Cleveland Cavaliers Championship Parade
East 9th and Superior June 22, 2016
We were offered media credentials for the historic Cleveland Cavaliers Championship Parade on June 22, 2016 but did not apply because we wanted to be part of the people celebrating rather than standing inside barricades. And we are so glad we did. Watching parade highlights later in the day on TV we were amazed at how what they showed on TV was so different from what we experienced.
TV showed fans behind barricades with the streets wide open as the parade circled the Q and Progressive Field. But on East 9th Street there were no barriers and fans converged from both sides of the street almost meeting in the middle. Mounted and other Police did their best to keep people back as the parade came down East 9th. But as you will see in the videos it was very close up and very real.
The first video shows the wall to wall crowds and the Mounted Police clearing the street. It was great to see people cheering and high-fiving the Cleveland Police all day. CPD was fantastic all day and even Chief Calvin Williams was walking the streets with the people.
UFC Heavyweight Champion Stipe Miocic was the first big name followed by the Ohio State University marching band and Urban Meyer, Thad Motta and AD Gene Smith from the Buckeyes.
Sir CC from the Cavaliers came next. It was great to see the Calder Cup champions Lake Erie Monsters get to experience this. No player on a minor league hockey team ever got to experience the adulation of 1.3 million fans in a victory parade. Let's Go Monsters!
The second video includes the Cavaliers Girls followed by Mayor Frank Jackson. Machine Gun Kelly (MGK) climbed on top of the truck frame and blasted CLE Til I Die and the crowd went nuts. County Executive Armond Budish followed.
The third video includes Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley, the Junior Cavs and lots of wine and gold confetti. Cleveland Browns Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown had the crowd Woofing. He was followed by the LeBron James Family Foundation and Canton Charge.
The 4th video features the Shaw High School Band, Dan Gilbert and family, Cavs GM David Griffin and Cavs Head Coach Tyronn Lue.
The 5th video is Cleveland Cavs J.R. Smith who stood, shirtless of course, and took video of the crowds. TV weather woman Beth McLeod followed on a truck.
The 6th video featured Cleveland Cavs Kyrie Irving, Timofey Mozgov and Sasha Kaun. No shirt for Kyrie either.
The 7th video is the Akron St Vincent-St Mary band followed by the true MVP of the NBA, the greatest player on the planet, the Cleveland Cavs MVP LeBron James.
The 8th video is Cleveland Cavs Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye who were having a blast passing a bottle, chomping cigars and posing for and taking photos.
The 9th video is Cleveland Cavs Iman Shumpert. He posed shirtless and picked up his tiny baby for some great photo opps.
The 10th video is Cleveland Cavs Kevin Love who had the WWE championship belt with him.
The 11th video is Cleveland Cavs Matthew Dellavedova as you can tell from the chants of Delly Delly!
The 12th video is Cleveland Cavs Mo Williams.
The 13th video is Cleveland Cavs Double T, Tristan Thompson.
The 14th and last video is Cleveland Cavs Dahntay Jones who signed a ton of autographs and another selfie in front of the championship truck.
We then went over to Mall B for the rally.
Obviously none of us has ever experienced anything so massive. All ages and races got along, high-fiving strangers. 99% of the crowd wore some type of Cavs gear and the other 1% had Browns or Indians items. What a great day for our city.
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