Tuesday, June 21, 2016
By KALEA HALL
khall@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
Video
Cavs fans across the Valley give their opinions on the team's first NBA Championship.
When the King hit the floor, tears in his eyes and triumph around him, the relief set in.
After 52 years of no championship titles and decades of disbelief in Cleveland, the Cavaliers finally put an end to it all with a 93-89 victory Sunday night over the Golden State Warriors in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
Akron native LeBron James and his crew arrived home from California on Monday afternoon to the thankful fans who believed in them from the start.
“We are ride or die,” said Jane Horne of Warren. “We have been with them from the beginning.”
Horne had her Cavaliers gear on Monday and ecstatically spoke of her team’s big win.
“We lost our voices from screaming,” she said. “If the house could shake, it was shaking. It is phenomenal.”
Horne believes the team coming together to play as one is what led to the miraculous victory. The Cavaliers are the only team in NBA history to come back in the finals after being down 3-1.
“It goes to all of them,” she said. “Even Coach [Tyronn] Lue made a significant difference.”
Horne will be at the parade Wednesday to celebrate with the Cavaliers. She was right there with them Sunday night crying in happiness like the players.
“It hit home,” she said.
The win also hit home for Ryan Herman of Youngstown, who also shed a tear for the Cavaliers win.
“It’s more or less surreal,” he said. “I am still having a hard time believing it.”
Herman wore a Cavaliers shirt Monday to pledge his allegiance to the team that finally brought home a championship for Cleveland and all of Northeast Ohio.
“I have always been a Cleveland everything fan,” he said. “A lot of people didn’t get to experience [the championship]. To finally see it is unbelievable.”
Daniel Canter of Vienna was in Cleveland on Sunday night when the final buzzer went off.
“I went crazy,” he said.
Canter was hopeful the Cavaliers would pull off what seemed to be impossible. After Game 5, he knew his team had it.
“It means everything,” he said of the championship.
Fan loyalty was on full display in Cleveland. Cavaliers T-shirts and jerseys were the obvious fashion choice, worn casually with shorts and jeans but also matched with skirts, dress slacks and suits.
At the Tower City shopping mall, Brittany LeMar, 30, was waiting in line at a sporting goods store to buy a Cavs T-shirt. The native Clevelander now lives in North Carolina and said she couldn’t wait to flaunt her shirt to her friends when she returned home.
Ethan Moses, 25, wore the No. 5 jersey of Cavs player J.R. Smith over a pair of khakis Monday. He high-fived a security guard as he walked out of a downtown grocery store. Asked how he felt, Moses rattled off a list of superlatives.
“I don’t know what to do,” he said, smiling. “I can hardly speak.”
Moses said he and some high school friends rented a hotel room downtown to watch the game and then joined revelers on the street afterward, partying until around 3:30 a.m. Moses managed to get himself to work by 9 a.m. More than three hours later, he was still a little woozy.
“It’s the best hangover of my life,” he said with a laugh.
Cleveland’s title drought stretches back to 1964, when the Browns won the last of its NFL championships. The Indians got within one out of a World Series title in 1997 before blowing a lead in Game 7.
The Cavaliers got to the NBA finals in 2007 with a younger James leading the team, but they got swept by the San Antonio Spurs. LeBron leaving Cleveland for Miami in 2010 demoralized the city, but his surprising return in 2014 gave Cleveland sports fans new hope.
The Associated Press contributed to this report