CLEVELAND — One of the biggest moments in Cleveland sports history is now a permanent part of the community.
The Cleveland Cavaliers opened a new plaza on Friday to celebrate the championship and bring the community together exactly ten years after winning the NBA championship.
“Cleveland, this is yours,” Cleveland Cavaliers CEO Nic Barlage said. “Cleveland you deserve this. This court is representative of one of the best memories in the city’s history.”
The Cavaliers celebrated the grand opening of the new “Meet Me Here” plaza exactly on the 10-year anniversary of their Game 7 win in the 2016 NBA Finals.
The new court includes several nods to the Cavaliers’ 2016 championship team including the names and numbers of every player. (Cleveland Cavaliers)
“It’s really about taking these opportunities and making them into spaces and uses that the entire community can take advantage of,” said Barlage.
One of the highlights of the plaza is a full NBA-sized outdoor basketball court dedicated to the 2016 champions. Barlage said the organization plans to keep adding to the plaza.
“Our goal is to use this as the foundation to build upon the future generations of Cavaliers’ success,” Barlage said. “We think it’s so important to do it right next to the arena but also intermingled with all the investment we have going on here in downtown.”
The celebration included a wheelchair basketball game on the new court followed by a watch party of Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals.
The Cavaliers held a community block part for the ten-year anniversary of the 2016 championship. (Spectrum News 1/Chloe Magill)
Former Cavaliers general manager David Griffin, who helped assemble the 2016 championship roster, returned to Cleveland for the event and reflected on the broader meaning of the title.
“I hope what our championship did on the grander scale was it made Cleveland stop naming their failures and they revel in their successes,” said Griffin.
Griffin said the new plaza is a fitting way to preserve the legacy of the championship while encouraging future generations.
“I want kids here to grow up knowing that they’re meant for something special,” Griffin said. “Hopefully when they experience this, they feel what it means to strive for greatness. That’s what this was under these guys who sacrificed that much to achieve it. We wanted to convince everyone Cleveland was a world class city and our team did.”
Ten years later, that title still belongs to the city of Cleveland and now so does a court that keeps its legacy alive.