Кливленд Кавальерс багийн түүхэн аян

My version of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ championship begins nine days before anyone ever sprayed champagne or raised the trophy for the first time. In the back corner of the Cavs’ locker room, in the moments following a disheartening Game 4 loss to the Golden State Warriors to fall behind 3-1 in the series, Kevin Love sat motionless at his locker still dressed in his game jersey while LeBron James rubbed lotion into his forearms and dressed in the opposite corner behind us.

“All you have to do is figure out how to win Game 5,” I said to Love.

He nodded.

“Ain’t no way you’re losing 6 back here,” I said.

“No f—ing way,” Love said in agreement.

“And in a Game 7, I’ll take my chances with that guy over anyone else on the court,” I said while motioning behind me toward LeBron. Love again agreed.

That left just one massive problem to solve.

How were the Cavs going to win Game 5 in Oracle Arena?

I was the Cavaliers beat writer for the Akron Beacon Journal at the time, and chronicling that team — and that NBA Finals series — remains one of the great highlights of my career. I carried a deep sense of responsibility in documenting the history of one of the greatest players of all time in his hometown paper. So, on the 10th anniversary of that improbable championship, rather than rehash another play-by-play of that thrilling Game 7, here instead are my core memories of the 2015-16 Cavaliers. The rest of the world never knew about most of these moments. They are the snapshots I’ll carry forever.

LeBron James and Kyrie Irving close out the NBA Finals to win the NBA Championship! (2016)

James: 27 pts, 11 ast, 11 reb, 3 blk, 2 stl
Irving: 26 pts, 6 reb, 1 stl, 1 blk pic.twitter.com/5RsXpihcft

— ThrowbackHoops (@ThrowbackHoops) May 20, 2025

‘We know the way back’

In January 2016, the Cavs were practicing in Dallas the afternoon of the national championship game between Alabama and Clemson. Kyrie Irving had recently returned from a fractured kneecap that ended his season prematurely during the 2015 NBA Finals, and he still spent most practice days getting up extra shots. On this day, the team was working out at Mo Williams’ training facility. After practice ended, Williams spent at least 45 minutes giving media members interviews and tours of the facility. He was extremely proud of it. The one thing it lacked, however, was showers.

An hour after practice had ended, players were still milling around the edges of the court while Irving and James continued to shoot. Players grew agitated having to wait, but James was sending a message to Irving and the rest of his teammates.

Finally, after the Irving and James shooting spectacle had gone on well over an hour, Tyronn Lue came storming in to get them off the floor. Lue was still the assistant coach at the time, but he was the one James respected the most.

“Let’s go!” Lue shouted across the gym. “This is f—ing rude and disrespectful!”

James chuckled and obliged. They were wrapping up anyway. I asked James about it the next night after the Cavs beat the Dallas Mavericks in overtime.

“They can leave us. They don’t have to wait for us,” James told me. “We know the way back.”

James wanted Irving to know he wasn’t going to leave him alone on the court. As long as Irving wanted to shoot, LeBron would be standing alongside him. He also wanted the rest of the players to understand the amount of work the two court leaders were investing in their craft.

“Late in games, the ball is going to be in our hands,” James told me. “We’ve got to be able to trust each other, and our teammates have to be able to trust us. If they see us working like they always do, it gives them more trust in us. And then we have to come through for them.”

One hundred and sixty-one days later, Irving had the ball in his hands at the 3-point line in the final minute of Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

Game 7.
Tie Game.
Under 1 minute left.

Kyrie Irving knocks down the go-ahead 3-pointer in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals to give Cleveland their first NBA Championship 🏆 pic.twitter.com/vJQZcMbybM

— NBA History (@NBAHistory) June 19, 2024

Doc’s role

The Cavs don’t rally to beat the Warriors if Lue isn’t the head coach, and Lue wouldn’t have been the coach unless Doc Rivers convinced him to take the job.

The locker room had turned against David Blatt, the former EuroLeague coach whose tenure in the NBA was bumpy at best. During Blatt’s second season, the Cavs were atop the East when it became painfully evident this wasn’t working, and Blatt had to go. On the outside, firing the coach of a first-place team seemed illogical. Inside the organization, there was no other choice.

There was only one problem: Lue wouldn’t take the job. He called Rivers, his mentor, and said he was loyal to Blatt. He was afraid that taking the job would make him look terrible, as if he had turned on his boss or stabbed him in the back.

After the Cavs lost to the Warriors on Christmas Day, Rivers told me someone from the organization called to tell him that Blatt was going to be fired. No one explicitly asked Rivers to convince Lue to take the job, but Rivers was left with no other way to interpret the conversation. So he talked to Lue and convinced him to take it.

“They’re going to fire David. Whether that’s right or wrong, they’re going to fire him,” Rivers said he told Lue. “And if you don’t take it, someone else is going to take it. You have to take this job. You’re getting a great job. Now go do the job.”

During halftime of Game 7, with the Cavs trailing 49-42, Lue challenged James in the locker room and said he needed more. James was initially upset by the challenge until James Jones, his closest ally on the team, pulled him aside.

“You said you wanted a coach to push you, to hold you accountable,” Jones told me later. “Well, here you go. What are you going to do?”

Victory cigars

The moment I became convinced the Cavs were going to win the series was at the end of Game 6 when Stephen Curry fouled out of a playoff game for the first time in his career. Curry ripped out his famous mouthguard and chucked it into the stands, hitting the son of one of Cavs owner Dan Gilbert’s minority partners on the shoulder.

“Oh my God, they’re unraveling,” I said out loud to no one in particular. “The Cavs are going to win this series.”

From the moment Curry tossed his mouthguard, it became apparent the Warriors were crumbling, because they never imagined they could be in this spot. They won 73 games during the regular season and just a few days earlier enjoyed a 3-1 lead in the series. Now the series was tied at three games each and heading back to Oracle for a Game 7.

“Coming into Game 5, we just expected it to be over,” Draymond Green said before Game 7. “Fans, players, everybody just expected it to be over. And it wasn’t.”

Warriors guard Stephen Curry reacts to a play in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals. (Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)

A couple of hours before the game, I bumped into general manager David Griffin and assistant general manager Trent Redden at different moments. I told both of them to prepare themselves. I was convinced this was happening. The Cleveland Cavaliers were winning the championship tonight. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind.

“From your lips to God’s ears,” Griffin said, then smiled and walked off.

Earlier that afternoon, front office executive Brock Aller stepped into a Bay Area cigar shop and purchased 52 cigars —one for each year since a Cleveland team had last won a championship. The bill was $2,500.

He was acting on his own and told no one he was doing it. He was taking a financial risk. Good luck expensing a couple of thousand dollars in championship cigars if the Cavs lost the game.

Instead, James got the block, Love got the stop and Irving hit the shot. Cleveland, this was for you.