When the final buzzer sounded on Sunday, June 19th and the Cavaliers were officially champions, I can only speak for myself, but it was a feeling of confusion.
I’ve never felt something like that in my 24 years on this earth and as far back as I can remember I have always been rooting for our Cleveland teams.
The end of the 52-year championship drought felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I can only imagine what it felt like for fans who lived through all of the more painful memories and remember all 52 years of it.
But the end of the drought also symbolizes the steady growth and progress that the city of Cleveland has been achieving in recent years. It goes deeper than sports.
Don’t get me wrong, sports are not everything, and much of that growth and progress has been going on long before LeBron James returned home.
But a dramatic event of historical significance like what happened in the 2016 NBA Finals is easy to point to as a symbol of the dawn of a new era in Cleveland. It runs parallel with all the other great things that have been happening in the city and represents the positive vibes that have been building up around town.
For instance, neighborhoods like Tremont, Ohio City, West Park, Fairfax, and the University Circle area have been booming over the last five years.
It’s becoming cool for people from the suburbs to move to Cleveland, especially young people.
The Flats have been revitalized and now the West and East banks are destination spots for a night on the town. A few years ago, the area looked like a wasteland.
People are choosing to move into Downtown Cleveland as opposed to moving out of the city, like they did in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.
The Republican National Convention chose Cleveland as the host city and it will be in the national spotlight in the coming weeks.
All of these things were true with or without a championship, but the image of a curse being broken, a drought being ended, and the way it happened with the prodigal son delivering his city the championship he promised and was destined to bring home, all make this much deeper than a sporting event.
This is not to say that Cleveland is perfect, that problems are all wiped away, and the city is a utopia.
By no means am I trying to convey that.
There are still deeply troubling issues with the city. Education, poverty, crime, the relationship between police and the community; it’s all still there and hopefully the progress that has been happening in recent years with downtown and some of the more upscale neighborhoods can spread out to the rougher areas sooner rather than later.
Cleveland is far from perfect, but now we have something that the whole world can point to and say “It’s a new day.”
Cleveland’s resurgence from being viewed as a joke, a depressed town, so on and so forth has been steadily growing for years.
I remember walking downtown six years ago on days where there were no sporting events and thinking, ‘This is a ghost town.’
Now business is booming, the streets are packed with people wanting to take part in what’s happening. It’s awesome to see.
Perhaps now the “loser” connotation that is associated with Cleveland (much of which was wrongfully associated with the city to begin with) can be put to bed.
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