It's the hot topic right now: after 52 years of Cleveland professional sports not winning a championship, the Cleveland Cavaliers have won the NBA Finals. If you are from Northeast Ohio, you cannot get on social media, or even turn on the tv without hearing about Cleveland sports or the championship parade which drew over one million people to downtown Cleveland. As anyone from Northeast Ohio can probably agree, the Cavaliers winning the NBA Finals is more than just a championship win for the organization.
Winning the NBA Finals was more than just winning a ring for a Cleveland sports organization. Not only did The Cavaliers make history, ‘reverse the curse’, end the drought, and whatever other sayings are going around, but they gave Cleveland fans the relief that all the hope and cheering season after season was worth it. Plus, it gave Cleveland sports organizations the mentality that a championship is possible.
If you have played sports in your life, you have probably heard the phrase that the game is 99% mental. I believe that at any level you play sports--whether it is little league, high school, college or professional sports--that phrase is true.
A Cleveland professional sports organization has not won a championship in 52 years--over half a century. Whether the athletes will admit it or not, mentally they did not believe winning a championship was possible. The athletes and their team would start the season confident that this was their year, then they would go in a slump or start losing, thus they lose their confidence and don't play as well the rest of the season. The Cleveland Cavaliers has brought back the confidence Cleveland needed and has given the sports organizations momentum and the flow of winning again.
The Cleveland Indians have currently won 15 of their last 17 games. The Indians had not lost since Wednesday, June 15th, which was the day the Cavaliers made the series 3-2, with a 14 game winning streak. The Indians lost their streak this past Saturday against the Toronto Blue Jays with an overturned call at home plate in the 8th inning which gave the Blue Jays the lead. The next night the Indians struggled with a 17-1 loss to the Blue Jays, but they came back strong against the Detroit zithers with a 5-3 win at the sold-out home game. The Indians are playing great this season, but the pre-season did not look so strong for the Indians with Michael Brantley, and Abraham Almonte not being able to start the season. This left the Indians searching for a whole new outfield. One of the players that was in question of starting was rookie Tyler Naquin. Tyler Naquin currently has the highest batting average on the team with a .325. Not only is rookie Naquin killing it, but the whole Indians organization is doing great. The Indians have a record of .605, they are the first in the conference by 6 games, they have not lost a home game in the month of June, they have the best ERA in MLB with 1.88, best WHIP with a .90, they have the most home runs in the MLB, and the longest winning streak all season in the MLB. I guess you could say the Indians are on fire.
Not only are the Indians doing great, but this upcoming season will be a new start for the Cleveland Browns. The day after the Cavaliers won the NBA Finals, Tim Brokaw announced that the infamous jersey number 2 that has been worn by the last 24 quarterbacks will not be worn by a 25th and the jersey number was being retired. Brokaw said in an email statement to ESPN the day after the Cavaliers won the NBA Finals, “After last night's historic performance, we realized all negative energy and bad juju should be eliminated from The Land.” He then added that "the dark cloud has been lifted." Brokaw then went on to explain that “Cleveland is finished swallowing in self-pity, and even though football and basketball are two completely different sports, I also believe the Cavaliers’ win will resonate across all Cleveland sports for a long time to come.” Tim Brokaw covered up Couch's name on the jersey along with the other 23 quarterback's names and put Cleveland across the top.
The Cavaliers winning the NBA Finals is a fresh start for all professional Cleveland organizations. It's a new beginning. It not only gives all the players that extra spark, but the fans now have more hype, which also helps the players perform better. This is a new start for Cleveland, and I cannot wait to see where it takes us for the remaining of this year and years to come.
