They started the 2015-16 season strong but Head Coach, David Blatt, was fired in January despite having the best record in their conference. Assistant coach Tyronn Lue took charge for the remainder of the season. The team then advanced to the NBA Finals for the second year running and won their first championship after overcoming a 3-1 deficit, the first team to do so in history. Who will win the next NBA Championship? It’s not too soon to check out the current odds. The Cavaliers won the first NBA Championship in the history of their team as well as being the first major Cleveland sports team to win a championship since 1964, thus ending the Cleveland Curse. With this in mind we take a look at what sporting city may be the next to end their drought.
- Liverpool/Everton – British Premier League
Prior to Leicester City pulling off a stunning upset this season, the Barclays Premier League has been strictly held by clubs from Manchester or London since 1995/96. Manchester United have held the lions share with 18 Titles, Chelsea have four, Arsenal three and Manchester City two. But what about poor Liverpool? For a long time Liverpool dominated British football, holding the then First Division for a then record 18 times but haven’t won the top prize since the 1989/90 season. Rafael Benitez and Brendan Rodgers have both come close in 2008/09 and 2013/14 respectively, close but no cigar. Meanwhile the blue half of Merseyside haven’t been near a top flight title since 1987. Both North-West clubs have undertaken personnel changes with Jurgen Klopp taking the Liverpool helm in October 2015 and Ronald Koeman took the Everton job in June 2016. Both men are proven winners at their former clubs and their respective fans will be expecting big things. While few expect Leicester to repeat their success in the coming season, all eyes will be on the new bosses in Manchester, Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola, is it possible that the experts have ruled out Liverpool and Everton too soon?
- Minnesota
Now that LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers have won the NBA Championship, that leaves Minnesota and Washington D.C tied with the longest stretch without a championship in men’s professional sports. The last victory the city saw was when the Minnesota Twins won the World Series in 1991. Meanwhile the Vikings last won a title in 1969, before the inception of the Super Bowl. The Vikings came close to winning the National Football Conference but were denied in overtime by the New Orleans Saints. Can Minnesota turn their misfortune around and end their own sporting drought in the near future.
- Toronto
North of the border Toronto have a hefty drought on their hands too. The Blue Jays won back to back World Series’s in 1992 and 1993 but have not been within sniffing distance since. Ice Hockey is perhaps the most popular sport in Canada and the Toronto Maple Leafs have won 13 Stanley Cups since their inception in 1917 but have failed to win one since 1967. In basketball the Raptors have not won a single championship since their inception in 1995. They did however come very close to winning the Eastern Conference final in 2015/16. A promising sign that with a little hard graft, Toronto could have something to cheer about right around the corner.