I know. You are probably like Tubthumping? What the hell is that? These lyrics just keep going through my brain since Sunday night:
I get knocked down, but I get up again
You are never gonna keep me down
You may have heard the Cleveland Cavaliers won the 2016 NBA Championship. I am still in shock over it. Down 3-1 to the Golden State Warriors, the Cavs made history. They came back and won it all. THEY WON IT ALL. I can not believe I am writing those words. I sit here staring at my screen because I still do not know how to process all of this. I am almost 43 years old. In 43 years, I have never seen a Cleveland championship. FORTY THREE YEARS! I am not going to go into details about all of the heartache we have endured as Cleveland sports fans. You know it like the back of your hand. However, when you really think about it, it is just so sad that it took this long.
This is why anyone under the age of 30 will never understand. They will never truly GET it. I look at all of the people celebrating downtown Sunday night, many of them young, and I think:
"Do you appreciate what just happened?"
A life long Clevelander, I love my city. I love my sports teams. This girl is no bandwagoner. Browns. Indians. Cavs. That's in my blood. I was always taught that's who you root for. Rooting for another city's team, I am looking at you STEELER "fan", is a no no. There is one thing that Cleveland sports has taught me: It's never easy, but it's what makes us tough. Look, I get it. It's not easy rooting for the Browns. Basically 16+ years of junk football. That doesn't mean I go and root for Pittsburgh. It doesn't mean you root for Green Bay. That's the easy thing to do. That's the cowardly way out. What are you teaching your kids? You should be teaching them: Life is never easy. You dont just give up. You stick with your team. You root for the Cavs, Browns and Indians. Or you don't root at all.
Going into Game 7 I was a ball of nerves. All day. I could not focus. I had this part of me that wanted to be downtown. I had this other part of me that kept thinking, "Remember in 1997 when you were at your brothers apartment and you watched the Indians lose the World Series?". To this day, that was the toughest Cleveland loss ever. It was painful. It took me weeks to get over. So I didnt want to have to go through the disappointment again. That's the Cleveland fan in you. Always thinking the worst. I couldn't fathom being downtown and going through that let down. Even with a 4 point lead with 10 seconds to go Sunday night, I kept thinking , "How are we going to screw this up?".
When the clock hit zero, I didn't know what to do with myself. It's like I blacked out for a moment. I started crying. Brian started crying. Is this real? Is this a dream? Did that just happen? Oh it happened.
Enjoy this Cleveland. Relish in the moment. Do not take this for granted. To every person out there, I truly mean this. Drink every drop of that champagne. You never know when it will happen again.
I love you Cleveland-
-B
