I hardly doubt anyone would ever suggest that Buffalo is a basketball town by any means, but what sports-loving town isn’t going to be all-in (sorry, Rex) on this year’s NBA Finals? Even in hockey-crazed Buffalo, the NBA Finals between Golden State and Cleveland should be getting full attention from the local sports fans. It helps that this year’s finals features a dream matchup (dream for everyone but Gary Bettman).
On one side, you have the Golden State Warriors, perhaps the most fun sports team to watch in….I don’t know, ever? The Warriors have changed the way we watch and think about the game of basketball and how it should be played. That’s no exaggeration. The Warriors will forever be the team we point to when talking about the importance of three-point shooting.
This season, the Warriors became the first team ever to make 1,000 three-pointers in a single regular season. Super-duper star Steph Curry set a new NBA record for most three-pointers made by a single player in a season (and tied the record for most in one game with 12) and has made a three in 184 consecutive games (yep, that’s a record). They continue to set records this postseason (most three-pointers made in a seven-game series; most three-pointers made by one player, Klay Thompson, in a playoff game; most consecutive playoff games with a made three-pointer; most points scored by a player, Curry, in an overtime period).
Oh yea, there’s also that whole 73 wins thing that set a new NBA record and set off a whole lot of “back in my day” takes from NBA stars of the past (mainly the 95-96 Chicago Bulls) about how such and such team would have beaten the Warriors and they would never have come close to 73 wins back then and so on. These takes are normally used by the insufferable 1972 Miami Dolphins, but crawled out of the hole they’ve been buried in since Super Bowl XLII this year.
All of these takes earned a chuckle and an “ohh okayyyy” from yours truly, as I don’t believe I’ve seen a more dominant or deadly team in any sport at any time than this Warriors team. But best of luck to the ’86 Celtics or whomever in trying to stop this Warriors squad from lighting up the scoreboard. I don’t think a Kevin McHale clothesline would be all that effective here (that sound you heard is Bill Simmons whining in a “Free Brady” t-shirt somewhere in LA).
This Warriors team alone is enough to draw undivided attention to ABC for the NBA Finals, but now factor in their opponent – the Cleveland Cavaliers.
You all should know the story of the Cleveland Cavaliers: a forlorn franchise for 33 years after entering the NBA as an expansion team in 1970 (with the Buffalo Braves!) that finally found it’s savior in number-one overall pick and nearby-Akron native LeBron James. LeBron was a transcendent talent with the Cavs and took them from the depths of the league to the cusp of an NBA championship. There was just one problem: LeBron’s contract was expiring and the Cavs did little to entice him to stay home in Cleveland. So since this is Cleveland and nothing goes right for them (except like three or four different draft lotteries), LeBron made The Decision and bolted for South Beach without winning a championship for his title-starved home.
So Cavs fans burn his jersey and tear down his giant billboard and, of course, LeBron wins a championship in Miami while his old team falls back down to the bottom of the league standings. But then a funny thing happened – LeBron opted out of his contract and decided to become a free agent again. He went back to Cleveland and now has the Cavs on the cusp of a title again.
This is LeBron’s sixth-straight (sixth-straight!) NBA Finals appearance, including his second in a row with Cleveland. Think about all the praise we heap on the Bills for four-straight Super Bowl appearances (and rightfully so). LeBron is doing this six years in a row. And each time, he is THE GUY on his team. This isn’t Gale Gilbert being on five consecutive Super Bowl teams. I feel like we’re not appreciating just how amazing this accomplishment is.
So unlike LeBron’s first go-around with the Cavs, he actually has some help on his side from his teammates. Because the Cavs went to absolute shit after LeBron left, they found themselves picking at the top of the draft for a few years in a row. They did get some help, though.
The Clippers gave the Cavs the pick that became the 2011 lottery winner in exchange for Mo Williams and Jamario Moon. The Cavs ended up with both Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson in the top-5 of the 2011 draft. Two years later, the Cavs ended up winning the lottery. A year after that, they unexpectedly won the lottery again. The two players Cleveland picked back-to-back at no. 1 overall are both gone from the team. In this case, it’s not gross mismanagement; they were flipped in a trade for Kevin Love.
Irving, Thompson, and Love give LeBron the talented core he never had around him before The Decision. Add in help from a supporting cast that includes J.R. Smith, Channing Frye, and Iman Shumpert, and the Cavs have the second most-talented roster in the NBA and the best look at a championship in their history. The Cavs steamrolled through the Eastern Conference playoffs, losing just two games and winning games by scores like 123-98, 115-84, 116-78, and 113-87. In the second round against the Hawks, they set a record for most three-pointers made in a game with 25 in Game 2.
This Cavs-Warriors final is a wet-dream matchup for ABC and the NBA. These are two of the most talented teams we’ve seen in a long time in the NBA. As good as the Warriors-Thunder series was (and it was reeeaaalllyyy good), this series could be every bit as good or better.
So, who is Buffalo rooting for?
There’s no right or wrong answer to this question. Each fan has different rooting preferences and many Buffalo sports fans don’t care at all. It’s tough not to root for Curry and Golden State because of how fun and incredible to watch they are. Their dominance reminds me of Tiger Woods circa 2000 or 2001, when watching him on the last two days of a major was appointment viewing. At the same time, how can you not root for Cleveland and their long-suffering fans? Despite having three professional sports franchises, no team from Cleveland has won it all since the Browns won the NFL title in 1964, two years before the first Super Bowl.
As an aside, Cleveland is an awesome and underappreciated city to spend a summer weekend in. There are plenty of seats and affordable tickets available for Indians’ games in their downtown park within walking distance of cool bars and restaurants in the Gateway District. You can then hop on the RTA and head to Ohio City, where you will find the West Side Market, Great Lakes Brewing Co., and a host of other craft beer bars and brewpubs. Oh yeah, there’s also the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Great Lakes Science Center along the water if you’re into stuff besides drinking, I guess.
Cleveland and Buffalo share a certain kinship, of course. No two cities know the feeling of getting kicked in the nuts by sports quite like Cleveland and Buffalo do. To be a sports fan in either of these towns means to sign up for disappointment. It is masochistic in a way. It’s like waking up on Christmas morning to nothing but socks under the tree year after year after year. It’s like going on a date with a girl and watching her run off with another guy and steal your car while you go to the bar to close your tab (I swear this never actually happened to me). It’s like finding out Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are the two candidates for president this year (whoops).
Does this mean Buffalo sports fans have to root for Cleveland because they are tortured like us? Not necessarily. Misery loves company and Buffalo sports fans have always been able to count on Cleveland being the go-to city to pick on for sports pain and heartbreak. Whenever something bad has happened to the Bills or Sabres, we could always look across the lake to Cleveland and know they are going through something similar. We could always say, “Well, at least we’re not Cleveland.” The Bills never moved and became a poorly-run expansion team like the Browns. The NFL or NHL never stepped in to stop one of our owners from trading away first round draft picks like the NBA did with Cavs owner Ted Stepien in the ‘80s. We never used a racist image as our team logo like the Indians have. Hell, the city has never defaulted on its loans like Cleveland has and the Niagara River has never started on fire (to my knowledge).
If the Cavs somehow beat the Warriors and win the title, that kinda goes away, right? No more is Cleveland the loser who will always fail at the end. They will have their parade through the city and get a taste of what it’s like to be a winner. Flags fly forever. What will Buffalo then have? We’ll still be waiting. Suddenly, we’ll be the cliché city everyone mentions for sports misery. Who else would it be? San Diego? Milwaukee? Charlotte? The trials and tribulations of those sports cities are nowhere near as romanticized as Buffalo’s.
There are pros and cons to being “that team” (in this case “teams”) that hasn’t won in forever. It definitely turns up the pressure on ownership to go out and do what’s necessary to finally win that allusive title. You’ll also get plenty of sympathy from other sports fans and you might become a trendy team to root for. At the same time, as we know, the waiting is just the worst. The only thing that might be worse is the constant mentions of your draught and past heartbreak. I’m a Boston Red Sox fan and I remember what it was like watching them play games broadcasted by FOX in 2003 and 2004. It was just constant montages of Babe Ruth, Bucky Dent, Bill Buckner, and Aaron Boone. There’s only so many times I needed to see a NO WORLD SERIES TITLES SINCE 1918 graphic. Just insufferable. If the Cavs do the damn thing, the next time the Bills or Sabres go deep in the playoffs will look just like that. Want to see Wide Right or No Goal over and over again? The broadcast networks will make sure you do.
Many fans will root for Cleveland to lose so they can stay with Buffalo in the proverbial factory of sadness. Who wants to be known as the shining example of sports failure? If Cleveland wins it all, that’s what we’ll be.
At the same time, if you have a heart at all, how can you not root for poor Cleveland fans to finally get the championship they deserve? You don’t need to watch the Believeland 30 for 30 to understand Cleveland sports fans. All you have to do is look in the mirror. They’re us. All they want is to just see their team win. They’ve been waiting a long time and have gone through a lot of bullshit. It’s hard to imagine a sports city cherishing a championship as much as Cleveland would.
Golden State will probably win this thing and that’s fine. They are the best team of all time. They help make the NBA so much fun to watch. There’s no reason to be upset about the Warriors winning another title. At the same time, that’ll be five major sports championships in less than a decade for the Bay Area (all from the Warriors and Giants). That also doesn’t include the 49ers trip to the Super Bowl in 2013 and whatever happens to the Sharks in the Stanley Cup finals against Pittsburgh. Bay Area sports fans have had plenty to celebrate in recent years. Maybe enough is enough. They are becoming the new Pittsburgh or Boston.
I won’t say that I have a particular rooting interest in either the Cavs or Warriors, but man I would love to see LeBron and co. push the Warriors to seven games. There could be nothing more exciting than a do-or-die game featuring LeBron and Steph. And man, it would be great to see Cleveland win and get that title. If that happens, maybe there’s hope for Buffalo after all.
Can you imagine a Cleveland sports team and the Chicago Cubs (baseball’s best record) both winning titles in the same year? It could happen in 2016. Maybe the apocalypse is upon us (or Trump is about to be elected).
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