Many fans can admit they spent their entire summer in 2014 watching 50 different versions of Lebron James Coming Home Montages. The King was back, and they loved him again. It was a rough break-up that you pretend never happened, but you ended up stronger for enduring the pain.

What sports fans are always afraid to admit is how much sports mean to us. We can’t tell you why watching grown men tackle each other or hit a ball with a bat or throw a basketball into a hoop matters so much to us when we contribute nothing to the outcome. This is a paradox non-sports fans will never understand. Our weeks can be made and determined by wins and losses. That morning coffee the next day tastes a lot better when your team wins. The traffic sucks a little less when your team won. You’re less irritable throughout your day when your team wins.

We use our favorite teams as pillars of strength and tools of optimism in our own lives. Sports bond our families, our friends, they give people a common talking point. When our lives are rough or we’re going through a tough stretch, we rely on sports to give us, at least temporarily, an escape to a happy place. The thought is “If my team can win a championship for my city, then nothing is impossible in my own life.” Winning a title is something a fanbase never forgets. It’s a treasured moment you’ll pass down for generations to come.

These Cleveland Cavaliers are a more complete team than the first time Lebron James was in the NBA Finals with them. He has the players around him to help them succeed. But this is still about Lebron James putting his kingdom on his back and trying to take Cleveland to the promised land. Optimism couldn’t be higher for the Cavaliers fans, even as a perceived underdog to Golden State. Even while under-manned in the playoffs, they have looked great to this point.

While a defeat in the NBA Finals isn’t the end, it would be another what-if scenario for Cleveland fans to talk to their friends and family and social media about. This season’s MVP may play for the Warriors, but the best basketball player in the world still wears a Cleveland Cavaliers jersey. It’s time for the King to change the look and perception of his region.

So yes, this more than just an NBA Finals series for Cleveland. It’s more than any fan will want to admit, just in case failure is coming again.