And I Stopped in San Antone

For all I know, this is the only song that mentions both Cleveland and San Antonio, the two teams that are in the NBA Finals. It's quite amazing that our little Cavaliers...the Cavaliers of Ted Stepien (scroll down to "Ted Stepien and the James Worthy Rule" to the Shot to the late-90s Mike Fratello Cavs who couldn't decide if they wanted to be a lottery team or a playoff team to 2003 when somehow the ping-pong balls bounced our way and we got LeBron James and four years later are 4 wins away from a championship.

I'll equate this to 1995 when the Indians made it to their first World Series in 41 years. Yes they made it again in 1997, but we already knew how it felt to be there. The Cavs (the 3rd team in a Football-first, Baseball-second town) have been around for 37 years, most of which the team has wallowed in mediocrity. The late-80s, early-90s Cavs were a vastly underrated team who had the unfortunate opportunity to play against the Jordan-led Bulls. He would prevent a lot of players from seeing an NBA Championship (see: Barkley, Charles; Malone, Karl; Stockton, John). It's been 43 years since this city has last seen a major championship in this town, please forgive us when we celebrate a trip to the finals.

How about those videos? Downtown Cleveland looked like the place to be on saturday night. It makes me miss the city. Back in 1995 I was a junior in high school and may have tasted but a drip of alcohol. Nobody had blogs and the best columnists were not fans but the local ones. I remember driving around the 'Wood the night the Tribe clinched in Seattle (Lofton scoring from 2nd on a passed ball!) and everyone was honking their horns. It was a feeling of euphoria, happiness, and pride. Total strangers hugging, high-fiving, clapping-hands, and sharing in the success of an athletic team. I know if I was in town, I would have been down there celebrating with everyone else. Luckily I was able to watch the game with friends instead of alone in my apartment in WV.

It's a bit of an unreal feeling. I know we haven't won anything yet and the Spurs are heavily favored. The misery of Cleveland sports fans is well documented..the only city that may be worse off is Buffalo. But we handled the Pistons pretty convincingly. The two games we lost, we had legitimate chances of winning. After LeBron's performance in Game 5, I think most Detroit fans knew that they were not winning this series. Now we've got the Spurs, the NBA's premier franchise since 1999 who will be playing for their 4th NBA title since then. Yes we are happy to be here, but you know what? This team will surprise a lot of people. Our defense is significantly underlooked and LBJ has shown he can lead the team (by scoring and finding his teammates) to victory.

This team is playing with a lot of confidence right now. Yes they beat the Spurs twice this year...the analysts are going to point to this as a non-factor as it was early in the year and yadda yadda yadda. Yes the Spurs were not the same team then as now, but you know what? Neither are the Cavaliers. The team knows that they can hang with and beat the best in any arena. This series with Detroit was not a knock-down drag-out fight. The Cavs outplayed Detroit consistently throughout. Are the Cavs going to win the series? I don't know that. I do know that teams can come together and do remarkable things.

The Cavs need to have role players such as Boobie Gibson to consistently step-up and contribute. Talk about a break-out performance. I love that whenever he gets the ball, he's got this look on his face that he's not scared and he knows he can hit the shots. I love it! Has LeBron found the 2nd man he so desparately needs? As me in a year or two...a series does not dictate a career (see: Billups, Chauncey) but hopefully this is a start. I have an idea why he suddenly burst onto the scene: he was busy on his TV show the first half of the year. And his name is Boobie to boot! Coincidence? I think not!

Remember 2004? The Pistons were an upstart team going against the juggernaut Lakers. Guess what? The Pistons beat LA in 5 games. I do think this series is going at least 6 games. I do know that if somehow the Cavs end up winning this thing that I will be in Cleveland for it. This city just wants one championship, that's all. We don't need a dynasty, we just want that it is our team hoisting the trophy. Just once. Will it be this year? We'll find out in 2 weeks.