30 luckiest sports franchises

23. Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cleveland Cavaliers weren’t lucky in landing LeBron James when they drafted him in 2003, as they truly earned him with how bad they were before they got him. However, they got incredibly lucky with their recent stretch with The King, and fans may not even truly think about it that much.

James was meant to be with the Cavaliers with his first run with the team, and brought them some success in the first half of his career with an NBA Finals appearance and plenty of trips to the Eastern Conference Finals. However, they hit a rough patch when he left for the Miami Heat, and they reverted back to their poor play that they displayed before James’ arrival.

With plenty of consecutive number one picks coming from that, drafting Kyrie Irving was half earning it with their bad play, and half complete luck, with just a 2.8 percent chance of landing the top pick that year. What was even luckier than that, possibly, was the return of James to their roster in 2014, which wasn’t earned and certainly wasn’t deserved after how the city and team treated The King after he left his kingdom.

Between Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert’s letter about James’ departure to the Heat, the city burning James jerseys left and right and plenty of other negative comments from fans along the way, it looked like a completely hostile environment that James would (and should) never come back to. However, they lucked out when James took the high road and decided to return home to finish the job he originally started before heading to the Heat.

The Cavaliers didn’t deserve James’ return, and lucked out in having him return, and having Irving for James to come play with in the process. The Cavs then turned Andrew Wiggins (who they drafted with a 1.7 percent chance at the top pick in 2014) into Kevin Love in a trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves, and turned all of that into three straight Finals appearances and the team’s first title.