The Night Of: How I Experienced The Cleveland Cavaliers Winning Game 7 Of The NBA Finals

The night the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA title is an evening I’ll never forget.

The date? June 19, 2016. The time? Around 7:45 p.m. The Cleveland Cavaliers were set to play the Golden State Warriors in Game 7 o the NBA Finals. I was in my Berea, Ohio home. It was a dark hour.  I laid on my living room couch, filled with disappointment, as family members tried to console me.

Surprisingly enough I was not in a bad mood because of the ensuing basketball game that would decide if Cleveland would finally break a 52 year long professional sports championship drought. No, that didn’t upset me. My current location bummed me out.

You see I had always dreamt that I would be downtown, in the heart of Cleveland when one of our teams were to break the city’s title drought. I wanted to see the mayhem that would ensue:  the crowds filing through the streets, the people jumping on cars, the bars running out of alcohol. For years, I saw other cities do it. I wanted the experience, too, for myself, and for my city.

Unfortunately I had another dream to achieve the following morning, in Columbus. The following day was the day I was moving to Columbus to start my career as a Software Developer at Nationwide Insurance.

This gave me a tough decision to make: be responsible, stay home and watch the game at home with my family or go downtown to watch the game and fight through crowds of people to get home in enough time to get some sleep before I headed off the next morning.

About an hour from tip off, I made my decision. Which is why I was moping around on the couch at that time. I decided to stay home and watch the game with my family and miss out on one dream in order to chase another.

As a huge Cleveland sports fan I dreamt of this day for years. I felt devastated. But I began thinking about the bigger picture. This night wast about my dream playing out the way I wanted it to.

It was about watching the Cavaliers win a championship.

Watching the game downtown, watching the game at a local bar, watching the game at home, the location did not matter. As long as I got to see it happen, I was happy.

Not to mention I was now able to watch this happen with my family, including my dad who was the reason I got into Cleveland sports teams in the first place. If we were to win that game, sharing that moment with him would be something I would remember for a lifetime.

Eventually, I got over the fact that I wouldn’t be downtown.

As tip-off drew near, I settled in with my family to nervously watch TNT’s coverage

The game itself was extremely strange thinking back to it. It went by like a blur.

I would have guessed beforehand that we were in for the longest basketball game of our lives, but to our surprise the game went along at very brisk pace. Even weirder than that is the fact that my dad and I watched it without saying much of anything. Dad and I like to pretend we’re sports analysts every time a game comes on and we critique every single play throughout the game.

Tonight however, was different.

Our focus on the game was so strong that it was as if we forgot everyone else was in the living room. Instead of giving our own play-by-play commentary we just watched without saying many words to one another. We were content listening to the words of Mark Jackson, Jeff Van Gundy and Mike Breen.

The game went back and forth. Each Cavs basket put my heart at ease. Every Warriors basket gave me panic.

Eventually, after 47 minutes and 50 seconds the Warriors got down to their last possession. It was at that moment that I finally thought the Cavs were going to do it. Cleveland was about to break the 52-year curse. The last couple of shots went up and the buzzer sounded.

As soon as the clock hit zero me and my family members jumped on one another just like the Cavs players did during the game.

We all hugged each other as we were freaking out, realizing that the day had finally come where Cleveland was a city of champions once again.

I then proceeded to run out of my house in my quiet neighborhood. I ran around the neighborhood yelling, expecting to be told to shut up. After all, it was 11 p.m. on a Sunday.

Instead of yelling at me to shut up, our neighbors yelled and cheered from their living rooms with their doors open as well. Eventually I tired and just laid on the grass on my front yard

That’s when it all hit me.

This was really happening.

After all these years of being known as the cursed city, and all of the misfortunes our teams had faced in the past decades we finally won one.

I couldn’t believe it.

To think that this was how it would have happened makes the victory even more crazy. The Cavs faced a 3-1 deficit! Instead of losing in stereotypical Cleveland sports fashion, the Cavs battled back and beat unbelievable odds!

Cleveland.

https://twitter.com/benjablake/status/771097128256942080

If you told me it would happen like this, I would not have believed you.

Yet here I was, sitting on my lawn after witnessing one of the greatest come backs in sports history.

Transitioning to my new life in Columbus was exhausting. Fortunately, those days were fueled by the longest emotional high I’ve ever experienced.

I’ll truly never forget June 19, 2016. It did not play out like I thought it would, but it played out to perfection regardless.

Next: Cole An Option Should Mo Williams Retire?

Where did you watch Game 7 and how did you react when the game ended?