Banishment.
Wearing stinky clothes.
And even booze.
It seems Cavaliers fans are going to superstitious extremes to bring a national championship back to Northeast Ohio after a 52-year absence.
We asked Beacon Journal readers and followers on Ohio.com to share their Cavs game-day rituals and the comments came in via social media faster than a LeBron James dunk on Stephen Curry.
Bath Township resident Rebecca Heim Sovchik thinks the Cavs can win only if she downs a shot of cinnamon whiskey at the precise time the ref is tossing the ball for the tip-off.
“And OT if it happens,” she says.
Because there’s no jump ball to start the second half, she times that shot to coincide with the ball being inbounded — “right at the start, before the ball is touched and the clock starts. The ball has to be in motion when I shoot the Fireball.”
West Akron’s Kellie Gilbert makes her husband Dan Gilbert (no not that one) go to another room to watch the game.
Kellie says “you do what is necessary” and the Cavs seem to play better when they are not in the same room.
Jackson Township’s Pam Gross Dieffenbaugher said she almost blew Game 6 when she switched from her usual perch on the couch to the floor to play with an attention-starved cat.
“The lead slipped down to something like seven,” she explained. “You KNOW I got back on that couch ASAP and didn’t move a muscle the rest of the game (except some minor nail chewing)!!”
Dieffenbaugher’s cat is on its own for Game 7 as she doesn’t plan to stray from the couch.
Game-day rituals
Akron attorney Jessica Forrest proudly points out that she graduated the same year as LeBron James — she from Our Lady of the Elms and the NBA star from just down the street at St. Vincent-St. Mary.
Forrest’s love for the Cavs runs about as deep as her game-day rituals.
She won’t mention a Cavs player by name during a game and will only use their nicknames.
A reformed nail biter, she switched from wine-and-gold manicured nails to the old-school Cavs colors blue and orange when things started looking bleak in the NBA Finals.
Before every game, she chants “I Believeland. Come on Cleveland.”
She even has created a Cavs-inspired shrine in the fireplace of her historic home in Akron’s Highland Square.
“I watch the games sometimes hiding my eyes behind my hands like a scary movie,” Forrest said. “But I Believeland. I really do.”
Katie Carver Reed said her husband, Kurt, has resorted to putting his hair in the “Iman Shumpert man bun.”
The move hasn’t helped Shumpert find his groove just yet, but the questionable hairstyle has the Cavs on the brink of the impossible.
Can’t bear to watch
Janet Morrison said she is a living and breathing Cavs jinx, so she goes off and hides during the games.
“I don’t watch the game live. [I] check after the game, [to] see the winners and any highlights.”
The key to a win may lie in the shirt you wear, so Karen Jones has to wrack her brain to remember which of her many Cavs shirts she wore on winning game days.
Maxine Bates, a self-described longtime Browns season-ticket holder, said the memories of “The Drive” and “The Fumble” still sting, so she won’t watch or listen to the game.
Social media ban
“I won’t look at social media until the next day,” she said. “I did the same thing for the Ohio State University National Championship game — but [I] did get to see the trophy presentation.”
And she’s not alone.
“If you are me, you don’t watch the actual game till the end if the Cavs are winning,” said Brian Hemmis. “I’m afraid of jinxing them. I do monitor the scores online though.”
Wrestling with it
Another lonely watcher — for a more stinky reason — is Johnny Gargano, a WWE NXT wrestler who grew up in Cleveland.
His game-day ritual started after Game 3 of the Finals when the Cavs clobbered the Warriors.
Gargano was in Orlando and was wearing a gray CLE Cavs shirt that his parents gave him for Christmas a couple of years back.
He had worn all his clean shirts so he slipped on the same Cavs shirt for the flight back to Cleveland — the same day Draymond Green was suspended
The shirt, Gargano suspected, was lucky.
He wore it again — unwashed — the next day for Game 5 and the Cavs again clobbered the Warriors.
Gargano was now fully convinced the unwashed shirt was lucky. Before Thursday’s game, he tweeted: “Stinky unwashed T-Shirt has been activated. Let’s go.”
The Cavs’ win clinched it.
Gargano’s lucky shirt doesn’t get a bath until after Game 7 on Sunday.
“It doesn’t smell TOO bad,” he said during an interview via Twitter. “I’ve dressed it up with various colognes and body sprays … does that make it better or worse? I’m not too sure! Hahaha.”
Craig Webb can be reached at 330-996-3547 or cwebb@thebeaconjournal.com. Bob Dyer and Amanda Garrett contributed to this article.