Written by Jeff Rich

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It started while listening to Cleveland radio, one of the talking heads mentioned a Celebriduck, specifically one depicting the likeness of Desagana Diop, which made me realize that the Cavaliers are not represented very well in my house.  Now, I am far from what anyone would consider a “collector”, but I believe my home, at least my home office, should epitomize who I am.  Like my family, friends, and the United States Marine Corps, the city of Cleveland and its teams are definitely part of the equation.  While I easily illustrate my dedication to being a fan of the Indians and Browns, the Cavaliers are limited to one lonely pennant.

So, there’s an imbalance between my appreciation of the Cavaliers, even where they currently stand on the ground floor, and the writing (memorabilia) on the wall.  Now, I could just do the status quo thing, buy a few pennants, maybe some pictures and posters with the team logo on them, but it’s just not in my DNA to graze the pastures like that.  I can’t just buy stuff, I have to buy stuff that not a lot of people have, and I have to get it cheap.  Yeah, I’m a jerk like that.

I want off-the-wall things, like that Diop Celebriduck, or a press photo from Lenny Wilkens playing days, or even the not so rare Joe Tait bobblehead.  It’s been a few weeks, and I’ve been unable to find the Diop toy that may or may not exist outside of that radio studio.  I am no quitter, but sooner or later I’m going to end up settling for a Diop knick-knack of any kind, and I’ve never been what you’d call a Desagana Diop fan.

An item that drums up nostalgia was a poster that displayed 37 seasons of Cavaliers basketball, and an item that made me both curious and cautious at the same time.  I mean, what better way to sum up being a Cavs fan than one poster with Bingo, World B., Price, Ferry, Kemp, and Anderson Varejao?  Oh yeah, I should mention that he’s on it too, you might even argue that he’s the center-piece of the entire poster.  He’s actually on it at least five times, and it begs the question, could you make this poster of franchise history without him?

The simple answer is that you can’t, and more importantly, you shouldn’t want to.  Personally, I don’t want Cavaliers history to stop with the John Lucas teams and resume with Byron Scott’s, as much as I love the current team.  A void like that in the history books would be too reminiscent of the 1996-1998 NFL in Cleveland.  As much as the aftermath stung, I wouldn’t want to go Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind on the 2003-2010 Cleveland Cavaliers.  I wasn't sure if I should be buying this poster, so I asked two of my de facto consiglieres, also people I consider to be good authority on the wrongs and rights of a Cleveland fan.

 

“I have no problem with it….I miss the really fat Shawn Kemp though.”

 

Of course, the Shawn Kemp Era, who could forget that?  The fact that we once got excited as Cavs fans over the signing of Shawn Kemp after his prime should be all we need to hear in order to swallow our pride and embrace the period that we had the other guy.  I don’t want to retire his number anytime soon, but around the country I hear the argument for it.  Nate Thurmond is up there with Price, Daugherty, and Nance; outside of Cleveland, the rafters at Quicken Loans Arena aren't sacred territory.  While we can proud enough in the current moment, and we should be proud, I don’t think any of us want to permanently purge the annals of Cavaliers History.

Whether we like it or not, that guy is part of it.  He’s more than part of it, he’s most of it.  Now, there’s not a lot of moments that stick out as individual moments with him, and that might be because I care a lot more about the final score than the stat sheet at the end of the day.  Fifty points at Madison Square Garden and Triple Doubles don’t do a hell of a lot for me, I can only assume that Cleveland won those games because they were playing the Knicks.  Of course, there’s the moment that I argue as the Greatest Moment in Cleveland Sports (of my lifetime), the game-winner in Game 2 of the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals, which was a lot bigger in the moment than it ever will be in the grand scheme of things.

There’s the Palace 48 from 2007, which is probably the greatest individual performance in the history of the Association’s postseason.  The sequel to that came in Game 5 of those same Eastern Conference Finals in ’09.  Everything else about him was just watching him as a piece of some teams that were really fun to watch, a team that looked like they enjoyed being teammates, a few seasons with a lot of victories.  In his post-Decision “eff you” commercial, he asked if he needed to remind us of all the fun we had.  It’s true, we certainly enjoyed watching this team play for about a five year period, even if none of those years resulted in a Championship.  You all know the story of how even the best of times can be erased in an hour on national TV with Jim Gray.  Can I really buy this poster?

 

“I wonder what the 2011 version of this poster would look like. This portrays LeBron and Mike Brown as overarching figures in Cavs history, and I suppose they are. The team never had as much success as it did with them in place, but it almost downplays all the past greats that have been a part of this franchise. For my tastes, it is a bit too "recent" to display if your intention of displaying is to pay tribute to the history of the franchise.”

 

Checking in with another consigliere, I was reminded that not enough time had passed, that the past had somehow been disrespected in the interest of glorifying the present.  But, what is the featured moment in franchise history, especially if this went to print in 2007, if not for the 2007 Eastern Conference Championship?  Maybe some of us are still angry enough to ignore that fact.  You don’t have to be “over it” to move forward, that’s my opinion.

 

Tuesday night, the Cavaliers played the Miami Heat for the sixth time since it all happened.  It honestly just felt like a game against a good team, a solid test for a young team.  Sure, there was still a looming animosity in the air, but for the most part, I was just focused on the team I was rooting for, rather than the one I was rooting against.  I watched on the auxiliary television with no volume, thus no Fred and AC to get me riled up, but my attitude about this one was a solid sign of progress.  I remember how angry, how obsessed I was for the game in Cleveland on December 2^nd, 2010, and I’m more mature than the angry scorned fan I was on that night.  Granted, I’m still not “over it” and don’t think I will ever get there, but like most Cleveland fans, I think I’ve stopped being “obsessed” about it.

I’m now all growns up enough to consider allowing him back into the picture, even though I will never support any sentiment of him returning to the Cavaliers.  I really just want to know if it’s okay to buy that poster, and I’ve been offered a suggestion to make it better.