INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- When it comes to the Cavaliers, media day was merely a formality. Everyone already knows about LeBron James, Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving and all their friends.
Still, it was probably pretty cool for Cavs fans to see James as he sat and talked basketball while wearing a Cavs jersey.
LeBron James. In a Cavs jersey. Wow. It really is official.
Or how about Love? He's perhaps the NBA's best power forward. He can bury 3-pointers and lead the league in rebounding at the same time. That type of versatility is practically unheard of.
And Love is wearing a Cavs jersey, too.
I know. It probably feels like a dream. Seeing LeBron, Love and others in the Wine & Gold ... it probably hasn't sunk in yet.
But get used to it. They aren't going anywhere. They're really here. In Cleveland. Together.
And think about this: The Cavs landed all these guys without really giving up anything. They gained LeBron and Love and Shawn Marion and Mike Miller and still kept their best players from last season.
Seriously. Kyrie Irving? Dion Waiters? Tristan Thompson? Anderson Varejao? Matthew Dellavedova? Yeah. Those guys are still here.
Those guys formed the Cavs' nucleus last season. Now, they're playing alongside LeBron, Love and the others. When in offseason history (not just NBA, but sports history) has something like that ever happened?
You get to keep your best players from last season AND add the game's best player, as well as its best power forward?
Cavs fans probably can't repeat all that enough. They may have to if they hope to believe it.
Eventually, it will happen. This team will take the floor under new coach David Blatt and try to put it all together. It shouldn't be overly difficult. With James, Love, Waiters and Irving, the Cavs have four of the game's best distributors. Guys who can pass the ball at a high level are a coach's dream.
So welcome to the NBA, Coach Blatt. You may not yet believe any of this is real, either. And no one could blame you.
These new Cavs begin real practice, with real instruction and game-planning from the coaches, on Saturday. Then the Wine & Gold Scrimmage takes place Wednesday at Quicken Loans Arena. Then comes the preseason, a game against Maccabi Tel Aviv, a trip to Brazil, and the rest.
At some point, the fans, the organization will understand all this is no joke, no hypothetical situation normally reserved for NBA 2K15. The reality of it all probably didn't happen on media day. That's just a bunch of guys walking around in Cavs uniforms. Some of them said some pretty neat things about the season, some of them talked of family and friends and their new surroundings.
But until LeBron, Love, Kyrie and the rest take the floor, and play real games against real opponents that count in the standings ... well, it may take some time to believe it.
Once the Cavs and their fans finally do, they will find that, yes, these Cavs are the real deal. And they will be spectacular.
