• Kyrie Irving hit the three that sealed the 2016 NBA Championship for the Cleveland Cavaliers
• Head coach Tyronn Lue explained why he drew a play for Irving instead of franchise superstar LeBron James
• The Cavaliers completed a historic 3-1 Finals comeback due to Irving’s shot
The 2016 NBA Finals will be remembered as arguably the best championship series in the modern era. The 73-9 Warriors were headed to a title win after taking a 3-1 lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers before LeBron James and Kyrie Irving ensured that Cleveland would become a city of champions again.
James’ iconic play from the Finals was his iconic block, but the game-winning play came for Irving, who hit a three on Stephen Curry with just about a minute left in the game. Then Cavaliers’ head coach Tyronn Lue opened up on the incredible shot.
“Bron had just made that big block and he was exhausted. He hadn’t come out of the game the whole game, so he was done. We came to the bench, there was a minute and 13 left. Bron was there, he got the wet towel, so I’m just looking like, ‘Sh*t man, I’m going to Kyrie.'”
Lue then explained the directions he gave to the players during the timeout.
“We come out of the timeout, I said, ‘JR you got to set a hard screen, make him and Kyrie you gotta fly off to force a switch.’ I didn’t think he was gonna take a three, I thought he was gonna go to the rack. He sized him up, step back to the right, that’s one of the biggest shots in NBA history.”
Irving ended Game 7 with 26 points while James ended it with 27. Funnily, both of them were outscored by Draymond Green, who dropped 32 points and likely would’ve won Finals MVP for the series.
Irving averaged 27.1 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 3.9 assists in those Finals and would be the Finals MVP for virtually any team with those numbers. However, his teammate James averaged 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds, and 8.9 assists over the Finals and rightfully took home a unanimous award for bringing a championship to his home state.
Still Looking For 2016 Kyrie Irving To Show Up
The 2016 NBA Finals was Kyrie Irving’s career peak at just 23 years old. In the seven years since Irving has had a tumultuous time in the league. He forced his way out of the Cavaliers after the 2017 Finals and joined the Boston Celtics. He acrimoniously left the team in 2019 during free agency and joined the Brooklyn Nets with Kevin Durant.
His Nets tenure was extremely controversial and ended with a trade to the Dallas Mavericks, where everyone hopes he can emerge as the superstar No. 2 option we saw in Cleveland. Instead of LeBron, he has Luka Doncic now.
With a new contract in hand and strong averages of 27.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 5.5 assists last season, everyone will be waiting to see if Irving can reach the heights of his career once again or if his best version is comfortably behind him now.
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