Where Narratives Go To Die
Last night, LeBron James, the first of his name, King of the Andals and the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, and Protector of the Realm, real-life version of the Weapon X program, vanquished the Demons of Cleveland, the Golden State Warriors and the last existing “LeBron James is not clutch” narrative recorded in history in one fell swoop. Or rather block. As he knocked the ball into the year 2021, the Dubs’ hopes into the gutter and Andre Iguodala into oblivion, he crowned himself King once more. Something we already knew.
Let’s talk about the game first, because of course we have to talk about the game first. Twitter will give you your share of meme’s and quick, scintillating hot takes, and so will I about 10 paragraphs down, but in the end, let’s come down to the game, this game. This Series. THESE FINALS.
Cleveland walked into the series hoping to beat GSW at their own game. At least that’s what Tyronne Lue kept saying in front of the media. I am still undecided whether or not that was him repeating LeBron or if he was just going of script, but based on that particular promise, this wasn’t going to work for them. You don’t just go to the unhappiest place on Earth and beat the best regular-season team at something they have perfected. It’s like challenging Matt Barnes to a scuffle — a losing battle.
I do have to give credit to Tyronne Lue (or LeBron, still haven’t decided on that one) for making a hard pivot on that strategy somewhere around Game 3 (RIP Lil Kev) and going back to the glory days of bully hero ball with Kyrie and LeBron. The Cavs went smaller with Love out, tightened up their rotation (RIP Matty D) and doubled down on exposing Steph Curry.
Every offensive possession from about game five onwards the Cavs chased Curry hard. Whoever Steph was guarding was almost always the screen man, leaving him on either LeBron or the Weaponized Uranium Version of Kyrie Irving for long stretches of time, which is basically a pick your own poison scenario. The punishment LeBron can inflict is inhumane (when he collided with Curry last night I thought we might need an ambulance, you don’t just get hit by a runaway train and get up). Kyrie is a different kind of torture chamber, the one where he makes you look like an Olympic figure skater before calmly raising up and tickling the twine with a step back jumper.
So in a sense, they did beat the Dubs at their own game, chasing the team’s weakest defender and exposing him in one on one situations. How many times have the Warriors ran a Draymond Green / Steph Curry pick and roll to get Curry the favorable switch of a lumbering big man, who’s ankles were not nearly structurally sound to experience a whirlwind of crossovers coming their way. They even did it last night, BUT THEN THIS HAPPENED.
That’s Lil Kev, on arguably the most important defensive possession of his life, sticking in Steph Curry’s jersey for what felt like 2 hours of game time (more like 7–9 seconds). Lil Kev. If you told me that the NBA Finals will be decided on a Steph Curry vs. Kevin Love possession and KEVIN LOVE coming out victorious, I would have laughed. Or cried. Or both. As of now. I am in the driving seat of the Lil Kev bandwagon and we’re picking up speed.
True to all NBA however, this series wasn’t without it’s question marks or “what ifs.” What if Draymond doesn’t get suspended for a massive Game 5 at the Oracle? What if Harrison Barnes doesn’t get his basketball abilities stolen by the Monstars from Space Jam. What if Kevin Love doesn’t get a concussion and plays in a Game 3? What if Bogut doesn’t get injured? What if J.R. does something irrevocably stupid? (That’s NBA Champion Earl Joseph Smith III to you). You can’t escape this, you will never escape this kind of discussion, but all we have to come back to is when one team basically willed themselves to do the improbable.
Forget the 3–1 deficit and historically unprecedented comeback (it’s never been done). Forget that LeBron basically swallowed the stat sheet as he racked up 3 triple doubles in the Finals alone AND led the series in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. Forget all that if you’re going to forget things and just remember the last two minutes.
Remember Lil’ Kev’s last stand. Remember Kyrie Irving out-cooking the Chef with a blaze of crossovers before having the gull to pull up AND drain probably the most important three of his career. Remember LeBron James coming down from the heavens and blocking Andre Iguodala so hard that it disrupted the space time continuum in the Arena and now Iguodala thinks he’s like 50 or something. Remember him sealing the game with half a wrist (if he got that dunk to go down on Draymond I would have turned off my TV, converted to some sort of religion and traveled the world spreading news of our Lord and Savior LeBron James). Remember all of that.
This series proves that sometimes the better team is just not better. That sometimes the better strategy is just not better and sometimes you just need to give the ball to two of your best players and say “f**k it,” as they drag you to victory.
LeBron James is the top 3 player of all time. This isn’t an argument, this is a stated fact. Accolades aside, he has had an unprecedented and unrivaled run. Some will always argue that’s because he never had a true foil to his hero. That he was alone, a man among boys. They will blame the NBA for getting softer and not allowing the true competition to challenge LeBron. Those people are stupid.
The fact that LeBron is so transcendent and unparalleled is a testament to all 250 pounds of him. As my friend so acutely noted last night: “sometimes I look at him and I feel like he came from the future.” He has built the game on his shoulders. He adapted to everything the game ever threw at him and reinvented himself when he needed it most. Then, with everything on the line he pulled off some level 91 Grand Wizard shit as him and Kyrie basically dragged the three wheeled carriage that is the Cleveland Cavaliers to a NBA Championship (Lil Kev is a champ guys!).
Sports narratives are stupid. They focus on the zero-sum game of the lowest common denominator and pound it into the ground. They give you something to talk about at the water cooler with Terry from accounting who’s watched maybe 5 games all season but is convinced that the Warriors is the best team ever and doesn’t know who Andris Biedriņš is. They summarize the whole, but miss the specific.
LeBron transcended narratives last night. He went on a historic Finals run. He averaged 29.7 points, 8.9 assists, 11.3 rebounds, 2.6 steals and 2.3 blocks (although I argue that the one on Iguodala was worth like 50, so adjusted for inflation: 9.4 blocks is more accurate). He totally went away from his winning shape of Miami days and bullied the ball into going through the hoop. He made plays at the time that superstars are supposed to make plays. He let Kyrie Irving, the card carrying member of the “we’ll blame Lil Kev if we lose” club have his party next door too.
Kyrie played some good defense this series for someone who supposedly “is horrible defensively.” Kevin Love was the Kevin Love of Minnesota fame for once, proving that he is still a valuable member of this Cavaliers team. J.R. Smith didn’t do that many J.R. things (except for the Earl Experience of the third quarter which looked like the J.R. coming out party until it didn’t). Tyronne Lue didn’t buck and maintained course with a strategy that got them to this game 7. I guess what I’m saying is, last night was a “F**k Your Narrative Night” on ABC.
The dust will clear, and the debris will settle and at the end what we will have is one very resilient team and one very best player in the world, of his generation and of all time coming out on top against all odds through a superb performance that encapsulated individual talent, coaching adjustments (by Tyronne Lue or LeBron James, not sure which yet), team effort and just overall spirit of a broken sports city. This sports movie basically writes itself. Get at me Hollywood.
