Living a Dream

The era of Cleveland Cavaliers basketball between LeBron's stints was, at best, tumultuous. There was off-court drama, coaching nightmares (Byron Scott, baby!), and a rotating cast of oddball role players. Most of all, of course, there was LeBron's shadow. How fitting, then, that in the season after he left, the Cavaliers went on an NBA record 26 game losing streak. They were bad. Really bad. For a good time, take a look at their season-recap Basketball-Reference page . Of the 19 players who filled out the roster, one is still playing in the NBA, a mere seven years later (Ramon Sessions). A long afternoon could be spent finding gems within this page. Believe me, I have browsed it at length. And from that browsing I noticed some things. Before the streak even started, the Cavs had a pretty wild trio of losses. Starting November 30th, they lost three straight games by a combined 80 points: a 19 point loss, then a 27 point loss, then a 34 point loss. That's terrible. And y...

As the 2016-2017 Cleveland Cavaliers come down the stretch with one of the deepest teams in NBA history (RIP Andrew Bogut), it's fun to look back at how things used to be. We all know that LeBron James is one of the best players the league has ever seen. We also know that he couldn't get over the hump in Cleveland without any stud teammates. He won titles in Miami with a couple of monsters, dragged the Cavs to back-to-back Finals appearances, and won one for his hometown against the best team to ever play (regular season) basketball. So what wins here? Was it the other-worldly shooting in his second title season in Miami? Was it the Herculean effort in the Eastern Conference Finals to beat the Pistons? Was it playing without Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love and damn near taking the 2015 Finals to 7 games? Or was it winning three straight (2 on the road) against the best team to ever play (regular season) basketball? There are lots of options here. So I'm going with the dar...