There’s not much going right for the Cleveland Cavaliers right now, but at least it’ll be announced that they’ll host the All-Star festivities in 2022. That’s a positive, right?
Unless you’ve been under a rock recently, you’ve probably noticed that it’s not exactly been smooth sailing for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Tyronn Lue was reportedly fired on Sunday (per Joe Vardon and Shams Charania of The Athletic), and the jury’s still out on whether or not Cleveland “interim” head coach Larry Drew will accept the job if there’s no insurance for it including post 2018-19 (per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski). The silver lining? At least it will reportedly be announced that Cleveland will host the All-Star festivities as early as 2022 (and it’s pretty darn certain that’ll be the year) per Kevin Kleps of Crain’s Cleveland Business.
Some news: According to sources, the Cavs and the NBA soon will announce that Cleveland has been selected to host the NBA All-Star Game. The announcement could come as soon as Thursday. The earliest The Q could host the game is 2022.https://t.co/QboomNmdPA
— Kevin Kleps (@KevinKleps) October 30, 2018
This is at least something positive for the Cleveland fan base to look forward to in the near future. The Q is not going to have the same electricity it had the previous four seasons (where Cleveland made it to four straight NBA Finals), but maybe that point the likely rebuild will be over, and players such as Cedi Osman, Collin Sexton (and potentially still Kevin Love) will be leading a contending team.
The renovation of Quicken Loans Arena was the main reason Cleveland was granted this privilege, as Kleps detailed.
"“In December 2016, when The Q’s transformation plan was first unveiled, the league said it looked forward to hosting its ‘week of NBA All-Star events in Cleveland in the near future.’ “The announcement, the league said, would be contingent upon the completion of The Q’s renovation project.”"
The Q did get a face-lift, but that wasn’t a simple ordeal, as Kleps noted.
"“Construction on the arena – after quite a few twists and turns, which included a debate over the financing of the project – started on Sept. 14, 2017, beating the NBA’s deadline by a day. But the major work didn’t begin until June, after the Cavs’ fourth consecutive run to the NBA Finals. The project has since increased to $185 million, $115 million of which will be funded by the Cavs, and is scheduled to be completed prior to the 2019-20 NBA season.”"
The next few years could be rough for the Cleveland Cavaliers, so the team being able to play host to this kind of event at least brings some excitement for the fan base, and that’s a start. Maybe the Cavaliers can grab a really good piece in the lottery such as R.J. Barrett or Zion Williamson of Duke in the upcoming NBA Draft, and they could be in that All-Star game in their home arena.
That’s a hypothetical scenario, of course, and I’m not really too sure whether or not Kevin Love will still be a Cavalier at that point.
According to Kleps, this move probably had something to do paying tribute to Cleveland’s last All-Star festivities, too.
"“Cleveland, should it land the 2022 game as expected, would be the host city for the 75th NBA All-Star event. That year would also mark the 25th anniversary of the 1997 All-Star Game being held at the Q, which at the time was in its third season.”"
This is a while from now, and it’s difficult to forecast what exactly the Cavs will look like as a team, but this is a ray of hope for the future in terms of things to look forward to at The Q.
Maybe Larry Nance Jr. can win another Slam Dunk contest then, too; and no, the judges wouldn’t bring bias into it, either.