The Cleveland Cavaliers achieved a lot of things on Sunday.
They won the NBA title.
They became the first team to come back from a 3-1 series deficit.
They won the first pro sports championship for Cleveland since 1964.
They defeated the best Regular Season team in NBA history.
They fulfilled the promise of the greatest hoopster in the game today.
They did the implausible.
Yet they also created a major mess in the world of sports, and perhaps beyond. In fact, I predict it will reach the worlds of politics, business, military encounters, beauty pageants, spelling bees, and cooking shows. They have made extinct a very important species of competitor.
This competitor is one that was universally loved. It was one you could cheer for when your team had already been eliminated. They were a safe bet to whom you, too, temporarily gave your allegiance, because they couldn’t fulfill it anyway.
If you happened to have a permanent attachment to said species, you were in even better shape. This relationship provided you with a lifetime hall pass for you to vent, whine, grumble, and complain. Your excess drinking was tolerated. Your endless belly aching expected. Your embittered tweeting anticipated.
But now? Now you’re screwed.
Your excuse has been extinguished. Your rants have been rejected. Your murmurs have been shut down. For one simple reason.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have killed the Underdog.
By doing the impossible. By conquering the Mighty Warriors on their home court, twice when facing elimination. By bringing joy to Mudville, they have killed the Underdog.
No longer can Cleveland ask for pity or sympathy. No longer can Ohio claim itself rusty and old. No longer do the Browns have the best excuse in the NFL…we’re from Cleveland. No longer.
But this excuse-free zone isn’t limited to the Forest City. No, it’s going to cut a wide swath across the world.
Quit your whining Toronto Maple Leafs fans. You, too, in St. Louis. Ahem, Vancouver.
Hey Bruins fans, go get your living-with-no-Super-Bowl-wins-ever comrades from Jacksonville, Detroit, and Houston together for your last pity party. Don’t forget to invite some Cardinals fans. At least they won a title when they were in Chicago.
Chicago? Don’t get Cubs fans started. Because this is their year. This is the year that 1908 is soon to be forgotten. This is the year the Cleveland Indians, who haven’t won the Series since 1948, get to return as the holder of the longest drought in baseball. Boy have the Cavs screwed you. No one cares about your losing streak. Underdogs have been obliterated from the Ohio dictionary.
So now what to do? Lots of other teams have the same bleak past as the Cavs. But nobody wants to hear your story anymore. No, ma’am. If the Cavs can win it all, so can you. You can’t keep whining. You just need the best player in your sport to be from your backyard and, through unrestricted free agency, for him to come to your rescue. Oh yeah, he also has to bring in his own hand-picked associates. Get to hire, and fire, his own boss. Devise the game strategies, the practice regimes, the offensive plays, and the layout for the game-day program.
Then sit back and watch him control your every emotion for twenty four months as he wages through ups and downs, adversity, injuries, bickering, and doubters. Watch him get fitter, stronger, and more intense with age. Watch it all unfold until the glittery gold of the championship and playoff MVP trophies are in his arms.
Then sit back with your own smug smile and say to all the rest of us: Get with the program. If Cleveland, yes Cleveland, can win it all. Why can’t you?
Just don’t dare call yourself an Underdog.