Tuesday, March 19

Cleveland Cavaliers honor World B. Free, Lenny Wilkens, Gordon Gund


CLEVELAND — Three men responsible for helping save the Cavaliers franchise — known at the “Cleveland Cadavers,” as former point guard Lenny Wilkens remembered when he was traded here in 1972 — were among four who joined its Wall of Honor Saturday.

World B. Free, Campy Russell, Hall of Famer Wilkens and former principal owner and chairman Gordon Gund were feted during a ceremony preceding the Cavs game against the Chicago Bulls at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

They received newly-designed rings, as did previous wall honorees, from President of Basketball Operations Koby Altman and were celebrated with individual highlight videos.

Free played for the Cavs from 1982-86, owns the second-highest scoring average (23.0) in Cavs history, and led the Cavs to the 1985 playoffs after a seven-year absence.

In introducing Free, Gund recalled when he took over the team in May 1983, when many feared the Cavs would move.

Former Cavaliers guard World B. Free, right, shakes hands with former Cavs owner Gordon Gund during the Wall of Honor ceremony at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Saturday in Cleveland. [Jeff Lange/Beacon Journal]

“The team, other than having World on it, was in a shambles,” Gund said. “The franchise was at a very low point and there were no first-round picks in ’83, ’84, ’85 and ’86 because they’d all been traded away. We knew we had a huge job ahead of us. We needed to do more and we needed to do more right away, and that happened to be Mr. World B. Free.




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