How I learned to stop worrying and love the 2010-2011 Cleveland Cavaliers

LeBron James almost killed my love of basketball. Not only am I a huge Cavs fan but I pretty much love the whole NBA. I devour NBA news. I love trying to figure out what kind of trades can work under the salary cap. I'd happily watch the Timberwolves play the Pistons in a meaningless game in February. And LeBron James almost killed it.



Everybody knows about 'The Decision'. At the time, I was 100% sure that LeBron was going to stay in Cleveland. There was no way that a man that seemed to have a great grasp of PR was going to go on national television and slap his team in the face. Obviously, I was wrong, and he is now a Miami Heat. Not only did he rip the heart out of the Cavs, he made me question why I was a fan. I'd spent the last 7 years cheering this man on, I was completely invested in his success. After all, his success was Cleveland's success, right? And with 7 little words (I'm taking my talents to South Beach) he showed me that he never really gave a crap about Cleveland, he only cared about LeBron.


I went into this season hoping the Cavs would compete for a playoffs spot to show everyone that there was some talent on this team and LeBron made a bad choice. And at first, they played pretty dang well and had me hoping. Then the Heat came to town and thoroughly destroyed the Cavs. Then half the roster got hurt, everyone else seemed to just give up and they ended up losing a record 26 games in a row. And worse, it looked like this team had no plan whatsoever. There was talk of picking up Gerald Wallace or Andre Iguodala or any other number of good, but not great players. Dan Gilbert wanted a big name guy. I thought it was going to be a repeat of the early 2000's teams. Not good enough to make any playoff noise, not bad enough to draft a game changer. It's hard to get too amped up watching a directionless team.


Then the trade deadline came. Up until the day before, the biggest Cavs related rumor out there was that we were looking to trade Anthony Parker. The next thing I know, the Cavs end up with Baron Davis, the Clippers unprotected first round pick and two young bigs. Boom Dizzle looks motivated and he already knows Byron Scott's offense. If he can help mentor Ramon Sessions and teach him how the Princeton works, that in and of itself would make it a good trade. Semih Erden and Luke Harangody could be good rotation players a few years down the road. The young guys like Samardo Samuels and Alonzo Gee are getting to play. JJ Hickson has been playing his butt off. And Baron, if he stays this motivated, can help nurture these guys and instill confidence into them that they can be good. And there'll be 2 lottery picks this year. This is how I want to see this team rebuilt. Letting the young guys play and build confidence and chemistry and adding high draft picks into the mix. Don't take on middling veterans in a rush to win now. Build the right way. And now I find myself wanting to watch the Cavs and the rest of the NBA again (the Heat's struggles of late also help in that regard). I want to see this team grow. I want to see them come together and hopefully, in a few years, be contenders. And if they happen to beat the Heat and LeBron a few times along the way, all the better.