The new LeBron James Nike commerical will give you chills
October 30, 2014Cleveland Sports: The Future is Now
October 30, 2014It’s around 9 a.m. on July 11, 2014 and I’m in Seattle, WA. I’m passed out, face down, drool hardening on my chin as I lay on a couch that belongs to the cousin of my college roommate, Jack. My eyes peel open as Jack’s phone buzzes across the room on the floor next to the air mattress on which he’s hibernating. Having only gone to sleep a few hours earlier after spending the wee hours of the morning singing renditions of Third Eye Blind’s “Jumper” and the Eagles “Lyin Eyes” to an empty karaoke bar, I am at the very least, a bit foggy.
I’d spent the week leading up to our trip glued to my phone, regurgitating every cupcake maker, personal trainer, and smidgen of a source that was linking LeBron James back to Cleveland. But the day before “The Letter”, while sitting on a beach, sipping IPA’s out of growlers with the Cascades as our backdrop, Jack and I decided it was time to cut off communication back in the CLE until an actual decision was made.
It felt refreshing to free ourselves of LeBron speculation as the night turned into a blur, stopping at microbrewery after microbrewery. Anyone who has indulged in more than a few IPA’s in one evening can testify to the impending headache that awaits the morning after. And sure enough, as I lay there the morning after, my head is pounding.
The room is bright. The sun has begun climbing its way up through the unusually clear Seattle skies and a cool, morning breeze wafts in through an open window.The phone vibrates again.
My first thought is that our friends back east are carrying on a group chat full of the usual nonsense that comes into ones head around lunch time on a Friday. Other than the vibrating, the room is silent as Jack and I pray the phone will shut up so we can go back to sleeping off our first night in Seattle hangover. Then the phone keeps vibrating. And vibrating. And vibrating. Finally, Jack and I both emerge out our zombie state, sit up, look over at each other and realize IT’S HAPPENED.
We scurry to our phones to read the dozens of messages piling in and find our way to SI.com where we digest the letter that will forever change the course of the city we love.
“In Northeast Ohio, nothing is given. Everything is earned. You work for what you have.”
Talk about the ultimate cure for a hangover. Now we’re fired up. We bypass the mid-day hike we had planned, and decide to head downtown Seattle to start toasting to the return of The King. Our Uber driver quickly learns that he has a couple Clevelanders in his Prius and by ride’s end he can’t help but embrace the enthusiasm we’re spitting his way. We high five strangers, we chat up bartenders, we even click our heels in the crosswalk as if we’re posing for the ending freeze frame of an 80’s sit com. We run around Seattle with the exuberance of two Ralphies who had just received one hundred Red Ryder BB Guns under the Christmas tree. Pure nirvana.1
I believe in twenty years most Clevelanders will be able to tell you what they were doing the day the prodigal son decided to come home. Whether you were in a meeting at work when your phone started buzzing or sitting in the back of an Accounting 221 class hitting refresh on your Twitter page—we all have memories that will not be forgotten.
Over the next few months I, like countless others, have logged some serious minutes on YouTube soaking up all things LeBron. I’ve sat there and listened to Don Draper tell me over and over again how nostalgia in Greek literally means the “pain from an old wound”. How “nostalgia is a carousel, letting us travel the way a child travels. Around and around and back home again to a place where we know we are loved.”
I’ve laughed at just how ridiculous the decision was and the blowback that followed, most notably summed up in this NWO spoof.
I’ve done cable pulls with my shirt off as “Take Me to Church” pounded out of my ear buds and into my ear drum.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCOgaWSfxxs
And let’s not forget the half dozen or so times I was driving alone at night when Skylar Gray came on my stereo, massaging tears out of my eyes with the first notes of “Coming Home”.
Four months have passed and the dream that LeBron will one day play basketball for the city that raised him is about to become reality. LeBron James is a Cleveland Cavalier. He’s hosted a “Welcome Home” event as a Cavalier. He’s taken part in media day as a Cavalier. He’s played in pre-season games as a Cavalier. All the while I continue to pinch myself, hoping, praying this isn’t a dream. On Thursday night, in front 20,562 in Quicken Loans Arena, thousands more inside Cleveland bars, man caves, living rooms, and kitchens, and millions more around the world—the ball will be tipped and we will all bear witness to a new beginning.
I don’t know if I’ll be able to describe how I feel when it finally happens—when the chalk clears, “O Fortuna” is ringing through The Q, and LeBron James is officially playing basketball for the Cleveland Cavaliers. It will bring out emotions that adjectives do no justice. The only thing that I believe to be comparable would be if I had been born deaf and on my 21st birthday Chrissy Teagan handed me a special hearing aid, placed some headphones over my ears, gave me a hug, and then as the first sounds I’d hear in my life she played for me the Hawaiian version of “Somewhere over the Rainbow”.
Unfortunately since I was born with hearing my Chrissy Teagan fantasy will have to stay just that, but the dream that the king would return one day is quickly becoming reality. The day is here. Just as I’ll never forget laying in a Seattle apartment on that July morning, reading “The Letter” for the first time, I’ll always remember where I was the day the King made his return a reality.
I’m ready, the city is ready, the world is ready. I just hope Cleveland Hopkins Airport is ready, because Flight No. 23 is clear for liftoff.
- Pun intended [↩]
4 Comments
Seriously, every article I read today is making me cry. Well done, Ryan. I’ll have no tears left for tonight and won’t embarrass myself.
I’m not going to rain on the parade by saying no championship has been won but obviously everything that is happening tonight is amazing. I’d like to see more about the game and putting it on the Knicks rather then more about LBJ’s legacy but it is what it is. For me it’s the first day, first game of a very long season. I’m excited and pumped to have it finally start and I’ll be there/here for every step along the way. Now whether it ends in a championship or not it should be one heck of a ride. All that aside nothing less then a championship is unacceptable. That’s just the bottom line. I won’t differentiate now! Go Cavs.
Interesting fantasy Ryan. You must really be happy LeBron came back. Reality is here tonight !! To quote Bart Scott (yea well he did rant this), CAN’T WAIT !!
I’m curious to see how many Miami jerseys will be replaced with Cleveland jerseys tonight, when I go out to watch the game.
Lot of Heat “fans” around here…