NBA Finals: This is the End

After six hard-fought games, the Golden State Warriors finally subdued the upstart, undermanned Cleveland Cavaliers, winner Game 6 in Cleveland, 105-97.

In praise of Davids and Goliaths. The 2014-15 NBA has come to end. As the Golden State bench erupted, their MVP, Stephen Curry, hurled the basketball into the sky. All the emotion of the Cleveland loss, despite the Herculean effort of LeBron James, and all the joy of the Warriors, truly having passed through the gauntlet brought us to the end of a season that was everything we could have hoped for and more. Except for all of those injuries.

The NBA Finals provided no shortage of storylines for us to follow, but when it was all over, there were several reasons for us all to celebrate. Yes, Cleveland fans, that includes you.

Davids

The Legend of Matthew Dellavedova will never be greater than it was over the course of a few days in the early summer of 2015. The undrafted backup guard, played on a contract that pays annually close to what LeBron takes in weekly when you include his off-the-court endorsements. The greatest moments of The Legend of Delly include having the highest selling jersey during the Finals for a short time, being just the third undrafted player to score 20+ points in a Finals game, or, greatest of all, the particular chapter which claimed that he had become the kryptonite to Steph Curry. Dellavedova has probably seen his biggest and best contribution come and go with the conclusion of the Finals on Tuesday night. But, let us not forget that Dellavedova, quite unspectacularly, inspired the entire city of Cleveland. He is probably in line for a guaranteed deal with a healthy raise, too.

The boos rained down, but Andre Iguodala had his trademark wide grin in full effect. The Cavs fans were voicing their displeasure with the selection of the Finals MVP, Iguodala, feeling that their hometown hero, LeBron, should have won the trophy. Iguodala’s story is a good one. In his eleventh season in the league, the former All-Star who had started every game of his career leading up to the 2014-15 season was asked to come off the bench for Coach Steve Kerr. He did so, having a solid, though unremarkable regular season. His scoring and minutes were considerably lower this year than his career numbers, but with their season on the line, the Warriors inserted Iguodala into the starting lineup and never looked backed. Iggy never played less than 36 minutes just once in the Finals, 32 minutes in Game 1, but averaged just 26.9 during the regular season. He brought defense to LeBron James better than any other Warrior in the series and contributed 16.3 points over the six games, 8.5 points higher than his season average, which included 25 in the series-clinching Game 6. The narrative on Iguodala is one that includes sacrifice and some humility, but it ends in a championship and Finals MVP. Well done, Andre Iguodala.

Goliaths

Steph Curry had a “rough” Game 2, hounded by Dellavedova and whatever defensive schemes Cleveland Coach David Blatt could muster, he shot an abysmal 5-for-23 on field goals, 2-for-15 from three-point range, committing four fouls and six turnovers. Curry never managed to shake that game in the eyes of some. Curry managed 19 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists in that loss – a bad night by his standards. Over the course of the series, Curry averaged 26.0 points, 5.2 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 1.8 steals. He was the leader of his team, scoring 37 points, shooting 56.5-percent in the decisive Game 5. But, the regular season MVP still did not manage a single vote for Finals MVP. If I had to guess, adding World Champion to regular season MVP and Best Three-Point Shooter in NBA Playoffs History would help me sleep better at night.

There are not enough words in my limited vocabulary to describe the all-time performance we got from LeBron James. The self-proclaimed best basketball player in the world can be divisive, but that has to do with perception of him in relation to who he is and his personality. There is no questioning LeBron and his massive performance in this series. There has never been a better case for Finals MVP going to a player on the losing side and there will never be a better case ever again. For the series, LeBron put up 35.8 points, 13.3 rebounds, 8.8 assists and 1.3 steals on a per-game basis. He single-handedly dragged the already dead Cavaliers into the Finals against one of the most historic single-season teams, Golden State.

There is no Michael Jordan argument. There is no Kobe argument. This was just the best player in the game knowing that he was drastically outgunned and doing so much that he actually left you with some small amount of doubt in the Warriors ability to claim their championship. This is not a comparison; Michael Jordan is the only Michael Jordan. LeBron James is the only LeBron James. You don’t have to like him, but you only have yourself to blame if you prevented yourself from enjoying one of the greatest individual performances in Finals history. Who knows if, or when, we will ever see something like this again.

In the end, we witnessed a series that was much more competitive than most would have anticipated and the better team won. The favorite opted to field a team of Davids, with no player over the height of 6’8”, to combat the success of a Goliath, Timofey Mozgov, and came out the victor, slinging three-point stone after three-point stone.

While one season has come to an end, there is no reason to believe that these two teams don’t figure heavily into the future. LeBron James only has so many years left and next year, with a probable lineup of James with healthy Kyrie Irving and opt-in Kevin Love has to open as favorites to return to the Finals in 2016. The Warriors have Steve Kerr, the first rookie NBA coach to win a championship since Pat Riley in 1982. They are also the first team since the 1991 Chicago Bulls to feature a full roster of players in their first NBA Finals. We all know what the Bulls went on to and the core of this Warriors team should be intact for a while.

Now, how many days until that Minnesota Timberwolves tilt against the Los Angeles Lakers in the Summer League…