More than 1 million pack streets for Cavs’ NBA championship parade
The Cleveland Cavaliers celebrated their 2016 NBA championship with a parade and rally through downtown Cleveland on Wednesday morning. Several of their fans turned out to join them.
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An entire region exalted in the streets of Cleveland on Wednesday, with a reported 1.3 million showing their love for the conquering heroes who brought the city its first professional sports championship since the Cleveland Browns’ 1964 NFL title. Some so-brave-as-to-be-insane-and-very-dangerous souls even exalted above the streets of Cleveland:
(We sincerely hope every person in that photo winds up being OK.)
The rolling “community victory celebration” started after 11 a.m. ET, with parade floats, “specialty vehicles,” marching bands and assorted other folks making their way along a route that began near Quicken Loans Arena before the players began hopping on rides. They seemed eager to continue the party that began at Oracle Arena and continued in Las Vegas, with star point guard Kyrie Irving exhorting the crowd to get amped from the top of a vehicle:
There was, very briefly, a chance that the unthinkable would occur:
… before J.R. Smith soon came to his senses and embraced his greatness:
Joining J.R. on Team Topless: Irving, Iman Shumpert and Mo Williams. And who can blame them? It was warm enough in Cleveland that they needed firehoses to cool fans off:
Just as J.R. remains committed to shirtlessness as a champion’s lifestyle, Kevin Love remains committed to getting his ‘Sheed on all summer long:
As you might have expected, though, the biggest reactions of all were saved for the man who brought the championship to The Land, and earned Finals MVP honors for doing it: LeBron James.
With the throngs of humanity slowing traffic to a crawl due to the absence of barricades keeping people back to clear the roads — hey, give Cleveland officials a break; they’re new to this sort of planning — the procession of the parade took significantly longer than anticipated. On the plus side, that gave the Cavs plenty of opportunities to get up close and personal with their fans … like when J.R. plucked one out of the crowd and lifted him up in the air to soak in the adulation of the faithful:
Spending all that time out on a truck in the hot sun can make a dude hungry, though. It’s a good thing for veteran Channing Frye that someone happened to cross his path with some sweet, sweet pizza:
In sum: the scene in Cleveland was absolutely bonkers, the most beautiful brand of bedlam there is, to celebrate an achievement more than a half-century in the making.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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