COMO Finals: Cleveland Outlaws climb the mountain, outlast Chaska Moose for first championship5/7/2021 Reprinted with permission from the May 7, 2021 edition of The Plain Dealer. CLEVELAND — Less than two years ago, the Cleveland Outlaws were a moribund, small-town franchise located in the foothills of the western United States. Then known as the Colorado Hilltoppers, the franchise had failed to make the playoffs in all five seasons of its existence. The owner abandoned ship late in the offseason. And the league needed a fix, fast. By some stroke of fate, a two-man group—who had no clue there was an opening—faxed the league office indicating interest in owning a team, should such an opportunity arise. Within hours of the original owner's departure, Nate Atkins and Wade Rupard took control of the organization. They soon moved to Atkins' hometown region and rebranded as the Cleveland Outlaws. In Year 1, they smashed expectations and finished 43-39 to earn the team's first-ever playoff berth. This year, they beat up an extremely competitive conference to earn the Empire's No. 1 seed. Thursday night, they clinched the league championship on their home floor. "It’s crazy to have turned the franchise around as quickly as we did," Rupard said. "But we were built for this. We’re building a dynasty here in Cleveland. This won’t be the first banner we hang." Indeed, the Outlaws have a few stars under contract for next season. COMO Finals MVP Kyrie Irving (who clinched the series with a 46.00 average in Game 4), Jimmy Butler and Clint Capela all have multi-year deals, while a group of younger players—including late-season surprises Jae'Sean Tate and Moses Brown—figure to extend their stays. The front office swung pre-draft deals for Damian Lillard (Kansas City) and Donovan Mitchell (Memphis), then added Butler from Scranton in February. They completely mortaged their draft future, but that's unlikely to affect them much over the next couple seasons. Atkins pointed out that the team got sufficient bulletin-board material in January from Minnesnowta Chill GM Matthew Taylor, who insinuated that the Outlaws had built their team without much of a plan. "Ever since a rival Empire GM said we had poor roster construction, we took it upon ourselves to build the most complete team possible," Atkins said. "Thank you to Matthew Taylor for inspiring the trade for Jimmy Butler, who became a horse for another Finals run." Butler was one of three Outlaws to make the All-COMO Playoffs team (Irving and Capela were the others). They needed every last ounce of help to squeak by Cream City in the semifinals—league miscommunication on a Bricks substitute extended the series and caused no small amount of controversy in the Rust Belt—and then put a halt to Chaska's momentum when it mattered most. In signature fashion, the post-game celebration was soaked in vitriol. "We know the league will never vote for us for executives of the year or for any of our players to be first-team All-COMO," Atkins said. "We’ll have wins changed to losses after the fact and our rule-change proposals denied, but we will always persevere because that’s what Cleveland does. It’s a city of champions." On the other side of the scoreboard, Chaska was a particularly despondent runner-up. The Moose are now 0-4 all-time in the Finals, including the past two. Their roster is set for a near-complete implosion this offseason, and they've traded away their next two first-round picks. However, they do have an amazing silver lining to build around: second-year star Zion Williamson averaged 30.68 bones over 19 playoff appearances to earn a spot on the All-COMO Playoffs squad. Speaking of which, here's the 2021 team: 2021 All-COMO Playoffs selections
List of COMO Finals MVPs
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The executives have voted, and three players are unanimous All-COMO 1st Team selections this year: Shorewood's Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Kansas City's Luka Doncic. |
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