{"id":918289,"date":"2026-10-02T21:24:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T21:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/918289\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T21:24:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T21:24:25","slug":"counting-down-the-cavs-breaking-down-the-history-of-the-number-20-in-cleveland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/918289\/","title":{"rendered":"Counting Down the Cavs: Breaking Down the History of the Number 20 in Cleveland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9q\">It is getting closer and closer to the start of the Cleveland Cavaliers season. 20 days to be exact, so now we are diving into the number 20 and its representation in the team&#8217;s history.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9v\">Starting with somebody who I have already talked about in this countdown<\/p>\n<p>Campy Russell 1975-1978<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"a5\">Yesterday, I discussed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/cavaliers\/onsi\/counting-down-the-cavs-breaking-down-the-number-21-in-cavaliers-history-01m3vyqe9yzs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">his time in the number 21<\/a> jersey for the last two years of his first Cavaliers stint. But when he was first on the team in 75\u2019 he was the number 20.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"aa\">In the first four seasons of his career he wore this number and averaged 14.4 points a game before making the switch. Russell played an important role in the \u201cMiracle of Richfield\u201d in 1976 when the young Cavs team upset the Washington Bullets and Elvin Hayes.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"af\">While his individual success was higher in the number 21, he is remembered more in Cleveland in his number 20 because of that 1976 season.<\/p>\n<p>Geoff Huston 1981-1985<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"ap\">Traded to Cleveland from Dallas in 1981, Geoff Huston has one specific memory from most Cavs fans during his time in Cleveland.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"au\">On January 27th, 1982,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/cavaliers\/onsi\/counting-down-the-cavs-breaking-down-the-history-of-no-27-in-cavs-history-01m3cd4hbn7e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> Huston dished out a Cavs record 27 <\/a>assists in a game. That record still stands to this day. He spent 5 seasons in Cleveland and was given the nickname Smooth because of the way he played point guard.<\/p>\n<p>Eric Snow 2005-2008<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"b4\">He already had a great career before the move to Cleveland, but Eric Snow spent the final years of his career with the team. His career was forced to end due to a knee injury where he had torn cartilage.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"b9\">While in Cleveland, he was considered a co-captain alongside LeBron James and the emotional anchor of the team. In fact, after his career ending injury, he spent the rest of the season as an \u201cunofficial\u201d assistant coach for the team and helped run the teams elite defense at the time.<\/p>\n<p>Timofey Mozgov 2015-2016<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"bj\">In the first Finals appearance in 2015, Mozgov was a defensive anchor who came in when Anderson Varejao went out with a season ending injury. Even scoring a 28 point game in Game 4 of the Finals that year when Bron, Kevin Love and Kyrie were all down.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"bo\">His role dropped in 2016 when the team won the championship, but he was still one of the first Russian players to win an NBA Championship.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-15\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"bt\">Mozgov\u2019s time in Cleveland was short, but his most famous moment came in 2014 when he played for the Nuggets and the broadcast box score had him <a href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/2025781-erroneous-graphic-shows-that-nuggets-timofey-mozgovs-huge-night-was-legendary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">listed at 93 points and 29 rebounds.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Jaylon Tyson 2026-Present<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-17\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"c3\">The current day number 20, Jaylon Tyson is coming into this season with a lot of hype around his role. With the loss of Max Strus he is going to be one of the first guys off the bench in this Cavs team and will be trusted with lead scoring off the bench.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-18\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"c8\">Tyson had a breakout season last year, if he can continue in that role he could become <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/cavaliers\/onsi\/why-jaylon-tyson-could-be-cleveland-s-difference-maker-in-2026-27-season-01m3vrerbt3s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">vital to this team winning another Championship.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" preventdefault:click=\"\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\" on:click=\"q-BKH5TN-7.js#s_lDqay9E5m5g[0]\" q:id=\"ce\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is getting closer and closer to the start of the Cleveland Cavaliers season. 20 days to be&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":918290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-918289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=918289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/918290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=918289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=918289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=918289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}