Cleveland Cavaliers Unveil New Court

[CLEstones]

I don't think the reason for the addition was because the City has a distinct or iconic skyline. I think its a marketing strategy. Dan Gilbert has made a heavy investment in the City, from jobs at Quicken Loans, to Casinos, to the Medical Mart and Convention Center, to bringing back hockey and bringing over an AFL team.

In the last 2 years (and in the next 2 years), the City will be in the National spotlight more than it has ever been, including the Q being used for the Republican National Convention. I think Gilbert looks at it as a way to spark conversation, which sparks Google searches, which sparks possible vacations/weekends, which sparks more people coming in town for Cavs games or the Casino. I think everything the guy does is calculated. I think the skyline is strictly for marketing.

[CLEstones]

I think everything the guy does is calculated.

I don't think there was much calculating involved in writing a break up letter like a 14 year old in comic sans

Then you don't know how the City rallied around Gilbert after that. The Cavs were one of the worst teams in the league for 4 years after LeBron left... yet the Cavs were getting 15,000+ in-the-door attendance every home game, not just paid attendance. Everyone in the City loved that letter. It garnered support for the franchise in a tough time, not just immediately following LeBron's departure, but 3 and 4 years later.

It may have been written out of anger... but I think he knew EXACTLY what he was doing. He know how the City would react. He wanted to help protect his investment. So yes, I think it was calculated.

[Shadojoker]

I'll say this -- the Cleveland skyline makes the Dallas skyline look iconic.

I wonder when this city will put its skyline on its court?

We already put it on our hockey jerseys a few years back...

Being a Chicago Blackhawks fan i thought this jersey was a ripoff with Portland name on it..until i saw the WHL logo. Cool idea though.

[CitizenTino]

I live in Cleveland. I'm a long-time Cavaliers fan. I really, really don't like this new floor--but I also know I'm in the minority locally.

The most frustrating thing for me is that this new Cavs floor is basically every overdone NBA design gimmick that you can cram into 94 feet:

- Cartoonishly oversized logo at midcourt

- Pointless two-tone wood to differentiate the area inside the 3-point arc

- Nondescript local skyline

It's garish and goes completely against the simple and clean design aesthetic established in 2010. This is a mess. And when I see what New Orleans rolled out this morning, it's all the more frustrating. Original, unique...THAT is how you do a bold court design right. Bravo, Pelicans.

[Derek]

Clevelander and Cavs fan here, not digging the court at all. I have the same complaints as everyone else… oversized logo, pointless skyline, etc.

[mmajeski06]

Also, Cleveland has a pretty nondescript skyline so I don't know why they chose to include it there, but skylines seem to be all the rage in the NBA these days.

There it is again... what does that even mean?

I think it means "not icononic". NYC has an iconic skyline. The Space Needle makes a skyline work for Seattle. There are few more.

So it's not "iconic".

If they want to display THEIR city's skyline on THEIR court, why is it a problem?

Oh, they can do whatever they want. It's just dumb. If your city has a bunch of buildings, roughly the same size, without a really tall one or a very uniquely shaped one, it's non-descript. I can guarantee you that 9/10 people from Cleveland would look at that skyline illustration and not know it was supposed to represent their city. It's like the Cavaliers are trying really hard to look Big City, when the actual big city teams with distinctive skylines (Knicks, Bulls) are above such things. Cleveland's not a big important city, and that's okay. They need to not act like it's one. If they have to fluff themselves, just print "At least we're not Detroit" on the baselines and be done with it.

First... how would anyone FROM Cleveland NOT know what their own skyline looks like? Unless they were blind, slow, or had an extremely short memory, I'm more than positive they would all be able to tell.

No "really tall or very uniquely shaped one", huh? I see 3 in this photo.

True story...when I moved into my apartment I got a Cleveland Skyline print from the local Bed Bath and Beyond. Cashier goes..."oooh that's a pretty skyline, what city is that?" SMH

[TheOldRoman]

What exactly was so bad about this court that they needed to get rid of it after one season?

Well, it had two-tone stain, which blows. The lighter stain was awful. It had a wood-tone OOB area to look like a rec center gym. Oh, and the logo was silly and oversized. Still, that's probably better than what they went with, seeing as they made the OOB a color which doesn't appear on the uniforms, added the dumb skyline and Cleveland wordmark, and swapped out one giant logo for a bigger, much worse one.

[29texan]

Also, Cleveland has a pretty nondescript skyline so I don't know why they chose to include it there, but skylines seem to be all the rage in the NBA these days.

There it is again... what does that even mean?

I think it means "not icononic". NYC has an iconic skyline. The Space Needle makes a skyline work for Seattle. There are few more.

So it's not "iconic".

If they want to display THEIR city's skyline on THEIR court, why is it a problem?

Oh, they can do whatever they want. It's just dumb. If your city has a bunch of buildings, roughly the same size, without a really tall one or a very uniquely shaped one, it's non-descript. I can guarantee you that 9/10 people from Cleveland would look at that skyline illustration and not know it was supposed to represent their city. It's like the Cavaliers are trying really hard to look Big City, when the actual big city teams with distinctive skylines (Knicks, Bulls) are above such things. Cleveland's not a big important city, and that's okay. They need to not act like it's one. If they have to fluff themselves, just print "At least we're not Detroit" on the baselines and be done with it.

First... how would anyone FROM Cleveland NOT know what their own skyline looks like? Unless they were blind, slow, or had an extremely short memory, I'm more than positive they would all be able to tell.

No "really tall or very uniquely shaped one", huh? I see 3 in this photo.

True story...when I moved into my apartment I got a Cleveland Skyline print from the local Bed Bath and Beyond. Cashier goes..."oooh that's a pretty skyline, what city is that?" SMH

Was the cashier from Cleveland?

[The_Admiral]

I wonder when this city will put its skyline on its court?

Is that Louisville? Louisville has a bridge. I drove on it once.

[CitizenTino]

What exactly was so bad about this court that they needed to get rid of it after one season?

Well, it had two-tone stain, which blows. The lighter stain was awful. It had a wood-tone OOB area to look like a rec center gym. Oh, and the logo was silly and oversized. Still, that's probably better than what they went with, seeing as they made the OOB a color which doesn't appear on the uniforms, added the dumb skyline and Cleveland wordmark, and swapped out one giant logo for a bigger, much worse one.

That one actually lasted two years (the first two post-LeBron years). Here's the more simplified version from the past two years:

I wasn't in love with the size of the logo at center court, but otherwise, I liked this a lot. My favorite Cavs floor ever (and there are a ton to choose from).

[29texan]

I wonder when this city will put its skyline on its court?

Is that Louisville? Louisville has a bridge. I drove on it once.

^^^ That's Portland.

This is Louisville

[NJTank]

I like the skyline

Knicks should do that, and Nets should have the Brooklyn Bridge

[TheRealPepman]

Why two-toned again?

The 'CLEVELAND' script also ruined it.

Lastly, why white baselines?

Lemme do something.

7/10.

[mmajeski06]

Also, Cleveland has a pretty nondescript skyline so I don't know why they chose to include it there, but skylines seem to be all the rage in the NBA these days.

There it is again... what does that even mean?

I think it means "not icononic". NYC has an iconic skyline. The Space Needle makes a skyline work for Seattle. There are few more.

So it's not "iconic".

If they want to display THEIR city's skyline on THEIR court, why is it a problem?

Oh, they can do whatever they want. It's just dumb. If your city has a bunch of buildings, roughly the same size, without a really tall one or a very uniquely shaped one, it's non-descript. I can guarantee you that 9/10 people from Cleveland would look at that skyline illustration and not know it was supposed to represent their city. It's like the Cavaliers are trying really hard to look Big City, when the actual big city teams with distinctive skylines (Knicks, Bulls) are above such things. Cleveland's not a big important city, and that's okay. They need to not act like it's one. If they have to fluff themselves, just print "At least we're not Detroit" on the baselines and be done with it.

First... how would anyone FROM Cleveland NOT know what their own skyline looks like? Unless they were blind, slow, or had an extremely short memory, I'm more than positive they would all be able to tell.

No "really tall or very uniquely shaped one", huh? I see 3 in this photo.

True story...when I moved into my apartment I got a Cleveland Skyline print from the local Bed Bath and Beyond. Cashier goes..."oooh that's a pretty skyline, what city is that?" SMH

Was the cashier from Cleveland?

Don't know for sure, but since the store was 15 mins from downtown I'd assume she had to have seen it.

[Sport]

I went to a wedding reception on the top floor of one of those buildings. BTW, best wedding I've ever been to, Cleveland defenders.

Still though, I couldn't pick the Cleveland skyline out of a lineup. I don't think they're doing it to market the skyline for the RNC. I think they're doing it because someone saw that skylines are trendy in the NBA now and wanted to jump on the newest fad.

If Dan Gilbert was actually involved in the design process for the new court I'd be very surprised. He probably just looked at it for a few minutes and signed off on it in between counting his moneys.

[gbasalmon]

It would be so funny if one of the skyline posters tried to be like "YOU CAN'T TELL THAT THIS IS CLEVELAND?!?!?" but had found a general "post your favorite cities" thread from city-data or one of those boards on Google Image Search and unwittingly showed us a picture of Buffalo.

Now I wish I had done that myself to see who would catch it.

I love it how Buffalo always becomes the default comeback for nondescript (INSERT HERE).

[Tribe4477]

What exactly was so bad about this court that they needed to get rid of it after one season?

The real question is what happened to this logo? They used it for one season then it disappeared, I personally like it.

[29texan]

Also, Cleveland has a pretty nondescript skyline so I don't know why they chose to include it there, but skylines seem to be all the rage in the NBA these days.

There it is again... what does that even mean?

I think it means "not icononic". NYC has an iconic skyline. The Space Needle makes a skyline work for Seattle. There are few more.

So it's not "iconic".

If they want to display THEIR city's skyline on THEIR court, why is it a problem?

Oh, they can do whatever they want. It's just dumb. If your city has a bunch of buildings, roughly the same size, without a really tall one or a very uniquely shaped one, it's non-descript. I can guarantee you that 9/10 people from Cleveland would look at that skyline illustration and not know it was supposed to represent their city. It's like the Cavaliers are trying really hard to look Big City, when the actual big city teams with distinctive skylines (Knicks, Bulls) are above such things. Cleveland's not a big important city, and that's okay. They need to not act like it's one. If they have to fluff themselves, just print "At least we're not Detroit" on the baselines and be done with it.

First... how would anyone FROM Cleveland NOT know what their own skyline looks like? Unless they were blind, slow, or had an extremely short memory, I'm more than positive they would all be able to tell.

No "really tall or very uniquely shaped one", huh? I see 3 in this photo.

True story...when I moved into my apartment I got a Cleveland Skyline print from the local Bed Bath and Beyond. Cashier goes..."oooh that's a pretty skyline, what city is that?" SMH

Was the cashier from Cleveland?

Don't know for sure, but since the store was 15 mins from downtown I'd assume she had to have seen it.

Wow...

I guess I'm just really underestimating people's ignorance or lack of awareness here.

[Lee.]

I wonder when this city will put its skyline on its court?

Is that Louisville? Louisville has a bridge. I drove on it once.

Duh, it's Cleveland

[Angels]

Chicago , do the same please, get a new court with nicer Bulls