The Cleveland Cavaliers will make their first playoff appearance in eight years this weekend. They will take on either the Washington Wizards or the Chicago Bulls in the best of seven game series. Either match up will have historical meaning to Cleveland fans, one with fond memories, the other with heartbreaking ones.
This is the 30th anniversary of the so called "Miracle of Richfield". For those who are too young to remember this edition of the Cavs, they won the only division title in the history of the franchise. The wine and gold missed their first playoff appearance on the last day of the season in 1974-75, so the title marked the team’s first visit to the post season. The Cavs were arguably the hottest team in the NBA going into the playoffs, and beat the then Washington Bullets in a seven game series. Most of the games went down to a final posession, including Game 7 when Dick Snyder’s runner moved Bill Fitch’s crew into the Eastern Conference finals against the Celtics.
Prior to the Boston series, center Jim Chones broke his foot and couldn’t play. Aging Nate Thurmond did an admirable job, but the wine and gold lost in six games and wouldn’t win another playoff series for 16 years. The Celtics went on to win the title, leaving Cleveland fans to lament they would have beaten the Celts in Chones hadn’t gone down.
At that point in time, the Coliseum was the loudest arena in the NBA. The crowd would be standing and cheering at these playoff games a good 15 minutes before tip off. It was a new experience for the town, its first competitive basketball team, and they responded. Outside of the Lenny Wilkens led teams of the early 90’s and the arrival of LeBron James, it was the highlight of the franchise’s history.
The Bulls represent the other end of the spectrum. They eliminated the wine and gold from the playoffs five times from the 1987-88 season through the 1993-94 season. Several of those defeats are on the list of crushing Cleveland losses, most notably "The Shots" by Michael Jordan over the outstretched hands of Larry Nance and Gerald Wilkins.
What people don’t remember was that early in Jordan’s career, the Cavaliers beat the Bulls on a regular basis. When Jordan made the shot, the Cavs won every game that regular season against Chicago. By the way, I’ve never heard an arena get quiet so quickly as when MJ hit that basket. It went from a party to a funeral in a second.
The only other time the Cavs made the Conference Finals, they were defeated by Jordan and the Bulls after winning series against New Jersey and Boston.
The best thing about these playoffs is that it will be James’ first appearance in the playoffs. This is the first step in getting to the NBA title that LeBron, Danny Ferry, and Daniel Gilbert expect in the near future. Enjoy the ride, and get used to playoff basketball in the NBA. The guess here is it is the first of many visits down the road.
JK
Cleveland Sports Perspective 