The 2016 NBA Finals was arguably the greatest 7-game series that any sport has offered us to date. LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers did the unthinkable against a 73-9 Golden State Warriors, who were looking to repeat their 2015 heroics in a much better way.
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Unanimous MVP, Stephen Curry’s Dubs had a 3-1 lead going into the 5th game, looking to gentleman-sweep the Cavs. However, James and Kyrie Irving had something surprising in store for them and the world.
They worked out a way to make a comeback not just in the 5th game, but also the next two to do something that had never been done in the Finals before — coming back from a 3-1 deficit to win an NBA Finals series.
That comeback was not possible without a block by the King in Game 7 which didn’t just stop Andre Iguodala and the Warriors from winning the Championship but also gave his side the momentum to win it all instead.
Richard Jefferson believes the LeBron James Block is the greatest play of all time
One of James’ former teammates who won his only championship playing in that Cavaliers team in 2016 and had the opportunity to witness the historical block by James closely, has that play as the greatest play in sports history. Richard Jefferson talked about ‘The Block’ in his appearance on The Old Man and The Three podcast with JJ Redick.
“The greatest play that I’ve ever saw— it’s the [LeBron James] block,” Jefferson said.
“The greatest play that I’ve ever saw— it’s the block. That’s Game 7, he’s played every minute, it’s the last possible game, it’s the last possible minute, and he does an athletic feat of sprinting back.”
Richard Jefferson on LeBron James’ iconic blockpic.twitter.com/ZTAWuIcWFX
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) April 7, 2023
That’s understandable, coming from somebody who watched it too closely to ever forget it. However, even Isiah Thomas gave his agreement to the belief of the former Nets forward turned ESPN analyst, by retweeting the very same ClutchPoints clip we embedded above.
Now, that is coming from a man who led his Pistons side to upset multiple Larry Bird and Michael Jordan teams in the Playoffs and has won the championship twice. He even won the Finals MVP once after leading the Bad Boys to win it all against Magic Johnson’s Lakers. That’s something for James.
Why is ‘The Block’ the greatest individual moment in sports history?
A 31-year-old LeBron was coming off a 41-point, 16 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 blocks, and 3 steals performance in Game 5, followed by a 41/8/11/3/4 performance in Game 6.
Coming into Game 7, James was leading the Finals in points, rebounds, assists, blocks, steals, and even minutes played. He should have had no gas in his tank when Andre Iguodala ran on the fast break with Curry to score an easy lay-up on a lone JR Smith.
But he had. James had enough energy to outrun Iggy who had already crossed half court when LeBron was still to start his sprint on Warrior’s side of the court and catch up. Not just that, having played more than 41 minutes in every game of the series, he flew with his head at the level of the rim, with both his hands up in the air not knowing which side would the Warriors forward choose to finish.
The sound of it still rings in Iguodala’s ears the loudest. Irving converted his three-point attempt a few moments later to freeze the game 92-89 in Cavs’ favor. That would end the franchise’s 52-year championship drought.
