Cleveland Cavs History Change Story, Part 1 - Funkycorm's Blog

Funkycorm's Blog

Cleveland Cavs History Change Story, Part 1

Posted on September 12, 2022 at 05:53 PM.

Part 1

I will be sharing updates on my Cavs History Change Dynasty here.

We will be starting in the Bird-Magic era in 1983.

We are re-writing basketball history going forward from this point.

The possibilities are endless�

I will be playing as the Cavs. There are many reasons why I have chosen the Cavs. But to understand, we must take a walk down history lane.

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History 102!

Yes 102�

Everyone knows the Cavs history with Lebron. He was drafted by Cleveland, left for Miami, came back, and won the city a championship. That history is commonly known by many. But the bigger thing here is why this one championship was so important to Cavs fans. Cleveland sports has a long history of disappointment. Before the Cavs victory in 2016, the last championship to come out of Cleveland was the 1948 Indians World Series victory over the Boston Braves. My dad was 1 year old when this happened. But as he grew up, he learned about it and his passion for Cleveland sports grew. And we won�t bring up the Browns�

Let�s go back to the beginning to understand why 1983 is such a big year in Cavs history and why this is the perfect year to start in. The Cavs started play in the NBA in 1970 as an expansion team and enjoyed some minor success through their first decade. This is thanks to none other than Mr. Cavalier, Austin Carr. The success they had never panned into anything more but it looked to be a good start to the franchise.

Then comes 1980 and the Cavs have a new owner by the name of Ted Stepien. This name may sound familiar to many, but my guess is that many do not know the history of him or why there is a now dubbed Stepien rule in the NBA that won�t allow teams to trade consecutive first round picks, other than under extreme circumstances.
Stepien traded the Cavs 5 first round picks between 1982 and 1985. The NBA had to step in and freeze the trading of Cleveland draft picksin 1981 as the league was afraid Stepien would continue to trade future picks through the rest of the 80s and into the 90s. This would have led to the de-stabilization of the franchise and likely forced it to go under. The Stepien rule was born from this. Add into this that Cavs fans would come to games just to boo Stepien and it became apparent he was the problem in Cleveland. It came to the point that he threatened to move the team to Toronto.

The dark times in Cavs history would come to an end. In April 1983, Stepien sold the team to the Gund family who said the team would stay in Cleveland. The NBA allowed the Gund family to buy picks back into the 1984, 1985, and 1986 NBA drafts to make up for the lost draft capital. At this time in NBA history, the draft was not done by lottery but by record. The Cavs held the third worst record during the 1983-84 season. Had Stepien not sold his draft capital to try and build a playoff team immediately, which ultimately failed miserably, Cleveland would have held the number 3 pick in the 1984 NBA Draft. And we all know who went number 3 to Chicago in the 1984 Draft.

The more you know�

I hope you enjoyed History 102� And can see my burning desire to change it. I was too young to know about this at the time, as I was only 2 when new ownership came to Cleveland. But like my dad, as I grew up and learned about this dark history, it ignited my passion for sports franchises in Cleveland.

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This dynasty isn�t about one season. It�s not about 5 seasons. It�s about the last 40 years of Cleveland basketball and changing that history. And that is what I am setting out to do.

I will be doing a single yearly update for each season. This is not my main dynasty I will be doing this year. I have plans for another. But even though this is a long introduction, I wanted to do brief updates for each season of my Cavs dynasty.

Historically, most rule changes and everything will likely remain the same. But only time will tell...

Thank you for reading!