CLEVELAND -- Driving through downtown -- and past the famous LeBron James billboard -- on Sunday morning, something struck me about Cleveland's place in the basketball universe.
Despite the unprecedented roster in Golden State, record-setting offense in Houston, youth in Philadelphia and hopefulness in Toronto, all eyes in the NBA are still very much on Cleveland.
It likely won't be that way for long.
Between James' impending free agency -- which has hovered over the Cavs all season -- and his age (he'll be 34 next December), Cleveland is likely closer to the end of its time in basketball's limelight than it is to the start of it. Even if James re-signs this summer, the Cavs' Eastern Conference supremacy remains in question, with Philadelphia and Boston laying claim to two of the league's top up-and-coming teams.
But not yet.
Even as they enter the NBA Playoffs as the No. 4 seed, the Cavs, for the fourth straight postseason, are the betting favorites in the East. For Cleveland basketball, its the continuation of an already unprecedented run, which has already produced three NBA Finals appearances, one world championship and arguably three of the five best players -- James, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving -- in franchise history.
Even with Irving now a Celtic, the Cavs are very much a super team, if for no reason other than the presence of James, who somehow remains at the peak of his powers. It's not just that we may never see anything like this happen again in Cleveland -- it's that it likely won't. Even if the league ever producers a player like James again -- an unlikelihood in and of itself -- what are the odds that he'll also play for the Cavs? Ask Chicago Bulls fans how easy it is the replicate this kind of greatness.
Or even ask Heat fans, who enjoyed four years of James' prime, only to see a bomb go off inside their franchise when he left to return for Cleveland in 2014. If Miami, which was left with two superstars in Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, is still struggling to regain relevancy what will the Cavs look like should the unspeakable happen this summer.
But rather than worry about that and what we as fans and observers of the team can't control, my advice is this: Embrace it. And more importantly, savor it.
Savor the butterflies in your stomach that come along with those too-close-for-comfort fourth quarters. Soak in the anxiety that comes on the eve of a big game.
Appreciate the exhilaration that accompanies the late game-winners. And even take note of the pit in your stomach following the disappointment of defeat.
And if we get to celebrate another championship along the way, so be it.
The thrill of the NBA Playoffs -- especially for a team like the Cavs expected to be a part of them for the better part of the next two months -- is nearly impossible to put into words. Ironically, the best I've seen is from a Dan Le Batard Miami Herald column from the Heat's championship run in 2013.
Ever since James returned to Cleveland, I've done my best to remind myself of it.
"This feels awful. This feels wonderful. Wonder-awful? Never mind finding this anywhere else in entertainment. There isn’t very much in life that feels quite like this yo-yoing of feelings from day to day, not unless you are in a passionate relationship with a crazy person, and you swing wildly from the fights to the making up," Le Batard wrote. "It is hard to live here, in the extremes, for extended periods. It is exhausting, no matter the result you get. You can’t sleep because you are wired from a triumph. You can’t sleep because you toss and turn with haunting after a loss. Your work suffers. You suffer. Isn’t it great?"
Indeed, it is. And as Le Batard learned a year later, it also rarely lasts long.
Welcoming the Indiana Pacers for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, the Cavs will begin their latest playoff journey.
Who knows when -- or if -- another one like it will ever come.
