ShareThisBOSTON - Last May, I remember sitting in a downtown Cleveland lunch spot and listening to a bartender named Gary.
In between pouring drafts and mixing Bloody Mary's, Gary could not stop talking sports. His passion, like everyone else in Northeast Ohio, was the Cavaliers. Led by LeBron James, the Cavs owned the best record in the NBA and were about to tip off a playoff showdown series with the Boston Celtics.
After not winning a professional sports championship of any kind since 1964, this was Cleveland's moment. At least that's what Gary was banking on.
As we now know, Gary and thousands of other Clevelanders didn't get their wish. Instead, they saw LeBron and the soft Cavs slink out of the playoffs in six games. They lost twice on their home court, including a 32-point disaster in Game 5 where it seemed King James (3-of-14 FG) couldn't wait to tiptoe into the background.
That would be James' farewell to Cleveland. The Celts closed the Cavs out back in Boston and, for the next month, all anyone in basketball wanted to know was if LeBron would resist the lure of free agency and stay home. As all of the NBA held its breath, James ultimately made The Decision "to take my talents to South Beach."
Near-riots broke out in Cleveland, complete with fans burning James' Cavs jerseys in effigy. It turns out those pyromaniacs weren't overreacting. The move has dramatically altered the status of two NBA franchises. While Miami's Heat (31-13) chase the Celtics (34-10) at the top of the Eastern Conference, the Cavaliers have fallen harder than even the worst pessimist could've imagined.
The Cavs came into Boston Tuesday riding a 17-game losing streak and left with yet another loss, this one a 112-95 blowout. Winners of 61 and 66 games the last two years, the Cavs are now 8-37 with little hope in sight.
The team's 18-game losing streak is one short of the franchise record. Tuesday's defeat was the 22nd road loss in a row, a new team record.
"If I hadn't been through this before, it would be really, really hard for me to go through right now," said coach Byron Scott, the former Lakers star who's coached struggling teams before in New Jersey and New Orleans. "Since I've dealt with this before, (the players) haven't seen me come to practice one day with my head down. I refuse to do that."
Scott, who was hired after James bolted, now receives messages from friends urging him to hang in there. One of those pals is Celtics coach Doc Rivers. He lost 58 games in 2007, the year before Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen came to town.
"I'm an expert at it. I know exactly what to say because people called me," said Rivers. "I laughed with (Scott) because I told him 'I know you don't want these calls because I got them and I was starting to get (ticked) off at people calling me.' I was like 'just leave me alone. I just want to do my job.'"
James' departure began a string of Cavaliers' bad luck that is seemingly never-ending. Centers Shaquille O'Neal and Zydrunas Ilgauskas both followed James' lead and left via free agency. Reserve guard Delonte West came to the Celtics.
What's left behind is a collection of youngsters and role players, a mixture that always spells disaster in the NBA. Antwan Jamison (17.3 ppg) is a pro scorer but injuries have limited guard Mo Williams and big man Anderson Varejao.
Shockingly, the Cavs beat Boston, 95-87, back in October in their home opener. That proved to only be just a bit of false hope. Other wins have been few and far between.
"Losing LeBron is huge. That's number one," said Rivers. "Losing Shaq and Z, you lose size. Losing Varejao, hey, I don't know how many more hits you can take so that's what's added into this (losing) streak. Obviously LeBron started it but if all of those guys are added in, they wouldn't have this streak."
As the losses mount, it's hard not to think of the fans back in Cleveland. They'd gotten used to enjoying the NBA spotlight in their city every spring, complete with the homegrown superstar who held such promise.
Now fans like Gary have nothing to look forward to, nothing except baseball and the Indians. Then again, that's not much to look forward to either.
(Contact Kevin McNamara at kmcnamar(at)projo.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
columnMust credit The Providence Journal
