Скачать или смотреть THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS

The Cleveland Cavaliers The Cavaliers began playing in the NBA in 1970 as an expansion team. Under the direction of coach Bill Fitch, they set the worst record in the league with 15:67. However, the team began building around the 1971 draft pick Austin Carr. In the 1975-76 season, Fitch led the Cavs, as the team is commonly known, to a 49-33 record, the best record in the Central Division, with Carr, Bingo Smith, Jim Chones, Dick Snyder and the newly acquired Nate Thurmond. He received the League's Coach of the Year award when the Cavs made their first playoff appearance. The Cavs won the series against the Washington Bullets 4-3. Due to the many heroics and last-minute shots, the series became known locally as The Miracle of Richfield. However, due to injuries, especially from Jim Chones, the Cavs lost in the Eastern Conference finals of the NBA playoffs against the Boston Celtics. In the 1980s, new owner Ted Stepien quickly hired and fired a number of coaches, made a number of bad trades and bad decisions about signing free agents. Stepien's bad trades cost the team several first-round draft picks and resulted in a rule change in the NBA that prohibited teams from swapping first-round draft picks in consecutive years. The rule is known as the Ted Stepien rule. Stepien threatened to move the franchise to Toronto, but brothers George Gund and Gordon Gund bought the franchise in the mid-1980s and decided to keep the team in Cleveland. In 1993, Toronto actually got an expanding franchise, the Toronto Raptors. In 1986, the team owned by the Gund brothers, Brad Daugherty, Mark Price, Ron Harper, and Larry Nance, either by trade or by draft. Those players (minus Harper, who traded for Danny Ferry's rights to the Los Angeles Clippers) formed the core of the team that led the Cavs to eight playoff seasons, including three over 50 wins, over the next nine years. In 1989, however, the Cavs were paired in the playoffs against the Chicago Bulls. It was a best of five series. Cleveland managed to beat the Bulls in overtime 108-105, tying the series 2-2. Home advantage went to Cleveland. The game was level until Cleveland managed to score with a drive and increase the lead by 1, 3 seconds behind. Chicago called the time. The ball went to Michael Jordan, who made a jump shot. Cleveland's Craig Ehlo jumped forward to block him, but Jordan appeared to stay airborne until Ehlo landed. The shot came in after the time ran out, with Chicago winning the series 3-2. The summer beater is considered to be one of Jordan's greatest clutch moments, and the game itself is one of the greatest. But the culmination of the Cavs' success came in the 1991/92 season when they set a 57-25 record and advanced to the Eastern Conference finals, where they again lost 4-2 to the Chicago Bulls. Cleveland had no success in the playoffs during this period. After that came an era of decline for Cavs. With the failures and departures of Nance, Daugherty and Price, the team lost its power and could not even fight for the playoffs, where they used to be the biggest problem against the Bulls. Under the leadership of point guard Terrell Brandon, Cavs became the most defensive team in the NBA for several years, focusing his tactics solely on defense as it was the team with the fewest points in the NBA. But offensive inproductivity resulted in Cavs' failure in that era. Later players like Ricky Davis and Zydrunas Ilgauskas joined the team, which increased the quality, but without success. However, after the glory days of the Cavs, several seasons came with defeat. During those seasons, the Cavs dropped to the bottom of the league and became a multi-year lottery draft team. After another disappointing 2002–03 season, the Cavs landed the number-one draft selection in the NBA lottery. The Cavs selected the high school phenomenon LeBron James. James' status as both a local star (he played his high school basketball at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in nearby Akron) and one of the most acclaimed prospects in NBA history led many to choose his regarded as a turning point in franchise history. The 2003-04 season held high hopes for the future as James rose to become a dominant player and won the NBA Rookie of the Year award. Hope was even greater for the 2004/05 season. James grew into a superstar who increased his points average, shooting percentage, assists and rebound average. Despite losing Carlos Boozer under very dubious circumstances, James formed the core of the Cavs team with Drew Gooden and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. After a promising start, when the team appeared to be firmly stuck in 5th playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, the Cavs began a downward spiral that eventually led to the sacking of coach Paul Silas and general manager Jim Paxson. The Cavs failed to make the playoffs that year as they finished eighth (and final) playoff spot with the resurgent New Jersey Nets (the Nets owned the tiebreaker over the Cavs). The 2005 offseason was one of many