LeBron welcomed back on special night in Cleveland
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| Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James tosses chalk in the air before the start of an NBA basketball game against the New York Knicks Thursday, Oct. 30, 2014, in Cleveland. |
CLEVELAND
(AP) -- Carried onto the floor by an emotional ovation building for
years, LeBron James is back where he began.
He's home.
Introduced
to a deafening roar from Cleveland fans, James was welcomed back
Thursday night by a city desperate to end a championship drought that's
about to turn 50 years old. James came back to try and end it, and his
journey is underway.
At 8:08 p.m. all was right in Cleveland again.
That
when James, the last starter announced, walked onto the floor in a Cavs
uniform for a regular season game for the first time in four years.
Nearly
four months since proclaiming "I'm coming home" and shifting the NBA's
balance of power, James is again playing in front of family, friends and
the Cleveland fans who had their hearts broken when he left for Miami
four years ago.
This is a homecoming like no other.
"None
of us should take this moment for granted," a relaxed James said
following Cleveland's morning shootaround at Quicken Loans Arena. "This
is probably one of the biggest sporting events ever. I don't feel it,
but I know it is."
A crowd of 20,000-plus fans
- with some paying as much as $5,000 for a ticket - packed the Q, which
was updated during the offseason with a gigantic, fire-spewing
scoreboard to welcome home James. The Akron native came back to his
hoops roots hoping to deliver a title to Cleveland, a city that hasn't
finished on top in pro sports since 1964.
Before
taking the floor, James huddled his teammates in a hallway and told
them that "tonight is special." He then gave a playful tap to owner Dan
Gilbert's son, Nick, before walking onto the court that was his for
seven seasons.
The pregame festivities ended
with James going to midcourt and performing his "chalk toss" pregame
ritual with fans tossing paper confetti along with him.
James, who has won NBA titles and Olympic gold medals, knew this season opener is a little more special.
"I
understand how much I mean to this team, to this franchise, to this
city and to this state," he said. "It's a different feeling, but I'm
still as calm and excited at the same time because it's the first game
of the season."
In the hours leading up to
tip-off, thousands of fans gathered in the streets outside the arena.
This was a party four years in the making.
Across
the street from the Q, a 10-story-tall banner of James was unveiled in
the same spot where one hung during his first seven seasons with the
Cavs. The spot became a symbol of civic pride until that night in July
2010 when James announced he was leaving for Miami. In the hours after
his decision, some angry fans burned his jersey and others hurled rocks
at a banner that would be removed a few days later.
On
Thursday, the new banner - showing James with his arms outstretched
wearing a jersey with "Cleveland" where his name would normally be
stitched - drew fans who posed for photos the same way they did when
James was here last.
Chrissy Pavlik of
Wadsworth, Ohio, and her brother, Brad, were among the fans who didn't
have a ticket for the game but wanted to be downtown to celebrate.
"I
grew up playing basketball and LeBron was always one of my role models,
so when he left I was devastated, crying, throwing fits," she said. "To
see the banner back, we drove into the city and I was like, `Check it
out, dude.' It's so cool. We're very, very happy."
Along
East 4th Street, fans wearing James jerseys and broad smiles mixed with
patrons lined up to get into overflowing restaurants and bars and a
free concert featuring hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar and the rock band
Imagine Dragons.
As they filed past, Barry
Harris, 55, of Cleveland, was filled with pride. A lifelong Clevelander,
he had never seen his city acting quite like this.
"It's
amazing," Harris said as his twin brother, Larry, snapped pictures of
ESPN's SportsCenter set. "I've been waiting 55 years for this. We got
LeBron. We got Johnny (Manziel) Football. We got the Republican National
convention coming in two years. We got casinos. It's huge. We deserve
this."
James' return has Cleveland fans
believing their tortured run of sports misery, which includes a series
of close calls with nicknames like The Drive, The Fumble and The Shot,
could be over.
James is the one to end the curse.
"It's
got to be him," Harris said. "It's got to be LeBron. It was his destiny
to come back and finish his career off here. No place else."
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