Cavs’ Larry Nance Jr., Lindsay Gottlieb among those to congratulate Browns

The Cleveland Cavaliers, and a few key members of the squad, in particular, were among those to congratulate the Cleveland Browns on Sunday.

So many of us Cleveland Cavaliers fans are big-time Cleveland Browns fans, too, clearly. One Cavs player in Larry Nance Jr. definitely is one of those Browns fans as well.

Nance, who continues to come on for the Wine and Gold, is a guy whose father, Larry Nance, was one of Cleveland’s best forwards in team history. Nance Sr., who was a two-time All-Star for Cleveland, and had his number retired by Cleveland, of which Jr. has switched to wear to commemorate him, though, is so beloved by Cavs fans.

He had 16.8 points, 8.2 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.5 blocks per contest in seven seasons with the Cavs after being acquired via trade from the Phoenix Suns.

Anyhow, swinging back to Nance Jr., though, he grew up in nearby Akron, and often in his time since being traded to the Cavs by the Los Angeles Lakers near the 2018 trade deadline, his Browns fandom has really shown through. Simply put, as is the case for so many Cavs fans, Nance Jr. is another Browns die-hard.

And naturally, is was nice to see him tweet out his support for the Browns on Sunday shortly after the Orange and Brown made it back to the postseason, and snapped the NFL’s longest postseason drought. Cleveland was last in the postseason back in 2003, and they lost a heartbreaker then to well, the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Larry was just like so many of us, as the Browns got in with a victory on Sunday over the Steelers and are the sixth seed in the AFC Playoffs. It was also cool to of course see the Cavs send out their congratulations to the Brownies, along with Cavs assistant coach Lindsay Gottlieb, who has seemingly adopted some Browns fandom, too.

https://twitter.com/cavs/status/1345838666917273600?s=20

LeBron James doing the same was nice to see as well, although it’s not as if LeBron’s exactly been a die-hard fan, to be fair.

It was great to see Nance, Gottlieb and the Cavs sending out their congrats to the Browns, who hopefully can make some noise.

Albeit the 24-22 victory wasn’t the prettiest one with players such as Ben Roethlisberger, T.J. Watt and Cameron Heyward seemingly resting, but Cleveland got in, which was all that mattered.

We’ll have to see if Baker Mayfield, Nick Chubb, Joel Bitonio, Myles Garrett and company can get it done in Pittsburgh this Sunday, and potentially being without Denzel Ward (COVID-19) won’t make things easier, but it has the makings of a good one.

In any case, it was refreshing to see Gottlieb and the Cavs generally send out their congrats to the Browns, given how long that postseason drought has been.

But Nance, like so many Cleveland Cavaliers fans have, too, seemingly showed his sense of relief that the drought for the Browns is finally over.

And frankly, with how Mayfield has really come on as the season’s progressed, and with how the offensive line/running game has looked for most of the season when Nick Chubb’s been active, the Browns could make some noise potentially.

We’ll ultimately see what happens soon enough for the Brownies, though.

In relation to Nance, he and the Cavs have somewhat surprisingly gotten off to an encouraging 4-2 start to this 2020-21 season, and thanks to their defensive effort in the second half and Collin Sexton clutch scoring, they came back at the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday.

Jr. himself is currently filling in at the starting 4 spot with Kevin Love sidelined due to a calf strain for seemingly 2-3 or so more weeks, though. Albeit Nance has continued to show he’s arguably Cleveland’s best all-around contributor still, and has had 9.0 points, 7.7 rebounds an impressive 5.2 assists and a whopping 2.7 steals per contest so far this season.

It’s cool that Gottlieb, Nance and the Cavs gave the Browns their postseason props, though. And hopefully Nance, Sexton, Darius Garland and the Wine and Gold can get this squad back to the postseason in due time.