Written by Tom Withers at Washington Times.com
Cheered by a sea of fans spilling off sidewalks and choking the streets, LeBron James and the Cavaliers paraded and rallied as NBA champs in a once in a generation party for Cleveland.
The city’s title drought is over. The party — and procession slowed to a crawl by a mass of humanity — is just getting started.
“For some crazy reason, I feel like I’m gonna wake up and it’s going to be Game 4 again” with the Cavs down 2-1 to the Warriors, James told hundreds of thousands of fans before thanking each of his teammates one by one.
James gave those hometown fans even more reason to celebrate Wednesday by telling reporters he intends to stay inCleveland, skipping the drama of previous splashy announcements when he decided to go to Miami in 2010 then come back to the Cavaliers four years later.
“I’m just one man. I’m one man with a plan, with a drive, with a determination,” James said.
The crowd, some fans arriving Tuesday night to camp out so they could get as close as possible, overwhelmed downtown Cleveland to celebrate with James, Kyrie Irving and their teammates. The Cavs made history by overcoming a 3-1 deficit to beat the Golden State Warriors in the Finals, ending the city’s 52-year championship drought.
The team delivered again Wednesday with a raucous celebration filled with selfies and shirtless ballers, new nicknames for fresh moments — rare positive memories — for Cleveland sports lore.
Irving gave props to James‘ block on Andre Iguodala that set up his 3-pointer to take the lead for good in Game 7.James raved about Irving but also Kevin Love’s defense in the final moments against NBA MVP Stephen Curry. And Richard Jefferson, who said after winning the title that he planned to retire, got caught up by crowd chants of “one more year” and told them if they wanted him back, he’d return.
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