NBA: Ranking the top 10 moments of the decade
3. Cleveland Cavaliers beat the 73-win Golden State Warriors in Game 7 of the 2016 Finals
The top 5 moments show how truly epic this decade was as this easily could have been number one. This moment had everything, the team with the greatest regular season of all time, Game 7 winner take all rematch of the previous Finals, and one of the all-time greatest players putting on one of his all-time greatest performances.
Between LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love on the Cavaliers along with Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green on the Warriors there was arguably six hall of famers (possibly 7 with Andre Iguodala winning Finals MVP the year before for the Warriors).
There was a lot of context that led up to this moment. For starters, the Cavaliers had lost in the Finals the previous year, but Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving got injured. The Warriors had just broken the 1995-96 Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls record of 72 wins in a season with 73 wins, but if they couldn’t win the championship, they would not be comparable so there was lots of pressure.
This rivalry was so heated that when LeBron stepped over Draymond Green as Draymond fell on the ground, Draymond literally punched Lebron in the nuts like it was a wrestling match eventually receiving enough technical fouls to be suspended for Game 5. Once the series started the dominant Warriors were up 3-1 by the time Game 4 was over and every pundit on earth thought the Warrior would close out the series at home the following game… until Kyrie Irving and LeBron James showed up for an epic finals duo performance becoming the first teammates to both score over 40 points in a Finals game.
LeBron scored 40 again in Game 6 and then came the legendary Game 7 with both teams having scored 610 total points through six games heading into it setting up an epic clash and chance for Cleveland to become the first team ever overcome a 3-1 deficit in the finals. For the last four minutes of the game, the jitters and defense were so intense that absolutely no one could score.
Two of the greatest plays in NBA history happened during this timeframe including, “The Block,” (which literally has its own Wikipedia page) where LeBron ran up the entire court faster than a gazelle to catch up with Andre Iguodala about to put in a layup and seemingly jumped 12 feet in the air from 12 feet away to pin Iguodala’s layup attempt against the glass of the backboard and keep the Warriors from taking the lead.
With 53 seconds left Kyrie Irving hit one of the most epic shots and game-winners (statistically a game-winner is with 24 seconds left… but these were the last points scored that put the Cavs up for good and clearly won the game) by stutter-stepping to his right and hitting a contested 3 right in the grill of Steph Curry with Curry’s hand in Irving’s face.
It was as cold-blooded, clutch and as epic a shot as you could ask for to win a Game 7 (until our number 2 moment of the decade of course). The Cavaliers won the game as LeBron became the first player ever to lead both teams in points, blocks, steals, rebounds and assists (all 5 major statistical categories) in an NBA Finals series before LeBron broke down crying in an outpour of emotion as he broke Cleveland’s 52 year drought of sports championships and delivered on his 13-year old promise to bring a championship to Cleveland after starting out Cleveland’s savior of the future, transforming into the biggest villain after, “the decision,” and finally becoming Cleveland’s all-time greatest hero.
During his emotional, teary-eyed post-game interview LeBron iconically interrupted himself and emotionally yelled, “Cleveland this is for you,” referring to his promise he delivered on after being nicknamed, “The Chosen One,” before even reaching the NBA.