Today is one of those days that remind you why you live in Cleveland after the type of winter we just had. It's right around 70, not a cloud in the sky, just a slight breeze to keep it fresh.
But it's also one of those days that remind you why you live in Cleveland: because we're still waiting on LeBron to make a decision. It's the second time in 4 years we've gone through this. LeBron, himself, aside, we've been waiting for a championship for 50 years. That's what we're really waiting for and the reason it matters so much.
I've followed the Packers my whole life (since the Browns left right when I got into football). So I know, to a degree, what it means to see your team win a champsionship. It's great for awhile, and it's something you never forget. But it doesn't really change your life.
I think though, that it would be different in Cleveland. Actually, I know it would be. It's not just that we'd finally have one and we'd get the same experience everyone else does. It's that we will finally feel like our most visual city representatives are the best at something.
Cleveland's got a pretty wide inferiority complex, mostly generated by the percieved, real, and ongoing treatment the city recieves from national media. For the same 50 years we've been waiting on a title, we've fallen from the fatest growing city in the US to one of the smallest metropolitan areas with 3 sports teams. We went from a top 5 city in the country to not even being the biggest city in our own state.
Cleveland has fallen a long way. We're rebuilding. We've been rebuilding amidst the fall. In two years we'll be at the heart of the heart of the presidential election, hosting the Rupublican National Convention. There's a lot of good press out there about Cleveland now, and I'm thankful for it.
But that illusive championship is still out there. It's like we've been prepping for a coming out party that just keeps getting postponed.
In so many ways, this LeBron has been a two-week long distillation of 50 years. Heck, even if LeBron does return, that's not even a guaranteed title.
But at least it would prove, once more, that Cleveland is more relevant than the rumors would suggest.
We all know why we love Cleveland. We might not even all agree on why we love Cleveland. But we don't feel like anyone else understands. Most of the time, I'm sure they don't. If LeBron came back, more importantly, if we won a title, we feel like everyone would actually believe Cleveland is back.
I don't know how well that would actually happen. A Championship won't, on its own, fix economic problems. It won't change crime rates or poverty levels.
I'm not even sure how important nationwide respect is for actual change to take place in those areas. But at the same time, people like to confirm their biases. I'm not sure what national people could do for Cleveland, but as long as they believe it's a hopeless place we'd all do better to move away from, they'll never do whatever little they could.
Respect is important. Cleveland rarely gets any of it outside Cuyahoga county (and let's be real- most outer-rim suburban people treat Cleveland like a necessary evil they'd like to avoid, so you don't have to go far). Maybe a champsionship will help. I don't know. But I know it won't hurt.
And so yeah, I want LeBron to come back. I don't know if he will. I'm just hopeful. That's the only thing you can be if you actually want to survive in Cleveland.
-Zack
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