Brett Tomko, the father of basketball player Jerry Tomko. The Cavs saw some hard times during the beginning of their NBA career but the coming seasons held much promise for the young team. With the additions of Bingo Smith, Jim Chones, Jim Cleamons and Dick Snyder throughout the seasons, the team saw greater successes and eventually moved into the brand new Richfield Coliseum where they had a great first season in on their new home court, finishing with a 40-42 record.

In the 1975-76, Nate Thurmond was acquired to the Cavs and head coach Bill Fitch led the team to a 49-33 record and the division title. During this season, Fitch received the Coach of the Year award for the Cavs league and he took the team to their first ever playoff appearance. Fitch resigned as head coach in 1979 and Stan Albeck took his position. In 1980, the team was sold to Ted Stepien who took part in some questionable trades and led to the creation of the "Ted Stepien Rule" in the NBA which prohibits teams from trading away first-round draft picks in consecutive years. Stepien was definitely not a favorite of fans or players as he proposed a renaming of the team to the "Ohio Cavaliers" and the introduction of a fight song reminiscent to a polka, he was generally scoffed at by both fans and media alike. Stepien was bought out by brothers George and Gordon Gund in the mid 1980s and success quickly returned to the team.

In 1985 under the coaching of George Karl, the Cavs returned to the playoffs and the team was stocked with many great players such as World B. Free, Roy Hinson and John Bagley. The team saw a major overhaul during this era just before the 1990s when the Cavs acquired Brad Daugherty, Mark Price, Ron Harper and Larry Nance who were core members of the team and helped lead Cleveland to eight playoff seasons in the next nine years and also three 50+ win seasons. After seeing such awesome successes including a crazy play between Craig Ehlo and Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bucks at a playoff game in 1989, the Cavs went through a period of darkness until 2003 when basketball virtuoso LeBron James joined the team.

The Cavs hit a lucky break after a rough 2002-03 season and they landed the number one draft pick for the NBA Lottery, taking home LeBron James. After picking up James the teams colors were changed from orange, black and blue back to their original wine and gold colors and the addition of navy blue and a great new primary logo. In his first year with the team, James won NBA Rookie of the Year Award and offered the team and fans great hope for the future. In 2005-06, he just continued to get better and upped his productivity in terms of points, rebounds and assists per game. In 2006-07, the team earned the second seed in the Eastern Conference with an excellent 50-32 record, creating a series of favorable matchups throughout the playoffs. The Cavs swept this series 4-0. After making it to the NBA Finals for the first time, the Cavs' trip was cut short with a sweeping loss to the San Antonio Spurs. During the 2007-08 season, Cleveland kept a low profile with many injuries that forced changes in the roster but the team still finished 45-37 but lost in the second round of the playoffs. The Cavs kept their chins held high and in the following season saw great progress when they finished with an astounding record of 66-16, the highest amount of wins in one season throughout franchise history.