{"id":404258,"date":"2026-01-10T13:42:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T13:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/404258\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T13:42:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T13:42:18","slug":"when-bill-livingston-helped-with-the-biggest-story-of-my-life-terry-pluto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/404258\/","title":{"rendered":"When Bill Livingston helped with the biggest story of my life \u2014 Terry Pluto"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2014 It was Father\u2019s Day, 2016.<\/p>\n

Some of us will never forget that day \u2014 to be specific, that evening.<\/p>\n

Father\u2019s Day, 2016, was when the Cavs beat the Golden State Warriors in Game 7 to win the NBA title.<\/p>\n

For many of us, it\u2019s the only title we can remember won by one of Cleveland\u2019s big three sports teams: The Browns, the Cavs and Tribe\/Guardians.<\/p>\n

June 19, 2016. <\/p>\n

I thought about that date and that game when I heard that Bill Livingston died <\/a>on Friday after a short illness. He was 77. <\/p>\n

Livy (His nickname.) and I were sitting next to each other in Oakland\u2019s Oracle Arena. We were both covering Game 7 of the NBA Finals as columnists for The Plain Dealer\/cleveland.com.<\/p>\n

Writing without a net<\/p>\n

It was Sunday night, a West Coast game. Sweaty fingers banging away on a keyboard. <\/p>\n

Write fast. Don\u2019t think too much, just type. <\/p>\n

\u201cWorking without a net,\u201d Livy always called those games.<\/p>\n

Neither of us would admit it, but we both were a bit nervous. We knew this was a chance to cover a Cleveland team winning the title. The Cavs had come back from a 3-1 deficit in the best-of-seven series to force this Game 7.<\/p>\n

No team in NBA history had ever been down 3-1 and come back to win the title.<\/p>\n

If the Cavs could pull this off, it would be a HUGE story.<\/p>\n

If \u2026<\/p>\n

Livy came to Cleveland in 1984 from the Philadelphia Inquirer. He wasn\u2019t around for the Browns\u2019 1964 title game.<\/p>\n

I was born in Cleveland in 1955. That means I was nine when the Browns won the title. I started young in the business, but not that young.<\/p>\n

We both had covered the Tribe losing Game 7 in the 1997 World Series. I was with the Akron Beacon Journal. The Tribe lost in extra innings to the Florida (now Miami) Marlins that year.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo near, yet so far,\u201d as Herb Score often said. Score was the Tribe broadcaster for that Game 7. It also was his last game, as he then retired.<\/p>\n

So near, yet so far \u2026<\/p>\n

Cleveland sports fans know all about that. <\/p>\n

\"-\"The great block by LeBron James in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Beck Diefenbach, AFP via Getty ImagesRivals then teammates <\/p>\n

For 22 years, Livy and I worked for competing papers. We got along OK, but there was a natural desire to find the edge on the \u201cother paper.\u201d <\/p>\n

When The Plain Dealer recruited me to join their staff, it took a while for us to become comfortable with each other and our roles. <\/p>\n

Livy was such an elegant writer \u2014 much better than I when it came to certain types of stories because of his literary style. He also loved the Olympics, track and field and other sports of which I had little interest.<\/p>\n

He wrote four books.<\/a> Two of them were especially impressive. <\/p>\n

One was \u201cGeorge Steinbrenner\u2019s Pipe Dream: The ABL Champion Cleveland Pipers<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was about the Cleveland Pipers pro basketball team in the early 1960s in a league called the ABL.<\/p>\n

The other terrific read was \u201cAbove and Beyond: Tim Mack, the Pole Vault, and the Quest for Olympic Gold.\u201d I never thought I\u2019d read a book about a pole vaulter, but I did thanks to Livy\u2019s work on Cleveland\u2019s Olympic hero. <\/p>\n

We shared a common love of the NBA. He loved to tell stories about covering the Philadelphia 76ers before coming to Cleveland. He liked to talk about an obscure Sixer named \u201cBubbles Hawkins.\u201d Great nickname, not much of a player. I remember some of those conversations and smile as I am writing this.<\/p>\n

\"CavsCavaliers forward LeBron James (23) hoists the MVP trophy following their victory in Game 7 of the NBA Finals on Sunday, June 19, 2016, against the Golden State Warriors in Oakland, Calif.(The Plain Dealer)What was the score?<\/p>\n

That Father\u2019s Day game was what a sports columnist craves. It had a chance to be a great story, a once-in-a-career story.<\/p>\n

It was an extremely close game. <\/p>\n

Livy and I were both typing as the game went on. I had two stories going on separate screens \u2014 one with them winning, one with them losing.<\/p>\n

Livy and I figured we\u2019d have between 15-to-20 minutes to get a story in. He was LeBron James when it came to writing on deadline.<\/p>\n

With 1:50 left in the game, the score was 89-89. Golden State\u2019s Andre Iguodala had what appeared to be an open fastbreak layup. But LeBron came out of nowhere and blocked it.<\/p>\n

Livy looked at me. I shook my head.<\/p>\n

Neither of us said a word. Both of us feared the Cavs would lose and mess up a great story.<\/p>\n

But when LeBron blocked the shot \u2026<\/p>\n

We thought \u2026 maybe.<\/p>\n

With 53 seconds left, Kyrie Irving drilled a 3-pointer. The Cavs had a 92-89 lead. Both of us were typing.<\/p>\n

With 30 seconds left, Golden State\u2019s Steph Curry attempted a 3-pointer. Kevin Love rushed out to defend him. The shot banged off the rim.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re gonna win this thing!\u201d Livy said to me.<\/p>\n

I was speechless, thinking the same thing.<\/p>\n

Back to typing. At least twice, I asked Livy, \u201cWhat was the score again?\u201d<\/p>\n

The last thing I wanted to do was mess up the score in a game about the Cavs winning the title.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s 93-89,\u201d Livy said. \u201c93-89.\u201d<\/p>\n

I said, \u201c93-89.\u201d<\/p>\n

So it was \u2026 93-89 \u2026 Cavs won the title.<\/p>\n

Livy would say we both survived that night working without a net. But I knew differently. I had a net sitting right next to me as I was writing one of the biggest stories of my life.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2014 It was Father\u2019s Day, 2016. Some of us will never forget that day \u2014 to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,23130,590,85,29306],"class_list":["post-404258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basket","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-vertical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}