many Cavalier fans disgusted with how he handled the presentationof his choice. James seemed arrogant, out of touch with his fans, and ungrateful of the support both the Cavaliers and the rest of Northeast Ohio had given him. His shock over the fans’ reactions just seemed to show how self-centered he was. What else could the man expect? We had been scorned and humiliated on national television.

When Dan Gilbert responded to James’s leaving with his letter, my first instinct was that he was right. LeBron had seemingly quit on the Cavaliers against the Boston Celtics during the playoffs, and it looked like he wanted the easy way out. He had waited so long into free agency to make a decision that the Cavaliers were left with few other options, meaning James’s departure hurt the team in a multitude of ways.

Then I thought a bit more about the letter. Maybe James had quit on the Cavaliers against the Celtics, but Gilbert also implied that James had done the same the year prior against the Orlando Magic. Anyone who watched that series knew that nothing could be further from the truth. When James struggled against the Dallas Mavericks during the 2011 NBA Finals, it then became evident that he hadn’t quit in the playoffs so much as the pressure to win a title was weighing him down when it mattered most. It also became more apparent that players and other organizations saw Gilbert’s letter for what it was, lashing out by a bitter former boss who hadn’t given his organization the stability to handle its misfortune in a better way.

When James returned to the Cavaliers four years later, fans were ecstatic, and rightfully so. The Cavs had been full of drama and dysfunction during the years James spent with the Miami Heat, but none of that mattered anymore. The King was back to rule at The Q, and things would great again. The drama and dysfunction remained, but the Cavaliers were winning. James and Gilbert seemed to bury the hatchet, at least enough to work together again. James still caused more than his share of drama, but he had grown as both a player and as a leader during his time in Miami. He also seemed to realize what this area meant to him, and there’s no denying that he has given us far more than we could ever have expected from him, both on and off the court.

Despite all of the ups and downs of the last three-and-a-half seasons, it’s all been worth it. The Cavaliers have made three straight trips to the NBA Finals, ending Cleveland’s championship drought in 2016. We all remember where we were when the final buzzer sounded at the end of Game Seven. Before that, I’d always wondered what it would be like if one of my teams ever one a title, and I can honestly say that the feeling of euphoria I experienced when the Cavaliers won the NBA Championship was better than I ever imagined it would be. It was several months before I could watch Game Seven without becoming emotional, and every member of that team will always have a special place in this sports fan’s heart (even Iman Shumpert).

Unfortunately success is fleeting. Less than two years later, we sit just days from the NBA Trade Deadline with the team in disarray. Last summer, Gilbert let go of former general manager David Griffin, and replaced him with Koby Altman. Altman may very well be a bright young mind with a great future in this league, but no one knows for sure. By multiple accounts, Gilbert has seemingly used him as little more than a puppet so far. Gilbert also traded perennial All-Star Kyrie Irving, and the results have been disastrous so far. Jae Crowder has underachieved until recently. The Brooklyn Nets’ first-round pick the Cavaliers received in the trade looks like it could slot lower than expected by draft time, diminishing its value significantly. Isaiah Thomas, coming off a hip injury that kept him out of action for seven months, has been abysmal, and the team plays significantly better with him on the bench. The roster has gotten old, and the chemistry in the locker room is seemingly the worst it’s been since James returned.

Now, with just days left to make any real roster adjustments, the future of the Cavaliers is as uncertain as it’s ever been. Yes, Gilbert has spent more money on this team than anyone could realistically expect over the past few seasons, but he seems to have begun looking towards the future. The Nets pick was the focus of the Irving deal, and there are rumors that Gilbert is resistant to taking on future money at the trade deadline. Meanwhile, the Cavalier’s abysmal play and chemistry has clearly affected James, who is coming off one of his worst months as a professional. On one side, it makes sense that Gilbert may be less willing to give up future assets and cap space if James won’t commit to re-signing with the team. On the other hand, James may rightfully be unsure about staying with the Cavaliers this summer if they aren’t focused on trying to win a championship at all costs. In many ways, James and Gilbert seem like a couple that had a rough break-up before getting back together after a while, but they don’t have enough trust in each other to work it out when things get hard. This lack of trust may wind up causing the greatest athlete in the history of Cleveland sports to leave town once again.

While Gilbert is nervousness about James leaving him in a lurch once again is understandable, his current stance could very well drive James away. The only comparable situation in Cleveland sports history may have been when Art Modell’s insistence on fining Jim Brown for missing training camp while filming The Dirty Dozen caused Brown to retire a year earlier than expected. Like Modell with the Browns, Gilbert may feel that he has never gotten enough credit from the fans for his financial support of the Cavaliers, but if he pushes  James out the door, fans will turn against Gilbert in much the same the turned against Modell after he fired Paul Brown and forced Jim Brown’s retirement. Even those who stayed Browns fans until Modell relocated the team didn’t fully trust him despite the fact that he, like Gilbert, put a lot of money into the team and the community. What Gilbert needs to realize, is that Nets pick or no, the Cavaliers will be in for a long and painful rebuild whenever James does leave or retire. When you have the greatest player of his generation on your team, the best thing you can do is maximize his prime as long as possible.

So as the clock ticks down to Thursday at 4:00, the future of the Cleveland Cavaliers hangs in the balance, as the front office makes some of the most important decisions in team history. Make some moves that end up helping the Cavaliers right the ship and get back to the NBA Finals, and LeBron James will have a compelling reason to stay in Cleveland. Stand pat or make moves that have little to no impact, and the greatest athlete in Cleveland sports history may very well walk away once again.