Jarrett Allen says Cleveland is special: ‘You could be 0-15, and people are still going to show up’

The Cleveland Cavaliers have experienced plenty of ups and downs during big man Jarrett Allen’s stint with the team.

In his first season in Cleveland, the 2020-21 campaign, the Cavaliers were one of the worst teams in the league. Allen came over in a midseason trade and was part of a Cavs team that finished 22-50. But fast forward to the current day, and Cleveland is on top of the NBA world. If it weren’t for a three-point loss to the defending champion Boston Celtics earlier in the week, the Cavaliers would still be undefeated on the season.

Allen spoke highly of the support that the city of Cleveland has for its sports teams. He said that even if the Cavaliers were on the other side of the coin and had yet to pick up a win since the start of the season, fans of the team would still attend the games and cheer on the squad.

“The thing about Cleveland is, and I’m not even trying to hype it up just because I live there, it’s genuinely such a nice city with great people who, like you said, truly love sports,” Allen said. “You could be 0-15, and people are still going to show up and sell out games for anybody. It’s just that kind of pride and loyalty. There’s something special about certain Midwest sports cities. They’re just so prideful about their teams. Cleveland has that energy — people are all in.”

Folks have shown up to root for the Cavaliers in droves so far this season. A total of 174,888 fans have packed Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse across Cleveland’s nine home games to this point.

The Cavaliers are averaging 19,432 fans per home game, which ranks as the seventh-most of any team in the NBA. The Chicago Bulls hold the top spot in that regard with an average of 20,067 folks attending each home contest.

Allen has given fans in attendance at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse plenty to cheer about in his fifth season as a Cavalier. He has played in every one of Cleveland’s nine home games at this juncture and has averaged 14.6 points, 11.7 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.2 blocks and 1.0 steal per contest in those outings. The Cavs, who are 16-1 overall, have gone 9-0 at home.

While it’s arguable whether the Cavaliers are the team to beat in the Eastern Conference following their loss to the Celtics, Cleveland has built a bit of a cushion for itself atop the standings thanks to its historic start to the season. The Celtics are the No. 2 seed in the conference, and they’re three games back of the Cavaliers.

Outside of Boston, no team in the conference is fewer than six games behind Cleveland in the standings.