Cleveland becomes the first team to come back from a 3-1 series deficit to win the NBA Finals, thanks largely to the superhuman effort from LeBron James who had a triple-double in the game 7.
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With their season on the line, the highest-octane offense in recent National Basketball Association history went scoreless for the final 4:39.
There had been so many close calls in between, so much heartache, so much torture. To do it in Cleveland, to do it by beating the all-time great Warriors, to do it in a league in which so few franchises win championships, James has rewritten the first paragraph of his legacy. “We’re champions and our whole team is etched in history”.
The City of Cleveland and the Cleveland Cavaliers have also scheduled the 2016 Cavaliers NBA Championship Parade and Rally for this Wednesday, June 22 in downtown Cleveland. The Warriors also lost their seven-foot centre Andrew Bogut for the rest of the Finals to a knee injury. The Thunder had the Warriors on the ropes as they led the series 3-1, but the Warriors bounced back with three wins on the spin to schedule a repeat of the 2015 NBA Finals.
The chasedown block is, arguably, the signature play of James’ career.
James was overcome by emotion after the final horn.
It was a tough game for us with the circumstances, and I thought they had two guys who played epic games, Kyrie and LeBron. He was unanimously named MVP of the National Basketball Association finals. “You could look back to the Earnest Byner fumble, [John] Elway going 99 yards, to Jose Mesa not being able to close out in the bottom of the ninth to the Cavs went to The Finals – I was on that team – in 2007, getting swept, and then a year ago us losing, 4-2”.
Green had 32 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists, but the Warriors’ record-setting season ended without the only prize this close-knit “Strength In Numbers” crew cared about from way back in the beginning – through the record 24-0 start as Coach of the Year Steve Kerr was out, Curry’s second consecutive MVP campaign, and the 73 regular-season wins to break the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls’ mark. “He could have stayed in Miami or gone other places”. Neither team led by more than eight. None of the Warriors came up with the kind of consistent performances in the playoffs that are needed to win championships. Cleveland is a victor.
James was fouled soon after and went to the free-throw line with 10 seconds remaining in the game. “I think every possession matters”. “I can’t wait to get off that plane, hold that trophy up and see all our fans”, he said after the game. “I’m coming home with what I said I was gonna do”.
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As James spoke, his three children sat with him. They have only begun to hear about what a great thing their father has done.
