100 Fun Facts About Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cavaliers entered the NBA in 1970 alongside which two other expansion teams?

Portland Trail Blazers and Buffalo Braves joined the league with Cleveland, which lost its first 15 games before finally winning at fellow newcomer Portland.

How was the 'Cavaliers' name chosen in 1970?

A newspaper contest won by a fan: Jerry Tomko's winning entry in The Plain Dealer said Cavaliers were daring, fearless men who never surrender, whatever the odds.

In the 1976 'Miracle of Richfield', the Cavaliers beat which team in a seven-game series?

Washington Bullets lost Game 7 87–85 on a shot with four seconds left. Cleveland then lost injured centre Jim Chones before the conference finals and fell to Boston in six games.

Which owner (1980–83) made six coaching changes and prompted an NBA rule against trading successive first-round picks?

Ted Stepien dealt away so many first-round picks that the NBA wrote the 'Stepien Rule'. In 1983 he threatened to move the team to Toronto, then sold it instead.

What 1980 stunt did the Cavs' owner stage at Cleveland's Terminal Tower?

Dropping softballs for players to catch was meant to promote his pro softball league, but the balls fell so fast that they damaged a car and injured onlookers.

Which coach, fired by the Cavaliers in 1981–82, later won back-to-back titles with Detroit?

Chuck Daly went 9–32 as one of four Cleveland coaches that season, then built the Pistons' 'Bad Boys' champions of 1989 and 1990 and coached the 1992 Dream Team.

Michael Jordan's series-winning 'The Shot' in the 1989 playoffs went in over which Cavaliers defender?

Craig Ehlo leaped to block the jumper, but Jordan seemed to hang in the air until he had gone past, and the buzzer-beater ended Cleveland's 57-win season in a deciding Game 5.

Which Hall of Fame coach led the 57-win 1988–89 Cavaliers, the franchise's best team to that point?

Lenny Wilkens took over a 29-win team in 1986 and had it winning 57 games by his third season, a jump of 15 wins on the year before.

Which Georgia Tech point guard was the sharpshooting star of the late-1980s and early-1990s Cavaliers?

Mark Price was a second-round pick whom Cleveland prised from Dallas on draft day for a future second-rounder. He made 90.4% of his career free throws.

Which Notre Dame guard, the first overall pick in 1971, is known to Cleveland fans as 'Mr. Cavalier'?

Austin Carr broke his foot before his rookie season and missed its first month, yet recovered to become an All-Star in 1974, and the Cavaliers later retired his number 34.

Which North Carolina centre did the Cavaliers draft first overall in 1986 with a pick acquired from Philadelphia?

Brad Daugherty cost Cleveland only Roy Hinson and cash in a trade made the day before the draft. He made five All-Star teams before back trouble ended his career at 28.

Which mortgage lender, founded by owner Dan Gilbert, gave its name to the Cavaliers' arena from 2005 to 2019?

Quicken Loans got its name after the software firm Intuit bought Gilbert's lender, Rock Financial. He led a buyback in 2002 and put the name on the arena three years later.

Which team swept the Cavaliers in the franchise's first NBA Finals in 2007?

San Antonio Spurs won all four games. LeBron James had carried Cleveland there, scoring 48 points in a double-overtime Game 5 win at Detroit.

Which team upset the 66-win Cavaliers in the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals?

Orlando Magic won in six games, with Dwight Howard scoring 40 points in the clincher, so the best regular season in Cavaliers history ended a round short of the Finals.

Which four-time champion centre joined the Cavaliers for the 2009–10 season?

Shaquille O'Neal arrived from Phoenix with the motto 'Win a ring for the King', but Boston knocked Cleveland out in the second round and LeBron James left that summer.

What was the title of the July 2010 TV special in which LeBron James announced he was leaving for Miami?

The Decision went out live from a Boys and Girls Club in Greenwich, Connecticut. Its advertising raised about $6 million for charity, some $2.5 million of it for the clubs.

Dan Gilbert's furious open letter on LeBron's departure was published in which typeface?

Comic Sans got the letter mocked online. In it he called the move a 'cowardly betrayal' and guaranteed Cleveland a title before James won one, and the NBA fined him $100,000.

LeBron James, the Cavaliers' first overall pick in 2003, was born and raised in which Ohio city?

Akron is also the birthplace of Stephen Curry, his opponent in four straight NBA Finals. The two were born in the same hospital, a little over three years apart.

Which 2014 first overall pick did the Cavaliers trade before he had played an NBA game?

Andrew Wiggins was Cleveland's third first overall pick in four years, but was traded two months later for an established All-Star. He became Rookie of the Year in Minnesota instead.

The Cavs' 2011 first overall pick was born in which country?

Australia was home because his father Drederick, an American, had taken an offer to play basketball in Melbourne, where Kyrie was born in 1992.

Which UNLV forward was the Cavaliers' surprise first overall pick in 2013?

Anthony Bennett became the first Canadian taken first overall when most forecasts had Cleveland choosing a big man. He was traded after one season and out of the NBA within four.

Which power forward did the Cavaliers get from Minnesota in 2014 to join James and Irving?

Kevin Love cost Cleveland the first overall picks of the previous two drafts in a three-team trade. He stayed nine seasons, until a contract buyout in 2023.

The 2016 title was Cleveland's first major sports championship since which team's 1964 triumph?

The Browns were underdogs when they shut out the Baltimore Colts 27–0 for the 1964 NFL title. The 52-year wait that followed became known as the Cleveland sports curse.

The Cavaliers' 2016 title gave the NBA Finals its first example of what?

A comeback from 3–1 down had never happened in a Finals. Cleveland won three straight, two of them in Oakland, against a Warriors team that had just won a record 73 games.

'The Block' in Game 7 of the 2016 Finals saw LeBron James chase down and reject a layup by whom?

Andre Iguodala was finishing a fast break with the score 89–89 and 1:50 left when James, chasing from behind, blocked the layup and kept the game tied.

Who hit the go-ahead three-pointer over Stephen Curry with 53 seconds left in Game 7 of the 2016 Finals?

Kyrie Irving's shot broke an 89–89 tie that had stood for nearly four minutes. Golden State did not score in the last 4:39, and Cleveland won 93–89.

Who replaced the fired David Blatt in January 2016 and coached the Cavaliers to the title?

Tyronn Lue was promoted from assistant although the team was 30–11 and top of the East. By June he was a rookie head coach with a championship.

Which All-Star guard came to Cleveland from Boston in the 2017 trade for the Cavaliers' own star point guard?

Isaiah Thomas arrived with a hip injury after a season among the league's top scorers. He played only 15 games for Cleveland and was traded again within six months.

Which team did LeBron James join when he left Cleveland for the second time in 2018?

Los Angeles Lakers signed him as a free agent that July. Cleveland, a Finals team in each of his last four seasons there, won just 19 games the next year.

Which guard, nicknamed 'Spida', set a Cavaliers single-game record with 71 points in January 2023?

Donovan Mitchell scored 71 in an overtime win over Chicago, four months after Cleveland gave Utah three players and three first-round picks to get him.

Which Cavalier, the third pick of the 2021 draft from USC, was the 2024–25 Defensive Player of the Year?

Evan Mobley made his first All-Star team in the same season. A year after drafting him, Cleveland also picked his older brother and USC teammate Isaiah.

Which first-year Cavaliers coach was named 2024–25 NBA Coach of the Year after a 64-win season?

Kenny Atkinson was hired after Cleveland fired J. B. Bickerstaff, who had just won 48 games and a playoff series. The new coach's team won 16 more.

Which star of Cleveland's NFL team bought a minority stake in the Cavaliers in October 2023?

Myles Garrett, a defensive end drafted first overall in 2017, is a keen basketball player who had appeared in the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game. He also became a team ambassador.

The Cavaliers' mascot Moondog is named in tribute to which Cleveland figure?

DJ Alan Freed called himself 'Moondog' on Cleveland radio, popularised the phrase 'rock and roll' and in 1952 staged the Moondog Coronation Ball, generally considered the first rock concert.

What were the Cavaliers' original 1970 team colours?

Wine and gold were dropped by new owners in 1983 and brought back in 2003. The club is so tied to the colours that it is often called simply 'the Wine and Gold'.

The Cavaliers' downtown home, opened in 1994 as Gund Arena, was renamed what in 2025?

Rocket Arena is the building's fourth name. Owner Dan Gilbert bought the naming rights in 2005 for his mortgage business, and both later names have carried that company's Rocket brand.

Which Lithuanian centre was LeBron's longtime frontcourt partner in his first Cavaliers stint?

Žydrūnas Ilgauskas, 'Big Z', lost most of three seasons to foot injuries early in his career, then came back to make two All-Star teams and have his number 11 retired.

Which college coach, hired by the Cavaliers in 2019, resigned after 54 games?

John Beilein signed a five-year contract at 66 after twelve seasons at Michigan, but went 14–40 in his first NBA job and resigned in February 2020.

Who was the Cavaliers' first head coach, in charge of the 1976 Miracle of Richfield team?

Bill Fitch started with a 15-win expansion team in 1970 and was Coach of the Year when it won its division in 1976. He later won a championship in Boston.

The 1982 first-round pick that the Cavaliers traded away became which Hall of Famer, taken first overall?

James Worthy joined the reigning champions because Cleveland had dealt the pick away in 1980 for Don Ford and a late first-rounder, then finished with the league's worst record.

The Cavaliers' 2021–22 season marked what first for the franchise?

Their debut in the play-in tournament brought defeats by Brooklyn and Atlanta, so a team that had doubled its wins from 22 to 44 still missed the playoffs.

Whose shot with four seconds left won Game 7 of the 1976 'Miracle at Richfield' series 87-85?

Dick Snyder's basket put Cleveland into the conference finals in its first playoff appearance, but the team then lost injured centre Jim Chones and fell to Boston in six games.

Which company's 'Wingfoot' logo became the Cavaliers' first jersey patch sponsor in 2017?

Goodyear, a tyre maker from northeast Ohio, took the space in the first season the NBA let teams sell a sponsor patch. Its Wingfoot sat opposite Nike's swoosh on the new uniforms.

In Game 1 of the 2018 Finals, which Cavalier dribbled out the clock with the score tied, apparently thinking his team led?

J. R. Smith rebounded a missed free throw at 107–107 and ran away from the basket. Cleveland lost in overtime despite 51 points from LeBron James, and was swept.

In which suburb is Cleveland Clinic Courts, the Cavaliers' practice facility opened in 2007?

Independence honoured the 2016 champions by ceremonially renaming the stretch of Brecksville Road that leads to the facility 'Cavaliers Way'.

Where did the Cavaliers play their home games in their first four seasons, 1970 to 1974?

Cleveland Arena was a 1937 hockey rink that owner Nick Mileti had bought two years before founding the team. It closed in 1974, when he moved the club to his new Coliseum.

Which Seattle star, nicknamed the 'Reign Man', joined the Cavaliers in a three-team trade in 1997?

Shawn Kemp cost Cleveland Terrell Brandon, Tyrone Hill and a first-round pick. He made the All-Star team in his first season there but was traded to Portland three years later.

In 1983-84 the Cavaliers' new owners changed the team's colours to what scheme?

Burnt orange, blue and white marked a clean break when Gordon Gund bought the team in 1983. The word 'CAVS' ran across the chest, its V drawn as a hoop with a ball dropping in.

Which team ended the Cavaliers' record 15-0 start to the 2024-25 season?

Boston Celtics, the defending champions, won 120–117 at home in an NBA Cup game on 19 November. Cleveland took the rematch twelve days later.

Which team beat the Cavaliers 4-1 in the 2023 playoffs, Cleveland's first without LeBron since 1998?

New York Knicks held a 51-win Cleveland team under 100 points in all four of its defeats, including a 99–79 loss in Game 3, and won twice in Cleveland.

Which R&B star became a part owner of the Cavaliers in 2005 and shared in the 2016 title?

Usher bought in with the group that paid a reported $375 million for the franchise in 2005, and 11 years later the singer was a minority owner of an NBA champion.

Which longtime Miami Heat star joined the Cavaliers in 2017 to reunite with LeBron James?

Dwyane Wade lasted barely half a season in Cleveland: at the February 2018 trade deadline the Cavaliers sent him back to Miami, where he finished his career.

Which forward was suspended for Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals after tangling with LeBron James?

Draymond Green had reached the playoff limit for flagrant foul points, and with him watching from a nearby baseball stadium Cleveland won Game 5 to start its rally.

LeBron James starred for which Ohio Catholic high school before the Cavaliers drafted him?

St. Vincent–St. Mary moved some home games to a 5,492-seat university arena to meet ticket demand, and a cable company sold the games on pay-per-view during his senior year.

LeBron James revealed his 2014 return to the Cavaliers in an essay for which publication?

Sports Illustrated published the essay on July 11, 2014, a quiet contrast to the televised special of four years earlier, and this time the announcement was warmly received.

Which guard, later an opposing coach in four straight NBA Finals, was a Cavalier from 1989 to 1992?

Steve Kerr set a Cavaliers single-season record by making 50.7 per cent of his three-pointers in 1989–90, long before he came back to Cleveland as an opposing coach.

Which team eliminated the Cavaliers from the playoffs five times between 1988 and 1994?

Chicago Bulls teams won all five series, in 1988, 1989, 1992, 1993 and 1994, and the last was a sweep even though Michael Jordan had retired the previous autumn.

In which California city did the Cavaliers win Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals on the road?

Oakland was hostile ground: Cleveland became the first road team to win a Game 7 in the NBA Finals since 1978, and clinched every round of that postseason away from home.

What pregame ritual at the scorer's table did LeBron James make famous as a young Cavalier?

Tossing chalk into the air was so tied to his Cleveland years that he put its revival to a Twitter vote on returning in 2014, and 95 per cent backed it.

Which team did the Cavaliers face in four consecutive NBA Finals between 2015 and 2018?

Golden State Warriors and Cleveland were the first pair in any of North America's four major leagues to meet in four straight championship rounds.

Which top seed did the Cavaliers sweep in the 2018 playoffs for a third straight series win over it?

Toronto Raptors fans saw LeBron James win Game 3 with a floater at the buzzer, and after the sweep of the East's top seed their city was mockingly dubbed 'LeBronto'.

In 2004 LeBron James became the first Cavalier to win which NBA award for his play that season?

Rookie of the Year voters had seen only the third debut season in league history to average at least 20 points, five rebounds and five assists a game.

The Cavaliers are the last original member of which NBA division, formed when they joined in 1970?

Central Division rivals have all changed since 1970: the four teams Cleveland meets there in the 2020s each moved over from the old Midwest Division.

Which Brazilian, nicknamed 'Wild Thing' for his hair and hustle, was a Cavalier from 2004 to 2016?

Anderson Varejão was traded in 2016 and then met Cleveland in the Finals, the first man to play for both finalists in one season; he declined a championship ring.

Which Cavaliers guard shot at his own rim in 2003, hoping the rebound would seal a triple-double?

Ricky Davis was one rebound short with Cleveland 25 points ahead of Utah; the rebound did not count, an opponent fouled him hard, and he was traded later that year.

LeBron James scored 25 points in his 2003 NBA debut for the Cavaliers, a 106–92 loss to which team?

Sacramento Kings fans watched him set a record that night: 25 points was the most ever scored in a debut by a player who had jumped straight from high school.

Which winner of the NBA's first Slam Dunk Contest joined the Cavaliers from Phoenix in 1988?

Larry Nance had his number 22 retired by Cleveland, then gave the team permission to let his son wear it when the younger Nance arrived in a 2018 trade.

Which forward, drafted fourth overall by the Cavaliers in 2011, stayed nine seasons and won a title?

Tristan Thompson was the highest-drafted Canadian-born player in NBA history at the time, and later played 447 straight games before a sprained thumb stopped him.

The Cavaliers reached the 2015 NBA Finals by sweeping which top seed in the conference finals?

Atlanta Hawks teams were swept by Cleveland again in 2016, when the Cavaliers hit 25 three-pointers in Game 2 to break the NBA record for a single game.

Which team pushed the Cavaliers to a Game 7 in the first round of the 2018 playoffs?

Indiana Pacers players won Game 6 by 34 points, forcing the first first-round Game 7 of LeBron James's career after his buzzer-beating three had won Game 5.

Which guard, drafted fifth overall by the Cavaliers in 2019, became a two-time All-Star there?

Darius Garland had played only five college games before a knee injury ended his season at Vanderbilt, yet Cleveland spent the fifth pick on him anyway.

Which centre came to the Cavaliers in the 2021 four-team trade that sent James Harden to Brooklyn?

Jarrett Allen became an All-Star a year later in Cleveland's own arena, named as the injury replacement for James Harden, the very man he had been traded for.

Which 18-year-old won the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest, held at the Cavaliers' home arena?

Kobe Bryant, aged 18, became the contest's youngest champion during a Cleveland weekend that also honoured the NBA's 50 greatest players at halftime of the main game.

The 2010–11 Cavaliers, in their first season without LeBron James, set a then-NBA record for what?

Longest losing streak was the unwanted record: 26 defeats in a row from December to February, including a winless January, before an overtime win over the Clippers.

The Cavaliers' demolished home of 1974 to 1994 was turned into a meadow inside which national park?

Cuyahoga Valley National Park absorbed the land after the National Park Service bought the Coliseum, empty for five years, and tore it down in 1999.

Which high-scoring guard led the Cavaliers to the 1985 playoffs, their first trip since 1978?

World B. Free had legally taken his playground nickname as his first name in 1981, and the Cavaliers once flew him to the arena by helicopter to a waiting carpet.

Which Hall of Fame centre joined the Cavaliers in 1975 and anchored the 'Miracle of Richfield' team?

Nate Thurmond, already the first player to record an official quadruple-double, had his number 42 retired by Cleveland after fewer than two seasons there.

Which Duke forward left the Cavaliers for Utah in 2004 after the team let him out of his contract?

Carlos Boozer was due just $695,000 for the coming season when Cleveland released him, expecting him to sign a longer deal; he denied any promise and took a far richer offer from the Jazz.

Which first-year guard's 31 points in Game 6 sent the Cavaliers to their first NBA Finals in 2007?

Daniel Gibson, nicknamed 'Boobie', had been only the 42nd pick of the 2006 draft after cancelling his workouts with every team except Cleveland.

Which coach, nicknamed 'the Czar', led the slow-paced, defence-first Cavaliers from 1993 to 1999?

Mike Fratello reached the playoffs four times in six Cleveland seasons with a deliberate half-court style, and later returned to Cavaliers telecasts as an analyst.

Which Hall of Fame guard, nicknamed 'Clyde', compared his 1977 trade to the Cavaliers to Siberia?

Walt Frazier, a two-time NBA champion, managed only 66 games across three injury-hit Cleveland seasons before he was waived.

Which future Seattle and Denver coach got his first NBA head coaching job with the Cavaliers at 33?

George Karl took Cleveland to the playoffs in his first season, its first trip since 1978, but was dismissed late in his second after a 25–42 start.

Which 1989 draft pick played in Italy to avoid the Clippers, then spent a decade with the Cavaliers?

Danny Ferry cost Cleveland dearly: his rights arrived from the Clippers in exchange for Ron Harper and three draft picks, and he later ran the team as general manager.

Which Cavaliers general manager from 1986 to 1999 was the NBA's first African American in that role?

Wayne Embry had broken that barrier with Milwaukee in 1972, and in Cleveland in 1994 he also became the first African American to serve as an NBA team president.

Which longtime Cavaliers radio voice has a banner hanging beside the team's retired numbers?

Joe Tait began calling games in the team's first season in 1970 and retired in 2011; his banner carries a microphone where a jersey number would be.

Which founding owner of the Cavaliers also bought baseball's Indians and built the team a new arena?

Nick Mileti won the expansion franchise in 1970; when politicians balked at a downtown arena, he bought land in Richfield, halfway to Akron, and built the Coliseum there.

Which Cavaliers point guard, a 1996 and 1997 All-Star, did one magazine call the best in the NBA?

Terrell Brandon led the Cavaliers in points, assists and steals in 1997, won the NBA Sportsmanship Award, and played the second of his All-Star games on his home floor.

In which Ohio city did the Cavaliers' G League affiliate, the Charge, play from 2011 to 2021?

Canton hosted the Charge for a decade after the Cavaliers bought the franchise from New Mexico, until the team moved to a university arena in downtown Cleveland.

Which Alabama guard did the Cavaliers draft eighth overall in 2018 and send to Utah in a 2022 trade?

Collin Sexton was taken with a pick that had once belonged to Brooklyn, and a torn meniscus ended his last Cleveland season in early November.

Who was the Cavaliers' head coach when LeBron James played his first NBA season in 2003–04?

Paul Silas was hired to mentor the 18-year-old, but a new owner fired him late in his second season with the team at 34–30, and it slid out of the playoff places.

The Cavaliers' downtown arena was built in the Gateway complex alongside which baseball ballpark?

Progressive Field opened in 1994 as Jacobs Field, the same year as the arena next door, and both were funded mainly by a sin tax that voters passed in 1990.

Which former NBA MVP joined the Cavaliers on a minimum salary in 2017 and was traded by February?

Derrick Rose was hobbled by ankle injuries in Cleveland, and the Utah Jazz waived him almost as soon as the deadline trade went through.

Which Cavaliers guard beat Dallas in February 2024 with a 59-foot heave at the buzzer?

Max Strus hit five three-pointers in the final four minutes, capped by the heave from beyond half-court that won the game 121–119.

Which guard arrived in a 2008 three-team trade and became an All-Star in his first Cavaliers season?

Mo Williams reached that 2009 game only as a late injury replacement, and came back to Cleveland in 2015 to win his one championship the following June.

Which three-point-shooting big man joined the Cavaliers at the 2016 trade deadline?

Channing Frye came from Orlando in a three-team deal, and hit four three-pointers in just his second game for the team.

David Blatt arrived as Cavaliers coach in 2014 weeks after winning the EuroLeague with which club?

Maccabi Tel Aviv took that title by overturning CSKA Moscow in the semi-final and beating Real Madrid in overtime, and Blatt was named EuroLeague Coach of the Year.

Which two-time All-Star forward joined the Cavaliers from the Wizards in a February 2010 trade?

Antawn Jamison missed all 12 of his shots in his Cleveland debut, finishing with two points, both from the foul line.

Trajan Langdon, drafted by the Cavaliers in 1999, became the first NBA player from which US state?

Alaska gave the Duke sharpshooter his nickname, 'the Alaskan Assassin'; after three Cleveland seasons he left to become a star of European club basketball.

Which Cavaliers first-round pick of 2002 had scored 100 points in a single high school game?

Dajuan Wagner, drafted sixth overall, averaged over 13 points as a rookie before ulcerative colitis and injuries ended his Cleveland career after three seasons.

Which coach went 64–166 with the Cavaliers in the three seasons after LeBron James left in 2010?

Byron Scott was hired a week before the star's departure and sacked in 2013, when Cleveland rehired the coach it had dismissed three years earlier.