Cavs’ championship glory transcends sports arena

It’s party time in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio, so let the good times roll today. Hundreds of thousands of diehard believers in the Cavaliers are expected to crush the downtown parade route today to celebrate the team’s astonishing come-from-way-behind victory in the 2016 National Basketball Association Finals.

Clearly the team has earned the admiration and respect of our region, and we join the masses in congratulating LeBron James & Company for ending the city’s 52-year drought in professional sports titles.

As we do, we also recognize that the value of the championship transcends the sports arena. Its uplifting ripple effects stretch into the vitality, economy and very psyche of the city and the region.

To be sure, basketball fans have much to cheer today, starting with the amazing odyssey of Akron native LeBron James, rightfully deemed the Most Valuable Player of the Finals against the Golden State Warriors.

Few could dispute that honor. King James kept the Cavaliers’ dim hopes alive in Games 5 and 6 of the seven-game series by scoring an astounding 41 points in each of those games. In Sunday’s nail-biting, climactic finale, he scored 27 points and had 11 rebounds and 11 assists.

Collectively, LeBron and his powerhouse teammates – Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and J.R. Smith among the most notable – beat the odds that were stacked clearly and colossally against them. After all, no other team in NBA history ever rebounded from a 3-1 series deficit to clinch the championship. The Warriors had by far the best record of all NBA squads this season and had never, ever lost more than two consecutive games throughout the season.

Now, as the city and the region bask in the celebratory limelight, it’s not too early to speculate on how the championship can be a game changer for the city and the region beyond the confines of the massive Quicken Loans Arena on East Ninth Street in the heart of downtown Cleveland.

From Sunday through today’s bedlam, bars, restaurants, nightclubs, souvenir shops and other celebratory venues from East Ninth Street to the Route 224 Strip in Boardman have gotten a major-league boost in sales and hubbub. We expect that cheering and ch-ching will continue for days and weeks ahead.

More important than dollars and cents, however, will be the championship’s impact at chipping away at the longtime battered and bruised image of Cleveland sports franchises and the city itself. For decades now, they’ve been the butt of many a tasteless joke.

YOUNGSTOWN ON REBOUND, TOO

In that regard, Greater Cleveland shares an affinity with Greater Youngstown. Like Cleveland, Youngstown has lost more than half of its population over the past 50 years. Like Metro Cleveland, Metro Youngstown has witnessed much of its once mighty industrial base collapse over the past four decades. But also like the Cleveland area, the Mahoning Valley has seen many tangible signs of progress, reinvestment, revitalization and attitude enhancements in recent years.

The positive energy and notice from championship status can only complement those promising positive trends.

What’s more, for Cleveland, the end of the 52-year title drought comes at a most propitious time. In three weeks, the home court of the Cavaliers will be transformed into the epicenter of the political universe as The Q arena will host the weeklong Republican National Convention.

There’s little doubt that the tens of thousands of convention delegates and spectators will still feel the residual positive vibes from the afterglow of the Cavs’ superlative season.

The challenge ahead for the city and this region will be to build on that positive aura and to channel this region’s newfound upbeat spirit into other venues.

Part of that will be building on our sports legacy. Don’t look now, but the Cleveland Indians, whose championship drought extends 68 years, sit atop first place in the American League Central Division. One can only imagine the unbridled bedlam that would be uncorked should Cleveland follow up its NBA title with a World Series championship.

Unlikely? Perhaps. But Cleveland and Northeast Ohio are clearly on a roll in shedding themselves of their status as underdogs and losers in sports prowess and economic stature.

From “Believeland” to the Valley, we’re hoping that the talent and resilience so proudly on display in recent weeks will continue to win the day for the ongoing success of our sports franchises and for the overall enrichment in the quality of life throughout our home turf.