How did you became a Cavs fan? For those who are not from Cleveland.

[LeShaq]

I'm a fan of Shaq who signed up when Shaq came to Cleveland. When Shaq left, I think I pretty much left the forum then.

But I also just appreciate good basketball and I respect LeBron. I also appreciate the desire for the city of Cleveland to win a professional sports championship, and I know how dedicated Cleveland sports fans are.

I came back to the site because the Cavs are going to be good and they are the best story in the NBA. Also, there are some very smart and knowledgeable posters on the site and I've always come through here when I want to read good basketball discussion.

 

[Andei]

I'm a Filipino-Japanese Cavs fan.

My father bought me a LeBron I basketball shoes for my birthday when it released. I didn't even know who LeBron was. He hasn't even played his first NBA game. That was when I became a fan of the Cavs, season 2003-2004. Made them my go-to-team on NBA Live even though LeBron still sucked (his rating was 69.)

The thing is, I thought I was a LeBron fan more than a Cavs fan. I realised that was not the case when he left Cleveland in 2010. I got so heartbroken. I felt betrayed.

Bright days ahead for the Cavs. Even though I'm not technically from Cleveland, my heart is with the people living there.

 

[BimboColesHair]

Will always be my 1st love...followed by Bob Sura, Wes Person, Big Z, and Andre Miller (don't even get me started on how I reacted to him being traded after a 16 ppg, 11 apg season).

 

[tonyn]

I'm from sandusky, aaaand yea. just wanna see the cavs win.

I still blame Shaquille for ruining our chemistry when he was here.

 

[A Squared]

I'm 22 and from Columbus. The first time I ever watched basketball was during McDonalds dunk contest when LeBron was coming out of highschool. The guy just amazed me and I knew I would be a big fan of his. He ended getting drafted by Cleveland and it only seem natural to root for the team that had my favorite player and was from my home state.

 

[Raymond]

I'm from Uruguay and my story goes back to 1993. My uncle had a bussines trip to the USA and I asked him to buy me a NES game. I was 10 years old back then and he bought me three, one of them called "Tecmo NBA Basketball":


I played a lot of that game and the Cleveland Cavaliers became my favourite team to plat with, no idea why. I remember that the starting five was:

Price
Ehlo
Williams
Nance
Daugherty

Well, but I was 10 and I did't understand nothing of basketball then, but I liked to shot 3's, so I played with this 5:

Price
Ehlo
Kerr
Brandon
Ferry
(Sorry Brad, sorry Larry).

Little by litlle and beacuse of that game my fanaticism for the Cavs become bigger and bigger.

Back then NBA news in my country were rare, the only one really known were the Bulls, the Lakers and the Celtics, but my heart was already from the Cleveland Cavaliers. The only big news I remember from those years on my local TV mentioning the Cavs was the signing of Shawn Kemp.

Some years later, like 1998 or 1999, I started using internet and I was able to get in touch with fresh news. Almost at the same time cable networks added some channels like ESPN or TNT and I could even watch some Cavs games, but they were very rare. I remember one, I think it was in 2002, Cavs vs Wizards (Jordan's Wizards) that we lost that really pissed me off. There was a play where the refs kicked out Ilgauskas (still with lot of hait back then) where they should have kicked Jordan instead.

Since the first LeBron era Cavs games were on TV way more often. And since 5 or 6 years I am able to watch the Cavs games over the internet, and I watch almost every game (the last three years even the Summer League ones...).

And that's my story. Sorry for the bad english, writing this showed me that it is more rusty than I expected.

 

[TheViper]

I am from Israel, I have started following the NBA since our first born Israeli player entered the best league in the world, which is of course the NBA.

As a youngster I was a fan of the best basketball team in Israel and one of the best clubs in Europe, Maccabi Tel-Aviv.

Which also means I was following players like Anthony Parker which was one of the pioneers in Maccabi in his tenure here, but the real reason I discovered the NBA was Omri Casspi, I loved watching him in Maccabi Tel-Aviv, and when he was drafted in the 23rd pick in the first round by the Sacramento Kings, I felt a tremendous sense of pride, in the beginning I was following the Kings, I was waking up early in the morning around 4:00- 5:00 am to watch Casspi play for them.

One day the Kings were hosting this team from Cleveland, the Cavaliers, and I saw this guy who was very talented, strong and unbelievably athletic, his name as you can already guess was LeBron James, I think after that game where Cleveland beat Sac-town in overtime (if I'm not mistaken) I had really decided to follow the NBA more, so I followed both Cavs and the Kings, when the Cavs made it to the playoffs it was great, I loved watching players like Anderson Varejao, Mo Williams, Big Z and king James of course, I was rooting for them, and for my favourite NBA player, LeBron James, unfortunately the Cavs were eliminated by the Boston Celtics and the king left to Miami.
Back then I was following the Cavs and watched them falling apart and being the worst team in the league, I was of course following the Kings and Casspi as well, and also followed James in Miami, he was still my favorite player.

The season was over and Casspi was part of a trade which landed him in Cleveland, that was the time where I was really watching almost every game of the Cavs, as you can probably recall, Casspi wasn't too good on the Cavs squad and he eventually lost his starting role to Alonzo Gee, it was pretty frustrating for his fans in Israel but virtually it was the right decision by coach Scott....

Casspi eventually left and signed with Houston but I was still watching the Cavs in action with their very talented players: Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson and Dion Waiters, I knew it was a matter of time before something big will happen, and in this very off-season the King returned home and Cavs landed one of the best PFs in the game today.....
I was not a Cleveland fan for a long time, and I wasn't always happy with the decisions the Cavs made, and yet they are still one of my favorites team to watch, of course I am still rooting for my Israeli NBA players and their teams.

 

[IlocosPride]

Born in the Philippines. Came to Cleveland in August of '97 at the age of 19. Same year, my cousin took me to the CAVS game and I got Derek Anderson's signature. For 17 years, I watched/followed every single CAVS game/news at the Q or TV/DVR or the internet or the Plain Dealer.

 

[Itay]

im from Israel! and maccabi fan, ofc I was excited to see Blatt go to the NBA, imo he deserve it.
so since Blatt (and little about when Omri was there, and maybe Pargo) im a little Cleveland supporter!
so I hope this season you will be the champions.
feel sorry for you and Omri Casspi that things didnt work.

 

[shoes22]

feel sorry for you and Omri Casspi that things didnt work.

It's okay. I don't think either side is losing sleep over that.

 

[Muffinalt]

Im from Hungary and I became a fan of the Cavs in 2008 when I was 17. I was going through a love depression and just the general teenage years of uncertainty and insecurities. Im a Real Madrid fan for more than 12 years now but I was very fortunate that I fell in love with this team back then because I needed another sports culture to follow religiously.

That time was all about LeBron and naturally he was my favorite player too. I felt an almost personal connection as he showed me how to be poised, confident and accountable in life. Or at least I thought. The night of the decision I stayed up for what was 4am for me and I remember shaking in anger, disappointment and hopelessness. Ive never even been to Cleveland but I felt betrayed. To this day I am very emotional about the subject and I wasnt ready to forgive LeBron even after his new letter this summer.

However once he left I started to follow the team much more closely. I found out about the history of the city and area, about all the great players, front office personnel and announcers. I got hyped up for drafts and stayed up for the long nights to watch games and anything I could. I guess during this time I realized that sometimes the name on the front of your jersey means much more than the one on the back. I took this analogy to life as well and I could say that by following the Cavs through the "worse" times has made me into a more complete person.

I found it very hard to be able to show forgiveness to my teenage hero/villain this summer. There was even a condescending user here on RCF that simply posted: "Forgiveness bro, try it". However, with everything else that has happened in my life during this year Ive grown up enough to realize that the world doesnt revolve around me. One thing that LeBron/Kyrie and other NBA starts i feel still struggle with. Either way I am much more welcoming of LeBron now because of what new hope he has given back to Cleveland and how our off-season shaped up so incredibly.

What I was trying to say with all this is that you all who are from Cleveland or a fan of the Cavs should be proud. I know I cannot begin to comprehend the history and all the heartbreaks you have felt, but I hope it at least compensates somewhat that your city and team was able to fill such a huge role in my life. I am a better person for having followed the team, dealing with all its adversities and seeing all your opinions on RCF as well. Even if Im just one person, I think there are many more out there in the world that associate Cleveland as a beacon of light in their lives. So instead of being negative, saying Cleveland is cursed etc, try to sometimes remember the positives too I know that I will forever stay with this team, no matter the circumstances and I cannot wait for the day when I can attend a game at the Q and then celebrate later downtown in my Andy jersey


PS:

I was so much invested in the Cavs/NBA/players that I was considering writing my Bsc thesis on how sports can be used to showcase leadership qualities and approaches. I was turned down because the topic was to difficult for a Bsc thesis apparently, but soon Ill try again as my Masters course approaches thesis time!

 

[Mdog1]

I'm Canadian, live about 2 hours east of Toronto, and when I was young Vince Carter was huge, especially in this part of Ontario.

So in about 2001 or 2002 I started hearing about some kid named, well you get it. He was on SC often, the internet was flooded with stuff about him, and I decided to get on the next Vince Carter band wagon early on, before he wad even in the NBA. I was 9/10 at the time.

He was drafted to the team, and it was such an amazing thing to be drafted to the hometown team. He didn't just live up to the hype. He rose above it amazingly.

Over the years I grew to like other players on the team, Andy, Mo, and Boobie mostly.

I grew up, and since I hrew up watching this team, I still followed the team very closely, even in the post LeBron years.

 

[AKcavsfan]

Born and raised in Alaska, lived here all my life. We don't have any sports teams of our own up here so it's kind of a gift/curse that we are able to fan any team (most people choose Seattle since it's so close but that's not my style lol)

Grew up a Jordan fan, when I was actually old enough to follow basketball I had to choose a team and at the time Boozer and Langdon were the only Alaskans in the NBA so it made sense to like the Cavs.

Shortly after that I learned about Lebron, and the Cavs were really good so it was an easy transition for me. Stuck through the decision and now here I am! Exciting time for all of us

My old job was on a glacier/wildlife tour boat and I met a group of about 20 Clevelanders and I asked them if they liked the Cavs and they instantly loved me. The lady I was talking to actually ended up buying me two tickets to a game of my choosing that year (saw the celtics vs Cavs in April 2009). Loved the entire experience in CLE, the game, the R&R HOF. It was the first and only NBA game I've been to. I'm planning on making a trip down there this year to watch a couple more games too.

It's a fun time to be a Cav fan!!

 

[Simmy]

I think it's awesome how many new fans have been attributed to the arrival of David Blatt (namely those from Israel). Speaks volumes of him as a coach and a leader.

 

[tekorkmaz]

I'm from Turkey.
Started to follow NBA in 2011.
At that time everybody was mad at LeBron even i didn't know why. Then started searching. Learned that he left to Miami due to lack of teammate help. It's actually sounded logical and i liked his caracter as a funny guy who tries to help his teammates so i started to root for him. Even in my country most of the fans many of them are lakers and kobe fans who claiming they screwed the league with creating a trio while their franchise's history was filled with this kind of stuff so i became a bit protective about James.
It was so interesting after the 2011 Finals people were happy to see LeBron not just haters around me but also in USA too. I was mostly ''WTF it's like LeBron just f**ked their moms'' After that year he had dream like 2 seasons but i started to hate Wade cuz he always played bad and hurt the team. Last season he dragged them into Finals and they get decimated to Spurs and Wade looked like 38 years old. So i wanted him to leave Miami and return his home Cleveland.
Idk if i'm a bandwagoner or what i rooted for LeBron for last 4 seasons hated Wade and Heat organization (i like Bosh very much with that dinosaur scream ) felt sorry for Cavs. I always liked Kyrie and Dion, hated the pick of Bennett supported Noel(everything worked out fine with the addition of Love), now with LeBron returned i felt like i should embrace the Cavs.