Former NBA player Andrew Bogut has made a bold revelation about his time guarding LeBron James during the 2016 NBA Finals, where his Golden State Warriors blew a 3-1 lead against LeBron, Kyrie Irving and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The 2015/16 NBA season was one of the best in history and the Warriors played a big role in that for good and bad reasons. The Australian player found himself defending LeBron at some points during the series and his strategy was pretty clear; he was going to make LeBron’s life incredibly hard, even if he was going to just drink water on the sidelines.
During a recent conversation with The Athletic’s Ethan Strauss on the House of Strauss podcast, Bogut talked about that memorable series and everything he tried to do just to stop the King.
“I was either blocking his shot, getting there early so he had to kick it, or shoot a floater type of shot, or I’d foul the s–t out of him,” Bogut said of James. “I felt like at times he was looking for where I was at on the court. And offensively I was doing my job and getting a few lobs and put-backs and that kind of stuff. So I felt like I was playing really well.”
As you may know now, all those attempts were useless against an inspired LeBron, who took things personally and beat the Warriors in three straight games to win the 2016 NBA championship, the first-ever in the Cavs history.
That season was impressive for the Warriors, who only lost 9 games, had overcome a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference and seemed to be ready to finish the job against LeBron in five games. However, none of that happened and James won his 3rd NBA title, probably the most impressive of his career.
