For the suffering Atlanta sports fan, Cleveland had always been such perfectly miserable company.
Cleveland mirrored our own bleak landscape so completely. Both cities possessed the same three of the big four professional sports, and both demonstrated such civic commitment to winning at none of them.
Neither has a Super Bowl victory, although Cleveland did win an NFL Championship back during the Johnson Administration (Lyndon, not Andrew). That’s 1964, kids.
Lenny Wilkens could take neither city to an NBA title. Craig Ehlo suffered in both places, although much more famously in Cleveland with Michael Jordan routinely hoisting game-winners over his flaxen locks.
When Atlanta finally won a title that mattered, the Braves claiming the World Series in 1995, I wonder who it beat?
Cleveland, of course.
Now, in light of recent developments that have shaken the natural order of sports, the question arises: Which of these sister cities of defeat will be the next to win a major sporting title of any sort?
If there is anything special about the Braves, Falcons or Hawks, it has yet to be revealed. And Cleveland has LeBron back. Seems a given.
But not so fast, my friend. There is a certain sense of dread that comes with following sports in places like Atlanta and Cleveland. There is the constant gnawing feeling that no matter how promising a situation may appear, there is piano about to drop on your head.
In “The Atlantic,” Ohioan David Graham expressed just such unshakable angst: “Now that (LeBron James) is back, though, I can’t help but imagine all the horrible ways the triumph could go turn sour. A sudden midcareer slump? A catastrophic injury? Or perhaps more likely, a freakish post-season collapse? Nothing would be more fun than watching Cleveland finally break its sports curse, and yet I can’t help but feel this is the setup for yet another horrifying episode, more grist for a wrenching future 30 for 30 on the haplessness of Cleveland sports. I hope I’m wrong.”
We wish no harm upon the head of the King, but the fact that James has returned to Cleveland has exposed him to all kinds of physical and psychological risk. He didn’t win it all there before. It is not certain he’ll win it all there now. Some curses are grease stains that just won’t come out. Some places are just meant to lose by any means necessary.
There is a third possible alternative to the Atlanta or Cleveland question, of course.
The answer always could be neither. Both cities could just continue their title-less drift, perpetual outsiders to the joy of championship, because that’s who they are.
And I simply refuse to envy Cleveland.
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