Cleveland sports

Several people have asked me, a native Clevelander, "Ed, what do you think of Lebron James leaving?"

Well, I'm not over the moon about it. He was a tremendous boon to the economy--as this Cleveland tourism video notes--and gave Cleveland its best shot at a championship the past few years.

But neither am I sulking about it. Lebron made Cleveland care about basketball, and like any area, the people of Northeast Ohio will still support the Cavs--more if they win and less if they lose. Cleveland is a football town first and foremost and a playoff appearance by the Browns this year would wipe away a lot of Lebron angst.

That's only the micro response, though, because when people ask, "As a Clevelander, what do you think of Lebron James leaving," what they're in part really asking is the more macro, "What is it like being a sports fan in Cleveland?"

Cleveland has gone decades without a championship in a major sport. The Cavs never have won one, the Indians have three pennants but no World Series rings since 1948, and the Browns won a championship in 1964 but have never even been to the Super Bowl.

So yeah, we're losers, but we don't celebrate it like Cubs fans do and Red Sox fans used to. We want to win; we just haven't won in awhile. We want the championship more than we want Lebron. Yes, Lebron certainly has the tools to help any team achieve that goal, but him leaving the team now is nowhere near the punch in the gut Clevelanders felt after The Fumble, The Drive, or the Shot.