Cleveland gets ready for championship parade

Fans in the crowd at the post-parade rally were growing antsy as they waited for LeBron to speak. The Cavaliers made history by overcomin…

Misty Swegle (left), and Charlesetta Hawkins wave at passing motorists during rush hour on Tuesday in downtown Cleveland from their spot along the parade route for the city’s celebration of the Cavaliers.

The city’s title drought is over.

“From what I’ve been told, the Lakers and Heat are possibilities as a destination for LeBron James this summer”, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said on the Mike & Mike morning show Monday morning, the day after the Cavaliers’ Game 7 victory.

Not that it should come as a surprise, but LeBron James fully intends to return to the Cavaliers to defend the National Basketball Association championship they just won next season.

The event is in collaboration with LeBron James and the LeBron James Family Foundation.

The parade and rally capped a whirlwind week that began with the Cavs’ rally from 3-1 down to beat the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals. It was one champion to the next, and it was a moment that Cleveland sports fandom awaited for 52 years.

James steered the Cavaliers as it faced an NBA Finals series deficit that had never been overcome.

On Irving, James says, “He’s only 24, oh my goodness”.

“You could look back to the Earnest Byner fumble, Elway going 99 yards, to Jose Mesa not being able to close out in the bottom of the ninth to the Cavs went to the finals – I was on that team – in 2007, us getting swept, and then past year us losing 4-2, and so many more stories”.

“If you guys want me to play one more year”, Jefferson told the crowd, “I’ll play one more year”.

Cleveland fans young and old are partying like it’s 1964.

“It still hasn’t hit me that this has happened”, said James, who delivered on his promise to bring a championship to his home state with a magnificent playoff performance.

Fans stood on rooftops and portable toilets or hung out of office building windows to witness Cleveland’s first championship parade in 58 years, when the Indians knocked off the Braves in the World Series.

Fans watch from precarious positions on a Cleveland parking garage.

Love wore a golden-studded WWE championship belt, one that was out of Cleveland’s reach for so long.

This was a parade Cleveland has wanted since the Browns won it all when Lyndon Johnson was president.

No major city had endured more pain with its sports franchises.

But now that he has led the Cavs to a championship, James is determined to do it again next season.