Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals will be one to remember for many years to come. The Cleveland Cavaliers did the unthinkable and came back from a 3-1 deficit against the Golden State Warriors to win their first-ever NBA title. That was a magical victory for the Cavs, but it also was a horrifying loss for the Warriors.
Losing such a big advantage is not an easy thing to process, but the team reacted very well to that loss, as Bob Myers recalled in an interview after the series. It was a crushing defeat, but the Dubs knew how to overcome that
“[After Game 7] of the NBA Finals, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and all the players sitting right here without microphones, without cameras, I asked them what they thought of our season. It would’ve been the perfect opportunity to blame someone other than themselves. I controlled the environment, the private conversation, to say ‘well, my teammate wouldn’t do that, my coaches wouldn’t do this’ and it was probably my favorite part of this job to see them handle losing and take accountability themselves. Stephen Curry said ‘I didn’t play well, that’s what happened.’ Draymond Green sitting there saying, ‘I’ll never gonna experience this feeling again, I will never let this happen again.’ A lot of ‘I’. You wanna hear ‘I’ when things don’t go well, you wanna hear ‘we’ when they do go well.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCccZNpDLhl
That season seemed to be the perfect one for the Warriors. They set a new record with 73 wins in the regular season, came back from a 3-1 disadvantage in the WCF against the Oklahoma City Thunder but just when everything pointed out they were going to win their second consecutive NBA title, LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and the Cavs told otherwise.
The attitude they had after that defeat surely helped them recover from it, get fresh hopes for the next season, and yes, the arrival of Kevin Durant did a lot for them, but they couldn’t have gotten the job done if they were in the right mood.
After that season, the Warriors went to three straight Finals, winning two titles against the Cavaliers.
