Cavs win NBA Championship!!

After falling behind 3-1 to the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals, it seemed like the Cleveland Cavaliers fell into an insurmountable hole that they would not be able to climb out of. Then LeBron James flipped the switch. 32 teams tried, and 32 teams have failed. Until now. The Cleveland Cavaliers are the first team to overcome this daunting deficit and are now NBA champions. It feels like a dream.

King James fulfilled his promise and delivered Cleveland their first professional championship in 52 years while leading all players in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. And in the closeout game, LeBron got the best of Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors by finishing with 27 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists. It was his 16th career playoff triple-double and his seventh in the NBA Finals. He was also awarded the Finals MVP for the third time, but not before making the biggest block heard around the world. With the game tied at 89, Andre Iguodala had an open layup and James had his signature moment. He chased down the play from behind and out of nowhere pined the ball against the backboard preventing the Warriors from taking the lead. After a Kyrie Irving 3-pointer and Steph Curry missed 3-pointer, LeBron James sealed the game at the free thrown line and the Cavs become World Champions. Cleveland has endured The Drive, The Fumble, The Shot and The Move, but now that is all forgotten because of The Block.

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Cavs and Warriors will settle series in Game 7

The Golden State Warriors had a 3-1 lead against the Cleveland Cavaliers in this series and were getting pretty full of themselves as they called out LeBron James for being a baby. Since then, LeBron has responded by racking up 41 points in two straight games, and Steph Curry found himself in the locker room as the Cavs closed out Game 6 wondering what went wrong.

This has been a very strange series, as every game has been a blowout, but the Cavs and Warriors are also tied in overall points after six games.

Momentum is on Cleveland’s side, but the Warriors are still the favorites as they will be playing Game 7 at home.

The stakes are huge for this game as we all know. The Warriors will either cap off their record-setting 73-win season or suffer an epic choke job being the first team ever to surrender a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals. As for Cleveland, this game offers yet another chance to break a 52-year championship drought, along with a storybook chance of redemption for LeBron James.

It should be fun…

  

Don’t Hate the King

With the Cleveland Cavaliers losing the first two games of the NBA Finals by a combined 48 points, everyone has already written their eulogies and buried the Cavaliers. It’s crazy how fast things change in the NBA. Not too long ago, the Warriors were down three games to one to the Oklahoma City Thunder and everyone had prematurely punched the Thunder’s ticket into the NBA Finals.

LeBron has climbed out of an 0-2 series hole before and can do it again. In 2007, the Cavs lost the first two games on the road to the Detroit Pistons, and in Game 3 of that series, King James scored 32 points, grabbed 9 rebounds and shot 57% from the field. He then went on to average 31.3 points for the rest of the series and the Cavs went onto win that series and advanced to their first NBA Finals.

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NBA Finals: Repeat or Revenge

Lebron dunk

After the Golden State Warriors came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, it set the stage for a rematch in the NBA Finals that everybody wanted to see. The Cleveland Cavaliers breezed through the first two rounds of the playoffs, sweeping the Detroit Pistons and the Atlanta Hawks, before finishing off the Toronto Raptors in six games. The road wasn’t as easy for the defending champion Golden State Warriors after completing the best regular season in NBA history.

No disrespect to Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder, but this is the best match-up for the NBA. It’s the top seed from each conference, it has the revenge factor from last season, and it will feature the best player in the NBA, LeBron James, and the league’s back-to-back MVP in Steph Curry. Together, they have won six of the last eight MVP awards, and three of the last four championships.

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Bullz-Eye interviews NBA legend Rick Barry on his career, Ektio shoes and what’s wrong with the NBA

Rick-Barry-NBA-Interview

We recently had the chance to talk with NBA legend Rick Barry, and it was fantastic! After the interview, I went out and shot 1,000 free throws and made 999 of ’em!

Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1987, Barry won an ABA title in 1969, an NBA title in 1975, was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in 1966, and was named the All-Star Game MVP in 1967. He’s the only player to ever lead the NCAA, ABA and NBA in scoring for an individual season. Check out the ridiculous numbers he put up.

Your performance in the 1966-67 All-Star Game is one of the greatest single game performances ever. You dropped 38 points and led your West squad to a victory over an Eastern Conference team that featured Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell and was coached by Red Auerbach. And you did it when you were just 22 years old. What are your memories of that game?

It was a remarkable game. You look back and see how many players who played in that game were named to the 50 Greatest NBA Players team. In addition to who you mentioned, they had Jerry Lucas and Hal Greer as well. We had Nate Thurmond, Elgin Baylor and Jerry West; it was a remarkable array of talent. I got the MVP, but in all honesty, I’ve always thought the NBA All-Star Game should have a Most Outstanding Player (MOP) and a Most Valuable Player (MVP). In this case, I would’ve won MOP for a great offensive output, but the MVP was Nate Thurmond and how he helped negate that incredible front line of the Eastern All-Stars.

The other thing that is amazing is it may be the only NBA All-Star Game ever where a coach got thrown out! Red Auerbach actually got thrown out of the game! That would never happen now because competition has changed. When I go to the All-Star Game now, fans go to be entertained; it’s entertainment. There’s not super competition. As a purest, and someone who loves the game, I’m always hoping it’s going to be close in the fourth quarter because then they play really serious and pride will come out and they want to win. Otherwise, the stuff that they’re doing now isn’t true competition. For us, the winning team got a $2,000 dollar bonus; two grand to me was almost one-seventh of my salary! That’s a lot of money in those days. Now, it’s irrelevant. So our games were incredibly competitive.

What happened to the true sharpshooters; guys like you and Chris Mullin?

I think Chris was more of a shooter than I was. I was more of a scorer; I found ways to score. I got better as a shooter as my game progressed. There’s still some amazing shooters out there. Like Ray Allen. Guys like that are shooting 40% from beyond the arc and that’s an amazing shot; it truly is. The NBA three-point shot is from a long way out. What you’re not seeing today is guys playing and utilizing the mid-range game like we used to. Now, it’s either inside post-up dunk or three point shot. I think they’re missing the boat in that regard. It’s fun to watch a team do that, which is why I like to watch San Antonio. Gregg Popovich does such a great job coaching his team to play the way I always thought the game should be played. Tough defense, move the ball around, set screens, force the defense to make decisions.

How did all of your sons who played professional basketball become such great shooters? And did you ever think that one of your kids would have a Slam Dunk Champion trophy in their possession?

To be honest, I was hoping one of my boys would be good enough to play division I college basketball, or to even play basketball if they wanted to, to get a scholarship. I have five now, four in the NBA. To have three of them has never been done before and who knows what’s going to happen with my youngest son. At this stage, he’s probably more skilled than the other guys. As far as becoming great shooters, having the confidence to make the shot when you have to is the key. And repetition, repetition, repetition. That’s a matter of putting the time and effort into it. But you also have technique, a pattern that you do. Whatever your routine is, you do it every single time, like with free throws.

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