CLEVELAND — It's hard to believe that a decade has passed since the Cleveland Cavaliers made history by winning the 2016 NBA Championship, the franchise's first and the first for the city across Cleveland's three pro teams in 52 years. There's been no other title won since, but as the city hopes for a new championship to celebrate, they haven't forgotten the one 10 years ago.
And neither have the players who helped hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy.
There are many words that could be used to describe the Cavs' 2016 championship run. Ask Richard Jefferson and he'll tell you "community." Kevin Love was torn between two, "historic, epic." David Griffin, the Cavs general manager at the time, used the word "grit."
But one word, the word that Matthew Dellavedova used, can never be denied.
"Championship," he said.
On a milestone anniversary of the Cavs ' championship, those guys took some time to reflect on the memories and moments that still stand out to them to this day.
Love still thinks about how special winning that title was because of the improbability of it all.
"Really special because I spent my first six years, didn't make the playoffs, went to the finals the following year, but I'd gotten hurt in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. Kyrie got hurt in Game 1 of the Finals. So we weren't at full strength. We lost in '15 and came back the next year, down 3-1 and, and won it after a 52-year drought of a major sports championship in Cleveland. So we knew that the city of Cleveland was hungry for it. Ohio was hungry for it. All Cavs fans everywhere were hungry for it. So it was a dream come true," Love said.
A dream that still replays in the minds of fans and, on Friday, replayed at the newly unveiled Meet Me Here Plaza outside of Rocket Arena. The Cavs held a watch party to re-air the Game 7 victory over the Golden State Warriors and, even knowing the outcome, there was no shortage of emotion throughout the crowd.
It brought back memories of the emotions that night 10 years ago, and for Jefferson, made him reflect on just how special it really felt in that moment and still to this day.
"I feel very, very proud that there's still a unique connection. That championship was different. It was different than other championships—how we did it, who we beat, the rivalry, the drought; there were so many things," Jefferson said. "LeBron [James] finishing his journey of 'I want to bring a championship.' Who else says that? In American sports, in the history of sports, who else gets drafted by their hometown that's never won anything and is like, 'You know what, I'm going to bring a championship here?'" I think we gloss over the absurdity of that pressure. You can win a championship for the team you're drafted, but winning a championship for your hometown team that has never had success, that is something that I think gets glossed over, and we're like, 'Oh well,' and it's like, 'No, no, no, show me another time in American sports history that that has happened.' It's never happened."
Now, there are a lot of unforgettable moments from that night and the days that followed. The block LeBron James made on Andre Iguodala, the shot Kyrie Irving made to give the Cavs a late-game lead, the stop that Love made on Steph Curry to hold the Warriors off and secure the win. James' quotable interview where he shouted, through tears, "Cleveland, this is for you!" A shirtless JR Smith. A warm welcome off the plane as the Cavs returned to Cleveland from the West Coast win. The parade that brought more than a million Cavs fans downtown.
Among all of those moments, the parade might top everyone's list as the most unforgettable.
"I think for me, the parade is a huge one. It just shows you how much everything meant to generations of families," Love said. "It's one thing to get to the destination and that was to hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy and get our rings later that next year, opening night. But I think it was everything in between, the process, everything we did to get to that moment, all the work that we put in, especially after having lost the finals the year before. And then I think just backs against the wall. Nobody had ever come back from 3-1—a team that had a unanimous MVP in Steph Curry and had a 73-9 season, which was historic. We were able to come back and win Game 7 on the road. And again, it was everything in between and all the moments both on the floor and away from the floor that really stick out to me."
Jefferson also said the parade will forever live as one of the standout memories from that title run.
For him, there was beauty—and pizza—in all of the chaos.
"That parade was so much chaos. It was like, 'Oh yeah, Cleveland's never done a parade before.' But everyone was so respectful and everybody was on top of the cars, but it was such a family atmosphere, we never felt unsafe. We felt like we were coming home, like it was a family reunion. That drive through where it was parting the crowd and we couldn't do more than like five miles an hour, that felt like a family get-together versus like us being a part of some crazy crowd. It felt like a cookout," Jefferson said. "My brother, because the car was moving so slow, obviously it was chaos, my brother got out of the car, went to a pizza shop, got the pizza, then walked up another three blocks and then jumped back in the car because it was moving that slow. So it was just such an amazing opportunity for the fans, for us to connect, and that will probably be my most favorite, lasting memory of the community."
But more than just the celebrations, there were deep, lasting connections on that team.
Dellavedova said his favorite memory of that run was the dinners with his teammates they had nightly.
"There's so many different moments, and I think being back here just brings up so many more, but one of the things I remember is the dinners in between each series and how much fun we had at those," he said. "It was just a really tight group, which made it fun."
The team is still, to this day, extremely close.
James had said before the season that he and a lot of the guys from the 2016 team, who are still in a group chat with each other, were planning something special for the 10-year anniversary.
"A lot of us are still on a group chat—myself, Channing, RJ, Tristan, K Love, and we got some plans for our 10-year reunion," James said.
Those plans made it out of the group chat, and James, Jefferson, Love, Dellavedova, Smith, Tristan Thompson, Channing Frye and Iman Shumpert are currently in Europe, golfing, drinking wine, having dinners and no doubt reminiscing about the history they were able to make together.
As the 10-year anniversary comes and goes, the memories certainly won't. For the city, for the fans and for the guys on the court who helped make Cleveland a city of champions a decade ago.
"10 years, it's crazy to think it's gone by and things have gone by that fast," Love said.
"Man, it doesn't feel like it's 10 years ago. Time has flown," Dellavedova said.
"It is super, super crazy to think about that," James said.
And Jefferson, bringing humor to the moment, may have said it best.
"I have the same amount of hair as I had 10 years ago, so that's been good. I'm not more grey, I'm not more bald," Jefferson said. "But for me, when I think about 2016, when I think about that championship, I think about the overall intensity that was that year in sports. And so I'm just blessed to be a part of it."
