Adam Woodward of USA Today Sports asked an interesting question in a piece that was published on June 15: Is Game 6 of the NBA Finals involving the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors the biggest game in the history of Cleveland sports?
The short answer is "no."
It was back in 1997 when the Cleveland Indians were within three outs of winning Game 7 of the World Series against the Florida Marlins. Jose Mesa was unable to close the Marlins out in the bottom of the ninth, and the Marlins went on to win the game and the series.
Many of the Cavaliers who will take the court on Thursday night participated in Game 6 of last year's NBA Finals against these same Warriors. The Warriors defeated the Cavs out in Cleveland a year ago, and Golden State will look to do the same this Thursday.
It has been 52 years since the Cleveland Browns last won a championship. That title still counts, even though many of you reading this sentence weren't alive when the game was played.
So no, Game 6 of the 2016 NBA Finals is not the biggest game in the history of Cleveland sports. It is, however, the biggest game in the history of the Cavaliers.
Period.
Game 6 could theoretically be the closest that LeBron James ever comes to bringing a championship to Cleveland. Both James and Kyrie Irving posted 41 points in Cleveland's win over Golden State in Game 5, and both men appeared to find their top forms at the perfect time.
James' physical prime is fading; maybe not rapidly, but it's happening before our very eyes. James is no longer consistently what he was during his final seasons with the Miami Heat. The all-time great is a 31-year-old who has been in the NBA since he was drafted by the Cavaliers in 2003. Every new season brings with it "x" amount of games and potential injury woes that could negatively affect the closing portions of James' historic career.
One would not have to look far to see what Game 6 could mean for Cavaliers forward Kevin Love. A quick Internet search for "Kevin Love trade" on the afternoon of June 15 brings up a variety of recent stories.
Matt Burke of Metro.us linked Love with a potential move to the Boston Celtics.
Forbes.com contributor Alex Reimer believes Love's trade stock "continues to plummet" this spring.
Even after the Cavaliers defeated the Warriors in Game 3 of the NBA Finals, Tom Ziller of SB Nation wrote about Love's future outside of Cleveland..
You get the idea.
A loss to the Warriors in Game 6 would mean that this year's Cavs are no better than last season's. Swapping former head coach David Blatt with Tyronn Lue will have been for nothing. Having Love and Irving healthy and available for the entire series against the Warriors (Love missed all of the 2015 NBA Finals and Irving was lost for the series late in Game 1) will not have mattered at all.
Then what?
Let's say, for the sake of argument, that those predicting the Cavs will trade Love this summer are spot-on. The breaking-up of Cleveland's current "big three" is easy to suggest on paper or in a video game, but the matter is more complicated in real life.
Who is a better fit to play alongside James and Irving? Carmelo Anthony? The same Anthony who has never won anything of merit in the NBA and who has never met a shot he didn't like?
Maybe James, Irving and company feel they would be better off with Jae Crowder, Aaron Gordon or somebody else the Cavaliers could realistically land in a future trade. That new triad, whatever it would be, would basically start from scratch as did James, Irving and Love back in 2014. This time, however, James will be two years older than he was when he announced that he was returning to northeast Ohio.
And what about Lue? Both Blatt and Lue can claim to have guided the Cavaliers to within two victories of a NBA title. Blatt happened to do so without two of this three biggest stars and best players.
All of the uncertainty hovering over the team's future makes Game 6 far more than just a "win or go home" showdown for the Cavaliers. There is zero guarantee, James or no James, that the Cavaliers will again get this close to a championship between now and the end of the decade.
Both the Cavaliers and Warriors will have enjoyed an extra day of rest before the start of Game 6. The same was true before Game 3 and Game 5, contests the Cavaliers won going away.
The Cavaliers, Indians or Browns will eventually win a title. There will one day be a championship parade down East 9th Street in downtown Cleveland. It will be a moment lifelong fans from the region will cherish for as long as their memories remain intact.
For now, though, Game 6 is the biggest game in the history of the Cavaliers...
...unless the Cavs force Game 7.
