The Sporting News
March 20, 1976
Volume 181, number 11
No Laughing at Cavaliers Any More
By BILL NICHOLS
CLEVELAND – They have been snubbed by national television. They were rejected in the All-Star Game and until recently they were basketball’s answer to Rodney Dangerfield – they got no respect. That’s the Cleveland Cavaliers.
"You can’t take Cleveland lightly anymore," said Al Attles, coach of the defending National Basketball Association champion Golden State Warriors.
"I thought they had a good team last year," added K. C. Jones, boss of the Washington Bullets. "What they are doing this year doesn’t surprise me at all."
WHAT THE CAVALIERS are doing is making life miserable for the Bullets in the two-team race for the Central Division title.
This success is surprising, indeed, even to veteran Nate Thurmond, who said, "This team is a lot better than I thought when I came here."
But the Cavs have improved immeasurably. Since their low point of 8-14, they rebounded to post a 28-9 record through February.
However, it wasn’t always wine and roses.
LIKE SO MANY great men of history, the Cavaliers were born in humble surroundings. And for a while, they were the best-known residents of the NBA ghetto.
The Cavaliers, along with Buffalo and Portland, joined the NBA as expansion teams in 1970. Both Buffalo and Portland have prospered since. The Cavs were the poor relations.
They called the antiquated Cleveland Arena home. The Arena was so bad, Boston’s John Havilicek once said this about the old building on Euclid avenue, "This is so bad, someone could catch a communicable disease in here."
The old building, which was erected in 1936, mirrored the early editions of the Cavaliers. They were both sort of funny – and a mite pitiful. People laughed instead of cried.
IF YOU RECALL, the Cavaliers made the last wrong-way basket in the NBA. And the Arena once had a season opener rained out. Now, that’s pretty funny.
The wrong-way two-pointer was the prettiest play the Cavaliers had in their first season when they began with 15 straight defeats and went on to post a season mark in futility of 15-67.
The big play went like this. Bobby Lewis inbounded at midcourt. He threw a beautiful pass downcourt to a streaking John Warren. Warren easily scored even though Portland’s Leroy Ellis tried to block the shot. And Cleveland teammate Bobby Smith was yelling for the ball. He thought he had a better chance to score.
The Cavs, however, are no longer funny.
THE NBA’s resident funnyman, Bill Fitch, has been Cleveland’s only coach. Through patience, some glue, baling wire and frugal use of Eagle Stamps, he has constructed one of the truly good young teams in pro basketball. As of March 1, the Cavs had the third-best record in the NBA, trailing only the Warriors and the Boston Celtics.
In that original expansion draft in 1970, Fitch plucked 6-11 Walter Wesley and 6-10 Luther Rackley off the unwanted lists. He explained his selections this way, "At least we have two players who can almost look Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the eye." Unfortunately, that’s what they did best.
In those days, Fitch, a master of the one-liner, joked about his team to get the fans’ minds off it.
He once said his first team would stump the panel on "What’s My Line?"
"IF WE CAN’T LAUGH at ourselves, then we’re going to get mad when others laugh at us," he used to explain.
Well, after four straight last-place finishes in the Central Division, the tide began to turn last winter.
Nick Mileti, the omnipresent Cleveland sports promoter, who put together a package to form the Cavs, was a man with a vision. Even in 1970, he envisioned that someday his team would be winning in a new building with 20,000 fans looking on.
That day has arrived. In fact, more than 20,000 have poured into the Cavaliers’ new home several times in the last year. The new house is called the Coliseum, located midway between Cleveland and Akron. It’s the Big House on the Prairie.
THE TOWN has gone bananas over the Cavs. Cleveland fans are hungry for a winner to the point of starvation. The Cavaliers are filling the need.
After four cellar finishes, the Cavs finished third last season with a 40-42 record. They missed making the playoffs by a single point in the last game of the season.
But this season has been an incredible experience. Nobody laughs at them anymore.
"I hope this isn’t the best team we ever have," said Fitch, "but we’ve made a lot of progress."
PLAYER BY PLAYER, Fitch has molded the Cavaliers into a solid contender. He never has failed to sign a first-place college draft choice. And his record on making trades cannot be matched anywhere.
Several winters back, he obtained classy veteran Lenny Wilkins to help make the Cavs respectable. He picked up Jimmy Cleamons from the Los Angeles Lakers, center Jim Chones from the American Basketball Association and 13-year veteran Nate Thurmond from the Chicago Bulls.
"You strive for eight or nine ballplayers that can play the game," added Fitch. "You want some shooters, playmakers, strong rebounders and to be strong in the middle.
"And, above all, you have to have good people, who are compatible and disciplined. If you have eight or nine players that are not team disciplined, you won’t win in this league. An there is no room for individual jealousies. A team that lives and dies together for 82 games must be compatible."
FITCH HAS TAKEN a clue from the Warriors and the Celtics, who have attained great success using eight, nine or even 10 players every game. The Cavs employ at least nine every night and often the 10th, 11th or 12th players make major contributions. However, seldom does a player log as many as 40 minutes.
"It just makes sense to use as many players as you can over an 82-game schedule," said Fitch. "If you’re relying on just one or two guys and something happens to one of them, you’re in trouble. But if you’re using eight or nine guys and somebody gets hurt, your percentages for survival are a lot better."
"We all know our roles," said Thurmond. "Everybody knows he’s going to get his minutes and do his thing. That’s why we have such a beautiful machine."
The Cavs do not have anyone among the league leaders in scoring, rebounding or assists. But Cleveland is second in defense, which, says Fitch, is where the offense begins.
SO FAR THIS WINTER, the Cavaliers have put together winning streaks of seven and eight games,
"Cleveland has real good kids," Wilkins, now the Portland coach, said recently. "None of them cares who scores the points as long as they win. They are maturing. That takes time. There is no easy route."
"These Cleveland players are old beyond their years," said the wizened Thurmond, who has seen players come and go for a long time.
Fitch constructed his team slowly, but surely. He never had the big bank roll like the Knicks or the Lakers.
THEY AVERAGED only 3,518 per game in that inglorious first season. And they never averaged as many as 8,000 until last season. Now the folks are coming to the Coliseum in droves, some 12,000 per night.
Patience has been one of Fitch’s finest virtues. He first obtained the man for the role and then nurtured him slowly until all the pieces of the puzzle began to come together.
"We kept the small forward, Bobby Smith, from the beginning," said Fitch. "He’s in his seventh season and has developed into a complete player.
"We also have Campy Russell, who can fill in at both the small and big forward spots.
"AT THE BIG FORWARD we had Dwight Davis (since traded to the Warriors) and now Jim Brewer, who has worked his way into the starting lineup. Now we back Brewer with a rookie, John Lambert.
"At center, we obtained a young man, Jim Chones, who has great potential and is willing to work. Then we got Nate Thurmond, who gives us immediate backup help.
"When we obtained Thurmond, we hoped he could give us 20 minutes of the Thurmond of old for every game. He has more than done that.
"And we have Luke Witte, who still is a project, but has potential."
Fitch then talked of his backcourt, probably the deepest in the NBA.
CLEAMONS, THE TEAM’S playmaker, and 10-year-veteran Dick Snyder, picked up from Seattle last year, start the games, but get solid relief help from Austin Carr and 5-11 Foots Walker.
"We have our guard position strong enough so it has managed to survive despite Carr’s injuries," said Fitch. Carr has missed much of his five-year career because of two operations on his foot and two more on the knee. He is just about 100 percent now and should be ready for the playoffs.
"Snyder and Carr are the shooters and Cleamons and Walker are the playmakers," Fitch added.
Rounding out the team is Rowland Garrett, a four-year campaigner who is a natural forward, but is getting on-the-job training in the backcourt.
"We started with the oldest Arena and the smallest number of basketball fans," said Fitch.
"I WAS AMAZED at first when Portland and Buffalo could outdraw Cleveland during those first three years, even though Cleveland had a better record.
"And I was amazed how little knowledge our fans had at the time. They have turned it completely around. They not only have grown larger, but more educated.
"Now they are doing more cheering and less coaching.
"And I notice at banquets, people are asking much better questions now. I’ve always said, though, there never was a stupid question, only stupid answers."
Can the Cavaliers go all the way this year? "That’s a stupid question," he said laughing.
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