by After many years of struggling and near misses, the Cavalier fans let loose and celebrated as their team could finally be called champions! Even the broadcast team gets to share in the excitement. Fred McLeod describes the emotion of the game six clinching win, “It was an amazing and emotional night. Bobbie Gibson was on fire and that’s when the term “Shoot Bobbie” shoot began. You had seen a team that worked so hard and deserved the win. It was awesome to look into the gateway plaza and see the fans going crazy with excitement. Cleveland is such a great sports town with loyal, hardworking fans that deserved a winner and they finally had a team going to the NBA Finals. We have the best fans in sports and they proved how passionate they were that night.”
Mary Schmitt Boyer explains why the Cavaliers were finally able to get over the hump and beat Detroit. “LeBron was not to be denied as he was on the ascent. He loaded that team on his back and was not going to be denied. The Eastern Conference was weaker that year and they were able to take advantage of it. The team totally bough into Mike’s defensive philosophy. He did such a good job coaching younger players. The stars aligned for the team and they bought into the entire team philosophy. They were led by a guy on his way up and they took care of things with a right time right place mentality.”
Despite the outcome in the NBA Finals, a sweep by the San Antonio Spurs, the run of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2007 playoffs will always be remembered as the coming-out party for LeBron James. In a matter of four years the Cavaliers had managed to rebound from having the leagues worst record, to reaching the NBA Finals. It was a remarkable turn-around, and now the only question was not if they could get back to the finals, but when they did, could they win it all?
The Cavaliers didn’t have too long to celebrate their run to the NBA Finals before they had to start dealing with serious roster issues. Two key members of the team were planning to hold out for contract extensions. Both Anderson Varejao and Sasha Pavlovic had contracts set to expire soon and wanted to re-new for more money and years on each one. The Cavaliers didn’t seem eager at first, and it looked like it might by a long offseason.
It was a quiet offseason with the exception of the holdout drama; they only signed one free agent of note. They brought in Devin Brown, a five year veteran who had spent time with San Antonio, Denver, Utah and New Orleans. He was a solid back up shooting guard, and with the Larry Hughes injury concerns, it was needed to have a reliable backup.
The night before the opening game the team received some good news; they had come to terms on a contract extension with Sasha Pavlovic. He would not be ready for the first few games, but would return to action in time for their six game west coach road trip only a few days away. They lost the opening game to the Dallas Mavericks, but bounced back a few nights later at home against the New York Knicks. They split the six game road trip with wins against the Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings and the Los Angeles Clippers. They suffered losses against the Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets.
They did receive some good news when the returned home from their trip, as rumor had it that Anderson Varejao was getting closer to ending his holdout. It was hopeful that he would because they were sorely missing his energy off the bench. They did run into a stumbling block however, when team leader LeBron James went down to injury during the November 28, 2007 game against the Detroit Pistons, in Detroit. It was a costly blow, but the doctor said he would only be out a couple of weeks. During that stretch, the Cavaliers lost six straight games, it was a bad omen that would become more apparent four seasons later.
He was set to return December 11, 2007, which also happened to be the same night Anderson Varejao would end his holdout and return to the team. To get both of their best players back had Cleveland fans excited and packing Quicken Loans Arena that night to witness the contest against the Indiana Pacers. For the first time in his career, LeBron James decided not to start the game. He thought it would be best if he came off the bench that one night only for the purpose to enter the game the same time Anderson did, thus shielding him from receiving the boo’s from the crowd that often accompany a long holdout. It was another sign that LeBron was becoming a great teammate and maturing into a superstar on and off the court. The Cavaliers managed to win the game 118-105.
Despite the return of James and Varejao, the Cavaliers were still struggling to find their stride and slumped into a 14-17 record as the calendar turned into 2008. It was at this point that they finally snapped out of their sleepwalk and got hot. It began with a four game winning streak against the likes of the Atlanta Hawks, Sacramento Kings, Toronto Raptors and Seattle Supersonics. They then lost a close game in Atlanta against the Hawk before running off a five game winning streak, including an overtime win against the Memphis Grizzlies and a double overtime win against the Charlotte Bobcats. At the end of these two winning streaks their record had improved drastically to 23-19. (51)
They started winning as many as they lost after the two hot streaks and they entered into the last week of February with a 30-24 record. There had been rumors for awhile that the Cavaliers chemistry wasn’t as good as the prior years and that a major shakeup could happen. Despite the winning record, general manager Danny Ferry still felt that the team needed a shake- up in order to return to the later rounds of the playoffs. (52)
On February 21, 2008, Danny Ferry pulled off a blockbuster that no one saw coming. He took park in a three team trade with the Chicago Bulls and Seattle Supersonics that would change 25% of the Cavaliers roster. As part of a 3-team trade, the Cleveland Cavaliers traded Donyell Marshall and Ira Newble to the Seattle SuperSonics; they also sent Shannon Brown, Drew Gooden, Larry Hughes and Cedric Simmons to the Chicago Bulls; the Chicago Bulls traded Joe Smith, Ben Wallace and a 2009 2nd round draft pick (Danny Green was later selected) to the Cleveland Cavaliers; the Chicago Bulls traded Adrian Griffin to the Seattle SuperSonics; and the Seattle SuperSonics traded Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West to the Cleveland Cavaliers. It was a crucial trade that brought on high risk, but also the chance for very high reward.
Ben Wallace was a key piece in the prior postseason runs for the Detroit Pistons, he hadn’t been on Chicago long and it was surprising that they were so quick to deal him away. He was a powerful center and power forward, his presence down low with Zydrunas Ilguaskas would become a major plus for the Cavaliers. The addition of Delonte West was not to be overlooked either. West may have had his quirks about him, but the kid could play! He was quick with the ball and didn’t turn it over. He could shoot and pass with the best of them and also played incredible defense. West was a huge pickup that would solidify the backcourt. Joe Smith was a former first overall pick in the NBA draft by the Golden State Warriors in 1995, he was determined that he still had something left in the tank and could provide several rebounds off the bench each and every night.
Perhaps the player the fans were most excited to welcome into the fold was Wally Szczerbiak. His dad Walt, was a former ABA player and basketball was in the Sczerbiak blood. Wally attended college at Miami University in nearby Oxford, Ohio. In his junior season of 1997-98, he burst onto the scene as one of college basketball’s leading scorers, averaging 24.4 points per game and earning first-team All-MAC honors despite missing several games with a broken wrist.
In his senior season of 1998-99, he averaged 24.2 points per game and led the RedHawks to the Sweet 16 in the 1999 NCAA Tournament as the tenth seed. Szczerbiak scored a career-high 43 points in a first-round win over seventh seeded University of Washington. He followed that up with 24 points in the second round against highly rated second seed Utah, leading the Redhawks to the Sweet 16, where they would eventually lose to Kentucky.
He was named MAC Player of the Year, and was named first-team All-American by Basketball News and Sports Illustrated and second-team All-American by the Associated Press He finished his career at Miami University as the university’s second all-time leading scorer with 1,847 points. So beloved was Szcerbiak that in 2001 his jersey was retired by the school and in 2009 he was inducted into the Miami University Hall of Fame. Also, in 2013 he was inducted into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame.
The Minnesota Timberwolves selected Szczerbiak 6th overall in the 1999 NBA Draft. He was a key piece in a team with Kevin Garnett that would eventually reach the Western Conference Finals. His best year as a pro was in 2002 when he was a coaches’ selection to the Western Conference All-Star team. His shooting was so good and prolific at times that he tied a Timberwolves franchise record of 44 points on April 13, 2003. Despite a good career in Minnesota, economics and politics took him away from Minnesota and he spent short stints in both Boston and Seattle before coming to Cleveland as part of the trade.
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