4:30.
My Twitter feed (I follow fellow Cleveland sports fans) and Facebook feed (almost all local to the Cleveland area) has pretty much all admitted that they are crying tonight. Some I’m quite surprised that they admitted it.
I’ve lived through the entirety of the plot of “Believeland.” That was my life. This is my life now. This is amazing.
Today was my last day watching the NBA. AFter all the BS that went on in this series I am officially done.
…OK?
That was probably the game. An amazing block. LeBron was utterly exhausted and yet pulled that surge out of his ass, slapped it away about an inch before it hit the glass, and prevented GS from going up when neither team could score. Kyrie hit the dagger that put it away, but that block was probably the game. And it’s fitting.
To add to how remarkable this is, apparently Golden State hasn’t lost 3 games in a row since November 2013.
When Iguodala passes to Curry, who James is chasing down, James isn’t even at the mid court line. When Curry passes back James is outside the three-point line on the far side of the court. Nice photo LeBron James saved the Cavaliers with a superhuman play that will go down as one of the greatest blocks in history here of the ball pinned to the glass.
The photo doesn’t really capture the fact that he had to leap over the shooter and his own teammate to get up there. Amazing.
This might be one of the greatest storybook dramas in sports, ever. Even if you hate LeBron, for one night you have to tip your cap to him, or your just not human.
Yeah, it’s pretty amazing that a team that went 73-9 with the two guys who are 1-2-3-4 on most three pointers in a season couldn’t score at all in the last 4 minutes. But Klay has always been streaky; and I think Curry isn’t healthy despite what he’s been saying. But man, what a way to lose.
It’ll be really interesting to see how the Warriors approach building the team this year. My emotional response is that they should happily let Ezeli and Barnes go elsewhere and throw a bunch of money at Durant or someone like Whiteside. On the other hand, there’s the argument that this team just set the regular season record for wins, and came within a play or two of another championship despite being banged up, so it won’t surprise me if the Warriors leadership stays the course. I just can’t shake the feeling that going 15-9 in the playoffs after going 73-9 might point to the league figuring them out.
Great win for LeBron and Cleveland. He’s been under a lot of pressure to get this done.
Golden State blew a 3-1 lead in the series. That’s going to sting for awhile.
Is he touching the rim there with his left hand? And if he is, is it goal tending?
His hand does hit the rim but it’s incidental. I don’t think it’s goaltending unless the ball is no longer headed up, or it hits the backboard. He blocked it about 5 milliseconds before it hit the backboard.
This - I have no rooting interest with either of these teams other than “good basketball”, and let’s be honest, most of the time you’re going to get more aesthetically beautiful basketball with what GS tries to do. But LeBron last night (and in this whole series, really) was something else, and it was amazing to watch. After the underwhelming game quality for most of this series, we couldn’t have asked for anything more from last night.
The question on my mind today: If Lebron had stayed in Cleveland and never gone to Miami, do the Cavs still win their first championship in 2016? Or sooner? Or later?
I don’t know, 7 of those 9 playoff loses came to the Thunder and to the Cavs. The Cavs have the greatest player of his generation and the Thunder have 2 of the 5 best players in the league right now. I think it’s more a story of the incredible level of competition at the championship level rather than “the league figuring them out.” I doubt if they’ll be losing multiple games to the TWolves and the Jazz.
Well, that makes one of us. AFAIC, our national nightmare is over! 
Nitpick: LeBron James was 25 when he “took his talents to South Beach.”
I tweeted to Bill Simmons that LeBron has been involved in two of the greatest NBA Finals redemption stories ever: 2013 & 2014 with the Spurs (with the Spurs getting redemption over LeBron), and 2015 & 2016 with the Cavs (when LeBron got redemption over LeBron).
And this, imho, given the Cleveland angle, actually beats the Spurs victory in terms of “meaningfulness”.
LeBron James is the first player in NBA history in any series of any length – regardless of round – to lead outright or tie for the lead among all players from both teams in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks for an entire series.