"This, by far, is the bottom."
After losing by a franchise-record 55 points to the Lakers on Tuesday night, Cavs forward Antawn Jamison spoke for Cleveland fans everywhere.
“It can’t get any worse than this,” Jamison said in published reports. “If it is, y’all going to have to help me. I don’t know how much of this I can take. This, by far, is the bottom.”
The loss, and Jamison’s comments, got us thinking about a question we saw posted on Twitter last week asking if this is the worst all three Cleveland teams have been at the same time.
At first we thought that couldn’t be possible. There were some bad Indians, Cavs and Browns teams in the ’70s and ’80s, but after looking into it, this may truly be the darkest time in Cleveland sports in the past 40 years.
While there have been times when two of the three local teams have been bad – 1983 for example, where the Cavs finished up the ’82-’83 season 29-53 and the Tribe lost 92 games that summer – the Browns were respectable, going 9-7 that fall.
We found two examples that rival what we are going through right now:
- The ’90-’91 Cavs went 33-49, the ’91 Indians lost 105 games and the Browns went 6-10 that fall.
- That was topped in ’03 when the Cavs were finishing off a 17-65 season, the Indians spent the summer losing 94 games and the Browns went 5-11 in the fall.
But it sure seems worse now. The Indians are coming off a 93-loss season and playing in a league without a salary cap and no hope of competing with teams that can spend $5 or $6 for every $1 the Tribe spends.
The Cavs are injury-riddled and currently are surrounding Jamison and Mo Williams with a roster of D-League bench warmers. In a superstar-driven league, the Cavs don’t have one and their 8-30 record proves it.
The Browns are coming off consecutive 5-11 seasons and are currently searching for their fifth head coach since 1999. (Although they may be closing in on Rams offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur).
We have to believe there is something better out there, that things can’t stay the way they are. After all, we’re not Bengal fans.
But right now it sure is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Red Right 88 