Cleveland Cavaliers
For current information on this top-
ic, see 2008–09 Cleveland Cavaliers
season.
Cleveland Cavaliers
Conference
Eastern Conference
Division
Central Division
Founded
1970
History
Cleveland Cavaliers
(1970–present)
Arena
Quicken Loans Arena
formerly Gund Arena
City
Cleveland, Ohio
Team colors
Wine, gold, white, navy
blue
Owner(s)
Dan Gilbert
Gary Gilbert
David Katzman
Usher Raymond[1]
Gordon Gund
General
manager
Danny Ferry
Head coach
Mike Brown
D-League
affiliate
Erie BayHawks
Championships
0
Conference
titles
1 (2007)
Division titles
2 (1976, 2009)
Official website
cavs.com
The Cleveland Cavaliers (also known as the
Cavs) are a professional basketball team
based in Cleveland, Ohio. They began playing
in the National Basketball Association (NBA)
in 1970 as an expansion team and won their
first Eastern Conference Championship in
2007.
Franchise history
1970–1980: Expansion and early
hope
The Cavaliers first began play in the NBA in
1970 as an expansion team under the owner-
ship of Nick Mileti. Playing their home games
at Cleveland Arena under the direction of
head coach Bill Fitch,
they compiled a
league-worst 15–67 record. The team hoped
to build around the number one 1971 draft
pick Austin Carr who had set numerous scor-
ing records at Notre Dame, but Carr severely
injured his leg shortly into his pro career and
did not recover sufficiently to become a great
pro player.
The following seasons saw the Cavaliers
gradually improve their on-court perform-
ance, thanks to season-by-season additions of
talented players such as Bingo Smith, Jim
Chones, Jim Cleamons and Dick Snyder.
Cleveland improved to 23–59 in their sopho-
more season, followed by a 32–50 record in
1972–73, and a small step backwards to
29–53 in 1973–74. In 1974, the Cavaliers
moved into the brand-new Richfield Coli-
seum, located in a rural area thirty miles
south of downtown Cleveland in Summit
County (now part of the Cuyahoga Valley Na-
tional Park). That season, the Cavaliers fin-
ished with a 40–42 record, falling just short
o