Everyone loves the underdogs. True heroes in any story, and sometimes in real life, begins with an underdog story. People love to cheer one the ones that have been kicked down and told to stay down. It's in the human condition to stand back up after one is kicked down.
The story of the Cleveland Curse, once a sad story, has now become a story of perseverance. The Cleveland Cavaliers have given American sports a true underdog story that has been over a half a century in the making.
The last time a Cleveland sports team won was in 1964 when the Browns won the NFL Championship, the equivalent to today's super bowl. Ever since, Cleveland has not won a championship in 52 years-- until this past Sunday.
Since 1964 there has been loss after loss after loss when it came to Cleveland sports. Cleveland has come so close so many times to winning titles. All in failures.
Cleveland sports fans bitterly give the biggest mistakes and failures 2 word names. Some examples are: The Drive, The Shot, The Decision, and many more of these vague titles. As vague as they are, many hardcore Cleveland fans could tell you what the event was, what sport, where they were when the mistake was made, and maybe even what players were involved.
One word to describe Cleveland sport fans is persistence. This city has more hope in its sports teams than any other city. I've heard, "I can't watch this anymore," come out of so many mouths. However, the next week, they were back right in front of the TV-- hoping and praying for a win.
I'm 19 years old and I've lived in the suburbs of Cleveland all my life. Very few times in life did I get excited about sports. I've played little league basketball and baseball so I understood them generally and enjoyed watching the Cavs and Indians play when I was offered tickets. Don't even get me started on the Browns, I went to every football game in my high school career (high school marching band) and still didn't understand what the heck was going on.
But once I saw Believeland, an ESPN documentary made about the painful history of Cleveland sports, I started to believe in "the curse."
The 2016 Finals is when I got really into watching the Cavs, not that I wasn't before, I just never watched the Cavs play unless I was at the Quicken Loans Arena. There are only 2 reasons why I started watching. One, I live with a hard core Cavs fan that no one could ignore when the game was on. Two, because Believeland made me realize that Cleveland fans can't give up hope. The Cavs gave us hope that they could break the curse. And even if the Cavs didn't win, the famous Cleveland phrase came to mind: "There's always next year." Although we would be heartbroken if we lost, Cleveland sports fans would survive and keep hope for another day.
We didn't have to hope for another day. This year, 2016, the Cleveland Cavaliers won its first title in 52 years. We are the only team in NBA history to come back from a 3 to 1 deficit in the NBA Finals.
My mom and I, not very hard core sports fans, were jumping and screaming during the last 2 minutes of the 4th quarter. When Kyrie made that 3 pointer, we went absolutely nuts. When Curry missed his 3 point shot, that's when we knew we won.
The curse is finally broken! Lebron James, Cleveland's pride and joy MVP, collapsed to the ground in tears. Seeing him kiss and cuddle the trophy is something you would see a new mother do to her child.
All the hard work, persistence, and the tears from 52 years worth of losses paid off when we won that Father's Day evening in 2016
We won, Cleveland fans. This victory wasn't just for the Cavs. It was a victory for the underdogs.
