CLEVELAND, Ohio — It was Father’s Day, 2016.
Some of us will never forget that day — to be specific, that evening.
Father’s Day, 2016, was when the Cavs beat the Golden State Warriors in Game 7 to win the NBA title.
For many of us, it’s the only title we can remember won by one of Cleveland’s big three sports teams: The Browns, the Cavs and Tribe/Guardians.
June 19, 2016.
I thought about that date and that game when I heard that Bill Livingston died on Friday after a short illness. He was 77.
Livy (His nickname.) and I were sitting next to each other in Oakland’s Oracle Arena. We were both covering Game 7 of the NBA Finals as columnists for The Plain Dealer/cleveland.com.
Writing without a net
It was Sunday night, a West Coast game. Sweaty fingers banging away on a keyboard.
Write fast. Don’t think too much, just type.
“Working without a net,” Livy always called those games.
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.
No team in NBA history had ever been down 3-1 and come back to win the title.
If the Cavs could pull this off, it would be a HUGE story.
If …
Livy came to Cleveland in 1984 from the Philadelphia Inquirer. He wasn’t around for the Browns’ 1964 title game.
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.
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.
“So near, yet so far,” as Herb Score often said. Score was the Tribe broadcaster for that Game 7. It also was his last game, as he then retired.
So near, yet so far …
Cleveland sports fans know all about that.
The great block by LeBron James in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Beck Diefenbach, AFP via Getty ImagesRivals then teammates
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 “other paper.”
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.
Livy was such an elegant writer — 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.
He wrote four books. Two of them were especially impressive.
One was “George Steinbrenner’s Pipe Dream: The ABL Champion Cleveland Pipers.”
It was about the Cleveland Pipers pro basketball team in the early 1960s in a league called the ABL.
The other terrific read was “Above and Beyond: Tim Mack, the Pole Vault, and the Quest for Olympic Gold.” I never thought I’d read a book about a pole vaulter, but I did thanks to Livy’s work on Cleveland’s Olympic hero.
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 “Bubbles Hawkins.” Great nickname, not much of a player. I remember some of those conversations and smile as I am writing this.
Cavaliers 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?
That Father’s Day game was what a sports columnist craves. It had a chance to be a great story, a once-in-a-career story.
It was an extremely close game.
Livy and I were both typing as the game went on. I had two stories going on separate screens — one with them winning, one with them losing.
Livy and I figured we’d have between 15-to-20 minutes to get a story in. He was LeBron James when it came to writing on deadline.
With 1:50 left in the game, the score was 89-89. Golden State’s Andre Iguodala had what appeared to be an open fastbreak layup. But LeBron came out of nowhere and blocked it.
Livy looked at me. I shook my head.
Neither of us said a word. Both of us feared the Cavs would lose and mess up a great story.
But when LeBron blocked the shot …
We thought … maybe.
With 53 seconds left, Kyrie Irving drilled a 3-pointer. The Cavs had a 92-89 lead. Both of us were typing.
With 30 seconds left, Golden State’s Steph Curry attempted a 3-pointer. Kevin Love rushed out to defend him. The shot banged off the rim.
“They’re gonna win this thing!” Livy said to me.
I was speechless, thinking the same thing.
Back to typing. At least twice, I asked Livy, “What was the score again?”
The last thing I wanted to do was mess up the score in a game about the Cavs winning the title.
“It’s 93-89,” Livy said. “93-89.”
I said, “93-89.”
So it was … 93-89 … Cavs won the title.
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.