Cleveland Cavaliers

• 1. The Night It Ended

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  The Cleveland Cavaliers won the 2016 NBA Championship wearing black sleeved jerseys in Game 7 against the Golden State Warriors. The victory was unprecedented: no team in Finals history had ever come back from a 3-1 series deficit to claim the title. It also ended Cleveland's long wait for a major professional sports championship, a drought that dated to 1964. The Cavaliers first took the court in 1970 as an NBA expansion franchise. Their earliest games were held at Cleveland Arena on the city's east side. They left that building in 1974 for a new home nearby, where the franchise's first unforgettable moment would eventually arrive.

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• 2. The Miracle at Richfield

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  The Cavaliers opened the 1970-71 season by losing their first 15 games, setting a tone that persisted for half a decade. Their first five seasons produced no better than a sixth-place finish in the Eastern Conference. The franchise's breakthrough came in 1976, when Bill Fitch guided the team to its first Central Division title. The roster included Austin Carr, Bobby "Bingo" Smith, Jim Chones, Dick Snyder, and Nate Thurmond.

  In the Eastern Conference Semifinals that year, Cleveland defeated the Washington Bullets 4-3 in a Game 7 that ended 87-85. Dick Snyder's shot with four seconds remaining sealed the win. The series became known as the Miracle at Richfield. Their run continued to the Eastern Conference Finals, but Jim Chones broke his toe before the series opener against the Boston Celtics. Without Chones at center, Cleveland lost 4-2. The franchise made playoff appearances in each of the following two seasons before a six-year drought. Ted Stepien purchased the team in 1980, just as that drought was deepening.

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• 3. The Stepien Rule

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  Ted Stepien purchased the Cavaliers in 1980, and the three seasons that followed were among the worst in league history. The team went 66-180, dropped to last in league attendance, and lost $15 million. Stepien's practice of trading future draft picks for veteran players caused enough damage that the NBA invented a new regulation in his name. The Stepien Rule prohibits any team from trading first-round draft picks in consecutive seasons.

  His most notable deal sent the Cavaliers' 1982 first-round pick to the Los Angeles Lakers. The return was Don Ford and the 22nd overall pick in 1980. Stepien also burned through six head coaches during his three-year tenure, four of them in the single 1981-82 season alone. The team finished that year at 15-67. A 24-game losing streak bridging the 1981-82 and 1982-83 seasons became, at the time, the longest in NBA history. George and Gordon Gund purchased the Cavaliers from Stepien in 1983, giving the franchise a chance to recover.

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• 4. The Gund Era

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  The Cavaliers made the playoffs ten times between 1985 and 1998. The backbone of that run was Brad Daugherty at center and Mark Price at guard. The 1988-89 season was the franchise's best to that point, producing a 57-25 record under head coach Lenny Wilkens. Ron Harper and Larry Nance rounded out a starting five that was deep enough to challenge for the conference title.

  A second 57-win season followed in 1991-92, and the Cavaliers reached the Eastern Conference Finals that year. After a playoff appearance in the 1997-98 season, the team missed the postseason every year until 2005. The 2002-03 campaign was particularly stark: a 17-65 finish, tied for the worst record in the NBA. That result carried an unexpected consequence. Cleveland entered the 2003 draft lottery as a top contender for the first overall pick.

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• 5. King James

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  Cleveland selected LeBron James with the top pick in the 2003 NBA draft. James was a native of Akron, a city just south of Cleveland, and his arrival transformed the franchise within two seasons. Dan Gilbert purchased the team on the 3rd of January 2005, for $375 million, with the deal finalized on March 1 of that year. Gilbert hired Mike Brown as head coach and Danny Ferry as general manager.

  The Cavaliers built the roster around James and center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, adding Drew Gooden, Larry Hughes, and Anderson Varejao. The team made five straight playoff appearances from 2006 through 2010. In 2006-07, they reached the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history, but the San Antonio Spurs swept them in four games. The 2008-09 team set a franchise record with 66 wins, including a 39-2 mark at home. That season ended in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Orlando Magic. Adding Shaquille O'Neal for 2009-10 was not enough to get past the Boston Celtics in the second round.

  On the 8th of July 2010, James announced in a nationally televised one-hour special called The Decision that he was signing with the Miami Heat. The announcement left many in Cleveland infuriated and feeling betrayed. The following season, the Cavaliers won only 19 games and endured a 26-game losing streak, the third-longest in NBA history. In the 2011 NBA draft, the Cavaliers selected Kyrie Irving with the first overall pick. Cleveland would win the top selection in the draft lottery again in 2013 and 2014. Those picks gave the franchise the assets it needed to rebuild a contender.

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• 6. The Return

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  LeBron James returned to the Cavaliers in 2014 after four seasons with the Miami Heat. During those four years, the Heat compiled a 224-88 record and won titles in 2012 and 2013. The Cavaliers went 97-215 over the same span and missed the playoffs in every season. James' homecoming immediately changed the franchise's direction.

  Cleveland acquired power forward Kevin Love from the Minnesota Timberwolves shortly after James' return. Together with James and Kyrie Irving, the three formed what fans and media described as the Big Three. The Cavaliers made four consecutive NBA Finals appearances from 2015 through 2018, facing the Golden State Warriors in each series. The 2015-16 campaign produced the championship Cleveland had been working toward.

  The 2017-18 season brought significant upheaval. Irving was traded to the Boston Celtics for Isaiah Thomas and other assets. Thomas was subsequently moved to the Los Angeles Lakers in a trade-deadline deal that brought Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. to Cleveland. James then declined his player option that offseason and signed with the Lakers, leaving Cleveland for the second time. In the two seasons that immediately followed, the Cavaliers recorded just 19 wins total. A rebuild was underway, and the franchise needed a new kind of stability to move forward.

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• 7. Building Again

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  J.B. Bickerstaff took over as head coach for the 2020-21 season, the fourth person to hold the role in three years. His predecessors Tyronn Lue, Larry Drew, and John Beilein had each passed through in quick succession. In 2021-22, the Cavaliers went 44-38 and entered postseason basketball for the first time since the 2017-18 campaign. They qualified for the NBA play-in tournament but lost successive games to the Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks.

  On the 26th of March 2023, Cleveland defeated the Houston Rockets 108-91 to clinch a playoff spot. It was the first time since 1998 that the Cavaliers had entered the playoffs without LeBron James. That run ended in the first round against the New York Knicks. The 2024-25 team posted 64 wins and topped the Central Division. They also opened the season on a 15-game winning streak, the longest in franchise history. Only three other teams had ever started an NBA season 15-0: the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors, the 1993-94 Houston Rockets, and the 1948-49 Washington Capitols. Boston ended the streak on the 19th of November 2024, winning 120-117. Evan Mobley won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2025, and Kenny Atkinson was named Coach of the Year the same year. The 2025-26 season brought the Cavaliers back to the Eastern Conference Finals. It was the deepest playoff run the franchise had made since LeBron James last wore Cleveland's colors. Donovan Mitchell earned All-NBA Second Team recognition in 2026, one more signal that the franchise's next chapter has only just begun.

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