CommentarySports

Twitter captured the magnificence of the NBA Final perfectly

Photo of Cameron Lewis Cameron Lewis Photo of Richard Catangay-Liew Richard Catangay-LiewJune 20, 2016
5 minutes read
Supplied

He finally did it.

13 lucky years ago, the Cleveland Cavaliers were blessed to land the most important draft pick in franchise — and northeastern Ohio — history. The local 18-year-old rookie phenom out of St. Vincent–St. Mary was the deemed the Saviour, the Messiah. The King. This generation’s greatest NBA player was shouldered with lifting the decades-long curse which kept all of Cleveland’s major professional sports teams from winning any championships.

With an NBA Finals Game 7 triple double of 27 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists in 47 minutes, LeBron James finally did it — and he did it all.

And we do stress “finally.” Here’s NFL Red Zone’s Andrew Siciliano for some context on exactly how long it’s been.

Damn, that’s a long time ago. The city of Cleveland has been starving for a title since the 1964 Cleveland Browns steamrolled the Baltimore Colts 27–0 in the NFL Championship Game. Browns running back legend Jim Brown, who ran for 114 yards to lead Cleveland to its last championship, chimed in on James’ and the Cavs’ success.

How an 80-year-old Brown knows how to use Twitter, I’ll never know. But it does give great perspective on how long it’s been for the city of Cleveland. This one was long overdue.

The dominating season-long narrative leading up to Game 7 was whether the reigning Finals MVP Stephen Curry and his 73–9 Golden State Warriors were the greatest team in NBA history.

After averaging 28.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 5.4 assists throughout the NBA playoffs and fresh off a 30-point effort in a loss, Curry sure looked poised.

And so was Oracle Arena and it’s fans who were willing to pay outrageous prices to attend tonight’s game. There’s been some friendly and not-so-friendly jabbing between Golden State and Cleveland fanbases throughout the finals. We think this qualifies as the not-so-friendly variety:

OK, straight up disrespectful is more like it. On Father’s Day, no less. But it really set the tone, didn’t it? Curry vs. LeBron, Cavaliers vs. Warriors, Ayesha vs. literally everyone — there were enough storylines this series to fill an NBA decade.

Despite history stating that no team had come back from a 3–1 series deficit, Cavalier fans packed downtown Cleveland and Quicken Loans Arena.

And who could blame them. Although the first six games of the series proved to be blowout duds, Game 7 was primed to be something special.

After the first quarter, James and co. struggled with turnovers, as his total of three first quarter TOs matched his total TOs from games 5 and 6. His jumper appeared broken, as the Cavs stayed within striking range with a 17-point in the paint differential, compared to the Warriors 15 points from long distance advantage.

Charged by a record-tying beyond-the-arc onslaught from Draymond Green, the Warriors surged ahead of the Cavs with a 49–42 lead in the half. With two quarters of NBA basketball remaining, Game 7 could go one of two ways.

https://twitter.com/joevardon/status/744700620171419648

Pretty boring, hey? We know, we know, but fear not, as there was an obvious halftime solution, thanks to Mrs. Kanye West.

Anyway, while the second half kicked off, the Cavs remedy for success appeared to be fixing that broken jumpshot.

Whatever Cavs Head Coach Tyronn Lue told his team in the locker room, it must’ve worked. The Cavs came out blistering to start the second half, as they scored eight straight points behind a JR Smith rally to tie the Warriors at 54 apiece. After two Kyrie Irving free throws, the Cavs retook control of the lead, with a 62–59 edge. By the end of the quarter, the Warriors held a minuscule one point advantage over the Cavs, 76–75.

“Frantic” would be an understatement.

After cold shooting from both sides, which was attributed to strong defence, LeBron bolted towards a streaking Andre Iguodala in what we’ll remember as one of the greatest plays in NBA Finals history to preserve the tie game.

Which sent NBA Twitter into an absolute frenzy.

https://twitter.com/Isaiah_Thomas/status/744719052065509377

And if the game couldn’t get any nuttier, this happened with 53 seconds remaining:

https://vine.co/v/5Bua50t9Igd

HO-LY SHIT.

After a missed LeBron dunk attempt that surely would’ve sucked the stadium into the ninth dimension had he connected, the King sunk the free three dagger into the Warriors to catapult the Cavs to a four-point lead with 10.4 seconds left.

POST GAME

We won’t be needing this anymore, now will we?

Or this stat.

And your Finals MVP?

https://vine.co/v/MFWZahKIQAj

https://twitter.com/FlowsAndolini/status/744732899199455232

Oh, LeBron, we’ve come a loooooooong way. After ditching the team in 2010 to sign with his pals in Miami, LeBron returned home two years ago to bring Cleveland the championship they’ve been waiting for.

When LeBron left, the Cavs dropped from one of the best teams in the league to the worst, resulting in them drafting this guy first overall in 2011:

Damn! Imagine if Kyrie was there earlier, then LBJ never would have left!

Last year, Kyrie got injured in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, and was relegated to watching his team get dropped in six games from a hospital bed. This year…?

Kevin Love became the joke of the NBA after a very, very disappointing performance in the Finals leading up to Game 7.

https://twitter.com/NoChiIlSports/status/744730973162475521

But hey, as long as you have a big final game (and your team wins) none of that matters! It’s almost as easy to go from the hero to the goat as it is to go from the goat to the hero sometimes.

This moment is AMAZING, especially after LeBron snubbed Kevin Love of a high-five in the team’s win win in Game 5.

And he deserved it. After playing like a donkey for the entire series, Love, who has been known for literally his entire career — from high school, to UCLA, all the way to being an All-Star in Minnesota and today — as a defensive liability, shuts Steph Curry down with seconds to go on the clock. It was perfect.

https://twitter.com/thedailywolf/status/744720476539338752

And here’s what the rest of the NBA universe had to say about the Cavs win:

https://twitter.com/thinkiminthe90s/status/744721559189753856

And finally, none of this would be complete without some savage trolling of the Golden State Warriors.

https://twitter.com/BronBronCrying/status/744754330599829504

You know what they say, “You can win as many games as you want in the regular season, but if you don’t win the last one, you’ll become an internet meme.”

Thank you for the incredible season, playoffs, series, and Game 7, Cavs and Warriors. I’m sure we’ll see you again this time next year.

Photo of Cameron Lewis Cameron Lewis Photo of Richard Catangay-Liew Richard Catangay-LiewJune 20, 2016
5 minutes read
Photo of Cameron Lewis

Cameron Lewis

Photo of Richard Catangay-Liew

Richard Catangay-Liew

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