Links to the Present: “Cleveland Against the World” Edition - Cavs:The Blog

The iconic 10-story tall LeBron James banner that welcomes you into downtown Cleveland has been removed again. But, no need to worry. It’s not coming down as the result of a political convention or a repeat of James leaving. This time, the banner is actually being taken down to remind everyone of something good.

After ending the city’s 52-year-drought this past June, the mural was removed on Monday in order to give it a small, but significant upgrade that reflects the team’s special victory. The new banner will be the same, but will include a gold patch of the Larry O’Brien trophy on the back James’ jersey.

It still feels surreal that one of my hometown teams finally brought Cleveland a championship. Many of us are still celebrating and still get chills every time we watch the last few minutes of game 7 with “The Block” and “The (New) Shot.” Driving past the new banner with the addition of the trophy will be a constant reminder of that life-changing night.

The upgraded mural is expected to be up and hanging this weekend, just in time for the players to receive their championship rings and unveil the actual championship banner inside Quicken Loans Arena before the Cavs’ home opener against the New York Knicks Oct. 25.

•Although the Cavaliers brought much hope and excitement to the city of Cleveland this year, the Indians are now trying to do the same. After blazing — or slugging, I should say — through the American League Series defeating both the Red Sox and the Blue Jays, the Tribe is now only four games away from being something it hasn’t been since 1948: World Series champions. There’s nothing more that warms my heart than saying that sentence.

Having two teams from a city where “there’s always next year,” possibly reaching a championship title in the same year is by far one of the most remarkable moments to ever hit sports history. The only slight issue is if the Cavaliers NBA championship ceremony will trump being witness to what could be the beginning of the end of the Indians 68-year World Series championship drought as both will occur on the same day.

I can already imagine the beautiful chaos that will envelop the city on Oct. 25.

Cleveland is, without a doubt, against the world… and it feels great!

In other links…

•For those worried about the Cavs back-up point guard spot, the team may have found the answer… or maybe not.

•ESPN’s Zach Lowe released his annual Tiers of the NBA column and it’s not a shock which two teams start the season on top.

•LeBron James is just 31 years old, but he’s entering his 14th NBA season and has put a lot of miles on those legs. It makes one wonder how long James can keep up his high level of play and imagine what an “old” LeBron James might look like.

•NBA.com polled their “panel of experts” on all sorts of preseason predictions. While the Cavs were the unanimous selection to make it to their third straight NBA Finals, a few contrarians actually picked teams other than the Warriors to come out of the west. And while only two of the 13 who predicted a Cavs/Warriors rematch picked the Cavs to repeat as champs, the Cavs were 2-0 in predicted Finals match-ups with teams other than the Warriors.