My buddies from college will tell you that I have been an optimist of the Cleveland Cavaliers since they met me in 1997. They used to roll their eyes at me right before every season when I would plaintively attempt to explain why a couple of new players were going to turn the fortunes of my home team. In those days, it was still conversations like, "Well, if Zydrunas can stay healthy with his feet... " or "The Cavs have Shawn Kemp and if he can get back to the form that he had in Seattle... " Clearly I was delusional, but I grew as a basketball fan. The only way to gain perspective is through experience.

After being forced to watch players like Wesley Person, Lamond Murray, Andrew Declercq, and Trajan Langdon — not to mention Robert Traylor (his third run through the league) and the one who talks about himself in the third person, Ricky Davis — I had gained an all new perspective. No matter how much I wanted the team to be good, it just was never going to happen. Journeyman after journeyman and bad draft pick after bad draft pick until there was a 17-win season. The roll of the dice came the Cavs' way and they finally had a draft pick that they seemingly couldn't screw up. Needless to say, after all that misfortune, I wasn't prepared for LeBron James. And really, who could blame me? The only way to gain perspective is through experience.

Now, since that 17 win season before LeBron James arrived in Cleveland, the Cavs have gone 35-47, 42-40, 50-32, 50-32. The last two seasons, the Cavs have made the playoffs. Last year they got knocked out in the second round by the Pistons. After making it to the Eastern Conference Finals this season, the Cavs promptly went down 0-2 to the Pistons and I thought that maybe this was just another learning experience on the way to being championship caliber.