| rev:text
| - Why 5 stars? Because I waited my whole life for June 19, 2016.
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Yes, it's silly to write Yelp review for sports teams. But I write a ton of Yelp reviews and am a die-hard, life-long fan, so this is my medium of choice for my thoughts on the 2016 Championship. And yes, this review will test the 5,000 character Yelp limit :)
My dad grew up in Cleveland as a rabid sports fan. He moved to Houston in 1980, but that didn't stop him from naming his first kid after the centerfielder of the Cleveland Indians in 1984.
You know how most kids learn to speak by watching Sesame Street and other fine children's programming? Well, I did that too. But I also had my Dad teaching me how to recite lineups of Cleveland sports teams. This was my extra credit, I guess.
My reading/writing training was also centered about more of the same. I'd be willing to bet at least $1,000 that I spent more hours reading the sports page than any other 3-8 year old in the Greater Houston area.
Around the time I could really start to follow and fully comprehend games, the Cleveland Indians were awakening from a 40 year coma of misery, and were suddenly amazing. Before the days of the internet and smart phones, we would go to great lengths just to get score updates during the games. We weren't gamblers, but we were degenerates.
The Indians were World Series contenders every year during this time. They made it there twice, and lost both of them. In 1997, they had a one run lead, going into the bottom of the 9th against the Florida Marlins. They blew it, and lost in the 11th inning. I cried all night, and carried over that crying to 8th grade the next day. But it's okay - you know how sympathetic and understanding middle schoolers are, right?
A couple years before that fateful World Series, the Browns ceased existing, as they moved to Baltimore. Naturally, they'd win the Super Bowl in 2000, without "Cleveland" attached to their name. The "New Browns" formed in 1999, but they have been so worthless in my lifetime that they aren't even worth mentioning in this review. Of course, I still watch nearly every game, own a ton of gear and follow every draft like my life depends on it...
The Cavs, meanwhile, have had quite the saga over the past 13 years. In 2003, they drafted a teenager named LeBron James, who grew up in nearby Akron, OH. He turned out to be pretty good at basketball. LeBron's first go-around in Cleveland would require another 5,000 characters, so in the interest of brevity, I'll leave it at this: he left after 7 years to play in Miami. And we hated his guts for it.
But then... he came back, and we all made up :) After many hours of phone calls, I was able to convince my Dad to fly up to Cleveland with me and go to Game 6 of the Finals. "Dad, we've waited our whole lives for this, we HAVE to be there when the championship drought ends." He was finally on board.
So we made our plans, spent our money... and.... watched them Golden State win the championship. Welp, just another day in the life.
But fast forward one year, and it was a re-match with Golden State. Only this time, Golden State was coming off the best regular season in NBA history. And in the Finals, we found ourselves down 3-1. No team in history had ever come back from a 3-1 deficit in the Finals.
But then we won Game 5.
And then for the second straight year, my Dad and I went to Game 6. And this time, we won.
Game 7 was back in Oakland, but the Cavs arena hosts watch parties for road playoff games. The watch party sold out in 28 seconds. I was insanely lucky and was able to buy tickets.
And in Game 7, we won the championship. For the first time since 20 years before I was born, a Cleveland team won a championship. I felt like I had 14 heart attacks. I experienced every happy emotion possible, amplified by 1,000. I screamed til I was hoarse for a week. I cried. I hugged strangers. I always dreamt of what that moment would be like, and it ended up being so much better than any of my assumptions.
It's absolutely not logical to care about sports so much. I often try to convince myself that I should dial it back a few (hundred) notches. But let me ask you this, non-sports people: Do you passionately care about anything, that you passionately cared about, 20 years ago? I've gone through a few passions, hobbies and friends since I was 11, but Cleveland sports are my one constant.
Part of that passion came from the fact that my teams were always so close, but would never quite win the big one. I definitely came to the point where I assumed that my teams would never win. But that didn't stop me from stalking every game, transaction and rumor like it was my job.
But as Steph Curry missed a shot with 3.5 seconds left in Game 7, my Dad leaned in to my ear and said, "we just won it all," and that moment was worth every moment of sports heartache in the first 31 years of my life.
Oh, and June 19, 2016? It was Father's Day.
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