For Joey Taylor and his family, watching Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday was about more than basketball.
Taylor said he’s not a superstitious person, but the circumstances are too familiar to ignore: The Cavaliers are playing the Golden State Warriors for the third consecutive season. He invited the same people to join him on the same backyard patio in Akron’s Ellet neighborhood, enjoying much of the same food as they watched the game on the same projector.
“Same team, same place,” Taylor, 38, said. “We’re coming here with the same people.”
Among countless watch parties at restaurants and bars across the area, the Taylor family stayed home, inviting a dozen relatives and friends to join them for a barbecue and bonfire.
The group spent the moments before tipoff teasing Taylor over whether he cried more than the women at the party, and they all took turns yelling, “Cavs in six!”
Kids donning LeBron James and Kyrie Irving jerseys played basketball in the driveway, and the adults enjoyed the twice-baked macaroni and cheese and brownies.
When James returned to Cleveland in 2014 after a four-year stint in Miami, he wrote to Sports Illustrated that, “People there have seen me grow up. … My relationship with Northeast Ohio is bigger than basketball.” The Taylors enjoy being a part of that deep community bond.
“It’s almost like it’s something out of a Hollywood script. He said it in his letter — he was here, then it was like he went away for college,” Taylor said. “Now he’s home. I don’t think it would be nearly as special if it wouldn’t have happened without LeBron.”
Taylor and his wife, Nikki, have four boys. His brother, Matt Taylor, and his wife, Kelly, have three boys of their own. The watch party environment is family-friendly, which is exactly how they’d like it.
“Last year was unbelievable. We actually watch the clips from last year and kind of cry every time,” said Nikki, 36. “It’s still just unbelievable that that happened — and it’s such a great thing for our family, to get together and have these memories.”
The whole family is tied to the area. Nikki attended Archbishop Hoban and, alongside Joey, watched her brother lose by 40 points to LeBron while he played at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School.
“Honestly, I didn’t even know LeBron’s name. I knew there was one kid at St. V who was really good,” Joey said. “I literally remember the first play of the game where they tipped the ball, LeBron got it, and he drove between everyone and dunked it. I was like, ‘Ah, that’s him. That’s the kid.’ ”
A Cavs fan for life
Kelly, 38, can ramble off an encyclopedia of retired Cavaliers. She once played at Quicken Loans Arena — named Gund Arena back then — while a student at Lake High School. She watched the final game at the Richfield Coliseum. Her connection to the Cavaliers is much of the same as her connection to the area.
“I’ve been a Cavs fan since I was a young teenager, for life,” Kelly said. “There’s lots of great memories of the Cavs going back to the early years. We just love Akron and Ohio. It’s nice to see Cleveland in the national spotlight like this.”
Of course, watching the Cavaliers has always had its challenges. Kelly called herself “a bit of a fair-weather fan,” watching games more intently now than before the Cavaliers drafted LeBron.
Then there’s his decision to leave Cleveland for the Miami Heat, which led Joey to tear the legs off a LeBron cutout and take pictures of it stuffed into a trash can. Joey and his brother left a restaurant to see LeBron’s television special, and before they got back home, they heard his choice on the radio.
“We were absolutely disgusted,” Joey said. “When he came back, the grown men were like little kids. When he wrote that letter… what a special way to do it. You had that guy, who had that Northeast Ohio connection coming home, delivering what he did for us. You can’t even write a story better than that.”
But Nikki said these tough memories reflect the life of any family. She said just moments before tipoff Thursday that his letter to Sports Illustrated was redemptive.
She said he’s a role model for the various kids who huddled around the screen for the start of what they hope will be another championship series.
“That’s how relationships work. You’ve got good, you’ve got bad,” Nikki said. “It’s a good time to be a Cavs fan.”