Opinion King’s homecoming

Fans of Cleveland Indians in baseball, Cleveland Browns in American football and the Cavs in NBA all keep picking at the scabs of various near-misses for the city.

Six years since LeBron James decided to leave cold Cleveland and take his talents to “South Beach”, Miami Heat, angering fans, the King returned as an NBA champ with his hometown team Cleveland Cavaliers, completing the story of the proverbial prodigal. James’ decision wasn’t just another free agent moving on in life in the emotional-cum-commercialised world of NBA. This was considered a betrayal by the Akron-born boy from Northeast Ohio, dumping his city, and in what was a final nail in the coffin, joining forces with Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade, men he should’ve beaten. But Cleveland hardly looked like they could give their most talented player a championship, so he had fled south to sunny Florida — and made a big show of it too, annoying everyone from his faithful to Jordan.
But four years, two championships with the Heat and a strong tug of the heart later, LeBron would return to Cleveland. His ambitions must’ve been sated but not the challenge to win the title for his home team. Now, Cleveland is considered America’s most cursed sports city having never won a pro title since 1964 and with storied near-misses that get nursed alongside the weather-battered city’s other tragedies.

Fans of Cleveland Indians in baseball, Cleveland Browns in American football and the Cavs in NBA all keep picking at the scabs of various near-misses for the city. Think South African Cricket at major championships, and multiply that thrice over across different sports. All that sorrow burrowed inside one city. James’ Cavs needed to beat Golden State Warriors to end the lament. There was also the other motivation of showing the season’s MVP and Warriors’ star Stephen Curry that there was more to basketball than 3-pointers. In a heart-stopping end to the season, James played a big role in Cleveland making it 3-3 after trailing 1-3 in the best of the seven final. It ended 93-89 in Sunday’s deciding game, as the King had truly returned. For Cleveland, it was one homecoming that was worth the wait.