

Normally, the fan base of a team coming off of three straight seasons in which they’ve made they Finals, are a year removed from the franchise’s first championship, and have the best basketball player on the planet would be flying high, but for fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers, the summer of 2017 has been far from enjoyable. The team failed to make any significant improvements and the two best players on the team could both be gone by the start of the 2018 season.

Kyrie Irving has requested a trade and most would assume that by the end of December, at the least, he would be on a new team — December 15 being the date players signed this summer can be traded could come into play. LeBron James will be a free agent in 2018 and there are numerous reports that have him anywhere from considering leaving Cleveland again to “100 percent” gone next summer. Irving’s situation is out of the hands of Cavs fans, but maybe, just maybe, if the Cleveland faithful show their hometown hero enough love they can remind him why he wanted to come back home in 2014.

In order to do that, Cleveland turns to its second largest natural resource (behind sadness) to help convince LeBron James to stay: Graphic T-Shirts. For those unfamiliar, Cleveland’s T-Shirt economy is a very real thing. They will make graphic tees for anything and everything, and in the city’s time of need regarding their star player, the folks at 7th Floor Clothing will try to appeal to his deep Northeast Ohio roots with some words printed on cotton.



So this is already happening in Akron pic.twitter.com/f5ekd5bsI6 — Ben Axelrod (@BenAxelrod) August 19, 2017

The really nice touch is the options Cavs fans have with hat styles, from the flat brim to the dad hat, anyone can plead with LeBron in their own fashion. All jokes aside, it’s not a bad idea for Cavs fans to try their best to make sure LeBron feels appreciated for everything he’s done for that franchise. He’s as beloved a figure as Cleveland has ever had, and he delivered on the impossible in bringing the city a championship and ending their title drought.

Sometime shortly after July 1, 2018, we’ll know whether James will be staying home or making his way elsewhere. If he stays, the hats and shirts will be justified, and if not, they will almost assuredly become kindling for some trash can fires.