The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Fans embrace underdog role at watch party
Outside Cleveland, the Cavaliers’ chances against the Golden State Warriors in their fourth straight NBA Finals matchup appear bleak — if they even exist.
ESPN’s panel unanimously selected the Warriors to win their third Larry O’Brien Trophy in four seasons. Only two of 24 voters were bold enough to predict the series would last seven games.
“That’s just going to push them harder,” Kenny Mason, of Cleveland, said.
To fans of the 2017-18 Cavaliers, the underdog identity is welcomed. At the Cavaliers’ watch party inside Quicken Loans Arena, optimism buoyed the spectators who filled the concourse and lower bowls of the Cavaliers’ home floor while they played on the other side of the country.
Steven Webster, a Cleveland native, has a wellhoned perspective for these moments.
“I’ve been living in Cleveland my entire life,” Webster said. “I always hope for the best, but I always expect the worst.”
The concourse featured stalls set up with NBA Live, group photo booths, tables from local business and organizations and countless residents of Northeast Ohio clad in Cavaliers apparel. A few outliers were brave enough to wear Warriors gear, and one stalwart arrived in a throwback Dennis Rodman No. 10 Detroit Pistons jersey.
Near the main entrance, Jim Szabo was among the first sights greeting entrants to The Q. Szabo moved to Cleveland more than 30 years ago from Europe, and sported a bedazzled LeBron James jersey, custom pants made of fabric featuring the Cavaliers’ logo, homemade Cavaliers shoes and a golden belt flashing “Go Cavs” in red letters.
A fan of the Cavaliers from 25 years, Szabo believes in them as long as they have James.
“On the road it will be tough,” Szabo said.
“At home, I think we have a chance. Maybe we can steal one, like we did in Boston the seventh game. Nobody expected, but we did. LeBron was in beast mode. There’s nobody else like him.”
Proceedings mirrored the beginning of a Cavaliers home game. The usual pregame videos and playlist, headlined by Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight,” pumped added energy at decibels that reverberated through the crowd.
Pregame introductions replaced the Cavaliers’ players with local youths, who huddled at midcourt as the house lights went down.
Thousands of necks then craned at obtuse angles to witness the beginning of the Finals.
An anxious crowd erupted at the sight of James’ layup to score the series’ first points.
To Trisha Simon Webster, that the Cavaliers are playing in the Finals at all gives her enough hope despite their underdog status.
“I think that they’ve really shown they can come together as a team,” Simon Webster said. “Just with trades and different things going on, they came out on top.”
Rokeba Willis agrees, and she believes a second Cavaliers championship will take a similar form to how they won two years ago.
“They are a very hard team to beat,” Willis said. “I think we’ll go to Game 7 and be lucky like we was before.”