Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cleveland Cavaliers (also known as the Cavs) is a professional basketball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They began playing in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a 1970 expansion team.

Home arenas

 * Cleveland Arena (1970-1974)
 * Coliseum at Richfield (1974-1994)
 * Quicken Loans Arena (formely called Gund Arena) (1994-present)

Franchise history
The Cavaliers first began play in the NBA in 1970 as an expansion team. Under the direction of coach Bill Fitch, they compiled a league-worst 15-67 record. However, the team began to build around the 1971 draft pick, Austin Carr. He scored 63 points in a single game.

In the 1975-1976 season, with Carr, Bingo Smith, Jim Chones, Dick Snyder, and newly acquired Nate Thurmond, Fitch led the Cavs, as the team is commonly nicknamed, to a 49-33 record, which was the best record in the Central Division. He received the league's Coach of the Year award as the Cavs made their first-ever playoff appearance.

The Cavs won the series against the Washington Bullets, 4-3. Because of the many heroics and last-second shots, the series became known locally as the "Miracle of Richfield." However, hampered by injuries, particularly to Jim Chones, the Cavs proceeded to lose to the Boston Celtics in Eastern Conference Finals of the NBA playoffs.

In the 1980s, new owner Ted Stepien quickly hired and fired a succession of coaches, made a number of poor trades and poor free agent signing decisions. Stepien's poor trades cost the team several first round draft picks, and led to a rule change in the NBA prohibiting teams from trading away first round draft picks in consecutive years. The rule is known as the "Ted Stepien Rule." Stepien threatened to move the franchise to Toronto, but brothers George Gund and Gordon Gund purchased the franchise in the mid 1980s and decided to keep the team in Cleveland. In 1993, Toronto would, in fact, get an expansion franchise, the Toronto Raptors.

In 1986, under the Gund brothers as owners, the team acquired, either through trades or the draft, Brad Daugherty, Mark Price, Ron Harper, and Larry Nance. These players (minus Harper, who was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers for the rights to Danny Ferry) formed the core of the team that led the Cavs to eight playoff seasons in the next nine years, including three 50-wins plus seasons. However, in 1989, the Cavs were paired against the Chicago Bulls in the playoffs. It was a best-of-five-series. Cleveland managed to beat the Bulls in overtime, 108-105 and tied the series 2-2. Home court advantage went to Cleveland. The game was evenly matched, until Cleveland managed to score on a drive and raise the lead by 1, with 3 seconds left. Chicago called time. The ball was inbounded to Michael Jordan, who went for a jump shot. Cleveland's Craig Ehlo jumped in front to block it, but Jordan seemed to stay in the air until Ehlo landed. "The Shot" went in as time ran out, with Chicago winning the series 3-2. The buzzer-beater is considered one of Jordan's greatest clutch moments, and the game itself one of the greatests. But the pinnacle of the Cavs' success came in the 1991-1992 season, when they compiled a 57-25 record and advanced to the Eastern Conference finals, losing again to the Chicago Bulls 4-2. Cleveland had no success in the playoffs during this period.

After then, an era of decline came for Cavs. With retirements and departures of Nance,Daugherty and Price, team lost its power and no longer was able even to fight for playoffs, where once they used to be the greatest trouble against the Bulls.

For several years under leadership of point guard Terrell Brandon, Cavs became the most defensive team of NBA, setting its tactics all on defense,being the NBA's least point conceding team.But offensive inproductivity caused Cavs to have no success in this era.

Later on, players like Ricky Davis, Zydrunas Ilgauskas were added to the team, increasing the quality, but without any success.

However, after the Cavs' glory days came several losing seasons. Those seasons saw the Cavs drop to the bottom of the league, becoming a perennial lottery draft team. After another disappointing season in 2002-2003, the Cavs landed the number one draft pick in the NBA Lottery.

Retired Numbers

 * 7 Bingo Smith, F, 1970-79
 * 22 Larry Nance, F, 1988-94
 * 25 Mark Price, G, 1986-95
 * 34 Austin Carr, G, 1971-80
 * 42 Nate Thurmond, C, 1975-77
 * 43 Brad Daugherty, C, 1986-94

Radio
WTAM (AM 1100) in Cleveland is the flagship station of a 16 station Cavaliers radio network. Veteran broadcaster Joe Tait has served as the team's radio play-by-play announcer since its inception in 1970, with a brief break away from the team in the period when it was owned by Ted Stepien. Tait is considered one of the prominent announcers in professional sports.

Television
The Cavaliers' TV games air on cable and satellite on Fox Sports Net (Ohio) Ohio, and also on WUAB (Channel 43) in Cleveland, the flagship of TV for sports in Cleveland.