The Quest Is Complete
The NBA Finals Game 7 was one of the most incredible games I’ve ever seen. The amount of history and narrative riding on the game was unrivaled by any real world standards my mind can comprehend in the short period of time since it has been over. I’m sure there are comparisons to be made, but for lets live in the moment. Let’s try and capture what this series concluding means and feels like before we move on quickly to our next conversation. In an age where social media and news breaking instantaneously means it’s hard for us to enjoy something for longer than a few moments, this is an important sporting moment to take in.
My motive in writing this isn’t to properly place LeBron James in the pantheon of NBA greatness, nor bash the Warriors for their 18–1 New England Patriot topper. No, my point in writing this is to try and capture what this game feels like in the moment. The moment where the buzzer sounded and all of a sudden years and years of brokenhearted fans were liberated from the crushing feeling of doom that overwhelms them in every close game. The moment when a legend returned home and finally consummated what was a lifetime of pressure to deliver a title to his hometown. The moment when a team that had the best regular season of all time lost the series that everyone expected them to win. There aren’t many moments that can compete with the moments we just witnessed.
The amount of ups and downs that occurred during game 7 was incredible. There were so many times that the weight of the pressure felt like too much on the shoulders of LeBron and the Cavs. It seemed like there just wasn’t going to be enough help in the series for Kyrie and LeBron. There were random amazing performances and moments from guys like J.R. Smith, Kevin Love, and Tristan Thompson. J.R. hit a few big shots to keep the Warriors within striking distance, Kevin Love was huge on the glass, and Tristan Thompson’s presence was felt throughout the series with his defense, rebounding, and surprising offensive game.
The help from the supporting cast of the Cavs are what propelled LeBron and Kyrie to handle the load late in the 4th quarter. The last few plays were somehow highlighted by the big three of the Cavs: Love, Kyrie, and LeBron. Kyrie hit a tough three to put the Cavs up three, Kevin Love played really great defense on Steph Curry to keep him from hitting the three that all Cleveland fans expected him to hit, and then LeBron hit a weighty free throw after missing the first one. The odds of these three things occurring within the same game, nevertheless the same quarter is magnificent, and purely indicative of how unbelievable the championship is for the Cavaliers.
Focusing on the negative takes away from the magnificence of the moment, so the Warriors will be a topic for another time. There is way to much history and significance on the legacy of their season, from the 73 win season, the Steph unanimous MVP, and the Draymond ups and downs. It’ll take a bit for the weight of this Warriors loss to be realized in the basketball world. The hot takes are flying: “the 73 win season means nothing now”, which is obviously foolish and shortsighted, and I don’t want to add to the plethora of shortsighted opinions and thoughts. So the Warriors will be discussed in-depth another time, so for now, back to Cleveland and LeBron.
There are a ton of fascinating numbers from game 7 and the series as a whole, the most incredible one that is sticking with me immediately after the victory is 3–1. Down 3–1 in the series there didn’t seem to be a logical way for the Cavs to win the series. The Warriors were playing like a relieved overweight person after un-doing their belt after a Sunday in the Golden Corral buffet line. A relieved Warriors were playing great after brutal series against the Thunder, and after going down 3–1 the Cavs looked like they were going to give them the title without much of a fight. “The Finals are boring”, “lets talk about Kevin Durant”, and many other thoughts were floating around as game 4 came to an end. That all changed with a Draymond decision that ended up getting him suspended for game 5 and opening up the doors for the Cavs to claw their way back.
The full weight of Draymond’s series is something we’ll have to ponder. From a suspension, to a game 7 performance for the ages, Draymond was in full Draymond for the entirety of the series. LeBron and Cavs took full advantage of this absence and won game 5. They came back in game 6 dominating the Warriors to force a game 7, which many, including myself thought would be another Cleveland performance gone back resulting in a Golden State title. Fortunately for Cleveland fans there are games and moments in sports that defy what we expect to happen and a quest was completed.
A quest is defined as “a journey made in search of something”. When LeBron came back to Cleveland and teamed up with Kyrie and Kevin the three of them started on a journey searching for a title. The title was important to the careers of Kyrie and Love, but the title would define LeBron who came back to his hometown to win a title for the city that had heralded him as the Chosen One. The quest for the Cleveland championship was full of ups and downs. There were multiple times in the last two years when they looked dysfunctional and lost as a team. Trade rumors, subtweets, and moments of awful basketball all led up to this series. The series that has come to define LeBron’s career as the King of Cleveland. The quest was completed amidst terms that most thought would be impossible to overcome. The greatest NBA Finals comeback of all time, a championship delivered to Cleveland, and a legacy cemented.
