At Long Last, Cleveland Has A Championship

It had to be him. The athlete who won a title for Cleveland was going to have to be some sort of a prodigal son, or half dragon, or Zeus himself.

Trust me, as someone who just watched ESPN’s excellent 30 for 30 “Believeland” with his Cleveland-native dad, I’d know.

The wall separating Cleveland from a championship was as sturdy and as durable and as dogged as walls come. LeBron James himself couldn’t knock it down, not until he lost two Finals with the Cavs, not until he left, and not just when he came back.

For Cleveland to win a title, it was going to have to happen this way – with the Cavs going down 3-1 against one of the great teams in NBA history, coming back, and winning a game seven on the road.

It was going to have to be the hardest, most improbable, most heroic road. It was almost as if at some point during Game 5 the Cavs looked around at each other and said, “Okay, I guess we’re doing this.”

And do it they did. We’ll be in awe of the magnitude of LeBron’s personal accomplishment in this series for years, but his line over the last three games – 36.6 points, 11.6 rebounds, and 9.7 assists – is absolutely preposterous. Those were all elimination games, mind you.

LeBron led his team in all five major statistical categories. He brought together a bunch of players that didn’t really appear to like each other. He became just the third player to score a triple-double in game seven of the finals.

And look, love and respect to Ty Lue, but LeBron just won the NBA Finals against a team that went 73-9 with Ty Freaking Lue as his head coach.

For a moment, it looked like LeBron wouldn’t be able to celebrate. He was fouled – hard – by Draymond Green driving to the basket at the end of the game, and he hit the floor clutching his wrist in obvious pain. It would have been a slightly sour footnote to this story had James gotten hurt just before his greatest moment.

So good thing he recovered to clinch the game for all intents and purposes with a free throw, but how fitting would it have been if the man literally sacrificed his physical well being to drag Cleveland over the finish line?

LeBron said in his post-game interview that God handed him what might be the toughest job in sports: Winning this city a championship.

Chasing that title for Northeast Ohio nearly killed him. Instead, he killed the curse.

Maybe God really doesn’t hate Cleveland. After all, he gave Cleveland LeBron. And LeBron, at the end of it all, delivered.

Sure, there were other players involved. Kyrie Irving, of course, whose three won the game and will live on forever in the annals of NBA history. Tristan Thompson was great too, as was Kevin Love, who finally, with his defense and rebounding, figured out a way to pitch in.

But this was, as it always has been, about Cleveland and LeBron. LeBron and Cleveland.

It feels like the city just won a war. Seriously. Like it drove out an invading army or something. After the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004, Bill Simmons wrote a book called Now I Can Die In Peace.

Same goes here. There were generations of Clevelanders who’d never seen a title, or never got to see one with their parents, or thought they’d never get to see one with their kids.

In fact, forget dying in peace. How about living in peace? All Cleveland has done for the last lord knows how many years is stood on that lake and get kicked. By more than sports, of course, but by sports, if you know what I mean.

Now, the city can celebrate. It can be proud. It can breath. The world looks a little bit different this morning in Cleveland.

I remember the night that LeBron left, and the despair that descended on the town like a self-fulfilling plague. I remember the night he came back, colored by grown men calling into radio shows in tears, and people high-fiving each other at CVS and grabbing entire stacks of Plain Dealers out of newspaper vending machines.

This stuff matters. In a city still reeling from the Tamir Rice shooting, it matters. Maybe it shouldn’t, but it just does. And honestly, right now, who’d want it any other way?

Hopefully winning championships becomes contagious for Cleveland sports teams. It sure was for Boston after the Sox won. The Patriots, Celtics, and Bruins all followed up with championships of their own in short order.

The Indians have a shot this year. The Browns – well, let’s not talk about the Browns for a while. But really, the wall has come down. It’s morning in Cleveland. Anything is possible.

Even this.