BY DC CUEVA
In the past several months, the blogger in chief of DCBLOG has taken a break from this site as my family is approaching the one-year anniversary of the passing of our patriarch, my late father... and the role I've inherited of being the man of the house has caused me to focus more of my attention on those duties. But this site will go on with our MTV Reality coverage which resumes this summer, as do posts on matters outside of this site's primary beat... including our seasonal sports series. That includes this latest post that's taken years to put together and to post during both its biggest time of year and that day of the year where we celebrate the #1 sports fans in our lives of dads everywhere -- but this year is most meaningful for a far different reason than it has been in the life of yours truly.
Fourteen years later to the day of that graduation morning, that was joined by a very other special day that was celebrated by the broader part of the place we call home. Earlier on June 16, 2015, a tragedy took place where some Irish Americans died in a San Francisco balcony collapse, but later that would be bumped off the front page in this most dynamic of American metropolitan areas: on that Tuesday night in Northeast Ohio, the Golden State Warriors capped off one of the greatest seasons in NBA history with a six-game NBA Finals win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
With one of the best records in league history, a dynamic MVP in Stephen Curry, a team of great players and a rookie head coach with championship pedigree, they outlasted the NBA's best player in a stirring series. And finally, those rabid Bay Area fans who put up with many years of futility but stayed faithfully loyal finally had a chance to release 40 years of frustration with their 2nd NBA title since that 1975 triumph... and it was part of a glorious decade in Bay Area sports that saw the Dubs and the Giants relish in championship glory, and the 49ers return to being a force in the NFL.
What we didn't know that summer of 2015 that it would be the start of a glorious era in the NBA's 75-year history: four titles in the span of seven years coming after both they and their opponents endured long droughts of being on the losing end. It was also the first of what would become five postseason battles between two of the preeminent players of this generation in Curry and LeBron James -- the first four between the Warriors and the Cavs in consecutive years for the title, and the fifth most recently that was won out by the Northeast Ohioan who, a year later, would fulfill his promise to a region who he scolded to win for the Heat and then returned to give them their deserved title.
For two months, one thing would be on our TV's in both our living room and my room every night and weekend afternoon from mid-April until mid-June: the NBA Playoffs kicking off in mid-spring, and culminating with an NBA Finals series at the footsteps of summertime that has always been a special time to be in the Cueva household. It represents just a chapter in a long and great relationship that my family has had with a sport that is, far and away, a religion to us... and it begins before I was around.
