Wuddup Fanatics! Its been too long since my last blog, but we’ve all been on pins and needles waiting for “The Decision” to be made.  Now that it has, I want to share my take and our story regarding the past month or so, including our experience photographing the LeBron banner. Photos are found at the bottom of the blog since I'm having some strange anomalies occur when I try to fit them within the text.

(all photos here courtesy of Candice Vlcek Photography)

A few weeks ago, LeBron met with the six suitors at the IMG building in Downtown Cleveland over a period of three days, the last day belonging to the Cavaliers and Chicago Bulls. Surely this was a good sign right? Giving us the last word (almost), holding his meetings in Cleveland? The Cavaliers called into action the greatest fanbase in the NBA, and asked that we line E. 9th so that both LeBron, his “team”, and the executives for both teams could see that we truly loved him and we wanted him to stay. Candice and I took our cameras and headed downtown. There were at least a few hundred fans there, and most of those we talked with were on the same page as we were: he’s just doing his due diligence as a free agent, testing the market, but he’ll definitely stay in Cleveland. How could he leave without fulfilling his “destiny”, bringing a Championship to his hometown Cavaliers? Why would he want to join other superstars on a team and not be “the Man”?

My thoughts were always along these lines: either he’s A- a genuinely nice guy who is being honest when he mentions “loyalty” and “commitment” to this region and his family/teammates/fanbase, and realizes that the Cavaliers have a great chance at winning a title with such a generous/passionate owner and staff, or he’s B- an ego-maniacal narcissist who has to be in the spotlight at all times, needs his ego stroked constantly, and whose “brand” is more important than anything else. Either way it’s Cleveland I thought! How could his “brand” survive him leaving without winning a title here “on his own”?  How could he return to Akron for his bike-a-thons, to Bath for ANYTHING, if he abandoned the city and the team for the bright lights of New York, Chicago or Miami?

After the meetings, he announced that “The Decision” would be made the following Thursday, live on ESPN! Initially we figured that there was NO way he’d go on national television and crush the hearts of Clevelanders, but when they announced that it would be held at a Boys & Girls Club in Connecticut…we began to wonder if “The Decision” would join “The Drive”, “The Fumble”, “The Shot”, etc. in the list of Cleveland’s sports miseries.

Candice and I still expected him to stay, but as Cleveland fans, you have to prepare yourself for the worst, so I brought home some black vinyl just in case we’d have to cover up her WITNESS garage. We were sure that people might vandalize it if we kept it for very long, but like I said, we were sure he’d be staying. We kept rationalizing our way of thinking with thoughts of “loyalty”, “brand preservation” and “family”, and knew that his love for Akron would make it difficult if not impossible for him to justify a bolt to another city.

But then we put on our “Clevelander Caps” and started looking at it without bias, without the wine and gold-colored glasses that we had on for the past seven years. Did we excuse his prima donna behavior unjustly, and label those who wrote/spoke against it as “haters” who were bashing on Cleveland? We began to think back to a few specific episodes: the “non-handshake” at the end of the Orlando series a few seasons ago, the way he seemed to quit during the Celtics series this past postseason, the Yankee hat episode, the constant whining at officials, the way he seemed to tune-out Mike Brown and anyone else who tried to get him to do things their way. We started to get worried. Were we fools all along? Did we really allow this “New-York” style of attitude and behavior to go un-checked because of our thirst for a Championship? Were the “insiders” right who kept saying “Miami” in the hours leading up to that fateful 9PM EST circus? Were we about to have those hopes crushed in front of millions on live television!?

Torn and confused, we sat there and watched alone, hoping to celebrate together, but fearing the sadness that was feeling more and more like a distinct possibility. What is that phrase? Sometimes the anticipation of death is worse than death itself? That about summed up the period of uncertainty that we all were put through once we were disposed of by Boston, and that anticipation grew into fear during the first weeks of July.

So now he’s gone. Bridges are burned, both by “the King” and by our beloved owner. There’s no coming back home LeBron. Even your beloved Akronites have taken down the “Home of LeBron James” signs that littered the streets there (although their city council just voted to continue to support him publicly...). Who would want to be associated with someone like you (aside from Miami residents of course)? Who could justify the way you did it to us ‘Bron? Sure, we’re mad that you left, but it was the way you did it that hurt the most, that will hurt forever, that has scarred this city and its fans for life. We deserved better.

So now comes the part after a breakup where you get rid of all the letters, the pictures, anything that reminds you of the one who hurt you so badly. For most Cavalier fans, the giant LeBron/Nike/WITNESS banner that hung across the street from the Q was the first thing they wanted to see gone, and Mr. Gilbert did his best to make that a reality.

Candice and I have took many pictures of the banner over the past few seasons. Her picture of the original MVP laser display was famously displayed on many local and national websites (and sometimes stolen without proper credit given), so when LeBron won his second MVP, we hit the streets with our cameras hoping to capture whatever Nike had in store for us. It was an epic MVP x2 display (thanks to George Dodworth and the guys at Lightwave International for keeping it up in the rain for us), and her pictures came out great! Sadly though, we lost the game that night, and the news outlets weren’t too interested in the story. She still proudly displays it on her website though, and has even sold a few copies. When we heard that the LeBron sign was coming down, we did the obvious and headed downtown.

They began taking the banner down the morning of Friday, July 9th and finished up at around 7:30PM on Sunday, July 11th. Candice and I were there for most of the process, and spent about 20 hours there over the three day period. Crowds gathered for pictures, local news crews stopped by to shoot video and to interview fans (Candice and I were interviewed by Fox 8 news!). The crews doing all the heavy lifting were being yelled at to “burn it down”, or “gimmie a piece!”, and occasionally granted the latter request to a person if they were persistent and/or brought them a few cold bottles of water.

On the final day of work, Candice and I had just snapped the last pictures of his image being taken down (to the delight and applause of the crowd), and we started heading to our car. I suggested that we go down below street level and get a group shot of the crew (and to try to snag a nice piece as well, haha). Nike wanted to keep the entire image of LeBron, along with the “We Are All Witnesses” text, so the guys were carefully cutting his image away from the black background throughout the process, dropping the black pieces down as they bunched up his image working from the outside in. Now they had the entire image of LeBron including the text in their rig, which was nearing its weight limit with half of their four-man crew in the bucket as well (Harry and Pat). They had a problem though: the poles that held the lights which lit the banner at night were in the way, and the rig needed to be pulled away from the building so that they could lower themselves quickly and safely without ripping the lights off or damaging their equipment. “Have that guy over there help you!” Pat yelled down to the other two guys on the ground (Jamie and Mike). I was already taking off my camera bag at that point, knowing that they’d need as much help as they could get. Mind you, the rig that Harry and Pat are standing in weighs about 500 pounds, and the total weight of the LeBron banner is 4 tons. I’m taking a guess that the image of LeBron and the text above him equals at least a third of the total weight, so we’re talking roughly 2000lbs plus the weight of the workers and their equipment that is attached to the top of the building, some 280 feet above our heads. And we’re pulling on ropes attached to this rig while we stand underneath it! I first helped Mike pull his side, and we were able to clear the lights! But Jamie couldn’t get his side clear, so I went over to help him instead. Second attempt: Jamie and I got our side clear, but now Mike couldn’t get his. They hesitantly asked Candice to lend a hand, and she gladly obliged. SUCCESS! With her extra ‘umph’ on Mike’s side, we were able to hold them far enough away from the building so that they could quickly lower themselves down.

The guys were so happy that we were able to help them that they cut us a big piece of the banner. Not just a black piece either, we got the chalk from right above his head! Stoked to say the lease, Candice and I posed with pictures with the crew and went on our merry way. Our tiring weekend of shooting ended on the most positive note possible. Not only did we get a piece of Cleveland/Cavaliers/sports history, we helped bring LeBron down! haha

So thanks for reading this novella, haha! I'm not sure if I'll ever really get over him leaving, or the way he left, but I'm officially moving on and putting all my energy towards this team that I love, regardless of how many wins we get this season or who's on the roster. I love the Cavs. Always have, always will. So with that, I'm takin' my skills to Cleveland and getting back to work! Comments and ratings are always appreciated.

Wuddup fanatics?! Time for my last regular season installment.  It's been an amazing season for me so far.  So many awesome things have happened over the past few months, I'll have a hard time limiting myself to anything short of a novella, but I'll give it a shot!

For those who may be reading my blog for the first time, I'll give some quick background info on me and why I'm writing this. I've lived in Cleveland since I was five years old (for the last 28 years, !!) and have been a huge Cleveland sports fan for as long as I can remember. I've been a member of the Cavaliers fan websites (in their many forms) for a little over seven years now, since just a few months before LeBron was drafted. I've been a moderator for the past few years, although I'm better known for my Photoshop work and my favorite project: LoL Cavs. This is my first year being a Season Ticket Holder, and I've been blogging about it every few months.

Since my last blog, our beloved Cavs have gone 33-12 and locked up the #1 seed throughout the NBA playoffs.  Not much to complain about there. We had win streaks of 6, 8 and 13 games during that span, as well as a three game slide and the current 4 game losing streak we ended the year with. I'm not worried though, we're going to be unstoppable in the post-season. I don't see us losing more than one game per series, regardless of our opponent. We're gonna trample the Bulls in 4 games, but enough about the team. Back to my season of awesomeness! lol

My obsession with the Team Shop continued, although I somehow managed to keep up with bills and other necessities like food. Speaking of food, did I ever tell you how much I love Bar Symon's pork pastrami sandwich? And the fondue dip with fries?!?! ZOMG, I can't get enough of it, and it quickly became a regular stop for us during games.  By us, I mean Candice2.0 and myself. I'll get back to that subject later on ;)

We attended two of the three Official Cavs Watch Parties, the first on January 29th at the Broadview Heights Boneyard and the second on February 19th at the Mayfield Heights Boneyard. Moondog and Ahmaad were there for both parties of course, along with a few Cavs Girls. Moondog cracks me up so much, you can't help but have a smile on your face when he's in the room. He was signing autographs and posing for pictures, and he made mine out to "LeJuice" w/o me having to ask! Moondog knows me! haha, it might be a bit weird to you, but that was very cool to me. I won a sweet Cavs leather-bound notebook during an Ahmaad trivia game at the Broadview Hts party (I can never have too much Cavs schwag!), and had a great time playing Guitar Hero after the game in Mayfield. More CavFanatics need to come out to these events, it's much better than watching the game at home alone! We don't bite (unless you're covered in honey-mustard sauce and have celery sticks for fingers), but in either case you should come! There will be playoff watch parties for sure, I want to see more CF'ers!!!

We've also become good friends with Jillian from the Team Shop, and helped her celebrate her 21st birthday at Panini's after a game.  The Scream Team and Ahmaad were there, and fellow CavFanatic CFPPF and his friend Tim (TIIIIIIIIIIM!) were there as well.  A great time was had by all, although she had a rough time going into work the next day, haha, but you only turn 21 once!  Jill is the best though.  She keeps us posted on upcoming sales, and sends me pictures of any cool shoes that they get in. (btw, I know there's a pair of playoff shoes coming out soon Jill...I want pics!!!)
If a fellow CavFanatic is going to a game and they let me know about it, I try to meet up with them for a picture and to put a face to a name, or just to say hi again if we've met before.  Some of those whom we've had a chance to meet included: Susieb and husband Steve, Misfitatic and misfitatic's woman, Dr. Gonzo, Rachel and her bf Jake, Kel, GibsonForThr33, thaJeanniesis, Under(dogger), Akron (where Superstars are born), ChocolateButterr, DWreck, CurtyCurt and Kelly, No Offense, Chuck Erkbergerstein, Cliff and Tina, Uncle Sam and, Justin (the first), generic, Joe, and Pimpton and his wife (if I'm forgetting someone I apologize, it's been a crazy year!). Of course I took 216ANT and CFPPF with me to a few games when Candice had class, and inkling and her bf Mike sat in the two seats next to mine when she wasn't making a mint selling them on Flash Seats.  CavFanatic was/is always well represented in the Q!

One of the highlights for me personally was meeting Jeff Phelps, whom I saw walking around the concourse after a game.  I said "Jeff, love your blog!", and he stopped and asked if I was LeJuiceman! I said yeah and he walked towards me, shook my hand and introduced himself. Class act all the way around! If you haven't read any of his blogs you're seriously missing out. He always has behind the scene stories about our team and his fellow writers/tv folks. His stories about Jamario always make me lol, and his adventures at hotels and restaurants while on the road are always hilarious as well.

Another highlight of ours was being Benchwarmers for a game (BIG thanks to my ticket rep John Fouser for making it happen!).  For those of you who don't know, Benchwarmers get the chance to sit on the Cavs bench from the time gates open until the team comes out for pre-game warmups.  You also get to be a part of the tunnel when the players come out of the locker room. Candice is a photography major, so she brought her Canon SLR camera to the game.  I had my little point n shoot camera, and we both snapped pics and short movies for about an hour and a half.  She got some great pictures too! You can see them if you visit her website: www.candicevlcekphotography.com (haha, shameless promotions rool!) We got our shirts autographed by Jamario Moon, who quickly became one of our favorite players on the team. He's so cool and down to earth. He posed for pictures with us too, and then signed autographs for the fans for about 20 minutes! I got Leon Powe and Boobie Gibson to sign my shirt too. I won't be wearing that again fur shur!

Now normally after you're a benchwarmer, you'd go back to your normal seats, which for me means Loudville.  Prior to the game we went to the ticket office to try to upgrade my seats, since I got an email saying that was available to me for this particular game.  While in line, Candice looked behind us and whispered "I think Jim Chones is behind us!". I turned around and greeted Jim warmly, since we had met previously at a CF event at the Hard Rock Cafe. He remembered me and we chatted a bit while I waited for the ticket guy to tell me what was available. He had two seats, 6th row center court for $300 minus the cost of my tickets...too steep for me.  Jim asked what they wanted, and when I told him he shook his head and offered us two of his tickets in the lower bowl! We followed him to the front of the line where he scanned his ID and handed us the two Flash Seat tickets, and made sure the usher at the gate knew where we had gotten our tickets (since you can't normally transfer FlashSeats like that).  We thanked him profusely, but in case you're reading this, THANKS AGAIN JIM! You're the man! You made our awesome day even better! Hope to talk/work with you soon!

Snuggie night was another signature game. Candice and I got there early to get some pictures near the court of all the Snuggies on the seats (and also to ensure that we didn't get Snuggie-snatched). It was so cool to become a world record holder along with 20,560 fellow Cavs fans (although we were recently beaten by a similar promotion by the Anaheim Angels...swagger jackers!) Either way, we were the first, and we'll always be able to say that at one time, we were World Record holders!

216ANT has a few friends who work security for the Q, so whenever we go to a game together (and get there early enough), we try to get near the floor to take a few pictures. The last time we were down there, I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was a member of the Cavs Crew, and he asked me if I wanted to take part in an on-court contest! Hrm...let me think abou...YES!!! My second time on the court this season!  It was a DiGiorno contest too, and if I won, my entire row would win free pizza! Ant was kind enough to take a video for me, and with the help of Ahmaad and the Scream Team I won! Only bad thing was by the time we got back to my seats, the fans in my row were enjoying their pizzas and there were none left for us! :( After making a stop at the DiGiorno booth, the Information Desk and finally flagging down the Cavs Crew member, we go our pizzas! DiGiorno pizza is worth the legwork, haha!

A few weeks ago, the fans in my section (The Fanatic Addict's in 232) were recognized on court before a game. Yup, I got to go on the court for a third time this! It was actually "the Z game", and Candice and I both wore our Ilgauskas player tees with pride. Thanks to Admin (Witness) for taking a video of us on the court. Inkling didn't make it in time, but we pointed to her (or where she would've been sitting) when they mentioned her name. It was very cool, and nice of the Cavs to acknowledge us.

Then there was the final CavFanatic night at the Cadillac Ranch. Once again I made nametags for everyone who asked for one (and a few dozen for those who don't post on the forums), and enjoyed a great pre-game meal and a few Shirley Temples, haha.  They're good, I'm just sayin! Admin, Admin Eh?, The Source and The Fanatic put on a great party, and appearances by The Scream Team and a few Cavalier Girls made it official. Nicole and Ahmaad stopped by too and chatted with me and posed for a picture or two. Fred McLeod even came through and thanked me for his nametag. It was funny hearing him introduce himself to people. "Hi, I'm Fred McLeod, nice to meet you", as if we didn't already know! But he was very polite, as are all of the Cavs employees. Candice and I left for Washington D.C. right after the party to shoot pictures of the Cherry Blossom Festival, so we missed a good win vs. Atlanta, but we listened to Joe Tait until we lost the feed somewhere near Pittsburgh. Nothing good happens in Pittsburgh, haha (jk RYZ).

The Team Shop has been crazy the past few weeks with all the sales going on, and before a recent game we were slowly moving amongst the crowd when I got a tweet from the cavs: First two fans to meet Moondog near section 121 and show him this tweet wins a Giant Eagle/Stouffer's prize pack worth over $100! We were feeling a bit cramped, so I suggested we go try to find him and see what's what.  I've been following Moondog's and the Cavs' tweets all season, but this was the first time I've ever tried to win something.  By the time we made it to the section, there was a small gathering of fans holding their phones in hand. It wasn't looking good.  I saw a small hallway with an elevator at the end of it and decided to post up there, hoping that The Dog himself would be coming out of there soon. After a few false alarms, Moondog and a few Cavs reps holding bags of goodies appeared. A female fan and I were the first to greet him, so we posed for pics and were given our prizes. An awesome Cavs bag full of win: two bobbleheads from this season, a few Cavs stickers, magnets, a notebook, a pen and a few pencils, a $50 gift card from Giant Eagle and six coupons for free Stouffers meals! Has this been my year or what?!

The highlight of my season though, aside from all the great games I've WITNESSed, and all the cool opportunities I had, has been the people I was able to meet and interact with.  All my fellow CavFanatics have made watching the games fun. Whether it was 216ANT, his wife Tracy and their baby Rita (who's the cutest baby in the world btw, check out his photo album if you don't believe me) decked out in the newest LeBron shoes, or Doug (CFPPF) and I going Cavs Girl crazy and getting pictures with each one, or going to the Team Shop after having a few drinks and almost buying everything Marcin handed us, I always had a blast at the Q.

I met a few celebrities along the way too. Amy Martin from Digital Royalty invited me to a tweet up early on in the season, and I bumped into her at a game awhile back too.  She's Shaq's social media guru, works for many other pro sports teams and players, and is truly a leader in her field. Jim Chones of course is a very cool guy, and I'll never forget him giving us those tickets. Can't wait to see him again and hopefully do some design work for him in the future. Met Austin Carr a few times along with Fred McLeod, and even gave them a box of my Christmas chocolates. I'm still wondering if Fred ever got to sample them. From the looks of things as I walked away, AC was making quick work of the chocolate covered goodness! I asked him at the next Fanatic party, and he said he ate the whole box! hahaha, hope you liked em AC! I also met Amanda Mercado, PR Director for the Cavs. You've probably seen her on the sidelines during games. She has short blonde hair and is usually near LeBron. She was kinda shocked when I asked her to pose for a picture, but I told her she's a celebrity to us diehard fans! I even ran into her outside of the Q a few weeks later and she remembered me taking that picture. Can you tell I like it when people remember me? hahaha

I have to take a minute to thank all the office workers who've helped make this an awesome year. Fo' RYZ-eal, although a Steeler fan, is one of the coolest cats around, and Mike Maleski always has kind words to share when we meet at a CF party. Mandizzle still has all her nametags, and wears them with her credentials to access all the nooks and crannies of the Q. It was cool to see you still have em all Mand, thanks for hangin' onto them! Jen Wiklund is also very nice, and let us take extra Malley's gift bags when we left our suite on Halloween night. Joe Gabriel is very down to earth, and we got a chance to talk a bit at the last party. He always says hi to me when we pass each other at the Q. I'd love to watch a game with ya Joe, I'm sure I'd learn a lot. Admin Eh? is always going out of her way to make us CavFanatics feel special, and is constantly taking pictures of us and posting them online. Flash Admin does a lot of work behind the scenes, and I regret not getting to talk to him more at the Fanatic parties.  Seems like I'm always super busy doing one thing or another. The Source is always there when I need a logo or email address when someone asks me for help on Fanatic. And then there's THE MAN, our Yoda, Admin (Witness). He's been our rock for the past five and a half years! He's always quick to respond to any issues we might have on CF, and is constantly looking for ways to improve the experience for members of CavFanatic. Everyone I've met who works for the Cavs has been fantastic to me. Mr. Gilbert, your franchise is in great hands!

And last but certainly not least is Candice. We first met before a Cavs game (of course) almost a year ago. It was the game where LeBron was awarded the MVP award, and when she shot her now infamous picture of the MVP laser sign that was displayed for that night (I'm lucky enough to have a nice big print of it framed!). Over the next few months we became good friends, and during this season our relationship grew into something very special. There's nobody else I'd rather spend my time with, and whether we're cheering on the Cavs at the Q, or sightseeing here or in another state through the lens of a camera, we're having fun. I hope we can celebrate a Championship together in a few months, but no matter how this season ends, it'll always be the best season I've ever had thanks to you. <3

Now enough with the mushy stuff, let's win this thing! Look for more blogs (and LoL Cavs) after each series. This has been an epic season, and I'm not ready for it to end anytime soon. Click on this picture to take you to my Season of Dreams gallery. Thanks for taking the time to read this and all my blogs this season! As always, comments and ratings are greatly appreciated!