Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cleveland Cavaliers, also known as the Cavs, are an American professional basketball club based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers play within the National Basketball Association as a part of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The franchise began playing as an expansion team in 1970 with the Portland Trail Blazers and Buffalo Braves. Home games were first held at the Cleveland Arena from 1970 to 1974 followed by the Richfield Coliseum from 1974 to 1994. The Cavs play home games at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in downtown Cleveland since 1994 and are shared with the Cleveland Gladiators of the Arena Football League and the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League. Since March 2005 the Squad is owned by Dan Gilbert. The Cavs started their first season losing their first 15 games and struggled in their early years, placing no more than sixth in the Eastern Conference in their first five seasons. The team captured its first Central Division championship in 1976, which also marked its first winning season and playoff appearance in franchise history, advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals. In 1980 Ted Stepien inherited the franchise. Stepien's tenure as owner was characterised by six ownership changes, contentious trades, drawn decisions and poor results resulting in $15 million in financial losses. During this time the Cavs went 66–180 and endured a 24-game losing streak between the 1981–82 and 1982–83 seasons. In 1983 George and Gordon Gund took over the franchise. The Cavs were a regular post-season competitor, led by players like Mark Price and Brad Daugherty in the second half of the 1980s and through much of the 1990s, progressing to the 1992 Eastern Conference Finals. Nonetheless, the Cavs have had six consecutive losing seasons without any post-season play since the team's postseason appearance in 1998. The 2003 draught provided the first overall selection for Cleveland, and they selected LeBron James. Behind James and Zydrunas Ilgauskas, the Cavs once again were a consistent playoff candidate by 2005. They captured the first Eastern Conference championship in franchise history and made their first appearance in the 2007 NBA Playoffs. James left the Miami Heat in 2010 after failing to qualify to the NBA Finals in the three seasons that followed. Consequently, the Cavaliers finished last in the 2010–11 season league, enduring a 26-game losing streak that ranks the longest in NBA history for a single season and second overall as of 2017. Nevertheless, the team captured the first NBA lottery pick selected three times between 2010 and 2014, first when they picked Kyrie Irving in 2011 and again in 2013 and 2014. LeBron James returned to the Cavs in 2014 and led the franchise to four NBA Finals appearances in succession. In 2016, the Cavaliers won their 5th NBA Championship, becoming Cleveland's first major sports title to win since 1964. The victory over the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals was the first time a team has came back to win the series in the final's history after losing three games in one. The Cavs made 22 appearances in the playoffs, winning seven Central Division titles, five Eastern Conference championships, and one NBA championship. Wine and gold were the main colours on player jersey when the Cleveland Cavaliers debuted in the NBA in 1970. The first uniforms used for the feathered handling of letter C in Cavaliers. In 1974 they turned into the conventional block lettering and checkerboard design that became associated with the 1976 'Richfield Miracle' squa In 1980, the gold hue was changed from yellowish to black, and the uniforms removed the checkerboard pattern and put the lines above Cleveland and below the uniform number, the first time the town's name appeared on both home and away jerseys. The original logo was that of cavalier swashbuckling looking fine with a pointed blade, followed by the team's name and a net. A modernised Swashbuckling cavalier logo was later introduced by the Canton Charge, competitors of the Cavs 'NBA Development League.