Cleveland, Ohio won its first professional sports championship in 52 years Sunday when the Cavaliers won the NBA Finals. Immediately after the clock hit zero the world suddenly became very sentimental towards the mistake by the lake. Honestly, who the hell cares about Cleveland?
The city of Cleveland has been a complete dumpster fire of a sports city for half a century. Sub par is one way of describing their teams’ performances during that half century, but simply isn’t harsh enough. The Cleveland Browns, were moved from the city in 1995 by owner Art Model. The team then reentered the NFL in 1998 as an expansion team and played in the 1999 season. Since returning to the league, the Browns have been a complete embarrassment of a pro sports team. They have racked up a whopping 2 winning seasons and a whole 1 playoff birth. Like revolving doors? Well then become a Browns fan. The organization has been nothing but a revolving door, fielding 24 starting quarterbacks with 9 different head coaches since the 1999 season. The only consistency the Browns have is being consistently made fun of by all other fans of the NFL. Now they will try to revive the career of RGIII, and try to finally get a quarterback with a clue on how to play the position.
Let us rewind back to 2010 for a second. LeBron James, on live to, tells the world that he will be taking his talents to South Beach. In an understandable and very Philly move fans then began to lash out against the former Cavalier. Burning jerseys and a very hateful letter from Cavs’ owner Dan Gilbert made sports headlines for weeks following. The Cavs then returned to the basement of the NBA while LeBron won 2 titles in 4 years. Then during the summer of 2014 James announces he will be returning to Cleveland, and the city that once shunned and disowned him, now rejoiced and celebrated him. When LeBron left for a team he thought he had a better chance of winning with he was criticized by his city. However, when James left the Heat for a team in the Cavs he thought he had a better chance to win with he was once again made to be a god. A more hypocritical thing has never happened in the history of sports. The simple fact of the matter is Cleveland fans realized that without LeBron they would never be anything more than a laughing stock.
There just simply isn’t enough thanks in the world Cleveland as a city could give James for pulling them out of the pit they were in and making them finally relevant. LeBron James has single handedly gifted the city of Cleveland a championship trophy. The same fickle Cavaliers fans that walked away from their team when LeBron left and cursed the name of the greatest player in their history should be embarrassed for celebrating his achievements. Cleveland simply doesn’t deserve a great player like LeBron James.
Now all I keep hearing is how we should feel good for Cleveland for their achievement. I have never felt good for any other city who has won a championship, and surely won’t start to do so with Cleveland. The Cavaliers won the championship Cleveland should celebrate, but just because they have been a city of losers for 50 plus years doesn’t mean they should be America’s Cinderella story.
