43
Mahoning Valley residents join Cavs’ victory celebration
RELATED: LeBron announces intention to return to Cavs next season
By JORDYN GRZELEWSKI
jgrzelewski@vindy.com
CLEVELAND
MASCO AT CAVS PARADE
Gallery
A group from the MASCO workshop was thrilled to be in Cleveland to take part in the Cavalier's victory celebration
Cleveland Cavaliers Parade
Gallery
Cleveland Cavaliers NBA Champions
Gallery
Cavs Parade Day with MASCO Workshop
Video
Vindy staffers tagged along with members of Bev MASCO Workshop to celebrate Cleveland's first sports championship in 52 years.
As wine-and-gold confetti rained down on the city Wednesday, 52 years worth of championship angst seemed to dissolve into thin air.
Joy over the Cleveland Cavaliers’ victorious championship run — the first in franchise history, and the first Cleveland sports championship since 1964 — was palpable not only in the raucous atmosphere of Wednesday’s downtown parade and rally, but in the numbers.
As the day wore on, the estimate of how many people attended climbed to more than 1.3 million — nearly four times the city’s population.
Among the massive crowds that throttled the parade route for the all-day affair were a number of Mahoning Valley residents.
The Mahoning County Board of Development Disabilities sent a group from its MASCO workshop, and let The Vindicator tag along.
Workshop member Robert Hewitt, 43 — like many other erstwhile Cleveland-sports fans — has been waiting for a home team victory his entire life.
Unlike some others, however, Hewitt never lost faith in the Cavs’ now-coronated king, LeBron James.
“I’ve always followed LeBron James. I’m a true fan,” said Hewitt.
From the group’s vantage point near Progressive Field, the King was difficult to spot — he was seated in a convertible with his family — but the group was nonetheless thrilled to get a glimpse of him.
Fan-favorite J.R. Smith, however, wasn’t hiding — when the parade proceeded down Ninth Street, he animatedly waved and bent down to greet fans. Social media clips from throughout the day show Smith hoisting a child into the air, spraying crowd members with champagne and other antics — all while shirtless.
The most exciting moment for workshop member Ashley Kannal, 31, she said, was when Kyrie Irving — whose crucial three-point shot in the final seconds of Game 7 against the Golden State Warriors helped the Cavs clinch the title — pointed to her and the sign emblazoned with his name that she waving in the air.
“I just love him,” she said while smiling ecstatically.
The Mahoning Valley crowd also included more than 40 employees from Boardman Molded Products Inc., a plastic injection molding business.
After the Cavs won Sunday night, company president/CEO Ron Kessler decided to do something special for his 95 employees and give them a paid holiday Wednesday. He also sponsored busing for all employees who wanted to go to the parade.
He felt the event was important enough to shut down the Boardman plant for the day, he said, because: “Some of my people have been with me since the mid-1970s and early ‘80s. We’ve been diehard Browns, Cavs and Indians fans, and we never experienced a championship.”
“I have 95 people here in Ohio, and about 300 internationally, and they’re all Cavs fans. They were thrilled that the Cavs won,” said Kessler. “It was a great thing for Northeast Ohio, and to be able to share with my family and all my employees.”
Another local business owner, Jeff Ryznar of 898 Marketing LLC in Canfield, spent the day in Cleveland. Ryznar, who watched the parade with friends and family at a spot in front of Progressive Field, struggled to find the words to express what the victory meant to him as a lifelong Cavaliers fan.
“If I tried to find the words to capture how amazing this was, it would never do it justice,” he said.
Adding to Ryznar’s joy is a close connection he has with the Cavs: he worked as their director of strategic marketing from 2007 until 2012.
“It was a very sweet feeling to accomplish the goal we set out for so many years ago when we got LeBron,” he said.
The win, he said, is shared not only with the city of Cleveland, but with all of Northeast Ohio — a note that James himself made soon after claiming the championship trophy.
“The only question now is, how many more are we going to get?,” Ryznar said.
After James’ announcement on Wednesday that he’ll remain with the Cavs, the Land might like an answer to that question.