June 19,2016 : By Edwin84.
CLEVELAND -- He said his name was Jack and that
he'd been driving around for the past two hours just to get a fare.
He's 70 years old, working more than he ever
thought he would at this age because, "The cab business in Cleveland is
shot because of the frigging Uber," but he said he's thrilled this ride is
to the airport so he can get away from the traffic and construction of
downtown.
Will Golden State repeat? Will LeBron bring a ring
to Cleveland? Follow the title chase with our coverage.
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But don't worry, Jack said. This is the last time
the NBA Finals will be in Cleveland for a while.
"I'm telling you, this is Cleveland,
Ohio," he said. "People get their hopes up. They get their hearts
broken. They just don't understand, Cleveland will never win anything. It's
just in the cards, in the tarot cards.
"I want the Cavs to win, but I know they will
not. ... And after they lose, [LeBron] is out of here, because he can't
win."
It's a hell of a thing to say on the eve of
Cleveland's latest best chance at ending 52 years of sporting misery.
LeBron James has rallied the Cavaliers to two
straight wins with magnificent 41-point games to force a decisive Game 7
against the Golden
State Warriors on Sunday.
Fans around the city are wearing Cavaliers gear and
shouting "All In" as an everyday greeting. Even the guy who burned
James' jersey when he left the Cavs as a free agent in 2010 is optimistic about
Cleveland's chances to end this historic championship drought.
"Usually I'd be like, 'We're probably going to
lose, Cleveland curse and whatever,'" said Jason Herron, the Cavs
season-ticket holder who famously burned his No. 23 jersey on national TV after
James announced that he was leaving to sign with the Miami
Heat.
"But for the first time in my life, I feel
like my team is going to win a championship. It just feels like the perfect
ending. LeBron came home, he led us back from a 3-1 deficit, the game is on
Father's Day."
After two transcendent performances, LeBron James carries the hopes of a
city into Game 7. .
Jack laughs at the youngsters. He's seen this
before.
"This town is so desperate for something good
to happen to it," he said. "This is all just people jumping on the
bandwagon. They're going crazy over Game 6? It was Game 6!"
Jack's a native -- old enough to remember The
Drive, The Shot, The Fumble and The Move. He said the worst heartbreak is the
one that doesn't have a snappy name, when Browns quarterback Brian Sipe threw
an interception in the end zone when the team needed only a short field goal to
beat the Oakland Raiders in the 1980-81 AFC divisional playoffs.
"That crushed this town," he said.
And now Cleveland is right back on the metaphorical
goal line: close enough to dream about a championship and for it to hurt deeply
if the Cavs can't pull it out.
All of that is way too much for LeBron James to
process in the moment.
"I just play," James said after an
incredible Game 6 victory Thursday night in which he scored or assisted on the
Cavaliers' final 27 points. "I know what I put into the game. I know how
true I am to the game. I know how true I am to these fans. So, no, I don't let
it get to me."
Yes, his legacy depends on bringing a championship
to his hometown. It's what he came back for in 2014. But pressure isn't helpful
to him now.
Keith Dambrot can tell by the way James sits during
his postgame news conference that he's bursting with excitement at the chance
to win a championship Sunday. But he also knows James well enough to understand
that those thoughts must be managed.
"I think this is his way of dealing with
[pressure]," Dambrot said from his office inside the University of Akron
arena. Dambrot coached James in his first two years of high school and has
remained close to him ever since.
They talk when James needs support, when things get
difficult and overwhelming -- like in 2011, after James and the Heat lost to
Dallas in the Finals.
"This is the central tension for everyone in
this moment with the Cavaliers: Is it possible to fully embrace the situation
without leaving the heart unguarded?"
But right now, Dambrot said James looks like he's
handling the pressure well.
"I think what he meant was, 'Look, I just
prepare as hard as I can prepare,'" Dambrot said by way of translating his
former player. "'I have fun in the game. I try to be true.' He always says
this, too, 'I try to be true to myself and true to the game, which I am.'"
This, Dambrot said, is James' way of saying he has
put so much of himself into winning that he will be at peace with whichever way
Game 7 turns out.
It's a variation on the Cavaliers' rallying cry,
"ALL IN."
They print it on T-shirts, coffee mugs and banners
all across the region. Each home game, the Cavs leave white towels on every
seat at Quicken Loans Arena that say "ALL IN." It's a bit of a mixed
message. White towels generally indicate surrender to an opponent, while the
"ALL IN" message is about surrendering control of an outcome.
"'ALL IN, to me, is being able to live and
accept the results, whether it's for you or against you," said Eric
Harper, a 24-year-old graduate assistant at Akron who grew up in Youngstown
rooting for James during his first tour with the Cavs from 2003-10.
This is the central tension for everyone in this
moment with the Cavaliers: Is it possible to fully embrace the situation
without leaving the heart unguarded?
Ah, youth. Some are not quite old enough to remember all the Cleveland
crashes.
It's harder when you've been hurt by sports and by
life, over and over, like Jack. When you drive around for two hours looking for
a fare because the friggin' Uber undercuts your business.
In a lot of ways, the Warriors are the perfect foil
for the Cavaliers and their fans. The technology companies that rule the Bay
Area are indirectly responsible for the drying up of the blue collar jobs in
Rust Belt towns like Cleveland. Uber, for example, was created and has its
headquarters in San Francisco.
The series has gotten personal on the court, too,
as James has skirmished with Draymond
Green and Stephen
Curry, both coaches have been fined for criticizing officials and relatives
on both sides have added to the rhetorical firestorm.
But ultimately this is about Cleveland and LeBron
James, as a city and its native son try to exorcise 52 years of losing.
"It's just such a great story," said
Herron, who has gone on basically every local radio and TV station to apologize
to James for burning his jersey back in 2010. "LeBron left the way he did.
He destroyed us, destroyed the city. ... And now he's back ... and we could win
a championship?
"This is the way LeBron's legacy will be
cemented forever."
Jack the cab driver was right about one thing: Downtown
Cleveland has been a mess to drive around the past few months. The whole city
seems like it's under construction as it prepares to host 50,000 visitors
during the Republican National Convention in mid-July.
Streets are torn up. Buildings are being renovated.
Construction dust is everywhere. The sounds of huge forklifts backing up and
loudly beeping serenade visitors walking through the streets.
Convention organizers are on such a time crunch
getting things ready, the public watch party for Game 7 on track for Quicken
Loans Arena while crews are already hard at work reshaping the Q for the RNC.
But a funny thing happened the morning after the
Cavaliers won Game 6.
The streets around the Q were paved.
For weeks, they have been torn up, awaiting crews
to lay new blacktop. Then, by the middle of the day Friday, it was just done.
Jack said he'll be rooting for James and the Cavaliers on Sunday. He always
roots for the Cleveland team. He just doesn't let his heart get caught up
anymore. It's too hard to take.
"I never was mad at him. The man spent seven
years here. We couldn't win anything," he said. "If he does win,
he'll stay in this town and go crazy. I hope he does it. I hope I'm wrong.
"The only thing is, I'm wrong 99 percent of
the time. My whole life, I'm always wrong."
