LeBron James and Kyrie Irving helped end Cleveland’s 52-year championship drought with a win over the defending-champion Golden State Warriors in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals.
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The bottom line is LeBron James has the championship now.
One of the city’s leading civic figures says the significance of the Cavs’ win Sunday night against the Golden State Warriors stretches beyond the realm of sports.
Cleveland’s furry mascot, Moondog, body surfed on the massive crowd, which continued to grow up until the moment the Cavaliers’ 757 jet pulled in about 12:40 p.m., welcomed under two crisscrossing water cannons.
It wasn’t just Internet trolls that James seemed to draw inspiration from.
“BELIEVE IT!” screamed the front-page headline of The Plain Dealer newspaper in Cleveland on Monday above a full-page photo of a teary-eyed James holding the NBA’s championship trophy.
“This is for you, Cleveland”, James shouted into a microphone. “But the reason why he deserves this is because he has a great heart… and great things happen to great people”. He broke down crying several times, overwhelmed by the magnitude of what he had accomplished and what he knew it meant to Northeast Ohio.
“We were able to put together some spectacular games down 3-1”, a tearful James said moments after the victory. “So that was a little icing on the cake for myself to just let me know that everything I’ve done, it results in this”. The Warriors had not lost three games in a row since 2013. Now, I can hear the howls of outrage and blasphemy from this side of the keyboard but West himself has said he’s totally okay with another player becoming the logo. “I was willing to make a friendly bet with anyone that the Cavs were going to win”.
Scott Scheel said he’s still reeling from the final minutes of the game and said the Cavs beat all odds to clinch the championship. He also led a team to a road victory in Game 7 of the NBA Finals (something that hadn’t been done since 1978) and led his team to a finals victory after trailing 3-1, something that had never been done. He led every player in this series in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks.
When the door to the plane opened and players started filing out, British rock band Queen’s iconic anthem “We Are the Champions” blared through the speakers.
I remember when this banner was taken down back when LeBron left to Miami.
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“That championship wasn’t just for us”.
