For Cleveland sports fans, the number 12-27-1964 has been hanging over them for 52 YEARS. That’s the date of the city’s last championship.
It was the Browns…before the Super Bowl even EXISTED. The Indians haven’t won a World Series since 1948, and the Cavs had never won a title. But now, that date has been replaced by 06-19-2016.
Last night, LeBron James and the Cavaliers defeated Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors 93-to-89 to win Game Seven of the NBA Finals.
The game was tied 89-89 with four-and-a-half minutes left to go, and it stayed that way until Kyrie Irving hit a clutch three to put the Cavs up with 53 seconds left. Curry tried to answer with two threes of his own, and he missed them both.
However, it was LeBron who truly delivered the championship to Cleveland. After two straight 41-point games – both Cavs wins – he had a triple double last night with 27 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists.
That doesn’t include his two steals and three blocks, like the unbelievable chasedown block on Andre Iguodala at the end of the game.
In the aftermath of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers winning the title, the Internet caught fire. Here’s a rundown of the best stuff we saw:
1. Now that Cleveland has a championship, the city with the longest drought COULD be Milwaukee. They last won in 1971; that’s 45 years ago. That’s when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson led the Bucks to an NBA title. The Bucks haven’t been back to the Finals, and the Brewers have never won a World Series.
That said, the Green Bay Packers should probably be counted as a Milwaukee team. So who’s next?
Of cities with at least two teams across the four major sports, the honor remains in Ohio. Cincinnati has had a 26-year drought since the Reds won the World Series in 1990.
2. When J.R. Smith was traded to the Cavs last year, a lot of people thought he was a cancer who would destroy the team if he wasn’t kicked out first. Even his own daughter is shocked that didn’t happen.
But instead, he’s been a solid, valuable member of the team over the last 16 months. And when a reporter asked J.R. about his family last night – since it was Father’s Day – he started crying, and he got REAL.
Among other things he said, “If it wasn’t for the structure and the backbone that I have, I wouldn’t be able to mess up and keep coming back and being able to sit in front of you as the world champion.” Here’s the video.
LeBron was unanimously named the Finals MVP, which was a no-brainer. He led ALL players . . . on BOTH teams . . . in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks over the whole series.
For LeBron’s legacy, bringing ONE championship to Cleveland is bigger than anything else he could’ve done. It’s bigger than the fact that he has three titles now, and that he’s been to the NBA Finals six straight times.
It’s clearly the defining moment of his career…in fact, it puts him in any conversation of the greatest of all time.
After the game, LeBron dropped to the floor and cried. He later said, “I’m home. This is what I came back for…I gave everything I had. I poured my heart, my sweat, my tears into this game. Cleveland, this is for you!”
