How the Cavaliers Junkyard Dog Chain came to embody their mentality ·

09 Jun 2024, 00:00

J.B. Bickerstaff had a surprise after the Cavaliers’ first playoff win.

As the head coach opened the lid to a black case Tuesday, a chorus of “oohs” echoed through the Cavaliers’ home locker room. Bickerstaff asked his team who won the last Junkyard Dog Chain during the regular season, and Isaiah Mobley stood up from his locker to walk over to Bickerstaff.

Then Bickerstaff announced Darius Garland’s name, and the cheers, sounds of barking and clapping resounded through the locker room. Garland stood up from his locker and walked toward Mobley, who placed the chain around his neck.

pic.twitter.com/Y9Ov9WhcmD

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) April 19, 2023

This chain has a different look from the regular-season version. But the message behind it remains the same. It goes to a player and sometimes, coach, who exemplifies the scrap mentality and intensity of each game the Cavs win. Its origin goes back to last season, when the Cavs were still in the middle of their rebuild.

Lamar Stevens has a friendship bracelet he was gifted this season that reads “The Dawg;” that’s his nickname for a reason.

Entering the 2021-22 campaign, the Cavs had won 19 and 22 games, respectively, in the previous two seasons. They had drafted Evan Mobley with the third pick in the 2021 NBA Draft and acquired Lauri Markkanen in a three-team deal with Chicago and Portland in the offseason. Those two joined Jarrett Allen as starters to form a lengthy, three-big lineup.

But many of the Cavs felt like they were still viewed as underdogs.

“I felt like around the league, we just didn’t have that respect,” Stevens told The Athletic.

That underdog mentality translated to Stevens beginning to bark on the sidelines at games and at practices. It caught on with the rest of the team, and they would soon join in, barking on the court or in the locker room together after certain victories. They used the feeling of being seen as an underdog as motivation. So was born this idea of the junkyard dog among the Cavs.

That season, the Cavs took the league by surprise. They doubled their win total from the previous season, winning 44 total games and making it to the Play-In Tournament.

“Just wanting to prove something every single night, that it’s not the same Cleveland team that you’re going to see,” Stevens said. “So we really took pride in that and just coming together and really just showing the league, if you come in here and you are asleep, we’re going to blow you out by like 20. It really just made us a tighter group and gave us an identity that we know that we’re going to keep that feeling, that hunger to prove ourselves every opportunity we get.”

When Bickerstaff took over as interim head coach in early 2020, he began to instill a defense-first approach. The 2019-20 season was eventually cut short, but the players gravitated toward that idea. That approach, combined with that underdog mentality, has shifted the culture in Cleveland. Bickerstaff wanted to find a way to celebrate this, to honor his team’s commitment to doing the little things that have taken them to the next level.

Early in the 2021-22 season, Mark “Cobra” Cashman — the Cavs’ director of team operations — reached out to Shelly Cayette-Weston, the executive vice president and chief commercial officer of the Cavaliers, about potential corporate partnerships for the Cavs’ idea. This led to a discussion about a potential collaboration with the jewelry brand Jared and The Jared Foundry — the company’s custom design studio.

Then began the design process of creating what would become the initial Junkyard Dog Chain. The Cavs had seen other examples of chains in college football, such as the University of Miami’s turnover chain. That served as a point of reference when imagining the concept.

The initial chain is made up of 14k yellow gold and 1,702 natural garnets. On the back, the pendant is etched with elements specific to Cleveland and the Cavs, such as the ‘216’ area code, the JYD (Junkyard Dog) acronym, Cavaliers logos throughout franchise history, the phrase “Let ’em know,” 2016 champs, as well as their five core values: details, toughness, together, compete and 1 more.

“It was a combination of things where we wanted to make sure that the Cavaliers logo was a central focus of the piece,” Bickerstaff told The Athletic. “But we also wanted to make sure that the symbolism behind it was included. And that’s how, like on the back side of it, those different pieces that are a part of it, were all things that the guys believed in and bought in, and we valued and thought were important. And so we found a way to kind of mesh it and put it all together.”

After the piece was completed, Dan Hines, the marketing executive for Signet Jewelers, personally delivered the chain to Bickerstaff and the Cavs last season.

“It was amazing,” Hines said. “I mean, the excitement. And it was just when vision meets reality. What was even more fun to watch is the first time it was awarded was no less fun than every other time after that, just to watch how the players and the culture rallied around it. I mean, it’s a great sense of pride to be able to create something that has that much impact.”

“It’s beautiful, first of all,” Bickerstaff said of when he first saw the finished product. “I mean, the time, the effort, the quality of the work, the design of it, like, I thought it was flawless.”

It was a surprise for the players, who did not know of the chain’s creation. However, its unveiling served as a reward for the team buying into their identity. It was a way to highlight doing the small things on the floor and finding a way to impact winning — being active, diving after loose balls, locking down your man, getting steals or blocks, and playing with a high level of tenacity.

“And we weren’t a team that we thought was going to win pretty,” Bickerstaff said. “We were a team that within themselves, we talked about the grit, toughness, the physicality, and they became the junkyard dog.”

Isaac Okoro was the chain’s first recipient in 2022 following a February win over the Washington Wizards. Stevens earned the chain for the first time on March 8, 2022, after a win over the Indiana Pacers on the road. And it has cycled through the team since.

“I thought it was really dope,” Stevens said. “I thought it was a really good and creative idea for us to just have another way to just focus on winning and making winning plays. And so I thought that was really cool because, what’s always highlighted is who scores the most or stuff like that. But this award is a little bit different. And it allows you to still have that spotlight because you impacted winning; even if it wasn’t scoring, maybe just by doing all the little things, which is just as important for a successful team to have guys that can do a bunch of different things.

“So it was just something that we really embraced and took pride in. And guys really go out and aim to get the chain. So I think that is kind of instilled like a mentality for guys to play the right way and actually get rewarded for it.”

There’s some new ice in the locker room 🥶

Only right that @isaacokoro303 was the first recipient of our new Junkyard Dog chain from @ThatsJared! #LetEmKnow pic.twitter.com/w1N1UYClx5

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) February 27, 2022

Its sentiment didn’t end after the 2021-22 season, though. After the Cavs saw their season cut shorter than most wanted, they carried a hunger and added level of motivation into the offseason. Many players put in countless hours of individual work to improve their game or conditioning. Then, the Cavs made a blockbuster trade for Donovan Mitchell in September to add another All-Star to their roster.

As they propelled themselves into the conversation at the top of the Eastern Conference, the Cavs kept their defense-first mentality, focusing on how to impact winning through those small factors. They had the best defensive rating in the league in the regular season. They took pride in their ability to get stops, contest shots, protect the paint and the rim and fought to hold that status as the top defense in the league.

All throughout the season, the pendant was been awarded to a player after a win who displayed those qualities of the scrappiness and intensity throughout the game. As he did Tuesday night, Bickerstaff gathers the team following a win in the locker room and calls up the former recipient of the chain. Then, he announces the newest recipient, and the rest of the team erupts in cheers and applause for their teammate, and the chain is placed around the recipient’s neck. As a group, they pose for a team picture with the winner surrounded by his teammates.

The chain isn’t just awarded after home wins, though. It’s also traveled on the road, from Orlando and New York to Portland and Phoenix. Bickerstaff himself was even presented the chain by his team following their win over the Lakers in November.

.@cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff receives the Junkyard Dog chain after their big win in LA ‼️pic.twitter.com/4fJfWX5eFd

— NBA (@NBA) November 7, 2022

The chain is stored in a black case — similar to the one Bickerstaff opened for the first time this postseason Tuesday night — filled with padding in the shape of the ‘C’ pendant. Outside of the locker room, that case — and the chain — are under the supervision of “Cobra.”

“(He) handles all matters of seriousness,” Bickerstaff said. “Like he’s in charge of it. He carries it with him. He never lets it out of his sight.”

Stevens said they don’t track how many times each has earned the honor. Rather, they celebrate the guy who won it that night, more so than if they won it themselves.

“That just comes down to just the group of guys we have,” Stevens said. “We want to see each other succeed. And … it’s not always about who puts up the most points and stuff like that, and we know how important everybody in our locker room is. And how important those little things are to contribute to winning. So I think we just like to celebrate each other. And we all want to win. We’re all pulling in the same direction. So it’s fun when you win, and it’s fun when you get to celebrate each other and lift each other up in those opportunities.”

The Junkyard Dog Chain hasn’t just taken over the Cavs’ locker room. It’s encapsulated the Cavaliers as an organization and its fan base. Different departments among the business side of the Cavs have made their own versions — though not as flashy, of course. They will recognize the sales member of the week or of a campaign and be represented as a “junkyard dog.”

Fans first caught on to the barking last season and joined in at home games. This season, fans of all ages walk around the concourse at home games wearing their own versions of the chain or discussing who won the chain after a particular game. Cavs social media posts displaying the latest recipient of the chain on a particular night are some of their highest-engagement posts throughout the season. Fans have been tuning in to watch the media broadcast and postgame interviews to catch a glimpse of interviews to see who has the hardware.

Even Jared was recognized by Fashion Group International as a 2023 Rising Star Finalist in the collaborations category for the work on the original junkyard dog chain.

“Every organization is looking for that concept,” Cayette-Weston said. “J.B. just happened to find it in this chain and what it represents, but it’s a culture. It’s creating a culture of motivation and just camaraderie. And I think what he’s done in creating that culture for winning success is really emulated to other areas of the business and teams as well.”

As the 2022-23 season continued and the reality of a playoff run looked feasible, all involved began the conversations about creating the playoff version.

The Cavs are in the postseason for the first time since 2018 and the first time without LeBron James on the roster since 1998. It’s a new chapter in franchise history, and the playoffs are another level of NBA basketball. So naturally, a new piece of postgame jewelry is here to commemorate the moment.

“And so now it was just understanding what does he want to get across for the second version,” Cayette-Weston said. “You talk about closing one door, opening another, and what he wants that to feel like, what he wants it to represent when they put it on, and how it would feel different than the first one. And so he had brought all those things to the table, and then they were able to provide him some concepts in which they chose the winner.”

The playoff chain arrived at the Cavs days before Game 1 of the first round against the Knicks. But it wasn’t unveiled until the first win, which the Cavs claimed in Game 2 on Tuesday to tie the series 1-1, led by the efforts of Garland. On this night, each seat in Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse donned a white T-shirt with imagery of the Cavaliers’ ‘C’ and a chain — a tribute to the original Junkyard Dog Chain. Hours later, the newest version was revealed in the confines of Cleveland’s locker room.

“It was kind of the evolution of (the chain). And each chapter is kind of a new chapter and closing the door on one and moving into a new one,” Bickerstaff told The Athletic. “That was kind of the thought behind it.”

It was yet another surprise for the players.

The inner circumference of this new chain is over 35 inches, and the chain’s main frame is a foot wide and 7 1/2 inches tall. The chain also features 37 links, each 40.5 mm long and 22 mm tall.

The Junkyard Dog Chain Digital Collectible is available now.

Co-created & designed by The Foundry at Jared, the physical Playoff Junkyard Dog Chain is made up of 212 lab grown diamonds tallying more than 15 carats of total weight, 398 garnet gemstones, and 24 karat gold plating. pic.twitter.com/Bjm6ZZcgcu

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) April 19, 2023

The chain spells out CAVS, with the “V” designed as a basketball net and a ball positioned on top — modeling one of the new secondary logo designs the Cavs introduced in 2022 as part of their refreshed brand identity. This secondary logo with the “V” net is in homage to the Cavs’ 1980s era and an in-line detail reminiscent of the ’90s Cavs logo.

On the back of the chain, it says “Junkyard Dog Chain” in a scripted font.

As the Cavs continue through the playoffs, this chain will be rewarded in a similar fashion as the first. They hope Tuesday’s locker-room ceremony was the first of many to come over the next couple of months.

“It just allows us to really focus in on Cleveland Cavaliers basketball,” Stevens said of the Junkyard Dog Chain. “And I think it’s gonna be good for us in the future as well to just have that and have something for guys to strive to and focus on. And it might not be your night scoring, but if you can impact the game in a lot of different ways. And I think that’s really important, too, because you can’t always control if you miss shots, but you can control everything else.”

How the Cavaliers Junkyard Dog Chain came to embody their mentality

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