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Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2009 > June > 01 > Entry
Belly-up Cavs — Curse or something else?
As the Los Angles Lakers and Orlando now commandeer the NBA stage, folks left sifting through the flotsam of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ season that was so convincingly ended by the Magic are left to debate:
Was this just the latest chapter in the curse of Cleveland sports teams — Red-Right 88, The Fumble, The Drive, The Shot, The Choke and the rest of the much-hyped, famously-named list of searing, sometimes inconceivable losses — that now encompasses 45 years without the city claiming a major sports title?
Or, is it something else?
One Ohio sports columnist — a good pal of mine who knows this state and it’s teams as well as anyone in the business — tried deflating the whole curse concept in a Sunday column.
“It’s time to stop revisiting the failures, time to get over the obsession with Cleveland’s championship drought,” Bob Hunter wrote in the Columbus Dispatch. “It’s also time to stop pretending that city’s sports fans have a monopoly on suffering.”
They might not have a monopoly, but they do own a lot of prime real estate along the cursed coast, which, by the way, should not be confused with the banks of the infamous Cuyahoga. The river hasn’t burned in 40 years and folks in Cleveland know that old visual is cliche.
But the curse talk — no matter how some dismiss it — is still embraced by a lot of Cleveland folks, it seems.
A couple of poplar blogs in Cleveland are entitled: “WaitingForNextYear” and “World’s Most Tortured Fans.”
In 2005, Tim Long — Cleveland native, graduate of St. Ed’s, John Carroll University and Cleveland State — published the book: “Curses! Why Cleveland Sports Fans Deserve to Be Miserable: A Lifetime of Tough Breaks, Bad Luck, Dumb Moves, Goofs, Gaffes, And Blunders.”
In 2004, ESPN named Cleveland the most tortured sports city in the nation and certainly the 2007 Indians — who blew a 3-1 lead in the American League Championship Series — and now the Cavs have done nothing to lesson that.
But is this really part of a curse?
The Cavs won an NBA-best 66 games during the season, romped through the first two rounds of the play-offs with eight straight victories, had the league MVP in LeBron James, one of the best defenses in the NBA and the NBA Coach of the Year in Mike Brown.
The Cavs certainly were a good team, but not a great one. And that’s why they’re were done in by the Magic. They weren’t curse victims so much as they were beaten by a better team. A team that beat them six of nine games this season. A team that would have swept this series had James not thrown in a prayer in Game Two.
The myopic masses may have seen a Kobe-LeBron Final, but they over-looked and under-estimated the Magic, who have a more complete team than Cleveland.
They have their own bona fide superman in Dwight Howard, are quicker, have a more well-rounded starting five, a deeper bench and in this series they were much better coached.
This Cleveland team wasn’t done in by a bone-headed move that screams jinx. No Earnest Byner fumble on the three. No Brian Sipe ignoring Coach Sam Rutigliano’s charge to throw it in Lake Erie if no one was open and instead trying to force a pass to Ozzie Newsome and getting picked in the final minute versus Oakland.
The Cavs simply were out-manned by the Magic.
In the off-season, Cavs general manager Danny Ferry needs to jettison a good chunk of his bench and get James some help before he makes the decision after next season whether to re-up in Cleveland or bolt to New York, whoever is promising not only big bucks and bright lights, but a legitimate title contender.
Fail to do that and there will be plenty of curses around Cleveland.
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Comments
By Matt
June 3, 2009 8:27 AM | Link to this
it’s going to be tough to get players since the Cavs are over the cap and can’t sign any free agents, minus a MLE. And we aren’t going to trade for anyone decent since noone is going to want our terrible bench players, unless some team just wants some expiring contracts to open up cap room. But at least the Cavs will be able to pay Lebron the league max in 2010.By Dano
June 2, 2009 4:34 PM | Link to this
Cleveland fans almost expect somthing bad to happen it usually does.You whats so bad that Clevland Teams find away to lose when it matters most,all curses can be removed if you know the source.Any Voodoo priests out there who can break the curse?By get real
June 2, 2009 4:29 PM | Link to this
The Cavs are not cursed, the Magic were better than them. Cleveland is not cursed, the Browns are terrible and Indians and Cavs need better players, wake up.By Jeff
June 2, 2009 4:18 PM | Link to this
I live in Cleveland Have been here since 86 and yes there is a curse!