The Cleveland Cavaliers is a professional basketball team in the NBA that is based in Cleveland, Ohio.
Their home arena is in Quicken Loans Arena. The franchise had not yet won any titles but it had a conference title when LeBron James lead them to the NBA Finals in 2007 but lost to the San Antonio Spurs.
Franchise History – Early Years
The Cavaliers was an expansion team in the NBA in the year 1970. In their first season in the NBA, they were led by coach Bill Fitch and had a league worst record of 15-67.
They acquired Austin Carr in the 1971 draft pick as the number 1 overall and hoped would rebuild and carry the team. His leg injury had shortened his potential and career and was never able to carry the team.
The next seasons were stages of improvement of the Cavaliers as they acquired talented players such as Bingo Smith, Jim Cleamons, Jim Chones and Dick Snyder. In their second season, they had a 23-59 record and the next is a more improved 32-50 record but fell a little bit again in 1973-74 season with 29- 53. As they transferred into a new arena in Richfield Coliseum, they finished the 1974-75 season with a 40-42 record barely missing the playoff berth.
In 1975-76 season, with their talented players improving more along with newly acquired Nate Thurmond, they had a 49-33 record and a division title in the Central Division. Fitch was also named the coach of the year and they were qualified for their first ever postseason.
Their first series was against the Washington Bullets and they won over them in 7 games. As their players had injuries, they faced the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conerence Finals but lost to them.
The Cavaliers had made it in the playoffs in the next two seasons with 43 wins in both seasons but resulted in an immediate playoff exits. The 1978-79 season was a disappointment with a 30-52 record that resulted to the retirement of coach Fitch.
He was replaced by Stan Albeck in the next season and had a 37-45 record. Due to the change of owners, Ted Stepien as the new owner, there had been a number of poor trades and free agent signings.
These changes has brought negative effects to the team as they go 28-54 in 1980-81 season and having an embarrasing record 15-67 in 1981-82. They recorded the longest losing streak starting in 1981-82 finsihing the last 19 games with losses and starting the 1982-83 season losing the first 5 games in total of 24 losing streak.
The next year, they improved to 23-59 record but their crowd has decreased to only 3,900 people a game. Stepien has planned to move the Cavaliers to Toronto but it was purchased by the Gund brothers and decided to maintin it in Cleveland.
Cleveland Cavaliers – 1983 – 2003
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